Wilkes-Barre's Fugitive Slave Case of 1853

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“In Immortal Splendor” WILKES-BARRE’S FUGITIVE SLAVE CASE OF 1853

William C. Kashatus

n Saturday morning, September 3, 1853, U.S. Federal Marshal George Wynkoop of Philadelphia and two deputies, John Jen- O kins and James Crossen, sat down to breakfast in the dining room of the Phoenix Hotel on River Street in the Luzerne County seat of Wilkes-Barre. At the far end of the room was a handsome, powerfully built mulatto named Bill (or, according to various newspaper accounts, known as Britt or Bitt), who was busily clearing dishes from a table. Sud- denly, the three federal agents sprang from their chairs and rushed to- ward him. One of the officers seized Bill by the waist and threw him to the floor, certain that he was none other than the fugitive William Thomas, a runaway slave. When he scrambled to his feet, Thomas was brandishing a fork in one hand and a carving knife in the other in a frantic attempt to defend himself.

LUZERNE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY

24 PENNSYLVANIA HERITAGE Spring 2008 www.paheritage.org WILKES-BARRE’S FUGITIVE SLAVE CASE OF 1853

CINCINNATI ART MUSEUM “Why don’t you shoot him?” News of the standoff spread rapidly someone cried out. and a large crowd of spectators gath- Wilkes-Barre’s Phoenix Hotel in 1895 (facing page), where the fugitive slave case began a “We don’t want a dead Negro,” ered along the Susquehanna. Many of little more than forty years earlier. Charles T. shouted another. the community’s black residents came Webber dramatically captured the struggle of Jenkins managed to wrest the knife to see if they could assist the fugitive. freedom in his 1893 painting, The Underground from the panic-stricken fugitive as the “Drown yourself, Bill, drown Railroad (above). Although Webber portrayed others delivered blow after blow to his yourself,” shouted Rex, a black barber. runaway slaves in Indiana, similar scenes body. In an attempt to handcuff the “Don’t let them take you!” occurred in Pennsylvania. fugitive, Wynkoop was able to only The agents began shooting their shackle his prey’s right wrist. Desperate revolvers into the air to intimidate to escape, Thomas swung the unfas- Thomas, but some of the white own escape down River Street. The New tened shackle wildly through the air residents who had gathered pleaded, York Tribune reported that Thomas like a pin-wheel. He struck Crossen on “Don’t hurt him!” With his head waded some distance upriver and was the head, inflicting a deep gash on the covered in blood from a wound from found face down in a cornfield by deputy’s temple, stun- an apparent bullet graze several women who carried him to ning him momentarily. and water up to his neck, safety and tended to his wounds. Wynkoop and Jenkins “You can others reportedly scolded Thomas vowed afterwards that he would flung themselves at the officers. “Shame!” have died contented and taken two or Thomas in a futile shoot me, they shouted. three pursuers with him rather than attempt to restrain The sympa- submit to slavery again. him, but he was too but you can’t thies of the William Thomas eventually found strong. He pried growing crowd, refuge in Canada. The federal officers himself loose and made a both white and were arrested for “inciting a riot,” but wild run for the nearby take me!” black, were with their prosecution was overturned by a Susquehanna River. Thomas. As he began to make his way federal circuit court that rejected the Bloodstained, his clothing in around a bridge abutment and along prosecution’s claim of state sovereignty. tatters, and with the officers doggedly the shoreline above Union Street, the Known as the Wilkes-Barre Fugitive chasing him, Thomas ran into the crowd hampered the efforts of the Slave Case, or Maxwell v. Righter et al., river. Standing on the river bank, the federal officers to pursue him any U.S. Supreme Court (1853), the incident federal officers brandished their farther. Even Wilkes-Barre’s sheriff reflected the growing ambivalence of revolvers and ordered Thomas to come refused to give them any assistance. A northeastern Pennsylvania’s Wyoming out of the water, or they would shoot. group of black men seeking vengeance Valley towards slavery and created a “You can shoot me,” Thomas yelled, set upon the agents, who scurried to national controversy in the enforcement “but you can’t take me!” their carriage and barely made their of the federal fugitive slave law.

