Category: Antebellum (1840-1861)

Thaddeus Stevens, one of the most powerful and controversial congressmen of the nineteenth century is the central figure of a large restoration project conducted by the Historic Preservation Trust of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Stevens was an adamant opponent of slavery and helped runaway slaves escape, even going so far as to employ spies to watch for slave-catchers.  He was also a leading attorney in several fugitive slave cases, most notably the Christiana Treason Trial (1851). Stevens also shared his home with Lydia Hamilton Smith, a mixed race woman who managed his household affairs and also proved to be an enormously successful businesswoman herself.

The Stevens & Smith Historic site is a $20 million educational and interpretive complex, integrating the restored 19^th century properties of Stevens and Smith located in historic downtown Lancaster, Pennsylvania featuring an original cistern discovered in 2003 believed by historians and archeologists to have been used by Stevens and Smith as a hiding place for escaping slaves along the Underground Railroad. A cistern is an underground storage tank used for holding water.

The planning for the Stevens & Smith Historic site overcame several obstacles before its approval, specifically the original plans for a new downtown convention center in Lancaster, Pennsylvania calling for the demolition of the historic sites previously owned and managed by Stevens and Smith. The Historic Preservation Trust of Lancaster County possessed protective easements on the properties and were successful in developing a strategy for the preservation of Stevens’ Lancaster city law office and residence from the antebellum period within the new Lancaster County Convention Center.

For more information check out the Stevens & Smith Historic Site online for a full overview and updates on the project. The site also features a video on the story of Stevens & Smith and images of the proposed historical site.  Fergus Bordewich’s article, “Thaddeus Stevens and James Buchanan – How Their Historic Rivalry Shaped America” is a great source for historical background on Stevens’ and Smith’s contributions and connections to the abolitionist movement in Lancaster.  Further information can be found on the Thaddeus Stevens Society website including an overview of the archeological dig of the cistern conducted outside Stevens’ residence and law office. The address for the site is located at 45-47 South Queen Street Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Huntington Friends Meeting was established in 1746 by the Quakers.  The Quakers hired free African Americans to aid the “freedom seekers” or escaping African Americans. Many Huntington Quakers worked to oppose slavery using their connections with African Americans and other Quakers, including William Wright and Phebe Wright.  From 1820 until 1840, the Wrights lived two miles north of Yellow Hill in York Springs, another refuge for freedom seekers. According to Hallowed Grounds, William and Phebe Wright were buried adjacent to the meeting house as well as their son William Wierman Wright. Their son used his advanced engineering skills to repair railways and bridges to mark Sherman’s march through the South. He later served as Sherman’s Chief Engineer and this allowed Wright to be well-known  in the field of engineering.

The fugitives seeking safety at the Wright’s home in York Springs were taught to read and write and employed. One of these fugitives was James Pembroke, also known as James W. C. Pennington, who gives firsthand accounts of his time with the Wrights in The Fugitive Blacksmith or, Events in the History of James W. C. Pennington, Pastor of a Presbyterian Church, New York, Formerly a Slave in the State of Maryland, United States. Another dependable account is by William Still, a prominent abolitionist in Philadelphia. His book, The Underground Railroad, describes William and Phebe Wright as one of the leading abolitionists of Central Pennsylvania. Still describes the good works of Wright:

He was an “active member of the old Pennsylvania Abolition Society, and at the time of the emancipation of the slaves in this state was often engaged in lawsuits with slave-holders to compel them to release their bondmen, according to the requirements of the law. William Wright grew up under the influence of the teachings of these relatives. Joined to this, his location caused him to take an extraordinary interest in Underground Rail Road affairs.”

“The Wright Family” in Immigration of the Irish Quakers into Pennsylvania 1682-1750 with Their Early History in Ireland, shows the history of the Wright Family. Reconstructing the Past: Puzzle of the Lost Community at Yellow Hill by Debra McCauslin is an excellent source that discusses the major places in Pennsylvania that were stops in the Underground Railroad.

Today you can visit the Huntington Burial Ground and the operating Quaker meetinghouse. It is located at 300 Quaker Church Rd, York Springs, PA 17372. For directions see Google Maps.