Ursinus College Digital Commons @ Ursinus College Pennsylvania Folklife Magazine Pennsylvania Folklife Society Collection Fall 1994 Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 44, No. 1 Charles L. Blockson Roland C. Barksdale-Hall Jerrilyn McGregory Terry G. Jordan Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/pafolklifemag Part of the American Art and Architecture Commons, American Material Culture Commons, Christian Denominations and Sects Commons, Cultural History Commons, Ethnic Studies Commons, Fiber, Textile, and Weaving Arts Commons, Folklore Commons, Genealogy Commons, German Language and Literature Commons, Historic Preservation and Conservation Commons, History of Religion Commons, Linguistics Commons, and the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Click here to let us know how access to this document benefits oy u. Recommended Citation Blockson, Charles L.; Barksdale-Hall, Roland C.; McGregory, Jerrilyn; and Jordan, Terry G., "Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 44, No. 1" (1994). Pennsylvania Folklife Magazine. 142. https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/pafolklifemag/142 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Pennsylvania Folklife Society Collection at Digital Commons @ Ursinus College. It has been accepted for inclusion in Pennsylvania Folklife Magazine by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Ursinus College. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Autumn 1994 - :::::- .-:..- "---.:.;::--- -.. PENNSYLVANIA . --.--..,-.-- GFOE(LIFE AFRICAN AMERICANS Contributors ROLAND C. BARKSDALE-HALL is head librarian at the Shenango Campus of Pennsylvania State University. The founding executive director of the Western Pennsylvania Chapter of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogi­ cal Society (AAHGS), he also serves as national vice president of history AAHGS. A member of the fourth generation of his family to live in the Shenango Val1ey, he wrote this essay as a graduate student at Duquesne University. The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission chose this essay as the winning graduate entry in the 1993 Black History Conference Essay Contest. CHARLES L. BLOCKSON is the author of The Underground Railroad, Pennsylvania's Black History, African Americans in Pennsylvania, and Black Genealogy. A renowned scholar and col1ector, he is curator of the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Col1ection at Temple University. TERRY G. JORDAN, Ph.D., is the author of several books and numerous articles in various journals and periodicals. A specialist in traditional American cultures, he is a geographer and holder of the Walter Prescott Webb Chair at the University of Texas at Austin. JERRILYN MCGREGORY, who received her Ph.D. In folklore and folklife from the University of Pennsylvania, is an assistant professor at Florida State University in Tallahassee, FL. She is currently writing a book entitled Wiregrass Country, which is a regional study for a publication series, "Folklife in the South," with the University Press of Mississippi. EDITOR: Thomas E. Gallagher, Jr. MANAGING EDITOR: Nancy K. Gaugler EDITORIAL ADVISORS: Simon J. Bronner Donald B. Kraybill Mrs. Arthur D. Graeff Hilda Adam Kring Earl C. Haag Monica Mutzbauer David J. Hufford John W. Robens AUTUMN 1994, VOL. 44, NO. 1 Terry G. Jordan Evan Snyder Susan KaICik Kennelh Thigpen Don Yoder CONTENTS SUBSCRIPTIONS: 2 "A Missing Link": The History of African Americans Nancy K. Gaugler in Pennsylvania FOLK FESTIVAL DIRECTORS: CHARLES L. BLOCKSON Mark R. Eaby Je. Thelia Jean Eaby 17 The Twin City Elks Lodge, A Unifying Force in FOLK FESTIVAL PUBLIC RELATIONS: Farrell's African American Community Gail M. Hartmann ROLAND C. BARKSDALE-HALL PENNSYLVANIA FOLKLlFE, Autumn 1994, Vol. 44, No.1, 27 The Greening of Philadelphia published three times a year by JERRILYN McGREGORY Pennsylvania Folklife Society, Inc., P.O. Box 92, Collegeville, Pa. 36 The "Saddlebag" House Type and Pennsylvania 19426. $5 .00 for single copies, Extended Autumn, Winter & Spring. Yearly TERRY G. JORDAN subscription $15.00. Back issues (v. 21-41), $5.00 each; other prices on request. CONTRIBUTORS MSS AND PHOTOGRAPHS: (Inside front cover) The Editor will be glad to consider Layout and Special Photography MSS and photographs sent with WILLIAM K. MUNRO a view to publication. When un­ suitable, and if accompanied by COVER: return postage, care will be taken "The founders of the African American church ill Penn­ for their return, although no re­ sylvania had been made to feel uncomfortable in the sponsibility for their safety is predominately white churches, so they started their own. assumed. Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, the mother of Editorial correspondence: aLL the churches of that great denomination, was founded Nancy K. Gaugler by Richard ALLen, who withdrew from St. George's P.O. Box 92, Collegeville, Pennsylvania 19426 Methodist Church in 1787, and became the first African Subscription, business correspondence: Methodist Episcopal bishop." P.O. Box 92, Collegeville, Pennsylvania 19426 Folk Festival correspondence: 461 Vine Lane Kutztown, Pennsylvania 19530 Phone 215·683·8707 800-447·9269 Folk Festival public relations: Harlmann Associates 461 Vine Lane Kutztown, Pennsylvania 19530 Phone 215·683·5313 Copyright 1994 Entered as thi rd class matter at Collegeville, Pa. ISSN 0031-4498 "A MISSING LINK": The History of African Americans in Pennsylvania by Charles L. Blackson Editor's Note: This article is taken from the Introduction In the counties of York, Lancaster, and Dauphin, the and first three chapters of African Americans in Pennsyl­ prominent Revolutionary family of Captain Archibald vania (Baltimore: Black Classic Press, 1994. 199pp. $14.95). McAllister owned more slaves than any other in the central The book is the result of Mr. Blockson's "unquenchable Pennsylvania counties. Edward R. Turner, an early Penn­ desire to record the history" of his people, especially in sylvania historian, estimated the number of slaves to be Pennsylvania, and, as he says, "that history was a missing 1,000 in 1700; 2,500 in 1725; and 6,000 in 1750, when link" in the history of the commonwealth. Subtitled A the "peculiar institution" reached its peak in this colony. History and Guide, the book is a comprehensive look at As strange as it may seem, slaves were sold from an the state's African American community, covering such auction block that once stood on Water Street in th e City topics as Black men and women of letters; early Phila­ of Brotherly Love. Throughout colonial Pennsylvania, delphia entrepreneurs; Black inventors and scientists; Af­ African Americans were often viewed as subhuman, rican Americans in medicine, in the media, and in the mankind's lowest "species." Early on, whites thought sla­ performing arts; and Black artists and athletes. There is very was a shame and an outrage and attempted to do also a guide to historical places (broken down by region) something about it. As early as 1688, Francis Daniel th at covers every area of Pennsylvania; and a seven-page Pastorius, a Quaker lawyer and religious leader, drafted his bibliography with almost one hundred listings-an invalu­ famous "Protest Against Slavery" for the Friends Monthly able resource for anyone with an interest in the subject. Meeting in Germantown, a village not far from Philadel­ phia. The "Germantown Protest" was the first of a number Pennsylvania has a long and interesting history of Blacks, of voices raised in Pennsylvania. It was followed by the or Guineas, as they were sometimes called. This term writings of George Keith, John Woolman, Benjamin Lay, applied to slaves taken from the Guinea Coast of Africa. Anthony Benezet, George Sandiford, Thomas Paine, and Until this day, the names of Guineatown, Guinea Hill, and others. Slavery did not gain a foothold in the southwestern Guinea Run still can be found throughout Pennsylvania. region of the state until much later. That area, made up Africans were present among the earliest settlers, some of Westmoreland, Washington, Fayette, and Green coun­ of whom were here as early as 1639. They were enslaved ties, was claimed by Virginia until the boundary was settled by the Swedes, Dutch and Finns. Early Quakers were the in 1785. main slaveholders. In 1684, just three years after they The Declaration of Independence had noble words on arrived in Pennsylvania, 154 slaves arrived on the Isabella equality for all men, but neither it nor the American and docked in Philadelphia. Many of early Pennsylvania's Revolution was designed to bring freedom to African most prominent merchants and political figures were Americans. It was just at the beginning of this Revolution slaveholders. The majority of the slaves in Pennsylvania that the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition came directly from the West Indies, where they underwent of Slavery, for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held a "seasoning" process. The wealth that was accumulated in Bondage, and for Improving the African Race was in this trade added to the prosperity of the early colonists. founded in 1775 at Philadelphia. Later to become known Other merchants accumulated their wealth from the West as the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, it continues to spend Indies from importing rum and sugar for the exchange of the largest part of its income on education. slaves. Beyond Philadelphia, some entrepreneurs and land­ In the midst of these protests on their behalf, individual owners held slaves as taxable property along with animals. Blacks, both slave and free, endured their