The 2024 Prize for Leadership was awarded to the National Abolitionist Hall of Fame and Museum in Peterboro, New York, for its entrepreneurship in conceiving and launching its institution and actively involving itself in the modern abolition of slavery.
The Hall's signature activity is the induction into its growing pantheon of historical figures who played significant roles in the abolitionist movement of the nineteenth century. Since the first inductions in 2005, 28 men and women have been drafted into the National Abolitionist Hall of Fame. Inductions occur several at a time every two or three years, most recently in 2022. The next induction will be on October 19, when Catharine and Levi Coffin, Leonard Grimes, and James Smith will be honored.
The 2024 Free Press Prize for the Advancement of Knowledge was awarded to historian Fergus Bordewich for his book “Bound for Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America” and his lifelong attention to racial justice.
Because Bound for Canaan came out in 2005, three years before the first Free Press Prizes were awarded, the book got overlooked in the prizes when it shouldn't have. Since Bound for Canaan's publication, Bordewich has been acknowledged as a leading expert on the Underground Railroad and a go-to source on the topic.
