Research Resources

Utica 1835

This map was adapted by the author from one published in the The Pioneers of Utica, by Moses Mears Bagg (Utica: Curtis & Childs, 1877). The outline of the Ballou Creek is from the 1939 map called Historical Map of Utica in 1839, drawn by L.W. Devereaux, published to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the Savings Bank of Utica.

The Utica Courthouse

This is where the
Committee of 25 gathered before the riot.
Courtesy of the Oneida County History Center.

The Bleecker Street Presbyterian Church
Site of the founding meeting of the New York State Anti-Slavery Society, October 21, 1835.
Courtesy of the Oneida County History Center.

Bagg's Hotel 1815

Horace's shack would be behind the left side of this building and his fish stand would be on the street to the right.

Image from "Pioneers of Utica, Being Sketches of its Inhabitants and Institutions..." by M. M. Bagg, A.M., M.D., published Utica 1877.

David Ruggles (1810- 1849)
(center) Pictured with Isaac T. Hopper & Barney Corse

Ruggles founded the New York City Vigilance Committee in 1835 the month after the Utica Anti-Abolition Riot. The committee aided freedom seekers. He was a writer and social commentator who published the journal The Mirror of Liberty one of the earliest African American journals.
Image public domain.

Gerrit Smith (1797-1874)

Smith lived in Peterboro, New York and originally supported the American Colonization Society. During the Utica Anti-Abolition Riot he invited the delegates to "Come to Peterboro" where he guaranteed their protection. Soon thereafter became an abolitionist. His house was a stop on the Underground Railroad. Harriet Tubman was a frequent visitor. Smith place women's suffrage on Liberty Party's plank in 1848.
Image public domain.

Alvan Stewart (1790-1849)

Stewart lived in Utica, New York and attended the founding meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society in Philadelphia, PA in 1833. His opinions evolved from supporting colonization to immediate emancipation for enslaved persons. He was the target of anti-abolition protests in 1833 and 1835. In the 1840s, he supported the Liberty Party which sought to work within the electoral system.
Image from his book Speeches Writings of Alvan Stewart.

Utica, 1838 looking north.

Courtesy of the Oneida County History Center.

An Act for the gradual abolition of slavery, (New York State 1799).

Enacted July 4, 1799 this law set a timetable for freeing enslaved persons. Those born before July 4, 1799 would be free in 1827. Those born between 1799 and 1827 might be made indentured servants. The vast majority of enslaved persons were freed on July 4, 1827.
Image public domain.

Rittenhouse Telescope.

This is the type of telescope described in the book.

The Path of Haley's Comet, 1835.
The lines perpendicular to the arch represent the location of Haley's Comet in the night sky. In the box at the top center of the chart it is recorded that in mid-to-late October the comet was in Ursa Major otherwise known as "The Big Dipper."

The American Almanac and Repository of Useful Knowledge for the 1836, published Boston, 1835.

Lacerta, Cygnus, Lyra, Vulpecula and Anser.

Astronomical chart showing a swan, a lyre, a lizard, and a fox killing a goose forming the constellations.
Image Library of Congress.

Above: Profile of the Erie Canal, west end (left) is Lake Erie at Buffalo & east end (right) the Hudson River at Albany.

Construction of the canal began in 1817 and was completed in on October 26, 1825.

Left: Painting of a Packet Boat.

Edward Lamson Henry -- from: Official Illustrations From The Art Gallery of The World's Columbian Exposition / edited by Charles M. Kurtz (Philadelphia : George Barrie, 1893)

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