By: TONY ROBERTS, Phoenix Staff Writer
At least four area homes served as Underground Railroad "stations,"
where slaves sought safe haven before traveling further northward.
Schuylkill Friends Meeting House and the Elijah Pennypacker estate, at
Route 23 and Whitehorse Road, the "Sunnyside Home," on Old Kimberton Road,
and Kimber Hall all played an important role in the Underground Railroad.
Blockson, a Norristown native who has written three books on the
subject, said the area became a vital part of the escape route due partly
to geography.
"Chester County was very important, as was Montgomery County," he said.
"Pennsylvania was important because of its location. We are just above the
Mason-Dixon Line, and close to three major rivers."
The area also became important because of a large African-American
population in Philadelphia, and several local abolitionists. Elijah
Pennypacker was one of those abolitionists. William Still, a Norristown
man who escaped from slavery in his childhood, chronicled Pennypacker's
role in freeing slaves in his 1872 book, "The Underground Railroad."
"His home near Phoenixville, Chester County, was an important station
on the Underground Railroad, the majority of the fugitives proceeding
through the southern rural districts of Eastern Pennsylvania, passing
through his hands," wrote Still.
Slaves also sought refuge at Sunnyside Home with the Lewis sisters. The
sisters - Mariann, Elizabeth and Graceanna - helped to move runaway slaves
through the area, and often gave them gainful employment on their farm.
Blockson wrote that the sisters, Graceanna especially, often used their
charm to dispel slave hunters. She would allow them to search her entire
premises except for her bedroom, where she would hide runaway slaves.
Emmor Kimber hid her station under the guise of a female boarding
school, Kimber Hall. Slaves often hid in the tunnels below the building,
which are still there today.
Slaves came to these area homes from counties in central Pennsylvania,
where they escaped over the Maryland line. They also came from Wilmington,
Del. From Phoenixville, they were often sent to Norristown, Philadelphia
or Quakertown.
Still's chronicle of the Underground Railroad shows the high volume of
slaves that passed through the area. December 1855, for example, began
with the arrival of eleven escapees from Maryland to Pennypacker's estate.
The group was then sent in shifts to Still in Norristown.
While Pennsylvania played a critical role in the Underground Railroad
in the 1800s, it was also responsible for renewing interest in the topic
almost 100 years later, according to Blockson.
"Pennsylvania led the way for the current interest in the Underground
Railroad. It seems to be capturing the imaginations of people from 9 to
90," he said. "It had all the mystery of a James Bond movie - murder,
intrigue, secret knocks on the door."
Pennsylvania also benefits from the preservation of a large number of
original stations along the railroad, including those in the area.
Blockson said many buildings along the railroad have fallen victim to
development.
"Chester County has a lot of sites that are still permanent," he said.
"I've seen so many homes and barns and churches that were destroyed
through development and urban renewal."
No one is certain who coined the phrase "Underground Railroad" to
describe the network of basements, houses, valleys, mountain trails, and
waterways that formed the escape route for slaves in the 1800s.
Marian Carpenter, curator of African American Artifacts at the
Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum in St. Leonard, Md., wrote the term
most likely came from a folktale about the escape of Tice Davids in her
essay, "Sailin' to Freedom."
Folklore states Davids was a slave from Kentucky who escaped across the
Ohio River in 1831. Davids allegedly vanished near the river's edge with
his master in close pursuit. His disappearance prompted his master to say
the slave must have "gone off on an underground railroad."
Contrary to some rumors, very little of the Underground Railroad's
escape routes were actually underground. Tunnels were used instead to hide
slaves, or move them small distances between houses. It is believed, for
example, that tunnels once connected the Sunnyside Home with Schuylkill
Friends House.
Blockson's efforts to save and restore the remaining sites on the
Underground Railroad have earned him the chairman position on an advisory
committee to the National Park Service (NPS). The committee is helping the
NPS to create a national trail of Underground Railroad historical markers.
Blockson's fascination with the Underground Railroad began in his
childhood, when he learned his own family escaped from Seaford, Del., to
Canada in 1856. He is currently the curator of the Charles L. Blockson
Afro-American Collection at Temple University. He recently published his
third book on the Underground Railroad, entitled "African Americans in
Pennsylvania: Above Ground and Underground."
Tony Roberts