www.phmc.state.pa.us PENNSYLVANIA HERITAGE Spring 2008 25 by a U. S. federal marshal, magistrates were compelled to return the slave to bondage. The Thomas case was not the first Even though undam- challenge to the fugitive slave law. On aged during the September 11, 1851, at Christiana, in 1851 Christiana Lancaster County, a bloody gun battle Riots, during the fol- erupted between a band of free blacks, lowing half century, who were harboring three fugitives, the abandoned Wil- and Edward Gorsuch, a Baltimore liam Parker farm- slaveholder, and his posse. Gorsuch was house collapsed into rubble. The bitter- killed and the fugitives fled to Canada, ness lasted longer. along with William Parker, a free black who was protecting them. The incident MOORES MEMORIAL LIBRARY/CHRISTIANA RESISTANCE COLLECTION heightened the resolve of antislavery Regional agreements among free abolition law. However, there was one groups to fight the law and emboldened colonies requiring the return of fugitive victory for abolitionists. The court ruled Frederick Douglass (1818–1895), the slaves date to as early as 1643. Article 4, that state magistrates could participate famous African American newspaper Section 2, of the U. S. Constitution of in the return of slaves, “unless prohib- editor and abolitionist. A former 1787 provides, “No person held to ited by state legislation.” The phrase fugitive, Douglass had been committed Service or Labour in one State . . . “unless prohibited” meant that, despite to a peaceful resolution of the slavery escaping into another, shall . . . be Southern objections, Pennsylvania’s law issue, but he argued the “rightfulness of discharged from such Service or Labour, prohibiting state and local officials from forcible resistance.” Urging free blacks But shall be delivered upon Claim of assisting in the recovery of slaves was to arm themselves, Douglass insisted the Party to whom such Service or left standing. that the “only way to make the Fugitive Labour may be due.” While Article 4 Thomas had escaped from slavery in Slave Law a dead letter is to make a half does not mention the word slave, the late 1840s, setting his sights on dozen or more dead kidnappers.” Southern slave states assumed it was Pennsylvania. The exact date or the Antebellum Wilkes-Barre was implied. The first federal legislation means by which he escaped remains divided over the issue of slavery. Of the specifically addressing fugitive slaves unknown. Since 1780, when the state community’s 2,723 residents, only 121 was enacted in 1793, prompted by legislature passed the Pennsylvania Act were blacks. Many were lured by the Pennsylvania’s attempt to extradite for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery, opportunity for employment in the three men from Virginia who kid- the Keystone state’s southern border— anthracite mining industry or on napped a runaway slave in Pennsylva- the Mason-Dixon Line—was the nearby farms. In 1848, free blacks nia named John Davis and returned boundary between the free states of the established the Bethel African Method- him to Virginia. Pennsylvania, like North and the slave states of the South. ist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church in other free states, strongly opposed Word quickly spread that Pennsylvania Wilkes-Barre. Like other A.M.E. federal legislation that voided personal offered sanctuary for fugitive slaves. churches throughout the North, the liberty laws. Thomas’s owner, Isham Keith of church formed a close-knit network Another key decision by the U. S. Fauquier County, Virginia, would not Supreme Court, Prigg v. Pennsylvania be denied his property. Assuming that (1841), amounted to a setback for the Thomas had fled to Pennsylvania, antislavery movement. In 1832, Marga- Keith hired an agent to find Thomas ret Morgan escaped from John Ashmore, and took out a warrant for his arrest. a Maryland slaveholder, and was living After Congress passed the Fugitive in York County. In 1837, Edward Prigg, Slave Act in 1850 as a compromise with a slave catcher hired by Ashmore’s heirs, the South, all citizens, both in the kidnapped Morgan and her children, North and the South, were required to including one born in Pennsylvania. assist in the enforcement of the act, or The heirs intended to sell them at be “subject to a fine not exceeding