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- Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
- INDVC_130414_07.JPG: What is the Underground Railroad?
Neither a railroad, nor underground, the Underground Railroad is the name given to the many ways that enslaved African Americans escaped slavery. Often operating without organization, many people, both black and white, helped enslaved African Americans seize their freedom. Philadelphia played a vital role in this national movement.
The Underground Railroad was an illegal activity. The Fugitive Slave Act passed by Congress and signed by President George Washington in 1793, made criminals of those who tried to escape and those who helped them. People involved in these illegal activities left few written records. One notable exception, William Still, wrote The Underground Railroad in 1872. A freeborn African American, Still heard firsthand from men, women and children who passed through Philadelphia of their dangerous journey to freedom. Each story tells of the courage needed to succeed.
- INDVC_130414_19.JPG: Philadelphia -- A Major Hub:
Slavery was legal in Pennsylvania, as it was in the other twelve colonies. In the Revolutionary era some Philadelphians began to see slavery as contrary to their values. Quakers banned slavery among their members in 1776. In 1780 Pennsylvania's legislature passed the nation's first gradual abolition act. The act provided no immediate release, but it established a means for enslaved African Americans in Pennsylvania to be freed. Fugitives and free blacks could seek legal and material support from the Pennsylvania Abolition Society and the Free African Society, the most visible of the city's many helping hands. The Pennsylvania Abolition Society included many prominent and influential Philadelphians such as Dr. Benjamin Rush, Quakers Anthony Benezet and Isaac Hopper, and the Society's president, Benjamin Franklin.
Philadelphia naturally attracted freedom seekers. The largest city in the new United States, it had a large free black population. You could get here by land or water. It had a large network of road and was a busy port.
- INDVC_130414_23.JPG: Early Efforts to Seize Freedom:
The Pennsylvania Abolition Society promoted the ending of slavery and the Free African Society (formed by free blacks) in Philadelphia provided mutual aid. Philadelphians like Richard Allen, Absalom Jones, and Oronoko Dexter petitioned Congress to abolish slavery and in 1794 founded two churches -- Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church and the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas. Ona Judge and Hercules, enslaved members of Washington's Philadelphia household, both escaped to freedom during his presidency. Ona left in 1796 with the help of friends in the free black community. Hercules ran away from Mount Vernon and is thought to have come to Philadelphia where he had contacts in the community.
As the young nation grew, Philadelphia became a center of a movement to abolish slavery, even as the influence of slave states gained ground. Just a few years after the words "... all men are created equal..." were declared in Independence Hall, the United States Constitution failed to include slaves as equal. To determine federal taxes and congressional representation, the Constitution counted enslaved persons as only 3/5 of a person. President Washington signed the Fugitive Slave Law in 1793 that punished both "persons escaping from the service of their masters," and anyone who helped them.
- INDVC_130414_31.JPG: Threats to the Free Black Community:
Many free blacks achieved wealth and renown in their professions. These included musicians Francis Johnson, sailmaker James Forten, caterer Robert Bogle and barber and perfumer Joseph Cassey. Despite such gains, the gap between the African Americans' daily lives and the promise of the Declaration of Independence remained huge.
Some resisted the pressure to support slavery. In 1800, Judge Richard Peters heard the case of two American ships carrying enslaved Africans caught by the US naval ship Ganges. Judge Peters ruled that the ships violated the 1794 Slave Trade Act. From this case the Pennsylvania Abolition Society agreed to assist 118 Africans who were given the surname Ganges.
Philadelphia was the scene of numerous trials to free or deny liberty to African Americans. The Fugitive Salve Law of 1850 provided commissioners $10 for each person declared to be a fugitive slave and sent south. But they received only $5 if the person was found to be free and released. Some of these trials took place in Independence Hall and Congress Hall.
Kids, Did You Know?
Free African Americans lived in constant danger of being kidnapped and being enslaved. Kidnappers preferred to steal young blacks because they could sell them for more money. Young people were captured by being tricked with offers of work then sold into slavery for the rest of their lives.
- INDVC_130414_38.JPG: Striving Toward Liberty:
Before the Civil War, life grew more difficult for African Americans who lived in Philadelphia. In 1838, all African Americans in Philadelphia were stripped of the right to vote -- despite the "Appeal of Forty Thousand Citizens" written by abolitionist Robert Purvis. Black Philadelphians were repeatedly targets of riots and attacks by white mobs. Within sight of Independence Hall, a mob burned down the newly constructed Pennsylvania Hall, built as a free-speech forum by antislavery activists.
