An apple orchard owned by Grace Wilson, a member of the Cazenovia Ladies Antislavery Society who had earlier maintained a school on the property, was the site of the Fugitive Slave Law Convention on August 22, 1850. Slavery had been abolished in New York State in 1827, and Wilson joined many Cazenovians and other Central New York residents in opposing it, alongside prominent abolitionists such as Gerrit Smith of nearby Peterboro. In 1850, as Congress considered the Fugitive Slave Law requiring federal marshals to help capture and return escaped slaves, punishing those who aided them, and allowing ordinary citizens to be pressed into service, abolitionists were alarmed and outraged. Weeks before the law's September passage, Smith began organizing a two-day protest convention in Cazenovia. Held on August 21 and 22, it drew more than 2,000 people, including Frederick Douglass and an estimated 50 fugitive slaves. The first day's proceedings took place at the Free Church on Lincklaen Street, but because the building could not hold all who wished to attend, Wilson offered her orchard for the continuation of the convention. There, Cazenovia photographer Ezra Greenleaf Weld made a famous daguerreotype of the gathering showing Douglass, Smith, and other abolitionists. The convention's official proceedings included a Letter to the American Slaves from those who have fled from American Slavery, which took an uncompromising stand against slavery and condoned the use of violence if necessary to escape. The convention and especially the Letter drew fierce criticism in speeches and newspaper editorials from Southern and Northern opponents, including many in Central New York, and even some abolitionists considered its actions and statements too radical. The Letter concluded with the Biblical words, "Lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh." The Civil War began eleven years later.