Antebellum Black Philadelphia's Social and Political Spaces

In 1836 four enslaved brothers escaped from a Maryland plantation.  They came into Philadelphia and “Found their way to Purvis’ door” ( Borome 321 ) at 9th and Lombard.

Many of the underground railroad stops in Philadelphia were individual homes.  Here we start to see the social network in action and the fact that enslaved people communicated with themselves about where to go for help once they reached Philadelphia. 

Thomas stayed in Philadelphia and settled on Rodman street (in 1838 it was called Bonsall - above South between 9th and 11th)

Thomas’ Brother Basil started working on Robert Purvis’ farm in Byberry.

Purvis was a leader in the First Vigilance Committee (Black led) founded to ‘aid colored persons in distress’.  The Anti-Slavery society (white led) concerned itself with legal manumissions and would not engage in the slave trade, nor did it have the full resources needed to handle the volume of freedom seekers. 

Basil’s story is illustrative of the extent to which The Vigilance Committee put themselves in danger to aid freedom seekers.  Basil was caught and put in jail.  Purvis showed up and challenged - leading to a court session two weeks later.  Purvis arranged for a) great lawyers and b) a crowd of supporters from the Black community outside the courtroom.  The Judge threw out the case for lack of evidence.  Even then the slave catchers were also outside the courtroom and Purvis had a horse and buggy waiting.  The crowd got in the way of the slave catchers.  Purvis made it back to Philly and sent Basil on his way to New York.

Later - Thomas Dorsey became a very very rich man - a famous Philadelphian Waiter -Caterer and he lived here in a large substantial home at 1233 Locust Street (pictured).  

Thomas' son William became a founder of the American Negro Historical Society and amassed an incredible collection of Black history. The book  William Dorsey's Philadelphia & Ours  describes his work.

At stop 2 we stop to think about

the incredible organization and work

that went into Black people working

diligently to free other Black people.

William Still grew up as a free person in Shamong and Indian Mills, New Jersey. He came to Philadelphia as a young man and worked various construction jobs while he went to night school at The Moral Reform Retreat school. Eventually he became an office worker at the American Anti-Slavery office at 5th and Arch.

He was President of the Second iteration of The Vigilant Committee which started in 1852. The First Committee, which started in 1838, faced tremendous pressure from the white mob attacks on the Black Community during the 1830s and 1840s and disbanded, though individuals in the committee still continued to help freedom seekers as individuals and through other organizations.

In the video Still, played by Philadelphian Leslie Odom, is shown bringing Harriet Tubman into The Vigilant Committee. This group of people used all means of transportation, sea, roads, railroad to help transport enslaved people to freedom.

Thousands of people were assisted between 1800 and 1860. Still kept a journal where he wrote the stories of freedom seekers during only a five year period and there are over 1000 people in his journal.

He wrote these experiences into a book called  The Underground Railroad , while he was here in this house.

In this excerpt from Smedley's History of the Underground Railroad we can see that there were 11 safe houses that housed over 168 people in one night!

Because of the structures for immediate support provided by organizations within the Black Community, many freedom seekers stayed in Philadelphia.

As we continue through the alley ways

that make up the spaces of stability for the antebellum free Black community,

we stop at a church, built with Black dollars and by Black masons

to consider the political actions of Black leadership to fight for the rights of Black people in 1838.

Creating spaces of stability and building a civilization of emancipated people did not go unnoticed by the forces of racism and by the global slave economic powers. They began to attack the political rights of Black people.

In 1837 a measure was introduced in the Pennsylvania Legislature to insert the word 'white' into the definition of who could vote into the constitution. This would effectively remove the right to vote ('disenfranchise') nearly 40,000 free Black men in Pennsylvania.

Black leadership in Philadelphia worked together, across former lines of division, to develop facts, statistics, appeals, and press to influence the legislature not to disenfranchise.

This in fact why we have the  1838 Pennsylvania Abolition Society Census of the Colored People , the  Register of Trades of the Colored People of Philadelphia , and the  Report of the Present State of the Colored People of Philadelphia  and the  Appeal of the 40,000 . All of these documents are incredibly important to our understanding of Black power in the 1830s and 1840s.

That leadership met here, along with the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, at St. Paul's Lutheran Church on Quince Street.

