Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Murder, Conspiracy, and Freemasonry in the Early Canal Era
Erie Canal Museum

Price: $5
Erie Canal Museum
318 Erie Blvd. E., Syracuse

Mark Schmeller, associate professor of history at Syracuse University, presents a talk about the infamous 1826 kidnapping and (likely) murder of William Morgan. Morgan, a laborer in Batavia, NY, had threatened to reveal the secrets of the Freemasons, the most powerful fraternal order in the nation. His abduction and possible murder lit a firestorm of popular outrage that nearly destroyed the Freemason order, and led to the formation of the Anti-Masonic Party, the first significant third party in American political history. The Morgan controversy vividly illustrates a number of developments crucial to understanding the "Jacksonian" era in American history, which was marked by a new tone of evangelical moralism that would profoundly shape antebellum politics and culture.

Free parking is in designated Museum/Visitor Center spots in the lot across from the Museum under routes 81 and 690.