Emancipator, Est. Black Settlement to Get out the VOTE!

Descendants of abolitionist, Gerrit Smith's Emancipated African Americans, celebrate Emancipation Day in "Smith Land", Peterbo, NY ! Listen to Preston Washington the host of The Gist of Freedom and Alden Max Smith a descendant of a Smith Freedmen.  The Timbuktu/Timbuctoo) project was a direct response to the state requirement that "only" those (Black and White) with $250 worth of land could vote. This extraordinary contribution has been buried for more than a century, but today its significance is being told and retold.In 1846, abolitionist and wealthy philanthropist Gerrit Smith resolved to give away 120,000 acres of his land in the Adirondacks. The donation of such a large parcel of land was notable. But what was far more impressive was that the recipients were 3,000 African American men from nearly every county in the state.

Wiley, a philosophy prof., expressed his surprise that a white man had come up with the concept or idea, like that of Gerrit Smith, to help black people get to vote.