We stop at the Alms House to tell the story of

Levi Ganges

and the continuation of African culture depsite the deep trauma of the transatlantic slave trade.

The Ganges and the Amistad are two slaver ships where the captives were legally emancipated shortly after their arrival.  Interestingly they both have deep connections to The Black Metropolis. 

The Ganges captives were freed in Philadelphia in 1800 and the Amistad captives were freed in Boston in 1839. 

Michael Kearney, a local Philadelphia based historian, is probably one of the foremost experts on the Ganges and has produced  this online exhibition .  Notably the Ganges captives went on to live free lives in and about Philadelphia and most of them kept the last name Ganges.  There are 4 people with Ganges surnames in the 1838 Census.  Kearney believes that  ‘Lahi’  Ganges is ‘Levi’ Ganges. 

Levi is most famous for acting as a translator for Cinque (pictured), the leader of the self-emancipation activities on the Amistad, during the Amistad trials. 

We could argue that the social networks of the Black Metropolis, with people knowing and supporting each other, led to a situation where this very rare and incredible situation, a translation that led to emancipation, occurred.

Kearney has found Lehi in  the Alms house as well and has surfaced this sad story:

“Levi’s wife, Mary Ganges, age about 35 (born abt 1786), was admitted to the almshouse on August 3, 1821 and died in the infirmary two days later of puerperal mania  [xiii] . Her docket entry is nearly identical to Levi’s: born in Africa, indentured in Darby Township, lived in the city for 10 years, and paid rent of $32/y. This strongly suggests she was also a First Ganges.  [xiv] ” Micheal Kearney

By the 1838 Census, Levi reappears with what could be a new family.  He is living on Little Oak street in a residence with 4 people, 3 indicated as not native.  He was buried at  Weccacoe .

We stop at Currant Alley to think about the everyday life of free Black People

Walking children to school

Seeing the local doctor

Going to church

Sharing dinner with friends

All of which happened here..in these local alleys

Currant Alley was situated right in front of the Alms House and we know from the Census and the Register of Trades that 236 Black people lived here. There were 51 children and 30 of them went to school. There were five homeowners, include celebrated waiter-caterer George Johnson. We like to think he came back from big contracts with extra food to share.

We know that Meta Fuller's grandfather lived here. Meta Vaux Fuller was an artist who worked at PAFA and studied under Rodin and Tanner. We can imagine her running through these streets to her grandfather's house at 18 Currant Alley.

Amos Webber lived right off of Currant Alley on Miles Court. And he kept a diary that was discovered and turned into a  book  about Black life in Philadelphia in 1838.

While current historiography focuses on the squalid conditions in Moyamensing that many Black people lived in in the 1830s and 1840s, there were also places like Currant Alley. The reality is that Black people inhabited all classes and a variety of socioeconomic levels. A heat map generated from the 1838 Census shows the Black population, not just in Moyamensing but throughout the city. The official census population was 18,768 in 1838.

The 1838 Register of Trades listed 600 advanced tradespeople and entrepreneurs. Many, like Sarah Shorter, a dress maker, lived on Currant Alley, perhaps taking advantage of the foot traffic flowing to and from the Alms House.

Photo of the Venning girls courtesy The Library Company of Philadelphia.

We say their names

Black people who lived in a time

when the whole world

used our bodies, tore apart our families, threatened us on a consistent basis

And yet we kept going.

We celebrate the strength of the ordinary person in extraordinary times

By saying their names

ASHE!

photo courtesy The Library Company

Next we walk to school

and consider a highly educated

Free Black population

building and yearning for more learning.

The Raspberry Street school was founded by Anthony Benezet in the late 1700s on Chestnut street and later merged with a Quaker school that was here on Raspberry Street.

There were 23 public and private schools for Black children in 1838 and about 60% of the children attended school.

Adults also wanted to learn more and learning circles turned into organizations like The Gilbert Lyceum, the Banneker Institute and the Institute for Colored Youth (ICY). ICY went on to be become the source of the first Historically Black College and University (HBCU) in the United States - Cheyney - founded in 1837.

We end our experience

at the local doctor

whose house also was an important Underground Railroad hub.

Let's visit James J.G. Bias