[bright music] [mellow music] - It's so much more than a little house.

- [Narrator] The Peter Mott House Underground Railroad Museum in Lawnside, New Jersey.

- It's a lighthouse.

It's a place of safety in the midst of so much danger.

- [Narrator] Built in the 1840s, saved from demolition almost 150 years later, and now on the National Historic Register.

- It tells a story of freedom.

- [Narrator] It stands as a monument to the struggle to end slavery in a community built by black families, whose descendants are keeping history alive.

- This house, to me, means that our ancestors did not suffer in vain.

- To walk into a house and know that actual enslaved people walked across those floorboards, there's something sacred about that.

- [Narrator] Treasures of New Jersey: the Peter Mott House.

[mellow music] Standing between highways and homes, less than 10 miles southeast of the city of Camden, the Peter Mott House Underground Railroad Museum holds a history of community, freedom, resilience, and resistance.

Now on the National and State Historic Registers, it stands as a marker to the people of African descent who came to the area seeking refuge from slavery.

- We're sitting in the Peter Mott House, which was built in 1845.

The kitchen was added onto the house in 1870.

- [Narrator] Linda Shockley, President of the Lawnside Historical Society, has devoted decades to saving this house and discovering how Peter Mott and his wife, Elizabeth, came to be conductors on the Underground Railroad.

- He's still a man of mystery, but we know enough to know how important he was.

It's possible that he was born enslaved, but he may have been born a free man.

So there are people in the community when we were growing up, who had heard these stories from their grandparents, their parents, their great grandparents, about what Peter Mott had done, and they told those stories and they passed them down through their families.

So, and then there were others who talked about what Elizabeth did.

It doesn't appear that they had any children, but women would help her by cooking and bringing food here because they knew that she had, quote, a lot of mouths to feed over there [laughs].

And so, it was a community effort.

[mellow music] - [Narrator] Records and historic maps of southern New Jersey show Peter Mott bought this property in 1844 and lived here until 1879, the same era when many enslaved people who had found freedom risked their lives to help others escape, from Harriet Tubman to Frederick Douglass.

- Emancipation could never simply be individual.

Emancipation had to require the freedom of everyone around you.

And that's what the Peter Mott House represents.

- [Narrator] Rutgers University-Camden Associate Professor Keith Green is on the Mott House Board of Trustees and is director of the university's Africana Center.

- It's a lighthouse.

It's a place of safety in the midst of so much danger, in the midst of so much uncertainty.

So we think about Peter Mott establishing this house and establishing this refuge.

It's critical, especially in the first half of the 19th century.

- [Narrator] So, who were the Motts and how did they get to this community of free black people in the mid-1800s?

- We don't know anything about him growing up, the truth be told, but we do know that in 1833, he married a young woman named Elizabeth Ann Thomas in Gloucester County.

And that's because there is a record of their marriage in the Gloucester County Historical Society.

And they are identified as being colored in those records.

[mellow music] - [Narrator] Seven years later, the census shows Peter Mott and a female, both ages 24 to 35, as free colored people, working in agriculture and living in a place called Snow Hill, one of Lawnside's early names.

- They're living in a community called Snow Hill, and it's basically rural.

Charles Smiley tells us in his book, "A True Story of Lawnside", that the community was disposed to good soil and fine foliage, that there was plenty of clean water, and that it was near communities where people could trade and sell vegetables.

- [Narrator] This 1844 deed shows Peter Mott purchased the lot where his house stands today for $100.

By 1847, Peter Mott is listed as the First Sunday School superintendent at the nearby Mount Pisgah African Methodist Episcopal Church, and he and Elizabeth are now living in a two-story home.

- It was very unusual for an African American man to own a house of this size, and the state historic preservation officer noted that it indicated that he was a man of means and a leader in the community because of the size of this house.

- [Narrator] Stories handed down connect the Motts to the Underground Railroad.

That network was growing as free black people, along with white abolitionists, often members of the Society of Friends known as Quakers, created routes crossing in and out of New Jersey.

- And what we're told by historians is that when you found the Society of Friends in proximity to African Methodist Episcopal communities, those two religious societies were likely engaged in activity along the Underground Railroad and abolitionist work.

And oral history tells us that he took people in his wagon to the Friends in Haddonfield nearby to help them on their way.

- [Narrator] Snow Hill's free black population was right next door to the much larger and mostly white town of Haddonfield, founded by Quakers, where you can still see many historic homes.

