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The Slaves of Bucks County, 1783 - 1830. Who Owned Them? Where Did They Live?

The Slaves of Bucks County, 1783 - 1830. Who Owned Them? Where Did They Live? | Newtown News of Interest | Scoop.it

On May 4, 2021, Doylestown Township passed a resolution that designates June 19th, as "Juneteenth Freedom Day" (read “Doylestown Township Passes Juneteenth Freedom Day Resolution”). This is in recognition of date in 1865 that Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas and enforced President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation order, freeing the slaves in Texas two and a half years after it was first decreed.

I was told by Kevin Antoine, Chief Diversity Equity Inclusion Officer at Bucks County Community College and Chair of the Newtown Township Human relations Commission, that down south where he grew up, he and other black people celebrated June 19th as their equivalent of the 4th of July.

On June 19, 2019, PA Governor Wolf signed legislation that designates June 19 as “Juneteenth National Freedom Day” in Pennsylvania. So why the Doylestown resolution?

Most importantly, the Doylestown resolution offers a bit of local history. It states, for example, that the last people legally enslaved in Bucks County were freed from slavery in Doylestown Township in 1824 only to be transitioned into “indentured servitude for decades longer.”

Questions
This was a bit of history I did not know about until I read the resolution. But I had questions: Were slaves “freed” in other townships prior to and after 1824? Who owned slaves in Bucks County? Where did they live in Bucks County? How many slaves did they own?

 

Find some answers here...

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Newtown News of Interest
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