HISTORIC GERMANTOWN HISTORIC PHILADELphIA MORTON ST The African American Museum in Philadelphia 1 701 Arch Street Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Liberty Bell Center GERMANTOWN AVE th 2 6 & Market Streets BAYNTON ST Quest for Freedom: Philadelphia Quest for Freedom: Philadelphia President’s House Commemorative Site 16 W. TULPEHOCKENW. ST th 3 15 WASHINGTONW. LN 6 & Market Streets JOHNSONW. ST 14 DUVAL ST Independence Hall & Congress Hall 17 th th 4 AFRICAN-AMERICAN HERITAGE TRAIL Chestnut Street between 5 & 6 Streets SPECIAL EDITION Independence Visitor Center GOPHILA.COM/QUESTFORFREEDOM th 5 6 & Market Streets AUDACIOUS FREEDOM: AFRICAN AMERICANS IN FAIRMOUNT PARK Christ Church PHILADELPHIA, 1776-1876 nd 6 2 & Market Streets N. PARKSIDE AVE Christ Church Burial Ground th 7 5 & Arch Streets BELMONT MANSION DR 13 Philadelphia Quest for Freedom, led regionally Independence Seaport Museum 211 S. Columbus Boulevard 8 by the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation BELMONT AVE Washington Square (GPTMC), is a heritage tourism initiative that promotes the th 9 6 & Walnut Streets region’s rich African-American history and Underground Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Railroad story. We invite everyone to explore the Quest (A.M.E.) Church 10 for Freedom trail. For more information on historic sites, 419 S. 6th Street (at Lombard Street) TEMPLE UNIVERSITY exhibitions and events and for a complete listing of all W. NORRIS ST National Constitution Center 11 Philadelphia Quest for Freedom partners throughout the 525 Arch Street region, visit gophila.com/questforfreedom. Arch Street Friends’ Meeting House 18 SPECIAL 4th & Arch Streets 12 OFFER INSIDE!9 22 W. BERKS ST PG. FAIRMOUNT PARK 20 Belmont Mansion 13 N. ST 13TH N. ST 12TH 2000 Belmont Mansion Drive 19 PARK AVE N. BROAD ST HISTORIC GERMANTOWN W. MONTGOMERY AVE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Johnson House Historic Site 14 ChESTER COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY 6306 Germantown Avenue GPTMC would like to thank the National Archives Mid Atlantic N. HIGH ST Concord School House and Upper Burying Ground Region and the Library Company of Philadelphia for consulting 15 N. WALNUT ST 6309 Germantown Avenue on the historical content of this brochure. Thanks also to 21 Map design courtesy of Center City District Cliveden of the National Trust Lenwood Sloan of the PA Tourism Office for his support and 16 6401 Germantown Avenue leadership of the Pennsylvania Quest for Freedom initiative. E. WASHINGTON ST Deshler-Morris House 24 And thanks to the Quest for Freedom partner organizations for 5442 Germantown Avenue 17 1 10 their ongoing participation in this collaborative project. E. PRESCOT ALLEY CENTER CITY & NORTH PHILADELphIA W. CHESTNUT ST The Union League of Philadelphia 9 4 2 3 5 11 140 S. Broad Street 18 CHESTER COUNTY VISITORS CENTER 7 Historical Society of Pennsylvania 1300 Locust Street 19 12 Library Company of Philadelphia 1314 Locust Street 20 25GREENWOOD RD LONGWOOD RD The National Archives Mid Atlantic Region 6 900 Market Street 21 Photos by K. Ciappa, R. Kennedy, B. Krist and J. Smith for GPTMC; also courtesy of the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection at Library Company of Philadelphia, Findings, The Field Museum and Sharne Algotsson Temple University 22 Sullivan Hall, 1330 W. Berks Street E. BALTIMORE PIKE PORT RICHMOND 8 PORT RICHMOND VALLEY FORGE C NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK Lest We Forget – Black Holocaust Museum of Slavery A 23 S P T 3650 Richmond Street IC O K R COUNTY LINE EXPY ST W A T I V N. GULPH RD N C E O K M E S G T CHESTER COUNTY ED Chester County Historical Society ST philadelphipennsylvaniaa 225 N. High Street, West Chester N 24 O quest for freedom LM SA 23 Chester County Visitors Center W. VALLEY FORGE RD T philadelphia 25 S 26 300 Greenwood Road, Kennett Square ND O M CH This project is part of a statewide initiative funded by the Department of RI VALLEY FORGE Community & Economic Development / PA Tourism Office. Valley Forge National Historical Park 26 I-95 Route 23 & N. Gulph Road, Valley Forge OUTER LINE DR GOPHILA.COM/QUESTFORFREEDOM QUEST FOR FREEDOM – PHILADELPHIA TIMELINE 1831 – With financial support from 1855 – Jane Johnson and her two 1688 – The first protest against slavery 1794 – Mother Bethel A.M.E. and St. Thomas African Philadelphia free blacks, William Lloyd Garrison 1837 – Cheyney University is founded as the sons are assisted to freedom by William in America is written. Episcopal churches, the first independent black churches in begins publishing The Liberator, the most famous Institute for Colored Youth. Still and white abolitionist Passmore America, are founded. anti-slavery newspaper. Williamson, who is jailed for his actions. 