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...
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Raising Philadelphia by Justin McHenry

Posted by on Sep 8, 2025 in | Comments Off on Raising Philadelphia by Justin McHenry Raising Philadelphia The Making of America’s First Great City, 1750–1775 by Justin McHenry Brookline Books, 224 pages, hardcover $32.95 McHenry’s appetite for research and his passion for storytelling combine here to illuminate threads of history and biography into readable stories for a broad audience. Focusing on Philadelphia’s transformation into a cultural and political epicenter...
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Teammates & Rivals: Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson and the Pittsburgh Crawfords

Posted by on Sep 8, 2025 in | Comments Off on Teammates & Rivals: Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson and the Pittsburgh Crawfords On September 10, 1942, the Negro American League champion Kansas City Monarchs faced the Negro National League champion Homestead Grays at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. It was Game Two of a best-of-seven matchup that would determine the World Series of Black baseball. The Monarchs had taken a one-game lead in the series the previous day, handily defeating the Grays, 8–0. Homestead was out for...
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A Beacon of Liberty for the Enslaved: 250 Years of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society

Posted by on Jun 11, 2025 in | Comments Off on A Beacon of Liberty for the Enslaved: 250 Years of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society   By the early 1700s, French Protestants — largely Calvinists known as Huguenots — suffered in their country from severe religious persecution, among them a boy, Antoine Bénézet (1720–72), and his parents. When their property was seized unless they renounced their faith, they departed their country, making their way to London, where they joined a welcoming group that stood for tolerance,...
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The Burning of Pennsylvania Hall

Posted by on Feb 21, 2025 in | Comments Off on The Burning of Pennsylvania Hall The Pennsylvania State Archives holds a small cache of letters related to an episode in the early 19th-century struggle for Black civil rights in the commonwealth, the burning of Pennsylvania Hall. The letters were written by victims of the crime, the mayor and high sheriff of Philadelphia, and the attorney general of Pennsylvania. Although Pennsylvania had passed the Gradual Abolition Act in...
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Fellow Travelers: The Fight to Desegregate Philadelphia’s Streecars After the Civil War

Posted by on Oct 21, 2024 in | Comments Off on Fellow Travelers: The Fight to Desegregate Philadelphia’s Streecars After the Civil War “When a nation suffers as ours does, from the misfortune of having two races . . . one long civilized, the other emerging from the shades of barbarism . . . there is much in the relations between them that must be left to the lessons of experience and the tribunal of public opinion.” And so, Judge John Hare of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas ruled that a Black man was not entitled to...
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Editor’s Letter

Posted by on Oct 21, 2024 in | Comments Off on Editor’s Letter The three features in this edition of Pennsylvania Heritage focus on endeavors by visionary individuals to change or improve some aspect of life in the Keystone State. One of the earliest struggles for Black civil rights in Pennsylvania — the effort to desegregate streetcars — took place in Philadelphia during the Civil War era. The operators of the 19 streetcar companies in the city at that...
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Outstanding Perseverance and Courage: Pennsylvania’s Thomas Mosley and the Montford Point Marines in World War II

Posted by on Aug 9, 2024 in | Comments Off on Outstanding Perseverance and Courage: Pennsylvania’s Thomas Mosley and the Montford Point Marines in World War II In November 1943, a young Black man sat in a military recruiting office in Philadelphia. At first, joining the Marines seemed like a good idea, but with the paperwork completed, he thought of a relative who had been in the Navy and decided he might like that service better. “Sir, I would like to be exchanged into the Navy instead of the Marines.” It was a simple statement, said in a respectful...
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The First Baptist Church of Germantown

Posted by on Aug 9, 2024 in | Comments Off on The First Baptist Church of Germantown The First Baptist Church of Germantown, now operating as the Polite Temple Baptist Church, at 40 East Price Street in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on August 21, 2023, for the significance of its social and ethnic history and its architecture. The Greek Revival building was designed in 1852 by Philadelphia architect Samuel...
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Editor’s Letter

Posted by on Aug 9, 2024 in | Comments Off on Editor’s Letter This issue of Pennsylvania Heritage, our 200th, is dedicated to Michael J. O’Malley III, who passed away on January 26, 2024. As many longtime readers know, Michael was the editor of this magazine for 30 years, and in that time, he played a crucial role in its development. He began working at the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission as a public information officer in 1978 and joined...
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