| Official Name: | Peterboro, New York |
| Pushpin Map: | New York#USA |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | United States |
| Subdivision Type1: | State |
| Subdivision Name1: | New York |
| Subdivision Type2: | County |
| Subdivision Name2: | Madison |
| Subdivision Type3: | Town |
| Subdivision Name3: | Smithfield |
| Timezone: | Eastern (EST) |
| Utc Offset: | -5 |
| Timezone Dst: | EDT |
| Utc Offset Dst: | -4 |
| Elevation Ft: | 1296 |
| Coordinates: | 42.9667°N -75.6861°W |
| Postal Code Type: | ZIP code |
| Postal Code: | 13134 |
| Area Code: | 315 & 680 |
| Blank Name: | GNIS feature ID |
| Blank Info: | 960231 |
Peterboro, located approximately southeast of Syracuse, New York, is a historic hamlet and currently the administrative center for the Town of Smithfield, Madison County, New York, United States. Peterboro has a Post Office, ZIP code 13134.[1]
Because of its most famous resident—businessman, philanthropist, and public intellectual Gerrit Smith—Peterboro was before the U.S. Civil War the capital of the U.S. abolition movement. Peterboro was, according to Rev. Henry Highland Garnet, the only place in the country where fugitive slave catchers did not dare show their faces,[2] the only place the New York Anti-Slavery Society could meet (a mob chased it out of Utica),[3] the only place where fugitive slaves ever met as a group—the Fugitive Slave Convention of 1850, held in neighboring Cazenovia because Peterboro was too small for the expected crowd. Abolitionist leaders such as John Brown, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and many others were constant guests in Smith's house. So many fugitive slaves headed for Peterboro, and Smith, that there is a book about them,[4] and some never left Peterboro, forming a Black community from an early date.
Here is the comment of a minister, visiting in 1841:
According to abolitionist Julia Griffiths:
This was not true elsewhere in Madison County.
In the 1850 census, the population of Peterboro was 347. In 1859 there were two drug stores, a tailor's shop, two groceries, a country dry goods store, the Peterboro Academy, the Fay House (a hotel), and the closed Peterboro Hotel.[5]
The Presbyterian church, not needed by the Presbyterians after 1870, was bought by Gerrit Smith for use as an academy and public hall.[6] It held a small public school for many years. Currently, besides the Town of Smithfield office, it houses the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum. Gerrit Smith's mansion was lost to fire in 1936, but his office, the Peterboro Land Office, has survived. A Peterboro Area Museum is located in the former schoolhouse of the Home for Destitute Children of Madison County; in 2022 it is open only on Sundays.[7]
In 1795, Peter Smith Sr., a partner of John Jacob Astor's who built his fortune in the fur trade, founded Peterborough, naming the town after himself. Smith moved his family to Peterborough in 1804 and built the family home there, in what at the time was near-wilderness. His son Gerrit changed the spelling of the name to Peterboro.
In the 1820s, Gerrit Smith took over the business interests of his father, Peter Smith Sr., managing his family's property holdings in the town and the surrounding area. The Peterboro Land Office—the most important surviving building of the Smith estate—was built as his office for these activities.
Gerrit Smith's commitment to both the abolition and temperance movements led to the Smith estate in Peterboro becoming a stop on the underground railroad. Less successful was Smith's temperance campaign, which did not enjoy local support; he built one of the first temperance hotels in the country in Peterboro, but it was not commercially successful.[8]
He was reported to be liked by almost all the people of Peterboro. "He does a vast deal of good here." After John Brown's raid, when Smith expected to be indicted, the people of Peterboro were prepared to use force (guns) to prevent his arrest.[5]
Smith received a constant flow of unannounced visitors. During 1841 and 1842, there was an average of thirty-three visitors a month.[9] In an obituary, the visitors were described as follows:
[E]specially in the summer season, his visitors were of the most miscellaneous and amusing description. There you might meet a dozen wealthy and refined visitors from the metropolitan cities; a sprinkling of negroes from the sunny South, in their way to Canada; a crazy Millerite or two, who, disgusted with the world, thought it destined to be burned up at an early day; some enthusiastic adventurer who wanted Mr. Smith to invest largely in some utterly impracticable patent right, while the throng would be checkered with three or four Indians of the neighborhood, the remnants of the once-powerful Oneidas, who remembered the father, and felt pretty sure that they could get something out of the munificent son. The high-born guests had come to enjoy themselves during the Sumer solstice at this fine old rural retreat, and they always had a good time. As to the rest, they were never sent empty away, especially the negroes and the Indians, the former accepting cash in hand and good advice about the best route to Canada, while the latter departed in due time with shoulders stooping under burdens of flour, beef, and other edibles.[10]
. North star country : upstate New York and the crusade for African American freedom. Milton Sernett. 2002. Syracuse, New York. Syracuse University Press.
. Passionate Energies. The Gerrit and Ann Smith Family of Peterboro, New York[,] Through a Century of Reform. Norman Kingsford Dann. 2021. Hamilton, New York. Log Cabin Books. 9781733089111. 55.