Finger Lakes history · regional story
Developing historyCanandaigua's 1847 emancipation celebration, in Austin Steward's account
Austin Steward remembered two days of meetings, speeches, music, and fundraising. His account also makes room for the women whose fair helped pay the speakers.
Research status
This history is still developing.
Parts of this account remain unresolved. Here is what the sources support, what is uncertain, and what we are looking for next.
About this review. Written and source-checked with AI assistance under an owner-authorized editorial process. This is not a personal review by Riley or an independent historian. Sources and unresolved questions are listed below; corrections are welcome.
- What the records establish
- Chapter XXXVI of Steward's autobiography preserves his account of the August 1–2, 1847 celebration: fundraising, venues, speakers, music, a procession, and the women's fair. This story follows the retained pages of the 1861 edition, rather than treating the account as a contemporary event report.
- What remains uncertain
- The attendance estimate has not been independently corroborated. These pages do not identify every organizer or the women who ran the fair. Steward's memories and judgments remain his own; they do not establish that all participants experienced the occasion alike or that racial prejudice disappeared afterward.
- What we are researching next
- Compare the account with August 1847 newspapers, antislavery correspondence, and local organizational records. Look especially for the fair's organizers and any surviving expense accounts or program notices.
The organizers collected money before the speakers arrived. In his autobiography, Austin Steward recalled Canandaigua's antislavery community raising funds for a celebration of West India emancipation in 1847.
August 1 fell on a Sunday. Steward says that day was given to religious meetings, with Frederick Douglass and Mr. Van Loon addressing audiences, including an evening gathering at the courthouse. The larger celebration followed on Monday, August 2, on the village Academy grounds.
Steward estimated that at least ten thousand people assembled there. That is his recollection, not an independently checked attendance count. He names S. R. Ward, Douglass, and H. H. Garnet in the program, alongside a Geneva choir and Barring's band.
In his telling, the gathering moved through town. A procession led to dinner at the Canandaigua Hotel. At six in the evening, people assembled again on the square for more addresses.
The account then turns to a fair organized by Black women. Steward describes their goods selling and records a contribution of twenty dollars toward paying the speakers. The fair belongs in the event's history alongside the better-known names at the lectern.
Sources
- Austin Steward, Twenty-two Years a Slave, and Forty Years a Freeman, 1861 edition, Library of Congress, LCCN 14017056. Chapter XXXVI, printed pages 311–312, scan images 319–320. Retained page images were inspected for this article; the complete scan was not newly retrieved during this review.