Antislavery and Abolition in Philadelphia: Emancipation and the Long Struggle for Racial Justice in the City of Brotherly Love

273 Pages·2011·1.11 MB·English

by  Richard Newman

Antislavery and Abolition in Philadelphia
Antislavery, Abolition, and the Atlantic World
R. J. M. Blackett and James Brewer Stewart,
Series Editors
Antislavery

Abolition
and in
Philadelphia
Emancipation and the Long
Struggle for Racial Justice in
the City of Brotherly Love
Richard Newman
Edited by
James Mueller
and
Louisiana State University Press Baton Rouge
Published by Louisiana State University Press
Copyright © 2011 by Louisiana State University Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
first printing
designer: Amanda McDonald Scallan
typeface: Whitman
printer and binder: McNaughton & Gunn, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Antislavery and abolition in Philadelphia : emancipation and the long struggle for racial justice in the City
of Brotherly love / edited by Richard Newman and James Mueller.
p. cm. — (Antislavery, abolition, and the Atlantic world)
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-8071-3991-2 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8071-3992-9 (pdf) — ISBN 978-0-8071-3993-6
(epub) — ISBN 978-0-8071-3994-3 (mobi) 1. Antislavery movements—Pennsylvania—Philadelphia—His-
tory. 2. Abolitionists—Pennsylvania—Philadelphia—History. 3. Free African Americans—Pennsylvania—
History. 4. Philadelphia (Pa.)—History—18th century. 5. Philadelphia (Pa.)—History—19th century. I.
Newman, Richard S. II. Mueller, James, 1941–
F158.44.A67 2011
326'.80974811—dc23
2011020450
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production
Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. (cid:146)
Contents
Preface
A Brief Note on the Preparation of the Volume vii
Introduction
richard newman and james mueller 1
I.
Liberating Philadelphia
The Evolution of an Emancipation Outpost
Chapter 1
Slavery, Freedom, and Philadelphia’s Struggle for
Brotherly Love, 1685 to 1861
ira berlin 19
II.
Black and White Abolitionist Movements
in Emancipating Philadelphia
Chapter 2
The Origins of Antislavery in Pennsylvania: Early Abolitionists
and Benjamin Franklin’s Road Not Taken
david waldstreicher 45
Chapter 3
Self-Help and Self-Determination: Black Philadelphians
and the Dimensions of Freedom
julie winch 66
Chapter 4
Race and Citizenship in the Early Republic
gary nash 90
contents
vi
Chapter 5
The Pennsylvania Abolition Society and the Struggle for Racial Justice
richard newman 118
III.
SHADES OF FREEDOM
Global Abolitionism, Religious Reform, and the Staging of Race
between the Revolution and the Civil War
Chapter 6
Philadelphia Abolitionists and Antislavery Cosmopolitanism
w. caleb mcdaniel 149
Chapter 7
From Natural Rights to National Sins: Philadelphia’s Churches
Face Antislavery
dee e. andrews 174
Chapter 8
Staging Slavery: Representing Race and Abolitionism
On and Off the Philadelphia Stage
heather s. nathans 198
Chapter 9
“Beautiful Providences”: William Still, the Vigilance Committee,
and Abolitionists in the Age of Sectionalism
elizabeth varon 229
Contributors 247
Index 249
Preface
A Brief Note on the Preparation of the Volume
Though the essays collected here illuminate Philadelphia’s complex abolition-
ist past, they grew initially out of contemporary debates over the historical
memory of slavery, race, and abolition at Independence Mall in Philadelphia.
One of the jewels of the National Park Service (NPS) system, visited annually
by millions of people from around the world, Independence Mall is home to
the Liberty Bell, the Pennsylvania State House (which welcomed both the
Continental Congress that drafted the Declaration of Independence and the
Constitutional Convention of 1787), and the President’s House (also known as
the “First White House,” which served as the home of Presidents Washington
and Adams during Philadelphia’s tenure as the nation’s capital city between
1790 and 1800). A world heritage site, Independence Mall remains for many
in and beyond the United States the very symbol of American liberty.
However, the discovery in recent years of African American sacred spaces
within the confines of Independence Mall has prompted serious questions
about the historical relationship between slavery and freedom in early
Philadelphia, as documented in Slavery and Public History: The Tough Stuff
of American Memory, edited by James Horton and Lois Horton (New York,
2006). Debate has centered on two specific sites, both of which came to light
through the diligent work of NPS scholars, independent historians, academic
researchers, and citizen-activists. First, renovations for a planned bus terminal
at the National Constitution Center (near Fifth and Arch Streets) revealed
that the area had been home to a former slave and founding member of several
free black institutions named James “Orinoco” Dexter. Second, independent
historian Ed Lawler discovered that George Washington once converted parts
of the President’s House (at Sixth and Market Streets) into slave quarters.
Further research showed that the nation’s inaugural president shuttled a
group of nine slaves back and forth between Mount Vernon and Philadelphia
to avoid complying with Pennsylvania’s gradual abolition act (which provided
out-of-state masters a six-month grace period). In both cases, members of the
viii Preface
local black community were the first to demand a fuller recognition of free
black leaders as well as enslaved people in the commemorative landscape of
Independence Mall. NPS officials eventually joined with local historical insti-
tutions and city leaders to plan events which marked the importance of the
Dexter and President House sites. While the National Constitution Center has
placed a rather disappointing commemorative plaque near the Dexter site, the
city of Philadelphia has planned a memorial to the enslaved people who lived
with Washington at the President’s House. A great collection of documents and
newspapers articles on these and other issues in Philadelphia can be found at
www.ushistory.org/presidentshouse/index.htm.
Against this backdrop, Jim Mueller and the NPS solicited essays from sev-
eral scholars on Philadelphia antislavery movements. Many of these papers
were delivered first at the 2005 Society for Historians of the Early American
Republic meeting in Philadelphia. Other chapters were added in the interven-
ing years, as the book went through various revisions, and a co-editor (Richard
Newman) taken on. By publishing them together now as Antislavery and Abo-
lition in Philadelphia, we hope that the present volume will inform and inspire
some of those visitors who stop by one of the bookstores in Independence Mall
to learn more about slavery and freedom in both Philadelphia and American
culture.
The co-editors would like to thank several individuals who rendered invalu-
able aid to this project, beginning with the volume’s distinguished authors
(many of whom stayed on board throughout). National Park Service officials
at Independence Mall—particularly Doris Fanelli and Jed Levin—offered
initial and continuing support, for which we remain grateful. Phil Lapsanksy
and John Van Horne of The Library Company helped smooth out rough edges
of the project at key stages of its development. Robert Ulin, dean in the Col-
lege of Liberal Arts at Rochester Institute of Technology, generously helped
defray the cost of the volume’s preparation, without which support the project
might have foundered. Stan Ivester and Christine Van Horne provided expert
copyediting and indexing work, respectively, in the final stages of the project,
for which we remain much in their debt. And James Brewer Stewart and
Richard Blackett offered sustained and richly textured commentary on every
essay—a rarity on edited volumes but nothing out of the ordinary for these
distinguished scholars. This volume would not have been possible without
Preface ix
their scholarly insights and collegial support. Finally, our editor, Rand Dotson
at LSU Press, has been nothing less than a saint, skillfully shepherding the
manuscript through all stages of revision.
We would also like to thank Harvard University Press and Cambridge Uni-
versity Press for permission to partially republish versions of chapters 4 and 8,
respectively.
—RN and JM