Haddonfield Quakers joined the abolitionist movement, although some were slaveholders into the late 1700s.

Douglas Rauschenberger is Haddonfield's borough historian.

- People think Quakers were always against slavery and whatnot, and that was unfortunately not true.

We do have enslaved people in the Haddonfield - [Narrator] By the 1790s, Quakers in the town recorded that all enslaved people they had owned were now free.

The Haddonfield archives have accounts of Quakers' active role in the Underground Railroad.

- This is a hand-written document that was done by a member of the Evans family in 1918.

And this talks about his ancestor, Josiah Evans and Thomas Evans, who were instrumental in the Underground Railroad.

The slaves came from Woodbury and were received by Thomas Evans, and quickly hidden in the hay mow or attic of the house, anywhere, so no one could find them.

Then in the middle of the night, they would be given something to eat and hurried off in a covered wagon to Mount Holly, where they were received and hidden again.

- [Narrator] While Quakers were active abolitionists, it was black people, free and enslaved, who set the Underground Railroad in motion.

- The first abolitionists were enslaved people who, you know, after people were asleep, or on a Sunday when they had off, they simply packed whatever few belongings they had and set themselves north to freedom.

They were the first emancipators, right?

They freed themselves by using their left feet and right feet and finding their way to freedom.

So those are the first ones, and I think oftentimes the story of abolitionists told through white allies who are important, but the center really has to go to those people who free themselves.

- [Narrator] One of the most famous black abolitionists was William Still.

Born free in New Jersey, Still moved to Philadelphia where he helped close to 1,000 people escape on the Underground Railroad.

He kept secret journals with names and family histories, not published until 1872, to protect both the people and the secret routes they used.

- If we look at William Still's 1872 book, The Underground Railroad, that's a massive text and lots of people have read it, but they've read it quickly and probably have read it without thinking about how each single page contains a story of a human life that moved and tried to find a way from the enslaved south, right to find their way to freedom.

Each of those lives represents a community.

Each of those communities represents ancestry.

And so there's so much that we can learn, that we still have to learn.

- [Narrator] In the mid-1800s, black abolitionists were buying land in Snow Hill and selling lots in an area they called Free Haven.

Record show Peter Mott was among those buying and selling land.

- We have his deeds in the Office of Records and Deeds here in Camden County, so we know that his claim to be a laborer, a plasterer, and a farmer are deeply rooted right here.

And we also, I like to call him a real estate agent and developer because he did sell property to other people.

And we know that the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee was also very active in selling property to free African-Americans, and also to people who had escaped from slavery.

[mellow music] - [Narrator] Combining deeds, census records, and the history of slavery offers more clues to the Motts' life.

In 1850 and 1860, they're listed as being born in New Jersey, which would mean they were born free, but in 1870, after emancipation, the Motts are listed as born in slave states.

- After the Civil War, they say that they were born in Delaware and Virginia.

So that raises the possibility that they had been born enslaved and escaped from enslavement.

Now, why would there be these discrepancies?

Perhaps it was because they were concealing their true origins from people who were posing as census takers.

- [Narrator] It is possible the Motts, like many other black people, even those born free, knew they risked capture after passage of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law.

- The 1850 Fugitive Slave Law was a much stricter law, and that basically was to nationalize slavery.

You think about the language of slave states and free states, but after 1850, there really is no free state within the United States because all states are liable to be punished.

People are liable to be fined or imprisoned if they do not assist the recapture, right, of enslaved people, and New Jersey's certainly a part of that as well.

I think that people are very apprehensive about telling the story of how they found freedom.

Frederick Douglass, for instance, someone who everybody knows, right, writes, "I found my way to freedom" but doesn't tell us exactly how.

There was no way in which people who were still enslaved and who had found a little bit of freedom were gonna reveal their means to freedom 'cause that would close the door on everybody else behind them.

- [Narrator] During the Civil War, escapes using the Underground Railroad came to an end.

President Lincoln's 1863 emancipation proclamation freed the enslaved in southern states, but it was the 13th Amendment in 1865 that abolished slavery nationwide.

New Jersey was the last northern state to ratify the amendment in January of 1866.

There are no known records of the Motts' activities in the years following emancipation, but there is architectural evidence they added on to their house in 1870.

Elizabeth Mott died in 1879.

Peter sold their house shortly before his death in November of 1881.

