Thaddeus Stevens' Lancaster Home Added to Network to Freedom
Christiana UGRR Center Opening Photos (see below)
Afrolumens Project review of Bound For Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America, by Fergus Bordewich
The Underground Railroad Center at Historic Zercher's Hotel opens September 11
"The 1851 Resistance at Christiana – a local flashpoint event that helped spark Civil War in America – will be commemorated in Lancaster County with a preview opening of a new visitor center from noon until 4 PM on Sunday, September 10, the eve of the event's 155th anniversary.
"Located at 11 Green Street in the Borough of Christiana in the former Zercher's Hotel, the new center has been designed to give visitor’s an orientation to the significance of the Christiana Resistance, originally known as The Christiana Riot, which occurred near the Center on September 11, 1851."
Underground Railroad Quilts (research link)
Smithsonian Institution Folklife presents and updated discussion of the quilt code myth versus known facts.

Now Back in Print

The Year of Jubilee

Vol. 1: Men of God and Vol. 2: Men of Muscle

by George F. Nagle

Both volumes of the Afrolumens book are now back in print and available to order from Amazon. Digital versions are also available on this website. Click this link to read.

The Year of Jubilee is the story of Harrisburg'g free African American community, from the era of colonialism and slavery to hard-won freedom.

Volume One, Men of God, covers the turbulent beginnings of this community, from Hercules and the first enslaved persons, the growth of enslavement in central Pennsylvania, the Harrisburg area plantations that used enslaved labor, early escapes by enslaved people, to the birth of a free Black community. Men of God is a detailed history of Harrisburg's first Black entrepreneurs, the early Black churches, the first Black neighborhoods, and the maturing of the social institutions that supported this vibrant community.

It includes an extensive examination of state and federal laws governing slave ownership and the recovery of escaped slaves, the growth of the colonization movement, anti-colonization efforts, anti-slavery, abolitionism and radical abolitionism. It concludes with the complex relationship between Harrisburg's Black and white abolitionists, and details the efforts and activities of each group as they worked separately at first, then learned to cooperate in fighting against slavery. Buy it here.

Non-fiction, history. 607 pages, softcover.

Volume Two, Men of Muscle continues the story from 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 through the explosive 1850s to the coming of Civil War to central Pennsylvania. In this volume, Harrisburg's African American community weathers kidnappings, raids, riots, plots, murders, intimidation, and the coming of war. Caught between hostile Union soldiers and deadly Confederate soldiers, they ultimately had to choose between fleeing or fighting. This is the story of that choice. Buy it here.

Non-fiction, history. 630 pages, softcover.

About the AP | Contact AP | Mission Statement