The tale of a small Illinois town, extinct for nearly 100 years, is being rebuilt and retold piece by piece.
Last month, an archaeological team of 15 people from around the country finished the first of a three-phase excavation of a rolling farm field about 35 miles southeast of Quincy, Ill.
The team spent five weeks digging thousands of artifacts from the 42-acre prairie grass pasture once known as New Philadelphia - the first town in the United States incorporated by an African-American.
"Our goal is to make this place a part of the national public memory," said Paul Shackel, an anthropology professor at the University of Maryland and lead archaeologist on the New Philadelphia site. "I think this is a very important step."
Local historians cite Brooklyn, Ill., as being the oldest African-American city. Black residents settled in Brooklyn (then known as Lovejoy) as early as the 1830s, but the town was not incorporated until after the Civil War.
New Philadelphia's history began with Francis "Free Frank" McWorter, a black slave from Kentucky who earned enough money mining saltpeter to buy his freedom. McWorter bought, subdivided and sold 42 acres in Pike County and incorporated it in 1836 - a time when much of the country was segregated. He used the revenue from the parcels of land to buy the freedom of 16 of his family members so they could join him in Illinois.
Shackel said that McWorter's efforts helped shape a rare, racially integrated community. By 1870, more than a third of the town's 170 people were black, he said. It became a commercial hub for traders, carpenters, shoemakers and blacksmiths until 1868, when the railroad was routed several miles north. The move choked the town's small economy. [...]
| Joel Currier's St. Louis Post-Dispatch (via Kansas City Star) article "Archaeologists unearth first town incorporated by African-American" made us smile
posted in articles on July 12, 2004 2:51 PM | t (0)
« Previous phile: 'Nobody is going to take my vote for granted.'
» Next phile: When a brother no longer feels like business casual.
Return to top of page