one- auction. Pennsylvania authorities thousand dollars, and imprisonment arrested Prigg and three accomplices. In not exceeding six months.” In addition, 1839, Prigg was convicted by the Court the act did not require a jury trial, of Quarter Sessions of York County eliminating the possibility of sympa- under Pennsylvania’s 1826 law prohibit- thetic treatment for the alleged fugitive. ing the abduction and transport of slaves Instead, cases were heard by local found in the Commonwealth. The U. S. magistrates, who were obliged by federal Supreme Court overturned the convic- law to review the warrant of arrest and tion, negating the 1826 law, and de- papers detailing proof of ownership. If LIBRARY OF CONGRESS clared unconstitutional a 1788 amend- those papers were in order and the slave Abolitionist Frederick Douglass. ment to Pennsylvania’s 1780 gradual owner, or his agent, was accompanied

26 PENNSYLVANIA HERITAGE Spring 2008 www.paheritage.org WWW.SONSOFTHESOUTH.NET/COURTESY PAUL MCWHORTER with fugitive slaves and became the In 1821, the family moved to Wilkes- Some slavery proponents claimed plantation center of Underground Railroad Barre where the elder Gildersleeve slaves lived contented lives, but the truth activity in the Wyoming Valley. became minister of the First Presbyte- about harsh treatment and crowded squalor Fugitives knew they could rely on the rian Church. His son established a dry could not stay hidden. church for shelter and sustenance on goods store on the north side of their flight northward. Bound by the Northampton Street where he began to by wagon to nearby underground common ties of kinship and, for some, hide fugitive slaves. He expanded his stations at Scranton, Abington, and the personal experience of slavery, clandestine activities sometime after Montrose. Gildersleeve was aided by two Bethel’s members did everything in 1839, when he opened his house on fugitive slaves whom he later employed, their power to assist fugitives in North Franklin Street as a station on the Lucy Washburn, a maid, and Jacob obtaining freedom. Bethel’s strong Underground Railroad. The short, stocky Welcome, a laborer, both members of commitment to abolitionism com- abolitionist hid runaways in his kitchen the Bethel A.M.E. Church. PHMC pelled them to work together with until nightfall when he shuttled them installed a state historical marker in sympathetic white activists. 2004 in Wilkes-Barre commemorating William Camp Gildersleeve (1795– William Camp Gildersleeve and his 1871) was the most prominent of testimony presented during the case of Wilkes-Barre’s white abolitionists (see Maxwell v. Righter. “Finding Sanctuary at Montrose” by Many of the fugitives began their William C. Kashatus, Winter 2007). journey in Pennsylvania in the south- Born at McIntosh, Georgia, he was the eastern counties. After crossing the son of the Reverend Cyrus Gildersleeve Mason-Dixon Line into free territory, (1768–1837), a Presbyterian minister the runaways were channeled north by and owner of a cotton plantation. William Still (1821–1902), a free black Having observed firsthand the brutality abolitionist, clerk, and, later, chairman of slavery on his father’s plantation, the of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery younger Gildersleeve developed a Society’s General Vigilance Committee strong disdain for the institution at an at Philadelphia. One of the hundreds of early age. In testimony before the fugitives Still interviewed, but did not American Anti-Slavery Society in 1839, recognize at first, turned out to be his Gildersleeve said, “Acts of cruelty, brother, Peter Still. Through a biracial, without number, fell under my observa- loosely connected, and extensive tion. . . . So hardening is the influence FROM THE UNDERGROUND RAIL ROAD (1872) network of stations, fugitives could make of slavery, that it very much destroys William Still, anti-slavery activist. their way north to Bethlehem and then feeling for the slave.” on to Wilkes-Barre through Palmerton www.phmc.state.pa.us PENNSYLVANIA HERITAGE Spring 2008 27 LUZERNE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Sometime after 1839, white abolitionist William C. Gildersleeve (left) opened his Wilkes-Barre resi- dence (above) as an Underground Railroad station. A judge threatened Gildersleeve with hanging for his abolitionist activities.

