Understanding Pennsylvania’s Gradual Abolition Act of 1780

Posted by on Aug 13, 2026 in | Comments Off on Understanding Pennsylvania’s Gradual Abolition Act of 1780 In March 1802, an enslaved man named Frank slipped away from his enslaver in Lancaster County. Prior to his escape, Frank had served as both a chauffeur and a laborer, moving between roads and fields that he would now use as a route to freedom. He fled on a Sunday night wearing a beaver hat and a pair of light-colored pants. Most importantly, he carried a freedom certificate that once belonged...
read more

Editor’s Letter

Posted by on Aug 13, 2026 in | Comments Off on Editor’s Letter Natural rights, individual liberties and the social contract — these Enlightenment ideals were at the core of the transformation of America in the second half of the 18th century. Such values would serve as not only the basis for the American Colonies to dissolve their “political bands” with Great Britain but also the catalyst for internal revolutions that were beginning to foment in the new...
read more

Pennsylvania and the American Revolution: An Interview with Gordon S. Wood

Posted by on Jun 11, 2025 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvania and the American Revolution: An Interview with Gordon S. Wood   The American Revolution was the most significant event in our country’s history. Independence from Great Britain not only resulted in the birth of a new nation but also one dedicated to a uniquely democratic form of government unknown to the world in the 18th century. It also forged a national identity, rooted in the principles of liberty, equality and republicanism, that has endured for...
read more

The Manumission of Samuel Stephens

Posted by on Mar 19, 2021 in | Comments Off on The Manumission of Samuel Stephens In 1783 Stuart George Dallas and his wife Elizabeth, formerly of the island of Jamaica, filed a manumission contract in Philadelphia for enslaved 12-year-old Samuel “Sammy” Stephens. George Bryan of Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court ordered a writ of habeas corpus for Samuel Stephens to be brought before him on July 1, 1786. The manumission contract, pictured here, is preserved in the Pennsylvania...
read more

Three Generations on the Underground Railroad: The Gibbons Family of Lancaster County

Posted by on Apr 16, 2020 in | Comments Off on Three Generations on the Underground Railroad: The Gibbons Family of Lancaster County Shortly after sunset, a fugitive slave from Maryland tapped on a window of a modest farmhouse near Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania. Daniel and Hannah Gibbons walked swiftly to the door. The Quaker couple escorted the young man to the barn to sleep and in the morning summoned him back to the house. If the fugitive’s owner was in close pursuit, they would send him to another farm. If there seemed to be...
read more

The Consequences of the American Revolution in Pennsylvania

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on The Consequences of the American Revolution in Pennsylvania One of the more interesting and controversial aspects of the American Revolution concerns its consequen­ces upon colonial institutions and society in general. Was the society left almost unchanged by a movement fun­damentally conservative in its causes, or was it profoundly altered by a revolution radical in its results, if not in its origins? Specifically, what happened to the society of...
read more

Historical Sketch of Greene County

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on Historical Sketch of Greene County Greene County lies in the southwestern corner of the state. Its many hills, the distinguishing feature of the countryside, grow more pronounced as one travels from the eastern to the western areas. The old Washington Waynes­burg Railroad, traveling through the hills, was famous for its 178 sharp turns, each of which jolted the passengers. There were some who took the trip just for the roller...
read more

Toward Freedom: Pittsburgh Blacks, 1800-1870

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on Toward Freedom: Pittsburgh Blacks, 1800-1870 Throughout the antebellum period in the United States, two of the most volatile issues were the abolition of slavery and Blacks’ civil rights. Conventions, meetings, and written memorials to state and federal governmental bodies regarding these concerns abounded. Both Black and white residents of cities and towns became involved in the slavery question, while Black residents, primarily,...
read more

They Left with the British: Black Women in the Evacuation of Philadelphia, 1778

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on They Left with the British: Black Women in the Evacuation of Philadelphia, 1778 Black women were a small but important segment of the eighteenth-century Pennsylvania laboring classes. As slaves, as indentured servants, or as free persons of color, their options were extremely limited, but they could and did make decisions that affected their lives. The evacuation of Philadelphia by the British in 1778 during the Revolutionary War reveals the kinds of limited choices which...
read more