Commemorative Language in Abolitionist Landscape Texts: New York's "Burned-Over District"

Using the words of Frederick Douglass as an integrating guide, this paper reviews the use of commemorative language in abolitionist landscape texts. Abolition, like Reconstruction, is an unfinished project in the United States. The first national museum to commemorate abolition is being established in Peterboro, New York. Peterboro is in the heart of New York's "Burned-Over District," an area known for its support of social reform in the early 19th century. It was also the hometown of Gerrit Smith, a well-connected and influential abolitionist. Reformers of all causes regularly visited Smith in Peterboro. Thus, Peterboro was not only a fairly typical rural agricultural village, but also a cultural hearth for important social movements. A holistic community interpretive program focused on this village in the 8Oth century attempts to utilize landscape texts in recreating the "ecology of social reform" for visitors to Peterboro.