LUZERNE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY in Carbon County. Other fugitives “subordination of the Black race to the Virginia, the same county from which traveled the Pechoquealin Path, known white was recognized as a valid William Thomas escaped. In another also as the Lower Road, which cut condition of the Federal Constitution.” case, Jamison Harvey, a mine owner, through the Pocono Mountains from Their resolution added that abolition hired a runaway slave named Hansen, Stroudsburg in Monroe County. From “has not its origin in any sound or who was reported to federal authorities Wilkes-Barre, conductors Charles well-adjusted principles of human by other coal miners. Indicted by a Bailey, Leonard Batchelor, and John O. benevolence but from a total misappre- federal court, Harvey paid the slave Fell guided the escaping slaves north- hension of the great purposes of God’s owner a settlement fee and agreed to ward to Montrose, Towanda, and Providence” and that Southern slavery return Hansen to him in order to avoid Friendsville, and eventually into New was “a matter of direct necessity and a prosecution. Both of these cases were York. common benefit to both North and resolved locally with little attention. The consequences of being discov- South.” The Thomas case heightened public ered by federal authorities were severe Among those who signed the ambivalence in the Wyoming Valley for Underground Railroad agents, but resolution were several of Wilkes- towards the infamous fugitive slave law, their antislavery commitment was Barre’s most prominent citizens and primarily because of the severe physical unwavering. For many, it was inspired stalwart Democrats, including former abuse suffered by Thomas at the hands by their religious beliefs. When asked congressman Andrew Beaumont, G. L. of the federal marshals. This attitude why he assisted fugitives, Gildersleeve Bowman, General Isaac Bowman, was reported in the September 14, 1853, replied he was beholden “to a higher Samuel D. Brobst, Eleazer Carey, N. G. edition of the Luzerne Union, a newspa- law than those of the government.” Howe, E. E. LeClere, F. W. Nicholson, per affiliated with the local Democratic Predictably, he, like other local agents, Samuel T. Nicholson, General W. Party. The author of the account endured personal attacks and risked Oliver, Henry Pettebone, F. W. Streater, identified himself simply as “a citizen of injury for the cause. According to the William Streater, and Daniel Wagner. Wilkes-Barre” and admited that he was Wilkes-Barre Record, abolitionists were Some of these individuals owned and not an “eye witness to all [the events] “hooted and howled at almost as bad as operated coal mines in the Wyoming that occurred,” but those “scenes” which the escaping slave, treated with con- Valley. They feared the possibility of he did observe led him to insist that tempt, and their families were ostra- displacing a white workforce with black Thomas’s treatment by the federal cized from society.” laborers, and the violence that would marshals was “truly shocking to human- The majority of Wilkes-Barre’s white inevitably result from it. Others were ity.” Following a “hasty sketch” of the residents denounced abolitionism. politicians beholden to blue-collar event, the writer took to task individuals Churches denied the use of their votes; if they supported the abolitionist whose behavior he considered buildings for antislavery gatherings and cause, they would be thrust out of objectionable. the county commissioners refused office. Whether these ruffians were duly similar requests for the use of the court- Because of the prevailing fear that authorized to arrest the colored man, I know house on Public Square when the emancipation would result in job not. But we in this cold climate and free Reverend John Cross, a nationally- competition, most white residents country have one request to make of our known abolitionist and Underground complied with the fugitive slave law southern brethren, who are cursed with the Railroad superintendent, arrived in the and reported any knowledge of run- peculiar institution [of slavery]: that when city to speak. The Friends of the Union, aways living in the region. In late May they send among us to recapture their a local pro-slavery organization 1852, fugitive slave James Phillips, who runaway servants, they will send respect- affiliated with the Democratic Party, in had been living in Wilkes-Barre for able men, to execute an odious law in a 1842 condemned the “mischievous fourteen years, was arrested and taken reasonable, humane and lawful manner. If spirit of abolition,” insisting that the back to his owner in Fauquier County, they do so, they will find no resistance here.