Responding to the rising violence and loss of opportunities, African Americans formed beneficial societies to help with education, health care and employment. Fugitive slave trails in Independence Hall continued to send blacks to slavery in the south. Philadelphians like Lucretia Mott, William Still and Robert Purvis joined such national figures as Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman in antislavery work.
On Independence Square in 1844, a young fugitive named Frederick Douglass spoke eloquently contrasting the ideals expressed inside Independence Hall with the persistence of slavery in this country. The old, cracked State House Bell, with its biblical inscription, "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof" was used in antislavery publications that gave it a new name, the Liberty Bell.
- INDVC_130414_49.JPG: The End of the Underground Railroad:
President-elect Abraham Lincoln stopped at Independence Hall on the way to his inauguration. "I have often inquired of myself, what great principle or idea it was that kept this Confederacy so long together," Lincoln said here. "It was not the mere matter of the separation of the Colonies from the motherland; but that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but, to the world, for all future time."
Lincoln and the nation fought the Civil War to determine the meanings of liberty, including the liberty of enslaved people. The Underground Railroad came to an end with Lincoln's 1863 Emancipation Proclamation and the 1865 ratification of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution that abolished slavery throughout the nation.
- INDVC_130414_53.JPG: Indelible
2003
Alison Sky
- INDVC_130414_59.JPG: "Proclaim Liberty throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants Thereof."
Leviticus, Inscribed on the Liberty Bell
Developed as a memory wall, Indelible restores the passage 'erased', the condemnation of slavery that was part of the original draft of the Declaration of Independence, and was deleted by Congress in 1776. The work incorporates selected quotes on liberty representing those groups left out of the "all", "...all the Inhabitants Thereof", "...all Men are created equal..." and from the rights of the Declaration of Independence.
The impression of facades in stucco and glass, symbolically reestablish the 18th century scale of the residential neighborhood that once existed on the High/Market Street site.
The columns of text commemorate the importance of Philadelphia as one of the leading publishing centers in America and the major role played by the printing press in support of the revolutionary cause.
Quotes selected pertaining to "rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" are reproduced from the Declaration of Independence as printed by order of Congress by John Dunlap in 1776. The condemnation of slavery (reproduced from the original draft of the Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson) and quotes representing groups of people left out of the "all" are inset into windows on the glass facade. The work is visually kinetic. The text blurs becoming illegible, and is revealed as the viewer moves.
The work is intended to expand awareness and consideration of how different history might have been had the passage condemning slavery and the slave trade not been erased from the Declaration of Independence.
- AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
- Wikipedia Description: Independence Hall (United States)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Independence Hall is a U.S. national landmark located inside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Chestnut Street between 5th and 6th Streets. Known primarily as the location where the Declaration of Independence was debated and adopted, the building was completed in 1753 as the Pennsylvania State House for the Province of Pennsylvania. It became the meeting place of the Second Continental Congress. The Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and United States Constitution were all signed at Independence Hall. The building is now part of the larger Independence National Historical Park and listed as a World Heritage Site.
Independence Hall is a red brick building, built between 1732 and 1753, and designed in the Georgian style by Edmund Woolley and Andrew Hamilton, and built by Woolley. Its building was commissioned by the Pennsylvania colonial legislature and it was initially inhabited by the colonial government of Pennsylvania as their State House. Two smaller buildings adjoin Independence Hall: to the east is Old City Hall, and to the west is Congress Hall. These three buildings are together on a city block known as Independence Square, along with Philosophical Hall, the original home of the American Philosophical Society.
Liberty Bell:
The bell tower steeple of Independence Hall was the original home of the "Liberty Bell" and today it holds a "Centennial Bell" that was created for the United States Centennial Exposition in 1876. The original Liberty Bell, with the distinctive crack, is now on display across the street in the Liberty Bell Center. In 1976 Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain visited Philadelphia and presented a gift to the American people of a replica Bicentennial Bell, which was cast in the same British foundry as the original. This 1976 bell hangs in the modern bell tower located on 3rd Street near Independence Hall.
Declaration of Independence & Second Continental Congress:
From 1775 to 1783, it served as the principal meeting place of the Second Continental Congress, a body of representatives from each of the thirteen British North American colonies. The Declaration of Independence was approved there on July 4, 1776, though the vote was held two days earlier and the Declaration was read aloud to the public in the area now known as Independence Square. This historic document unified the colonies in North America who declared themselves independent of the Kingdom of Great Britain and explained their justifications for doing so. These historic events are celebrated annually with a national holiday for U.S. Independence Day.
