Six Penny Creek and the Underground Railroad

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"Archaeologists have the ability to reconstruct settlement patterns using a combination of excavation and mapping. With so little existing above-ground evidence, archaeology is crucial for understanding where Black settlements were and how Black communities in the North were laid out"[1].

- Cheryl Janifer LaRoche, Free Black Communities and the Underground Railroad: The Geography of Resistance

"Beyond history, archaeology has a role in recovering African American Underground Railroad sources by identifying, locating, and mapping remnants of no longer existing historic black communities, their churches, and their churches’ associated cemeteries"[2].

- Cheryl Janifer LaRoche, Free Black Communities and the Underground Railroad: The Geography of Resistance

The area was affiliated with the Underground Railroad and the community was founded in the valley of Six Penny Creek by self-emancipated individuals (escaped slaves) from the South[3]. The land upon which communities comprised of self-emancipated individuals resided when they reached the North was generally less than ideal[4] and was sometimes located near iron forges and foundries[5]. When farming was not a viable option, members of these communities would support themselves through lumbering, timbering, charcoal production, foraging, and baking[6]. Many self-emancipated individuals found refuge in the woods as charcoal burners or woodcutters employed by places such as Hopewell Furnace in Pennsylvania, near Six Penny Creek[7].

The Scarlet(t) Family

The Underground Railroad, in its early stages, was comprised of Quakers and their friends and acquaintances or of members of other religious groups who would shelter and assist self-emancipated individuals on their journeys North[8]. The Underground Railroad grew in strength with the passage of the Federal Fugitive Slave Acts[1][9]. At the edge of a boarder state, Southeastern Pennsylvania was identified as a location early on where self-emancipated individuals could seek freedom[10]. The Six Penny Creek community grew near the home of Quaker Elizabeth Scarlet (1787-1839)[11]and her son Joseph (1821-1882)[12][13]. They owned Scarlet Mill[14]. Self-emancipated individuals from the South would come across the border into Pennsylvania and travel to Berks County, PA[15]. The Scarlet family housed self-emancipated individuals[16] in "Quaker Valley," Robeson Township, PA near Birdsboro,[17] Berks County, PA.

Joseph Scarlet

Joseph Scarlet was active in aiding self-emancipated individuals beyond providing shelter at the family home. According to a newspaper article following his death, he was "an ardent friend of fugitive slaves, and did not hesitate at personal danger in assisting them"[18]. He was once in Pennington (now Atglen), PA, when he noticed an individual chained to a bar rail in a public house and learned that the man was to be taken away by slave hunters[19]. Overnight, the bar rail was sawed through and the man was gone, along with the handcuffs[20]. A pair of damaged handcuffs appeared in the Scarlet home after the event and hung on the wall[21]. Joseph Scarlet was also involved in the Christiana Tragedy in 1851[2] in Lancaster, PA,[22] which can be seen as an important precursor to the Civil War[23]. During the incident, Joseph Scarlet refused to help the "Gap Gang" arrest a group of self-emancipated individuals and prevented the death of a wounded man after the action of the event had concluded[24]. Joseph Scarlet was charged with treason and levying war against the United States government and spent ninety-seven days in Lancaster County Prison following the event[25]. He was one of three White men from the event to spend time in prison[26]. In 1870 Joseph Scarlet held a celebration for the anniversary of the emancipation proclamation on his property[27]. Joseph Scarlet was married[28] and was engaged in the green grocery business before his death[29].

Iron Production

The location of the Six Penny Creek community was close to Hopewell and Joanna furnaces[30] and to the forges in Birdsboro, PA[31]. The furnaces ran along an Underground Railroad route which went from Morgantown, PA to Hamburg, PA[32]. Self-emancipated slaves leaving the South had the opportunity to be housed at the Scarlett's house or within the Six Penny Creek community and work at nearby Hopewell Furnace to earn money as they established residence or to aid in their continued journey North[33]. Many of the records that remain at Hopewell Furnace show that some individuals worked at the furnace for very limited amounts of time, which may be indicative of escaped or freed slaves moving further North[34]. The names of these self-emancipated individuals were not recorded in the furnace's records to protect their identities[35]. In the South, more people self-emancipated from iron foundries than from any other industry, except for the agricultural industry[36]. As the community grew, the individuals within Six Penny Creek began to establish themselves as professionals. Some took work as colliers, farmers, stonemasons, laborers, teamsters, or woodchoppers who worked on Harvesting Wood for charcoal production. Many were involved in the iron production industry. For example, Peter Jones, listed in the 1850 and 1860 Censuses of Union Township in Berks County, PA, and John Hart, also listed in the 1850 Census of Union Township in Berks County, PA[37], were recorded in the nineteenth century Hopewell Furnace journals as cutting cord wood that was then used in the production of charcoal to fuel furnaces[38].

