- [Narrator] Major funding for this program was provided by - Welcome to a special episode of Movers & Makers.

I'm your host, Anne Ishii.

We're in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania where The Underground Railroad emerged in this small diverse community that served as a hotbed of abolitionism.

(soft piano music) - We need to let people know not only about our church but about everything that is part of Kennett Square.

Not just the mushrooms, not just the festivals but the history that's been here way before that even came about.

- There's so much rich history in the Kennett, Chester County community around The Underground Railroad.

And if you look around there's so many stories begging to emerge.

- And something that a lot of people have no knowledge about, were the all African American networks where there was not any so-called collaboration with white folks.

I just was determined it wasn't gonna be ignored.

- The history here has been buried too long.

There's some things that I want to do here so when I leave, the story is still being told.

- There were so many people here who stood against the prevailing wisdom of the time which was that black people didn't matter.

There were a great many folks here who believed otherwise and who believed that slavery was truly wrong.

Many of them were Quakers.

- I think within about 10 miles of us I could probably find 10 Quaker meeting houses.

They were the people that sent them to Philadelphia.

So we were the boundary between freedom and slavery.

- The first thing I think we need to do is to inventory everything.

And I've created a Google doc.

The Canada Kennett Railroad Center was created in 1998 to celebrate the activities that went on here pretty intensely compared to most parts of the country.

The name of this building is the Johnson House.

It's named after Dr. Isaac Johnson who was a Station Keeper on The Underground Railroad.

- When I was in grade school one of my father's jobs was to put the flags up up on all the township cemeteries on the graves of people who had served.

And most of the people were of course from the civil war.

And so I wondered what the civil war was all about 'cause it has all these graveyards.

And then I learned at a very early age about slavery.

That one person could tell another absolutely what to do.

And that just sounded terrible.

(soft violin music) The Quaker faith arises in England in the late 1640's.

Quakers were persecuted in England.

To be a Quaker meant that you could be sent to jail.

And so America looked pretty good because they could meet and worship as they cared.

There were things that Quakers do that most other Christian faiths don't do; have formal creeds for example.

Quakers had things like accepting the ministry of women from the very early part of Quakerism.

If a woman had something to say in meetings she stood up and said it.

People would simply come in at the appropriate time take a seat on the benches, center down into silence.

And if someone feels called upon to talk they'd get up and speak.

And that can be man or woman.

Meeting houses almost never have any sort of decoration on the walls.

There's no stained glass.

There's no something between the outside and the inside.

It's just naturally there.

Now it's got nice leafy green and later we'll have snow and autumn and all of those things - Marlborough Meeting was founded in 1801.

They were a conservative meeting when Oliver Johnson a very progressive Quaker came to speak at Marlborough Meeting about The Underground Railroad and in favor of abolition, he was not approved of.

The Marlborough riot occurred when those conservative meeting members had Oliver Johnson and his advocates arrested for disturbing the peace which was outrageous, I think even among Quakers.

I mean the idea that you would be arrested for speaking your mind in meeting is absurd.

- Marlborough I know was a site of active meetings around abolition, among these other reform ideas but especially abolition.

The yearly meeting of progressive friends started in 1853 and it was a division of the Old Kennett Meeting.

And there were a group of progressive Quakers who wanted to be more active than the Quaker faith normally allowed.

The more conservative Quakers up to that point were more separate from the world not engaging in political or social reforms.

This group wanted to be in the middle of political and social reforms.

So the first two years of the Meeting, 1853 and 1854 they tried to share the Old Kennett Meeting house with the more conservative wing and that didn't go over so well.

(chuckles) So they decided All right, so we'll just completely separate and build our own building.

This was all 200 acres of a farm called "The Cox Farm".

also called "Longwood Farm".

The namesake of Longwood Gardens originally.

And the farmhouse was immediately to our Southwest here.

That's right near route one.

And the Coxs', John and Hannah Cox were founding members of The Meeting and staunch abolitionists and station masters in The Underground Railroad.

So they carved off part of their farm, sold a lot specifically to build this Meeting house in 1854.

In 1855, the building that you can see behind me opened.

- Oliver Johnson was among those who founded the Longwood Progressive Meeting.