It changed hands several times into the 1960s, but remained standing, while many other historic buildings in the area simply disappeared.

- I don't remember the first time I saw this house because it was a home that people lived in.

You could come into this street and there was a family who lived here and they were the Claytons, Charles and Betty Clayton.

- [Narrator] Cheryl Rogers Brooks lived around the corner from the Claytons.

She and her sisters called them Aunt Betty and Uncle Charles.

- I grew up on this street actually, you know.

I was down this way is where our house was.

These houses and everything were not here.

And it was a situation where there was a lot of people who had farms, you know, or gardens anyway.

It's really funny because this was really sort of like the back of the house, you know?

And then over here, there was a porch that uncle Charles actually built himself.

I didn't really think about it as the Peter Mott House.

I thought about it as Aunt Betty and Uncle Charles' house.

And it wasn't until early on, maybe, say, when I was about 10 or 12 years old that Aunt Betty did show me the trap door where the slaves stayed.

And those, the slaves staying in that basement was very impactful for me.

It was, it was just, I even get emotional about it even now.

- [Narrator] The Clayton lived in the historic house until 1983.

In the years after they passed away, the house fell into disrepair.

By 1990, it was about to be torn down to make way for new housing.

- There was a builder that wanted to build the homes over there.

And I found out that they're gonna try to tear down Aunt Betty's house?

Not only Aunt Betty's house, but the house that symbolizes freedom for the people.

So then I saw my cousin, Clem Still.

And when I saw Clem, I said, "Clem, we've got to do something.

We've got to do something.

They're gonna try to tear down this house."

So Clem said, "Well, I think we could do something about that."

[laughs] - [Narrator] Clarence Still, known as Clem, passed away in 2012.

He was a descendant of one of William Still's brothers.

For decades, Clem organized Still family reunions and became Lawnside's unofficial historian.

- Cheers.

- Cheers!

- [Narrator] To save the Mott House, Still helped form the Lawnside Historical Society, and the group began lengthy negotiations with the builder.

- By 1992, in February, they agreed to turn the property over to us and actually gave us a deed.

And so, 1992, we became the proud owners of a very dilapidated 1845 house.

[taut mellow music] - [Narrator] With a grant from the New Jersey Historic Trust and Community Fundraising, the Lawnside Historical Society began the process of adding the Mott House to the National Register of Historic Places.

Preservation architects, archeologists, and historians traced construction of the original house to 1845, and the addition to 1870.

- If we were to go up into the attic, we would see that the rafters are joined with mortise and tenon.

They're wooden pegs.

There are no nails holding that together.

That is the construction method that was common in that period.

Also, there are several board and batten doors here, very simple construction, and the hardware that was already original and still here, which was amazing, considering the house was continually occupied.

We're crossing over into what would've been the parlor.

This was built around 1845.

And unfortunately, these were the only portions of these planks that we were able to save.

They had been infested by insects or damaged by time and the elements, but you can see that they're very large planks, in many cases, more than 12 inches wide.

And so we know that they were original to the house.

Well, this is the kitchen of the Peter Mott House.

It was added to the house in about 1870, and it is pretty much following the same plan as the parlor.

It's a square room, which has a beautiful cabinet that we believe was built by Peter Mott himself.

It has storage up on the top and below and two very simple drawers.

[bright music] - [Narrator] The Historic Register nomination included that physical evidence and cited impressive circumstantial evidence and oral testimony that Peter Mott and his wife, Elizabeth Ann Thomas, lived and provided sanctuary to runaway slaves.

In 1994, with its status secured, the new owners faced a big challenge.

In a 2007 interview, Clem Still recalled the discovery that the Mott House foundation was crumbling.

- The house had deteriorated, so that we had to lift the house up, move it all the way off its foundation, and then start from there and rebuild it.

- [Narrator] After three years of foundation work and fearing the house might collapse, the day came to move it back.

- It took actually a half an hour with a kind of winch system to pull the house back onto the foundation.

And then it took actually eight hours for the contractors to establish and reattach it to the foundation.

- [Narrator] It would be almost five more years before restoration and repair work was far enough along to open the house to the public.

- This is our opening day.

- If you remember the building in 1989, you probably could have huffed and puffed and blew the house down.

- [Narrator] Today, the furnishings and the objects in the house are all donations, some from other locations, but all connected to the history of the Underground Railroad.