On June 14, 1775, delegates of the Continental Congress nominated George Washington as commander of the Continental Army—defeating John Hancock in the Assembly Room of Independence Hall. The Second Continental Congress appointed Benjamin Franklin to be the first Postmaster General of what would later become the United States Post Office Department on July 26.
Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposed to the Continental Congress a resolution calling for a Declaration of Independence on June 7, 1776. The final version of the document is written July 2 (despite minor revisions) and finally, the United States Declaration of Independence is ratified on July 4, 1776 and the new, United States declares independence from the British Empire.
During September of 1777, Philadelphia was occupied by the British Army, and the Continental Congress was forced to abandon the State House and flee to York, Pennsylvania where the Articles of Confederation were approved in November of 1777. The Congress returned on July 2, 1778, after the end of the British occupation.
U.S. Constitution and the Philadelphia Capital Building:
In September 1786, commissioners from five states met in the Annapolis Convention to discuss adjustments to the Articles of Confederation that would improve commerce. They invited state representatives to convene in Philadelphia to discuss improvements to the federal government. After debate, the Congress of the Confederation endorsed the plan to revise the Articles of Confederation on February 21, 1787. Twelve states, Rhode Island being the only exception, accepted this invitation and sent delegates to convene in June 1787 at Independence Hall.
The resolution calling the Convention specified its purpose was to propose amendments to the Articles, but the Convention decided to propose a rewritten Constitution. The Philadelphia Convention voted to keep deliberations secret, and to keep the Hall's windows shut throughout the hot summer. The result was the drafting of a new fundamental government design. On September 17, 1787, the Constitution was completed, and took effect on March 4, 1789, when the new Congress met for the first time in New York's Federal Hall.
In 1790, the Congress moved back into Philadelphia and first met in Congress Hall, mere footsteps away from Independence Hall, on December 6. Philadelphia would remain the seat of the federal government until 1800, where it made its permanent home in Washington, DC. During this time Independence Hall served as the Capitol Building with executive offices, while the Supreme Court assembled in Old City Hall and the Congress continued to meet in Congress Hall.
Recent events:
On October 18, 1918, Tomáš Masaryk proclaimed the independence of Czechoslovakia on the steps of Independence Hall.
In 1948, the interior of the building was restored to its original appearance. Independence National Historical Park was established by the 80th U.S. Congress later that year to preserve historical properties associated with the American Revolution. Independence National Historical Park is made up of a landscaped area of four city blocks, and outlying sites that include: Independence Square, Carpenters' Hall (meeting place of the First Continental Congress), the site of Benjamin Franklin's home, the reconstructed Graff House (where Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence), City Tavern (center of revolutionary-war activities), restored period residences, and early banks. The park also holds the Liberty Bell, Franklin's desk, a portrait gallery, gardens, and libraries. A product of extensive documentary research and archaeology by the federal government, the restoration of Independence Hall and other buildings in the park set standards for other historic preservation and stimulated rejuvenation of old Philadelphia.The site is administered by the National Park Service, and it is listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO (joining only three other U.S. man-made monuments still in use, the others being the Statue of Liberty, Pueblo de Taos, and the combined site of the University of Virginia and Monticello).
On July 4, 1962, President John F. Kennedy gave an address here on Independence Day, 1962. Independence Hall has been used in more recent times as the staging ground for protests because of its symbolic history in support of democratic and civil rights movements. Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell are now protected in a secure zone with entry at security screening buildings.
Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, as part of a national effort to safeguard historical monuments by the United States Department of Homeland Security, pedestrian travel around Independence Square and part of Independence Mall were restricted by temporary bicycle barriers and park rangers. In 2006, the U.S. National Park Service proposed installing a seven-foot security fence around Independence Hall and bisecting Independence Square, a plan that met with opposition from Philadelphia city officials, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, and Senator Arlen Specter. As of January 2007, the National Park Service plan was revised to eliminate the fence in favor of movable bollards and chains, and also to remove at least some of the temporary barriers to pedestrians and visitors.
Independence Hall is pictured on the back of the U.S. $100 bill, as well as the bicentennial Kennedy half dollar. The Assembly Room is pictured on the reverse side of the U.S. two dollar bill, from the original painting by John Trumbull entitled Declaration of Independence.
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