It was very clear that they were interested in hearing from people outside the Quaker faith who shared their beliefs.

Frederick Douglas spoke there.

Harriet Tubman spoke there.

There was a remarkable list of people who came to that Longwood Progressive Meeting.

Sojourner Truth, also, she attended the very first meeting of the Progressive Friends.

And Susan B. Anthony also attended.

Lucretia Mott, also a Philadelphia name.

A staunch abolitionist, and was also one of the people here that came through.

It really was an organization that was energized by a lot of politically and like-minded reform minded people throughout the Northeast.

People like William Lloyd Garrison, for example.

This is the Longwood Cemetery.

It was established in 1855.

- The cemetery was from its inception was said, this is a place where there is not going to be any color barrier.

And so there are not many but there are some African Americans buried in that cemetery across from the Longwood Progressive Meeting and a great many abolitionists and Underground Railroad agents including the Mendenhall's and the Cox's and such.

The Mendenhall's were a Quaker couple lived about a mile and a half off the Kennett Pike.

And they were one of the first two stops and certainly one of the most popular of the stops.

And they helped hundreds of Freedom Seekers in their time.

- There I say Marlborough Village exists today as does Marlborough Meeting.

I've been a member here at Marlborough I'm gonna say about 24 years, 20, 24 years.

I happen to be unusual in the society in that I grew up as a Friend.

I grew up as a Quaker.

There are very few friends left, that it's called we might call it dressing plainly where you might mistake us for Amish or conservative Mennonites.

I'm going to guess that you would probably find in the whole country, maybe 50 maybe a hundred Quakers still dressing plainly.

But if you look at Quakers in general you'll find that they tend to have fewer adornments that you're trying to lay aside those things of the world that might inhibit your spiritual quest.

Lay aside those things that might get between you and God.

And for each person, that's different.

We meet here every Sunday or as we prefer to say, on "First Day" and on a good day we would maybe have 10 or 12 but don't mistake the numbers for the intensity of our commitment and the spiritual experience that we find worshiping here.

The Quakers who started in the mid 17th century.

And at that time and place in England not many questioned the need if any the need for slavery.

And somewhere between 1758 and 1776 different Quakers in different geographical locations made some changes so that you could not be a Quaker and still own slaves.

Not only did you have to free your slaves you couldn't just open the door and say, "See you later."

You had to educate them and you had to make sure that they had some training that would sustain them when they went out to live in the world.

- Most of the early writings about The Underground Railroad celebrate the people who were known.

The people who were known were Quakers.

There was so much incentive for African Americans to be very quiet about their involvement in The Underground Railroad.

Of course, the greatest account of the Freedom Seekers themselves, their activities is from William Stills The Underground Railroad, 1872.

And he took down copious notes from people.

Primarily for the sake of reconnecting families.

- There is a book on The Underground Railroad in Chester County that lists about 150 people in the county who were involved in some way with The Underground Railroad.

That's a lot of people.

- Perhaps the most obvious and accessible one is the Cox house.

John and Hannah Cox lived there from the late 1820's.

And they lived there until they died but they were a very popular station on The Underground Railroad.

In one case, 18 people showed up at once.

Another Underground Railroad station in this area is "The Pines" which was the home of actually three Underground Railroad agents.

The most famous of them was Bartholomew Fussell.

He was a doctor, and that was apparently a very busy place during the 11 years that he lived there possibly because he was a doctor.

People may have been directed to his place.

The other one was the Eusebius Bernard House.

That we know for sure was a station.

- And of course there were some people that hated The Underground Railroad that thought we were being treasonous for robbing southerners of their property rights.

So a good slave worth about a thousand dollars that can get you a nice farm some cattle, a couple horses you know, you're sitting pretty.

- You would never know when you were gonna get that knock on the door at midnight but at the moment when you did and you found half a dozen people outside your house then you would feed them.

You would tend to their medical needs as as much as you were able.

And if there was the suspicion of hot pursuit you got the wagon out and you took 'em to the next station on dirt, unlit roads, two, three sometimes four or five miles.

And that's the life that you committed to for decades.