28 PENNSYLVANIA HERITAGE Spring 2008 www.paheritage.org “. . . one request . . . when they send among But we cannot consent, quite yet, to have The 1850 Fugitive Slave Act prompted us to recapture their the blood of whites and blacks commingled anti-slavery press to print an image of an upon our parlor furniture without a little armed white posse ambushing blacks. runaway servants, previous notice. The anonymous author made an they will send important distinction between the validity of the fugitive slave law and respectable men . . .” the manner in which it is executed by the federal agents. While he condemned the brutal treatment of Thomas by the slave-catching “ruffians,” he insisted that they would find “no resistance” among residents if the federal authorities transact their business in a “reasonable, humane and lawful manner.” The publishers of the newspaper added an editorial note to the writer’s account. We are not the apologist of slavery, but we certainly think the abolitionists treat all such cases very unfairly. . . . If the Negro was a fugitive slave, his owner has a constitutional right to capture him and a constitutional right to the assistance of others to accomplish it. If in attempting that capture, harsh means were used, what LIBRARY OF CONGRESS occasioned them? The Negro made a officers with “inciting a riot by beating that he took out a warrant after hearing bloody resistance, and inflicted terrible and wounding a certain colored man, Easterline’s account of the incident. wounds upon these men, and we think any named ‘Bill,’ with pistols and other Grier dismissed the charges against white man who had his head cut open by weapons” and “with intent to kill him.” the deputies on the grounds of insuffi- a Negro, while performing a lawful duty, After their arrest, the deputies were cient evidence against them. “We are would feel inclined to send a bullet after placed under the custody of J. B. unable to perceive in this transaction him. One thing is certain. If the Negro had Chollet, Wilkes-Barre constable. When anything worthy of blame in the killed every one of his pursuers, a deafen- the U. S. Circuit Court at Philadelphia conduct of these officers,” he ruled. “I ing io paean would have gone towards the attempted to dismiss the prisoners, the will not have the officers of the United heavens from the throat of every abolition- motion was denied on the grounds that States harassed at every step in the ist in the country. We do love to see Crossen and Jenkins were “held by a performance of their duties by every human nature free itself from selfishness, warrant from a state magistrate for an petty magistrate who chooses to harass and look on both sides of a question. illegal criminal offense against the state them, or by any unprincipled interloper The editorial note is important in of Pennsylvania.” The action, which who chooses to make complaints against three respects. First, the publishers upheld a state’s rights over those of the them,” he added. “If this man Gilder- identified the writer as a “respectable national government, provoked federal sleeve fails to make out the facts set forth source,” probably a prominent member officials to assert their authority in in the warrant of arrest, I will request the of the Democratic Party who did not enforcing the fugitive slave law. Prosecuting Attorney of Luzerne County want to divulge his identity. Second, George Wynkoop, the federal to prosecute him for perjury.” Grier the publishers upheld the position of marshal for Pennsylvania, received further threatened an indictment against the Democratic Party to comply with authority from the secretary of the “the person who applies for the writ” of the fugitive slave law without condi- interior to employ counsel and defray habeas corpus, “or assists in getting it, the tion. Finally, they defended the legal expenses for his deputies. He lawyer who defends it, and the sheriff brutality of the federal agents by citing attempted to shield Crossen and Jenkins who serves the writ.” Thomas’s “bloody resistance” in from the penalties of Pennsylvania law The Thomas case should have ended “inflicting terrible wounds” on the by filing a petition for a writ of habeas there. Instead, Gilbert Burrows, the agents. While the Democrats may have corpus and brought it before U. S. Wilkes-Barre justice who had issued the been divided over the issue, local Supreme Court Justice Robert C. Grier arrest warrant for Crossen and Jenkins, abolitionists were not. (1794–1870). Grier heard testimonies sought revenge. Insulted by Grier’s Shortly after the Thomas assault, from Wynkoop, Burrows, Gildersleeve, reference to him during the trial as a James Crossen and John Jenkins were and two eyewitnesses to the incident, “two-penny magistrate,” Burrows filed a arrested on a warrant issued by Gilbert Joseph Easterline and James Collins. criminal suit in the local county court Burrows, a justice of the peace for According to the court transcript, against Wynkoop, Crossen, and