The Raging Erie: Life and Labor Along the Erie Canal

THE COLONIE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Cordially Invites You to a Special Presentation by 

Mark S. Ferrara

The Raging Erie:

Life and Labor Along the Erie Canal

Few of the laborers who toiled along the Erie Canal shared in the prosperity it brought. This new work tells the stories of the ordinary people who lived, worked, and died along the banks of the canal, emphasizing the forgotten role of the poor and working class in this epochal transformation.

The Raging Erie chronicles the fates of the Native Americans whose land was appropriated for the canal, the European immigrants who bored its route through New York’s frontier, and the orphan children who drove draft animals that pulled boats around the clock.

Ferrara also shows how the canal served as a conduit for the movement of new ideas and religions, a corridor for enslaved people seeking freedom via the Underground Railroad, and a spur for social reform movements that emerged in response to the poverty and suffering along its path.

Brimming with vivid characters drawn from the underbelly of antebellum life, The Raging Erie explores the social dislocation and untold hardships at the heart of a major engineering feat, shedding light on the lives of the canallers who toiled on behalf of American expansion.

Mark S. Ferrara is professor of English at the State University of New York, Oneonta. His recent books include American Community: Radical Experiments in Intentional Living (2020) and Living the Food Allergic Life (2023). Professor Ferrara will have copies of the book for sale/signing.