One of my favorite personalities of this area is a man named Enoch Lewis who was one of the founders of the Westtown Boarding School, Quaker Boarding School.

And in 1803, he was awakened.

The person knocking on the door was the wife of a man who had just been apprehended by slave catchers who claimed that he was an escaped slave from a long time ago.

Lewis who knew the man somewhat saddled up his horse went to the home and the Justice of The Peace.

And then he asked these folks "What would it take to free him?"

"Could I buy him and set him free?"

The slave catchers thought about it and said, $400.

It's 1803.

It's a lot of money.

He was able to raise in Westchester, a hundred dollars.

And then he put up $300 of his own.

He made $500 a year.

He gave 60% of his annual salary for this man's freedom.

- Thomas Garrett, who is a notable abolitionist from Wilmington, one of the most documented station masters on The Underground Railroad.

- He was related to the Mendenhall's by marriage.

Diamond Mendenhall was first cousin to his wife, Rachel.

He was born outside of Philadelphia and he moved to Wilmington in the 1820's but he had decided early in his life that he was going to be devoted to helping people get free.

In Wilmington, Delaware.

He was a member of a fourth and west Wilmington monthly meeting, and he estimated that he had helped 2,700 Freedom Seekers.

In 1848, he was captured.

The only time he was arrested for his activities.

He was caught.

He was brought to trial at Newcastle.

And I was amazed to find when I was first doing this research that the chief justice of the Supreme court was the person who was doing his trial.

He found Thomas Garrett guilty fined him $5,400 and said that I hoped you have learned your lesson.

Then Garrett said, "Judge, he has not left me with a dollar "but if the or anyone else in this courtroom knows "of a fugitive who needs a friend "send him to Thomas Garrett."

It wasn't easy to be an Underground Railroad agent.

You could be fined.

You could lose your farm.

You could lose your store.

For African Americans, they could lose their lives.

The greatest heroes of The Underground Railroad are the people who were fleeing themselves.

They were the ones who took the greatest chances.

They were the ones who probably knew that they weren't gonna make it.

'Cause most didn't.

- At the time, there were a tremendous number of posses and kidnappers in this area.

And if they saw an African American they would capture him and take him south whether that person was free or not.

As I've thought about our future.

I'm thinking that it may be useful to come up with other ways of having tours.

I was active with the Kennett Underground Railroad board.

And for them, I did heritage chores in and around Kennett.

In the process, I became much more aware of the white stories that were being told but I said to myself "No, this is not the only stories there were."

And so I spent the next five years trying to find this information out.

And right now, I have as a result of that research approximately 100 to 120 people that I'm pretty sure were black abolitionists just in Chester County.

And I know there were just lots and lots more.

I frankly just read all the newspapers in this area from about 1823.

And as I scanned all the newspaper articles I looked at obituaries because sometimes what would be in an obituary is a comment like "He was faithful to his people."

Well that tells you possible.

And then you have to go to the archives to get more information.

- There were black people who had owned their own homes owned their own businesses.

And therefore that made it that made Kennett Square attractive because you know, black people were accepting Freedom Seekers and helping them along.

- There were a number of distinctly all black villages in Chester County.

Bucktoe was a little village of black people.

- We are very fortunate to be able to have one of our own members, Crystal Crampton who makes sure that everyone is aware of everything that goes on from Bucktoe to the underground history with Harriet Tubman.

We wanna educate everyone who comes in, about the history.

- There was a church here in Bucktoe Cemetery.

It was called, "New Garden Memorial".

Back then we were called "Union African American Episcopal church".

When they purchased this property there was not a lot of properties they could purchase but they purchased this clear and free and they decided to build on.

That was the vision of our Founder, Peter Spencer.

Peter Spencer not only cared about the spirituality of the man, but also to economically empower African Americans.

I believe the world needs to know that we were such an integral part of the freedom of African American slaves and building of this community and the surrounding areas.

New Guard Memorial, when they was on Bucktoe Road they were very prominent in serving The Underground Railroad.

And the cemetery that was located next to the Stone Building Church have civil war heroes there and other slaves that were buried there.

- Back in 1987, I wanted to beautify Bucktoe cemetery.

At first, when I took on this effort people thought I was crazy.