Jenkins. Wilkes-Barre. The action was initiated Gildersleeve admitted that he “was not After a Luzerne County grand jury by Gildersleeve who charged the present” at the capture of Thomas, but indicted the three defendants, the www.phmc.state.pa.us PENNSYLVANIA HERITAGE Spring 2008 29 I made an affidavit stating facts should order the arrest of official slave according to the best of my knowledge and catchers, when they assume the part of belief, and which was strictly and literally brutal and murderous assailants.” true. I informed the magistrate that I had Because of the conflict between state not been an eye-witness of the facts stated. sovereignty and federal authority, the Hence there was no fraud practiced or Wilkes-Barre fugitive slave case was attempted. Perhaps then it would still more taken before Judge John K. Kane (1795– aid and comfort felons, if you would request 1858) of the U. S. District Court in all prosecuting attorneys to prosecute all Philadelphia on May 9, 1854. Kane grand jurors for perjury, whenever the facts determined that “U. S. Officers are not they had sworn to were disproved on trial. In amenable to state jurisdiction for acts other words, whenever a person indicted is done by virtue or under color of Federal acquitted on trial, send the jurors who powers.” The ruling caused bitter indicted him to the State prison for perjury!” consternation among abolitionists, both Gildersleeve reproved Grier for black and white, who renewed their “intimidating” him with the “threat of commitment to achieve emancipation. a hanging” and for his enforcement of Kane, known for his hard line, pro- the “despicable Fugitive Slave Act,” slavery rulings, had his own son, who which is not only “unconstitutional” was serving as a clerk in the court, jailed but also a “foul disgrace to our country.” on a charge of contempt for resigning Referring to Thomas’s brutal treatment, his position rather than carry out the Gildersleeve condemned Grier for his legal tasks associated with the return of LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ruling which suggested that “no degree slaves to their owners. The U. S. Su- An 1863 pictorial card showing an eman- of violence and brutality in catching preme Court overruled the judge’s cipated slave humbling himself before the Negroes is culpable or illegal” in spite of contempt action and father and son American ﬂag and a Union soldier. the fact that the “arrest of an alleged later reconciled, but not before the judge fugitive is a civil, not a criminal pro- was vehemently denounced by abolitionists and the antislavery press. The Philadelphia Register asked, “What will cess.” Gildersleeve reminded Grier of our Judge Grier do now? Will he indict the validity of a lower court’s right to Hartford Religious Herald derided Kane as the whole Grand Jury as a ‘tuppeny arrest those who break the law, regard- a “tyrannical judge” and “one of the institution?’” less of their station or professional vilest and most dangerous of despots.” Burrows charged that Grier deplored occupation. “It may be humiliating to Calling upon all abolitionists to Gildersleeve’s abolitionist activities at you,” he concluded, “but a tuppenny “come to the rescue of Liberty,” Freder- least two years before he heard the Pennsylvania magistrate has a perfect ick Douglass made Wilkes-Barre synony- Crossen and Jenkins case and that he right to order the arrest not only of a mous with the patriotic stand against had threatened to hang the Wilkes- deputy Marshal, but a Judge of the the British during the Boston Massacre Barre abolitionist if he were ever Supreme Court of the United States, on of 1770 and the valiant resistance of brought before him. Not only did a criminal charge. Such is the system of black Underground Railroad agents Grier’s pro-slavery bias explain his our government. Hence, it is no matter against Baltimore slave catchers at ruling in favor of Crossen and Jenkins, of surprise that a justice of the peace Christiana, Pennsylvania, in 1851. Burrows opined, but it should have “There, in immortal compelled him to recuse himself splendor, Wilkes- from hearing the case. Burrows Barre will remain,” he made the information available to wrote, “until the the abolitionist press, which Almighty has allowed condemned Grier for “not only us to work out the trampling State sovereignty in the most glorious dust, but to have done it in a tone of triumph of Liberty in great insolence.” America.” It was not long before William Gildersleeve launched his own attack. In an open letter to Judge Frederick Douglass Grier, published December 1, 1853, (seated right at table) in The National Era, the Wilkes- attended the 1850 Barre abolitionist charged the Fugitive Slave Law Con- Supreme Court justice with “taking vention in Cazenovia, liberties with his name, no less New York. Abolitionist consistent with the dignity of [his] Gerrit Smith (out- official station, than with truth and stretched arms) was a presidential candidate. justice.”

