We just received word: our proposal for a Jane Johnson marker has been approved by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. Thanks to everyone who helped.
It takes at least 10 weeks to draft, manufacture, ship and install a marker - so July 18, 2008 - the very next Jane Johnson Day - we can gather at [...]
You may remember the conversation we had here at The Sixth Square last summer, the one about Jane Johnson, the woman who escaped slavery while passing through Philadelphia in summer of 1855.
Through that effort, a group resolved to support the submission of a proposal for a historical marker to the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. That submission is [...]
It’s a special place by the Delaware River. Not beautiful or charming. I-95 traffic creates a steady beat against concrete walls. Sweating masonry spans the highway. It is as humid today as it was in 1855.
We’re not artists, but when we left, yesterday evening, the round space at eastern end of the Walnut Street footbridge seemed [...]
Visitors to The Sixth Square know that 152 years ago today Jane Johnson stood and expressed her freedom. This declaration, this living, breathing embrace of independence took place at the foot of Walnut Street just before 5PM - as the ferry to Camden prepared to launch. (If this is your first encounter with the story, [...]
On the eve of Jane Johnson Day, we’re curious how the story - how the many intertwined stories - come to an end. Not long after the escape, after the trial, after the death of at least one of the main players, the Civil War overshadowed just about everything else. The others went on with [...]
Kane kept Williamson locked in prison for 100 days. Williamson and his fellow abolitionists managed to make the most of his incarceration to advance the cause. Hundreds, including more than a few celebrities, visited the tiny, damp cell in Moyamensing, pictured here in a daguerreotype at the Chester County Historical Society. If the cause thrived, [...]
Wheeler was infuriated by the escape. And in order to regain what he believed was his rightful property, he took immediate action against Passmore Williamson, depicted here conspiring with Jane Johnson in a political cartoon at the Library Company of Philadelphia.
As the incident unfolded, according to Wheeler, Williamson declared he “would be responsible for any [...]
This image, from William Still’s Underground Railroad, depicts the very moment Jane Johnson stood for her freedom. Moments later, at 5PM, the ferryboat pulled away from the dock while Johnson and her sons crossed town in a carriage whose driver had anticipated their escape.
How, exactly, should July 18th 1855 be remembered at Penn’s Landing?
William Still facilitated the escapes of many, many slaves. But his detailed record keeping and story telling of escapes was equally important. If not for Still, the story of the slave from Virginia who literally shipped himself to freedom might have gone unknown. Still was there to greet Henry “Box” Brown as he emerged from [...]
One Independence Day down; one to go.
That’s right. Philadelphia has two of them: July 4th and July 18th. The former, long the official day, is literally when officials called it quits from British rule. The latter, Jane Johnson’s Day, marks the time - no less than 79 Independence Days later - when [...]
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