Central Pennsylvania's journey
from enslavement to freedom

Read Joe McClure's PennLive biography of William Howard Day, a prominent African American abolitionist associated with Harrisburg.

October 2, 1851: During the night of Thursday, October 2, John Dunmore is arrested in Harrisburg, taken before Slave Commissioner Richard McAllister and accused of being a runaway slave. The hearing was conducted behind closed doors and shuttered windows in McAllister's office. However the person who was seeking his return testified that Dunmore was not his slave, and Dunmore was released.

October 3, 1863: The War Department orders the enlistment of African American troops in the slave states of Maryland, Missouri and Tennessee.

October 8, 1831: William Lloyd Garrison’s anti-slavery newspaper The Liberator publishes the eloquent resolutions by many in Harrisburg’s African American community strongly opposing the aims of the American Colonization Society. The resolution accuses the Colonization Society of seeking to “drain the country of the most enlightened part of our colored brethren, so that they may be more able to hold their slaves in bondage and ignorance.”
Read the resolutions here.
 
October 10, 1862: Confederate President Jefferson Davis asks Virginia for a draft to supply 4500 Blacks to work on completing fortifications around Richmond.

October 10, 1871: Equal rights activist and educator Octavius V. Catto is shot to death on Election Day in Philadelphia as he worked to protect African Americans at the polls.
Read about the life and work of Octavius V. Catto here.

October 11, 1722: Pennsylvania Colonial Governor William Keith sends a letter to local Native American tribes appealing for their help in returning fugitive slaves, promising “one Good Gun and two Blankets for each Negro,” returned to provincial authorities.
A detailed discussion of this time period and offer may be found here.

October 12, 1866: Chosen Friends Lodge No. 43, an African American Masonic Lodge, is warranted in Harrisburg.

October 13, 1864: Maryland voters narrowly adopt a new state constitution that abolishes slavery.

October 13, 2004: The Riverside School in Harrisburg is renamed the T. Morris Chester School to honor the city native who became a famous attorney, war correspondent, civil rights activist and political tactician in Reconstruction-era Louisiana.
Click for a photo taken at this event (photo courtesy of Calobe Jackson, Jr.)


October 16, 1849: Clergyman Charles Avery gives money to found a college to train young African Americans for teaching and the ministry. Avery Institute was established at Allegheny, Pennsylvania and received its first students in April 1850.

October 16, 1859: In the last few hours of the day, John Brown begins his raid of the U.S. Federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.
A fascinating analysis and discussion of John Brown's plans may be found here.

October 16, 1995: The Million Man March attracts one of the largest crowds in history to the National Mall in Washington, DC to hear eighty speakers advocate increased community involvement and political activism by African American males. Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan organized the event, which drew an estimated 837,000 participants.

October 18, 1847: George Cole, a free African American of Chambersburg, leads thirteen fugitive slaves through Shippensburg and Huntsdale to the barn of Daniel Kaufman near Boiling Springs. Kaufman helped the slaves get through to Harrisburg, but his actions were detected and he was successfully sued in federal court by the slaveowners.
Read the incredible story of the Daniel Kaufman case here.

October 19, 1825: William Howard Day is born in New York.
William Howard Day is buried in Lincoln Cemetery, Penbrook. A photo of his gravesite is here.

October 24, 1834: Slave catchers kidnap the wife and four children of James Williams, an African American worker in Portsmouth, Dauphin County. Williams and local citizens track the kidnappers through York, Pennsylvania, where Williams is reunited with his wife, who had managed to escape. The next day a posse of citizens from York rescues the children. The kidnappers are tried, convicted and imprisoned in Harrisburg.
A full account of this early local kidnapping incident may be found here.

October 25, 1836: American Anti-slavery Society lecturer Jonathan Blanchard arrives in Harrisburg for about two weeks of lectures. He stays with the Alexander Graydon family, on Market Street.
More about the Alexander Graydon family here.

October 30, 1836: Abolitionist Jonathan Blanchard delivers a sermon at the Harrisburg Presbyterian Church, triggering a number of longtime church members to walk out in protest against his anti-slavery politics.
Read an eye-witness account of this incident here.

October 31, 1780: Deadline for slave holders in Pennsylvania to register their slaves with the county clerk, according to the newly passed Gradual Abolition Law. The penalty for failure to register their slaves on time was immediate emancipation of those enslaved.