iSTATUS :: PG DELIVERED TAG NAME :: [ audio-video-tours ]

Audio & Video Tours

Pennsylvania was a place of "firsts" for anti-slavery activity. And it was in Harrisburg where Pennsylvania became the first state to abolish slavery. While African Americans played very different roles during the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, places like Valley Forge and Gettysburg provide a great start to the story of African-American patriotism. View and listen to the files provided here to learn more about their acts of tremendous heroism, and the places that honor it.

Christiana

Many historians consider the Christiana Resistance to be among the first battles of the Civil War, for this was one of the places  where the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 was tested.

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Gettysburg

Adams County and its county seat of Gettysburg are located in South-central Pennsylvania  right on the famous Mason-Dixon line, that divides the North and the South. Gettysburg was the first ‘safe community’ on the Southeastern corridor of the PA Underground Railroad  and has a rich history that includes interesting stories about the free African-American community of the 1800s and beyond - engaging men and women who of lived, worked, worshiped, owned property, and assisted the Civil War efforts. Populated with educators, businessmen, and farmers, Gettysburg held a diverse citizenship of ancestry and ethnicity – free to live and work together.

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Philadelphia

Philadelphia  was the home of the  Germantown riots, the first recorded anti-slavery resistance in the 1680’s. It also was the incubator for the Pennsylvania Abolitionist Society whose first president was Benjamin Franklin. Under his leadership and the brilliant men and women that followed him, Philadelphia lead the world in anti-slavery activities, taking their protest to London and igniting the British anti-slavery movement. Philadelphia quickly became a hub of abolitionist defiance. Throughout the city, a determined free Black community (the largest in the North) established a resistance network that soon spread throughout the United States.

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Pittsburgh

Western  Pennsylvania ‘s Uniontown to Pittsburgh route was well charted and served as  a major thoroughfare for enslaved people fleeing Virginia and other Southern states in search of  freedom. Their numbers are not certain as formal records were not kept and few informal ones remain.

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Valley Forge

Of all places associated with America's War for Independence, none conveys the suffering, sacrifice and ultimate triumph of our nation more than Valley Forge National Historical Park.

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