The Abolitionist Tour
- Home
- The Abolitionist Tour
Tour
The Abolitionist Tour
Courtesy of the Gates House Museum
Warsaw was a strong and early center of abolitionist sentiment. The American Antislavery Society formed in 1833. Warsaw formed a local Anti-slavery Society in the same year. Warsaw sent five delegates to the first meeting of the State Society in Utica in 1835 where they were attacked by a mob. In November 1839, a meeting of the Western New York Antislavery Society was held at Warsaw. The delegates considered nominating candidates for President and Vice-President, even though there was no national party. The Antislavery movement split over political methods after this year, but the activists remained in the minority in every state until after the formation of the Republican Party in 1855
Warsaw Cemetery
The interested walker can locate graves of several people associated with the Abolitionism in Warsaw: Augustus Frank, Seth Gates, Andrew W. Young, The Smallwod Family, Daniel Hodge (an African-American Civil War Veteran), and the site for the graves of William and Mary Burghardt.
The United Church of Warsaw
The Presbyterian Church, the first organized church to be built in Warsaw, was established in 1808. It consisted of ten members and called itself the “First Congregational Church of Warsaw.” By the 1830’s many of its members had become deeply involved in the anti-slavery movement.
Gates House
The home of Seth M. Gates after his retirement from the United States Congress, this building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has been Warsaw’s only museum since 1938.