Read Part One HERE
In this story I will continue to focus on a woman named Ann Fitzhugh Smith. She lived from 1805 - 1875.
In the fall of 1835, members of the anti-slavery movement in the state of New York announced that they planned to establish a state society. Notices went out for the first meeting which would be held on October 21 at the Second Presbyterian Church in Utica, New York. where six hundred anti-slavery advocates assembled. While the meeting was in progress, eighty or so men pushed their way into the church with cries of "Open the way! Break down the doors!"
The meeting came to an abrupt end, but Ann and her husband were in the audience and offered to host the meeting the following day in Peterboro. About three or four hundred delegates accepted their offer and made their way to Peterboro, but the trip was not easy. Slavery sympathizers placed logs across the roads, and they pelted the abolitionists with mud, eggs, clubs and stones.
Ann's home was a station on the Underground Railroad, and they played a crucial role in its operation during the 1840s and 1850s. She frequently travelled in an enclosed carriage and allowed her carriage to be used to convey veiled fugitives on their way to Canada.
Ann died in 1875.
Read Part Ninety-One HERE
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