| From Philadelphia we travelled to West Chester, Pennsylvania, staying two nights to visit Kennett Square, Chester County, and the Brandywine Valley Tourism Information Center (museum) with an escorted tour (just for the two of us) of various other Underground Railroad sites.
Kennett Square sits in the heart of lush Brandywine Valley. At the center of town, locals gather to shop and dine. Beyond, surrounding farms produce roughly 60% of the country’s mushrooms, earning the area its well-earned nickname – the Mushroom Capital of the World. Originally occupied by Lenape tribe members, the area now known as Kennett Square served an important role in the nation’s history. British soldiers camped here during the Revolutionary War, the town served as a military encampment during the War of 1812 and many prominent Kennett Square citizens aided with the Underground Railroad. This rich heritage earned Kennett Square a spot on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999. Source: https://www.visitphilly.com/areas/chester-county/kennett-square/ Kennett Square and the Underground Railroad Kennett Square in Chester County was the hub of a large and tightly connected Underground Railroad in southeastern Pennsylvania. Less than three miles from the Delaware border, its residents worked closely with Thomas Garrett in Wilmington, Delaware only about ten miles away. Among its foremost conductors were John and Hannah Cox; Isaac and Dinah Mendenhall; the Barnard brothers, Simon and Eusebius; and Dr. Bartholomew Fussell. All were Quakers and were part of that region’s huge Quaker network that collaborated with a smaller but also fairly large number of free black conductors. Recent scholarship has identified 132 known Underground Railroad agents in Chester County alone that included eighty-two Quakers and thirty-one blacks. This network was in close collaboration with the Vigilance Committee in Philadelphia that was coordinated by William Still and J. Miller McKim. Source: http://www.undergroundrailroadconductor.com/Kennett.htm Brandywine Valley “The Brandywine Valley in Southeast Pennsylvania was a major route for the Underground Railroad. The underground railroad was a network made up of homes, churches, and farms where slaves intent of becoming free could be secreted on their journey from the south to freedom. The Kennett Underground Railroad was a major stop in this journey as it was the closest area for those crossing the Mason-Dixon Line north into Pennsylvania. Those brave people who helped guide the slaves on their journeys were known as conductors or station masters. There were many organizations formed in this area during the 1700s and 1800s and they had famous speakers such as Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth, and Lucretia Matt. In addition, the Kennett Underground Railroad Center documents the work of John and Hannah Cox, William Still, Eusebius Barnard, and Bartholomew Fussell. These brave men and women helped change the face of our nation’s history. The Chester County Visitors’ Center (Brandywine Valley Tourism Information Center) was a Quaker Meeting House and now includes an Underground Railroad museum.” Source: www.hamanassett.com Kennett Underground Railroad Center (KURC) KURC is a not-for-profit, all volunteer organization located in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, dedicated to telling the stories of Underground Railroad sites and participants in this area. Prior to our tour of Pennsylvania we had been in touch with the Center to arrange a visit and a tour of local Underground Railriad sites. We were honored to be met and escorted by the President and co-founder of the KURC Mary Larkin Dugan. Mary passed away two years after our visit – you can read her obituary here: Mary Larkin Dugan For more information see the KURC website : https://www.kennettundergroundrr.org/ For more general information about the Underground Railroad movement see my specialist website: http://undergroundrailroad.org.uk/ |
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Brandywine Valley Tourism Information Center (museum)
Henry ‘Box’ Brown replica box
Longwood Progressive Meeting of Friends – 1853 (see Longwood Meetinghouse below)
Longwood Meetinghouse In 1853, fifty-eight remarkable women and men issued a call for a “General Religious Convention” to be held at the Old Kennett Meetinghouse. This call resulted in the creation of the Pennsylvania Yearly Meeting of Progressive Friends, whose annual meetings, held from 1853 to 1940, were a beacon to reformers throughout the United States. The Longwood Meetinghouse opened in 1855. Lucretia Mott, the Quaker advocate for abolition and women’s rights, William Lloyd Garrison, editor of the Liberator, sojourner Truth, a former slave turned lecturer, Susan B. Anthony, the champion of the women’s suffrage movement, Unitarian clergyman Theodore Parker, and others were active participants at Longwood in the 1850’s and 1860’s. In the 20th century, W.E.B. DuBois, founder of the NAACP, Norman Thomas, civil libertarian and Socialist, Leslie Pinckney Hill, president of Cheyney, Roger Baldwin, founder of the American Civil Liberties, and many more made the pilgrimage to Longwood. This is historic ground. What was Longwood? Lucretia Mott had a favorite saying, “Truth for Authority, Not Authority for Truth.” People of conscience could not blindly accept what was considered right and proper merely on the authority of the government or the clergy or by popular opinion. In the 1850’s, all these authorities supported, or at least acquiesced in, the sin of slavery. People of conscience had to search themselves to find what was True, and finding Truth, do their duty to God and to humankind. Most of the founders of Longwood lived within a few miles of this spot – the Barnards, Fussells, Hambletons, Mendenhalls, Pennocks, Piles and others. A handful of like-minded reformers from Philadelphia joined in the call. The group included two of the organizers of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833, Bartholomew Fussell of Kennett Square and Robert urvis. Two other founders of the Anti-Slavery Society, Thomas Whitson and James Mott, were also closely associated with Longwood. Another founder was Mary Ann M’Clintock Truman, then of Philadelphia, who had been the Secretary of the first women’s rights convention at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. The local founders had been the core of the anti-slavery movement in Chester County for the past twenty years. Source: https://www.kennettundergroundrr.org/
Cemetery opposite Longwood Meetinghouse
Graves of Longwood Meetinghouse founders
Baynard House
Mary Larking Dugan signing my book – History of the Underground Railroad in Chester and The Neighboring Counties of Pennsylvania (Forward written by Mary)
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