Hidden Abolitionists: The Local History of Quakers and Slavery in Clinton Corners

Friday, May 8, 7:30pm | Clinton Corners, NY

Sarah Gronningsater, a historian of slavery and abolition at the University of Pennsylvania, comes to the Creek Meeting House on May 8 to talk about Quakers, the American Revolution, and the grassroots antislavery movement that took shape in the Hudson Valley in the 18th century. The talk draws on primary sources from across the region and the wider Atlantic World, with new findings on the partnerships between enslaved people and their Quaker allies.

New York's Quakers had a vital role in ending heritable bondage in the northern state with the highest number of enslaved people on the eve of the Revolution. Gronningsater has spent years excavating that story. What has proven to be a boon for researchers is the meticulous record-keeping of the Quakers, who kept voluminous notes and wrote detailed minutes of every meeting, including meeting records from the Hudson Valley communities that were at the center of early abolitionist organizing.

Her 2024 book The Rising Generation: Gradual Abolition, Black Legal Culture, and the Making of National Freedom, published by the University of Pennsylvania Press, won the 2025 James A. Rawley Prize from the Organization of American Historians for the best book on race relations in the United States. She is currently a Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation fellow at the New-York Historical Society.

Attend in person at the Creek Meeting House, where refreshments follow, or join via Zoom at meeting ID 847 9983 8042, passcode 084730.

Creek Meeting House, 2433 Salt Point Turnpike, Clinton Corners, NY. Zoom link: us02web.zoom.us.