We took a field trip to
Belmont Mansion
with our homeschool co-op this week to learn more about the Underground
Railroad. This house first belonged to the Peters family, who purchased
the property from William Penn in 1742. The original owner was a
loyalist and so headed back to Britain prior to the war. His son, a
patriot, lived here and eventually became a judge and served as George
Washington's Secretary of War. His son became the president of the
Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery and was actively
involved int eh underground railroad. Runaway slaves would leave
boxcars from a train near the house, hide in the attic and then be taken
further along by Quakers.
There
was a wonderful display of pictures and narrations from former slaves,
often in their 90's, telling about daily slave life.
It
says: "Pennsylvania became the firs stop for enslaved people on the way
north to freedom after the Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery
passed in 1780. Their helpers, called conductors, made a network of
escape routes, called the Underground Railroad, along which runaways hid
in houses, barns, caves and churches, called stations. Most runaways
did not stay in Pennsylvania because they risked recapture under the
Fugitive Slave Act of 1793."
Wonderful moulding from the main drawing room of the house:
Monkey wrench, wagon wheel, crossroads and bear claw quilt patterns, part of Harriet Tubman's 13 quilt code.
African dolls from that time period.
It
would be a wonderful view of the city if the fog was not there. As it
is, Katy commented that it actually gave us a much more realistic view
of what the Peters family would have seen from their lawn.
Side views of the house.
I also found some nifty websites to complement our trip, so the day after we looked through these sites and did some creative writing.