I was the girl with the boots in the cemetery.

I did it for about five years by myself with some of other members of the community and we needed more help.

So I went out just talking to people and I found this other Chester County Land Conservancy which is called, "TLC".

And they've been a part of Bucktoe ever since.

We are still researching some of the people down here.

The church was destroyed.

So as it was destroyed they decided that they were going to go a little bit more inward to where the city was.

People could go by trolley could walk a little bit better because if you know back in that time they didn't have cars.

So, you know, it was horseback.

It took you all day to get to where you needed to go.

Our current church now, is located on 309 East Linden Street which is right in the heart of Kennett Square.

East Linden street is historically an important one in Kennett Square.

It was probably the first street there was.

- East Linden street was the home to of a couple of Quaker manufacturers.

As with most 19th century factories they would typically provide housing for their people.

I don't know if they deliberately made it integrated but they made it clear that there was going to be no no enforcement of racial codes there.

So black and white lived together from I think the late 1840's, well, until now.

- I have a strong connection to Kennett Square Pennsylvania because my grandfather was born here in 1897.

He was born in Bucktoe.

His mother lived in the home in back of me at one point to our right.

And she attended this church here The New Garden AME Church.

The biggest house there used to be a beautiful estate belonging to Dr. Orville Walls and he was the black doctor in our town.

That used to be a state of the art house with a garden.

He had garden parties and everything.

He was our doctor in this community.

This is a historical street.

Certainly the plaques don't even represent the volume of living that was here.

(soothing keyboard music) - I think the stuff that you put together for Juneteenth was really good.

- Okay, we can certainly use that again.

That's all sit sitting ready.

- Juneteenth generated a great deal of interest in this community.

It's a combination of a combined effort of the Chester County History Center the Chester County Planning Commission a few other entities including one called "Voices Underground".

- We're here to bring more understanding more light, more information about The Underground Railroad but also about African American history.

The Juneteenth festival was a first of all, kudos to all the committee members and the volunteers.

Just all of us coming together to try to make this festival go.

There was over 64 events that was occurring from local across the county borough.

and "Voices Underground" was the hub where all the information was curated.

So in terms of "Voices Underground", we have four channels and the way my colleague and I we've broken that apart the four channels would be first, a Memorial.

We're thinking about a national memorial but this particular memorial will be located right here in Kennett.

The second component is to create a research center in collaboration with Lincoln University.

The third is through community partnerships where we want to partner with organizations who have like-minded missions or who have similar passions.

And so the last would be public experiences.

(soft piano music) - The Meeting House today is used as the home of the Chester County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

It's situated right at the entrance to Longwood Gardens.

And folks can stop by and learn about the attractions in the area.

Wineries, what other history tours might be available or even a little bit of a walking tour of the cemetery itself.

- The mission is to preserve and celebrate the heritage and engage the public about the historic abolitionists and Freedom Seekers in this area and beyond.

- We have on our website the possibility of signing up for a two, two and a half hour tour.

- Of course, we're also part of the Underground Railroad tour.

We would be happy to have visitors come.

The thing that would bring us the most delight is if someone would join us on Sunday mornings at 11 o'clock for silent Quaker worship.

But if that's not something that draws you then show up about 12 or 12:15 after worship, we'd be delighted to show you around.

(soft piano music) - Bucktoe, as I say is a friendly place.

It's a peaceful place.

Anyone can come from dawn to dust.

You know, you can come here and meditate and walk the grounds and just absorb the history that's here.

Everyone here matters.

And if I can tell that story and hopefully when I'm gone someone else can keep it going, it was worth it.

- The African American has been struggling for freedom and equality for four or 500 years.

And I think it's important to let the people know in the community, that the church was involved and they're still involved.

(soft piano music) - And that's what I like.

No one ever says, "I can't do" or "I just don't wanna be a part of that."

They love the history that it has and they want to be part of it to pass it down to the next generation.

So it's a blessing.

(soft piano music) - We hope you enjoyed our program.

I'm your host Anne Ishii and I'll see you next time on Movers & Makers.

(soft piano music) (soft piano music continues) - [Narrator] Major funding for this program was provided by.