2026 Hubbard House Underground Railroad Museum Pilgrimage

The 2026 Hubbard House Underground Railroad Museum Pilgrimage Event Re-viewing
Uncle Tom’s Cabin will be presented at 2:00 pm on October 3, 2026 at Bethany Lutheran
Church, 933 Michigan Avenue, Ashtabula.

When Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the effect was electric.
Abolitionists hailed it for its depictions of the cruelty of slavery. Southerners immediately
denounced it as lies. By the Civil War—a war that Abraham Lincoln purportedly attributed
to Stowe’s book—over one million copies had sold. Even after the war and slavery’s end,
Uncle Tom’s Cabin remained popular in theater productions. Then, as motion pictures
developed, it became the most adapted story of the silent film era.

For this year’s pilgrimage, the Hubbard House Underground Railroad Museum and the
Lakeside Society for the Performing Arts will present the 1914 silent film adaptation of
Uncle Tom’s Cabin. This film version is significant in that it was the first motion picture to
feature an African American actor in a leading role, rather than a white actor in blackface.
True to the genre, the film will be accompanied by organist Jay Spencer on the Bethany
Lutheran Pels pipe organ. Jay is house organist at the Canton Palace Theatre and a friend
and frequent guest artist for LSPA concerts and silent films at the Lakeside High School
“Mighty Kimball”.

Join the museum and the society for the viewing. Discussion of the film to follow. The
program is free to attend; donations are appreciated