Slavery & Abolition in PA and the New Podcast Season

Hello friends,

One of my personal goals this year was sharing my learnings as I go. It's risky to do these days when people quickly group others into "friend" or "enemy." But I feel its important as a family historian to really learn as much as possible about my ancestor's past. I just published a post on things I've learned about slavery so far and it was hard to write about.

I'd love to hear what hard-to-talk-about topics you'd love to know more about. I'll do the research and write about it without using any current political buzz. The focus would be on learning about actual history, laws, and practices of the time, so we can better research our ancestors.

🗺 History Highlight

This weekend is the new federal holiday of Juneteenth. In recognition, I pulled together What I've Learned So Far About Slavery in Pennsylvania. I wrote this to help my fellow family historians in their research in the state. Pennsylvania’s history around enslavement of African born people is filled with paradoxes. I pointed out some here and I know I have more to learn.

🔖 Featured Genealogy Record

The Pennsylvania Abolition Society conducted two censuses of the African American population in Philadelphia. Both are archived at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. These censuses included formerly enslaved, indentured, and free people. The Census of the Condition of Colored People in Philadelphia, 1847 is an amazing record in that it looks like a traditional census with information in columns. A great help for researchers! I hope this is digitized completely and freely available soon. There are also several microfilms of the manumissions of enslaved people by the Pennsylvania Abolition Society. HSP has an online chat available to inquire about these or any record they hold.

🎙 What’s New on the Podcast

The trailer for Season 7 of the Your Pennsylvania Ancestors podcast is out! It's a quick 90 seconds on what this summer's episodes will be about. Watch it on YouTube or find it in your podcast player.

🍬 Inner Circle Members

I started a membership on my website and fumbled the rollout of it. 😮 I'm making the membership area all prettied up ✨ and will announce some fun and useful things for people who join me in disovering their Pennsylvania ancestors.

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