The families who founded the First Presbyterian Church of Plattsburgh in 1797 were among the wealthiest and most influential in town. Several had owned slaves prior to 1827, when New York outlawed slavery, while others had a history of active involvement in antislavery causes. A moment of change in the community came in August 1837, when the Clinton County Anti-Slavery Society held its first annual meeting there. Delegates arriving for the meeting had to enter through a doorway tarred by opponents of their cause, and only a few months earlier a prominent member of the congregation had circulated a petition protesting any abolitionist gatherings in Plattsburgh. By 1838, however, sentiment in the area had shifted, and an antislavery agent remarked after a visit, “I met with less opposition in this county than in any other sector of the country.”