New Philadelphia: An Archaeology of Race in the Heartland
Paul Shackel
Abstract
New Philadelphia, Illinois, was founded in 1836 by Frank McWorter, a Kentucky slave who purchased his own freedom and then acquired land on the prairie for establishing a new—and integrated—community. McWorter sold property to other freed slaves and to whites, and used the proceeds to buy his family out of slavery. The town population reached 160, but declined when the railroad bypassed it. By 1940, New Philadelphia had virtually disappeared from the landscape. This book resurrects McWorter's great achievement of self-determinism, independence, and the will to exist, describing a cooperative e ... More
Keywords: New Philadelphia, Illinois, Frank McWorter, slave, slavery, multi-racial community, population, archaeology
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2010 | Print ISBN-13: 9780520266292 |
| Published to California Scholarship Online: May 2012 | DOI:10.1525/california/9780520266292.001.0001 |