The stairs to the second floor are too damage to climb, as are the ones from the kitchen to the cellar.

And there are mysteries to be solved.

- We're still finding out.

A lot of times, because we talk about the Underground Railroad, and children come here and they wanna see the cellar; let's look on the basement, because they thought the people were down there, but there were so many inventive ways to assist people.

People could have been hidden in the attic, or they could have been hidden in fields or in other properties.

We're still finding out those stories, so we really can't say.

- What's always complicated about the Underground Railroad is that, one, it was never meant to be unearthed.

It was never meant to be seen, because that was the way in which it worked.

Secrecy was the only advantage of escaped people.

- [Narrator] The search for more information about Peter and Elizabeth Mott is now shifting to new generations.

- Peter Mott remains still a mystery, right?

There's so much to uncover about him.

And when it comes to the records, that time period, the early 1800s, it's not an easy time period.

- [Narrator] Genealogist Shamele Jordon, who grew up in Lawnside and now lives nearby, is piecing together the Motts' story.

- We find lots of evidence of name changes within William Still's Underground Railroad.

So undoubtedly, there were a lot of that going on, and that could be possibly why we're having a hard time with Peter Mott.

I don't know.

It's just something that we have to keep an open mind about.

- [Narrator] Property maps are leading her to new avenues of investigation.

- Oh my goodness, their neighbors.

That is probably one of the most important parts that I think is gonna help us to learn more about Peter Mott.

And that's what we call cluster research in genealogy.

But when you do cluster genealogy, which is how I'm gonna try to learn more about Peter Mott, you look at his, what we call fan club, which is look at their family, friends and neighbors.

And by looking at records that they created, that will help you to possibly fill in some of the information about Peter Mott.

- [Narrator] Lawnside's history is a critical link in the continued search for answers, not only about the Motts, but about the Underground Railroad, New Jersey's enslaved people, and black communities.

The one and a half square mile borough is itself historic.

In 1926, Lawnside became the first independent, self-governing black municipality in all of New Jersey.

Today, its street signs pay tribute to its founding families.

- [Linda] Now, when you look around the area, you'll see that there's a Thomas Avenue, named for a man named Stephen Thomas, who happens to have been Elizabeth Ann's brother.

We have a Watkins Avenue and that's named for a man named Charles Watkins, to whom Peter sold property.

We have Moore avenue, named for a man named Levis Moore, who eventually bought this property, who was also a member of the Board of Trustees of Mount Pisgah A.M.E. Church.

- [Narrator] The Mount Pisgah Church, where Peter Mott was once Sunday School superintendent, is where records show he was buried, but no headstones for Peter or his wife have been found.

Lawnside native Allen Vickers grew up attending Mount Pisgah's Sunday School and is discovering just how much is still unknown about his community.

- There's just so much unsolved history, like just growing up, and you see these like headstones that are just worn away from time.

And, you know, that was a person that meant something.

That family meant something.

And Lawnside, I mean, you never think it's in between like two major highways, 295, the New Jersey Turnpike.

And right in this little borough of Jersey is history of the Underground Railroad, of Harriet Tubman, of Peter Mott.

It's something and it's still here.

People are trying to preserve it as much as they can.

- [Narrator] On the cul-de-sac in between 20th century homes, The Mott House now has a brand-new roof, replaced while it was closed during the pandemic.

More repairs are needed before tours resume, but it stands as a monument to a history some tried to erase, and that enslaved and free black people and their descendants succeeded in saving.

- It's very important to preserve the fact that people, African American people wanted to be free.

That's just a human yearning.

And the fact that you have an African American community with an owner of a home of this size, and a community that came together is very significant, and that people wanted for their brothers and sisters the same that they had.

They wanted to see other people free.

- This house, to me, means that our ancestors did not suffer in vain.

This earth is a place that all of us have to live in, and all of us have to cherish what we've been given so that we can be caretakers of freedom.

- [Narrator] For generations to come, The Mott House will stand as a reminder of the country and New Jersey's histories of slavery.

Its survival carries forward the demand to never forget the past, and to recognize injustice and inequality in the present.

[mellow music] - If we look at the legacies of what slavery meant, still is with us today.

And so we have to kind of reframe our question, not about slavery, but about racial equality, about questions of dignity, and about questions of equity.

That requires a modern and contemporary framework that seeks justice in every single time period, in every single place.

[bright music] [mellow music]