1871 – Octavius V. Catto, a leader with Frederick Douglass in the National – In response to the Fugitive Slave 1800 – Judge Richard Peters charges the Pennsylvania – The Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery 1851 Equal Rights League, is assassinated – Richard Allen and Absalom Jones form the Free 1835 Law and the Christiana Riot trial, a new General 1787 Abolition Society with the task of ensuring that 134 Africans Society, an integrated group of black and white on the street in Philadelphia during African Society, one of the first mutual aid societies in the Vigilance Committee is formed and led by rescued from two slave ships by the USS Ganges become free middle-class women, is formed. a contested election in which blacks country founded by blacks for blacks. people in Pennsylvania. William Still. regained the right to vote. 1791 – The founding of Haiti, the first independent black country in the Americas, begins. Philadelphia has 1822 – Segregated public schools for blacks 1837 – Philadelphia blacks organize the 1854 – Lincoln University (Ashmun Institute) many supporters of Toussaint L’Ouverture and an emerging open in Philadelphia. Vigilant Committee, an underground network is chartered. community of blacks of Haitian descent. founded by Robert Purvis and others to aid and assist fugitive slaves. – The American Anti-Slavery – Camp William Penn is established as a major – The Pennsylvania Abolition Society, the – Philadelphia free blacks initiate the first 1833 – Harriet Tubman escapes from 1863 1775 1797 Society, led by William Lloyd Garrison, 1849 training ground for U.S. Colored Troops, authorized by first anti-slavery society in the world, is founded. black petitions to Congress against slavery. slavery and arrives in Philadelphia. is organized in Philadelphia. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Timeline courtesy of National History Day Philadelphia QUEST FOR FREEDOM: PHILADELPHIA The time: before the Civil War. The place: Philadelphia. In one Defying danger and scrutiny from unsympathetic neighbors, of the great paradoxes of history, the Founding Fathers shaped the region’s anti-slavery activists formed a freedom trail that the documents that guaranteed our rights and freedoms in provided food, shelter and places to hide along the way. With the Philadelphia, but they did not address the issue of slavery. constant threat of discovery and, after passage of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850, the risk of being tried for treason always Yet as the shadow of slavery hung over the nation, an influential looming, Underground Railroad supporters disobeyed federal law free black community in Philadelphia, the largest in the North, and offered “safe” passage for those seeking freedom. established a resistance network that spread throughout the United States. Free men and women of African descent joined Throughout the Philadelphia region are sites that recount their forces with Quakers and other sympathetic whites, forming stories—places where ordinary people with extraordinary successful anti-slavery organizations to provide assistance to determination changed our nation’s history. Begin your journey enslaved Africans. Philadelphia, leading the world in anti-slavery with this brochure, which lists sites and experiences along the activities, became a major passageway to freedom. trail. You can also visit gophila.com/questforfreedom. For information on statewide Quest for Freedom sites, visit paquestforfreedom.com. For more in-depth information about the Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania, visit explorepahistory.com and click on “Stories from PA History” and then “Underground Railroad.” Philadelphia Quest for Freedom is an official designated program of Network to Freedom, a significant but distinct part of the National Park Service’s National Underground Railroad Program. It comprises historic sites, facilities and programs that have a verifiable association to the Underground Railroad. Richard Allen For more information, visit nps.gov/ugrr. Society Hill 1 QUEST PHILADELPHIA gophila.com/questforfreedom QUEST PHILADELPHIA gophila.com/questforfreedom HISTORIC SITES | HISTORIC PHILADELPHIA Washington Square Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal 6th & Walnut Streets (A.M.E.) Church The African American Museum in Philadelphia (800) 537-7676 | nps.gov/inde 419 S. 6th Street (at Lombard Street) 701 Arch Street (215) 925-0616 | motherbethel.org (215) 574-0380 | aampmuseum.org During the city’s early years, Africans congregated here, speaking in their native languages, cooking and dancing to the rhythms of their To African-Americans, perhaps no site is more The African American Museum in Philadelphia is a perfect starting point for homeland. Interpretive signs scattered throughout reveal the square’s sacred than Mother Bethel. Here, Reverend Richard Allen, along with those exploring the Quest