Furnaces

The owner of Joanna Furnace, Levi Bull Smith (1806-1876)[39] aided self-emancipated individuals by taking them to remote locations in the woods that were around the furnace and staying with them when there was danger nearby[40]. At other times, self-emancipated individuals would be able to find their own refuge in the collier huts of colliers who worked for Joanna Furnace[41]. Levi Smith's father had married into the Bull family, who had built the furnace one generation prior[42]. Levi Smith lived in the furnace mansion at Joanna Furnace[43]. Levi Smith was likely responsible for recruiting Henry Segner as a guide for the Underground Railroad[44]. As a hunter and part-time supervisor of charcoal burners in the area, Henry Segner was well suited for the role, as he had an extensive knowledge of the terrain around Hopewell[45]. It was said that Henry Segner would send a group of self-emancipated individuals guided by a charcoal burner off in one direction and then lead nearby slave hunters in another direction deep into the mountains so that they could not find their way out for several days[46], allowing the group of self-emancipated individuals time to move on. Levi Smith was not an anomaly. Many ironmasters were participants in the Underground Railroad and offered protection under the guise of work to self-emancipated individuals,[47] not only in Pennsylvania, but in other states as well, such as Ohio[48]. In the Hanging Rock Iron region of Ohio, furnace operator John Campbell used some profits to subsidize the Underground Railroad in the area by providing supplies such as horses, saddles, and wagons[49]. The routes formed from the various connections among iron furnaces were important to the pathway to freedom for self-emancipated individuals[50] as ironworks and transportation routes were utilized to move self-emancipated individuals from furnace to furnace[51]. These pathways for transporting self-emancipated individuals between iron forges and foundries were in use before the Underground Railroad[52].

Notes

  1. ↑ LaRoche 2017, 101
  2. ↑ LaRoche 2017, 14
  3. ↑ National Park Service 2015
  4. ↑ LaRoche 2017, 99
  5. ↑ LaRoche 2017, 90
  6. ↑ LaRoche 2017, 100-101
  7. ↑ LaRoche 2017, 96
  8. ↑ Homan 1958
  9. ↑ LaRoche 2017, 118
  10. ↑ Homan 1958
  11. ↑ Find a Grave
  12. ↑ Find a Grave
  13. ↑ LaRoche 2017, 96
  14. ↑ LaRoche 2017, 96
  15. ↑ LaRoche 2017, 96
  16. ↑ National Park Service 2015
  17. ↑ Claussen 1968
  18. ↑ Reading Times, 25 July 1882
  19. ↑ Homan 1958
  20. ↑ Homan 1958
  21. ↑ Homan 1958
  22. ↑ The Times, 30 January 1882
  23. ↑ The Daily Evening Express, 21 August 1875
  24. ↑ Homan 1958
  25. ↑ Homan 1958
  26. ↑ The Saturday Express, 15 November 1851
  27. ↑ The Lancaster Examiner, 28 September 1870
  28. ↑ Find a Grave
  29. ↑ The Philadelphia Inquirer, 19 July 1882
  30. ↑ National Park Service 2015
  31. ↑ LaRoche 2017, 96
  32. ↑ LaRoche 2017, 96
  33. ↑ DCNR 2019
  34. ↑ Walker 1966, 307
  35. ↑ LaRoche 2017, 96
  36. ↑ LaRoche 2017, 95
  37. ↑ United States Census, 1850
  38. ↑ National Park Service 2015
  39. ↑ Find a Grave
  40. ↑ LaRoche 2017, 96
  41. ↑ Homan 1958
  42. ↑ Berks History Center 2019
  43. ↑ Homan 1958
  44. ↑ Homan 1958
  45. ↑ Homan 1958
  46. ↑ Homan 1958
  47. ↑ LaRoche 2017, 97
  48. ↑ LaRoche 2017, 95
  49. ↑ LaRoche 2017, 74
  50. ↑ LaRoche 2017, 71
  51. ↑ LaRoche 2017, 74
  52. ↑ LaRoche 2017, 95

References

  • Claussen, Edmund. 1968. The Underground Railroad. The Mercury, December 4, 1968.[3]
  • The Daily Evening Express. 1875. A Scrap of History, August 21, 1875.[4]
  • Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 20 January 2021), memorial page for Elizabeth Pownall Scarlet (25 Mar 1787–26 Jun 1839), Find a Grave Memorial no. 167131942, citing Robeson Monthly Meeting Cemetery, Berks County, Pennsylvania, USA ; Maintained by N.D. Scheidt (contributor 47099775).[5]
  • Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 20 January 2021), memorial page for Joseph P. Scarlett (15 Mar 1821–8 Jul 1882), Find a Grave Memorial no. 87337897, citing West Laurel Hill Cemetery, Bala Cynwyd, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, USA ; Maintained by Mary Harrell-Sesniak (contributor 46488639).[6]
  • Homan, Wayne E. 1958. The Underground Railroad. Historical Review of Berks County, Berks History Center.[7]
  • The Lancaster Examiner. 1870. Celebration, September 28, 1870.[8]
  • LaRoche, Cheryl Janifer. 2017. Free Black Communities and the Underground Railroad: The Geography of Resistance. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press.
  • National Park Service, Hopewell Furnace. 2015. African-Americans at Hopewell Furnace. National Park Service: U.S. Department of the Interior.[9]
  • The Philadelphia Inquirer. 1882. The Slaves' Friend, July 19, 1882.[10]
  • Reading Times. 1882. An Exciting Episode Recalled by Death, July 25, 1882.[11]
  • The Saturday Express, 1851. Visit to the Christiana Prisoners, November 15, 1851.[12]
  • The Times - Philadelphia. 1882. The Riot at Christiana, January 30, 1882.[13]
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