The Fugitive Slave Law Convention was held in Cazenovia, New York, on August 21 and 22, 1850. Madison County, New York, was the abolition headquarters of the country, because of philanthropist and activist Gerrit Smith, who lived in neighboring Peterboro, New York, and called the meeting "in behalf of the New York State Vigilance Committee." A hostile newspaper report refers to the meeting as "Gerrit Smith's Convention". That the forgotten meeting is known today is due to the discovery of the unidentified daguerrotype in the archives of the Madison County Historical Society.