MADISON COUNTY (NEW YORK) HISTORICAL SOCIETY

30 PENNSYLVANIA HERITAGE Spring 2008 www.paheritage.org William C. Kashatus, Paoli, is a regular contributor to Pennsylvania Heritage. He is the author of numerous features, Travel Tips essays, and guest editorials for newspapers and magazines, as well as books on n the Winter 2007 edition of Pennsylvania Heritage, William C. Pennsylvania history. This is his second Kashatus detailed Underground Railroad history in Susquehanna article about the antislavery movement in County with “Finding Sanctuary at Montrose.” There were a num- northeastern Pennsylvania, the first of I ber of Travel Tips accompanying this story designed to put visitors which, “Finding Sanctuary at Montrose,” on the path of fugitive slaves and the African American struggle for appeared in the Winter 2007 edition. freedom. Suggested museums and organizations included were the Center for Anti-Slavery Studies in Montrose (www.antislaverystud The author thanks Karen James, coordina- ies. org), the Bethel Harambee Historical Service in Lancaster tor of PHMC’s African American pro- (www.livingthe undergroundrailroad.com), the National Civil War grams, for her assistance in obtaining Museum in Harrisburg (www.nationalcivilwarmuseum.org), and primary source material for this article. the Richard Allen Museum in Philadelphia (www.motherbethel. org/museum). The Civil War and Underground Railroad Museum in Philadel- phia bears repeating. In addition to its museum of nine galleries, the institution holds more than seven thousand photographs, three FOR FURTHER READING thousand artifacts, and four hundred cubic feet of archival material. In addition to research opportunities and interesting exhibits for the Forbes, Ella. But We Have No Country: entire family, the organization is developing an educational curricu- The 1851 Christiana, Pennsylvania lum for fifth, eighth, and eleventh graders. More information may be Resistance. Cherry Hill, N.J.: Africana found on the Web at www.cwurmuseum.org. Homestead Legacy Publishers, 1998. While in Philadelphia, visitors should include on their itineraries two institutions that have been telling the stories of ancestors and Hendrick, George and Willene Hendrick. Pennsylvania’s history, including those of African Americans, for more Fleeing for Freedom: Stories of the than a century. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania (HSP), Underground Railroad, as Told by founded 1824, and the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania (GSP), Levi Coffin and William Still. founded 1892, share the same facilities at 1300 Locust Street. HSP Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2004. holds six hundred thousand printed and microfilmed items, twenty million manuscripts, and three hundred thousand graphic items. The Lottick, Salley Teller. Bridging Change: GSP is integrating much of its collection into historical society’s A Wyoming Valley Sketchbook. holdings. HSP is on the Web at www.hsp.org and GSP is on the Web Wilkes-Barre, Pa.: Wyoming Historical at www.genpa.org. and Geological Society, 1992. Initiated in July 2007, one of Gettysburg’s newest attractions is an Underground Railroad tour of Adams County, conducted by Freedom Moss, Emerson I. African-Americans in Lies North (FLN). The tours last about two and a half hours and a the Wyoming Valley. Wilkes-Barre, Pa.: portion of the proceeds support historic preservation in the Gettys- Wyoming Historical and Geological burg area. Historic Gettysburg Adams County, a preservation organiza- Society and Wilkes University Press, tion, assisted FLN organizer Debra McCauslin in crafting agreements 1992. with private property owners to gain access to such historic sites as Yellow Hill Cemetery, a burial place for Civil War-era United States Slaughter, Thomas P. Bloody Dawn: Colored Troops. The cemetery is normally not open to the public. To The Christiana Riot and Racial learn more about the tour, visit www.gettysburghistories.com. Violence in the Antebellum North. In northwestern Pennsylvania, the Mercer County Historical New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. Society offers an Underground Railroad Driving Tour. With ten stops along the way, the tour takes an estimated four to five hours to Still, William. The Underground complete. Attractions include several historic churches, the Johnston Railroad: Authentic Narratives and Tavern, the Gibson House, and the Freedom Road Cemetery, all that First-Hand Accounts. Mineola, N.Y.: remains of the fugitive slave town of Liberia, established by freed Dover Publications, 2005. slaves. To plan a visit, go to www.discovermercercountypa.org on the Web. Switala, William J. Underground Other ideas for trips relating to the Underground Railroad can be Railroad in Pennsylvania. Mechanics- found on the Web, including, in Wilkes-Barre, the Luzerne County burg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 2001. Historical Society, at www.luzernecountyhistory.com, and Quest for Freedom, which takes visitors on a driving tour from Philadelphia to Valley Forge, Lancaster, Columbia, York, and Gettysburg, at www.questforfreedom.org.