slavery in pennsylvania

Somerset County tnt (this and that)

enslavement data

Henry Black, Slave Cemetery

An old abandoned cemetery near Brotherton, Stonycreek Township, is believed to hold the remains of slaves once owned by prominent township resident Henry Black.   A 1934 WPA cemetery survey describes the cemetery as being "Located on the farm of Robert Baldwin, formerly the Black Homestead near Brotherton north of the road Rt. 31, near the creek and east of the buildings about 50 rods under a large oak tree at the edge of the field, containing about 18 graves well defined with native stone, but no inscriptions on any of the stones."   Several years later, local resident Mrs. Olivia Weigle identified the cemetery as the burial ground used by African Americans who were or had been slaves associated with the Henry Black family.

Newspaper columnist Mary Hause elaborated on the story, noting that Henry Black was "one of three large slave holders in Somerset county, prior to the Civil War.  Slave quarters were in the rear of his large plantation...There his slaves lived, loved and died, to end in the little burial ground under a sapling oak."  She also wrote that Black used the slaves as workers at his tavern, which was situated along the Glade Road.

Henry Black, who lived from 1783 to 1841, served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1816 - 1818, then served as associate judge of Somerset County from 1820 to 1840.  Following that he was elected as Pennsylvania's representative to the U.S. Congress, serving until his death in 1841.

Sources

Mary Hause, A Somerset County Historical Notebook, 1945, Somerset, Pennsylvania, p. 20-21.
"Black, Henry, 1783-1841," Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=B000498, accessed September 1, 2006.
WPA Cemetery Index, Somerset County, Pennsylvania, transcribed at http://www.rootsweb.com/~pasomers/cemetery/, accessed September 1, 2006.

"Negro Mountain" and John Hyatt's Slave
Lower Turkeyfoot

From the Lower Turkeyfoot chapter of an old county history:

John Hyatt, one of the early settlers, was a native of Maryland. He came with several others, accompanied by a number of slaves, to Turkey-Foot soon after-the settlement began. While crossing the Negro mountain, a party of Indians fired upon them and mortally wounded one of the negroes, the strongest man in the company. A piece of a hollow log was found and placed over the negro to shelter him. Throwing it off, he said, " Save yourselves and never mind me; I shall die soon." It is said that the Negro Mountain took its name from this circumstance.

Source

"History of Lower Turkey-Foot Township," transcribed at http://www.rootsweb.com/~pasomers/ltfoot/LTFHist.html, accessed September 1, 2006.

somerset county main page | slavery main page | afrolumens project home

Original material on these pages copyright 2006 Afrolumens Project.
Contact:
The URL of this page is: http://www.afrolumens.com/slavery/somertnt.html
This page was updated on September 1, 2006