Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Plunges into Pennsylvania (30 page)

John Wilkes and Isaac Barre were members of the British Parliament who championed the cause of the American Revolution. This town honored them by taking their names in 1769. (Interesting: John Wilkes Booth was named after John Wilkes.)

 

 

By the 1850s, Philadelphia was one of the busiest hubs of the Underground Railroad. And by many accounts, 19 out of 20 slaves who made it to Philadelphia were fed and housed by one man—William Still. His dedication to the cause earned him the nickname “The father of the Underground Railroad.”

William Still knew first-hand the plight of the runaway slave—his own mother, Sidney, had once been a fugitive. In the early 1800s, Sidney and her husband, Levin Steel, were slaves in Maryland. But when Levin bought his freedom and moved to New Jersey, Sidney took their four young children and ran away to join him.

The family hid during the day and spent their nights tramping through woods and swampland until slave catchers caught them and shipped Sidney and the children back to their master. Sidney tried again, but on that second attempt, she managed to take only her two daughters; sons Levin Jr. and Peter stayed behind with their grandmother. Sidney intended to return for the boys when she had enough money to rescue or buy them, but they were sold before she could do it and the family lost track of them.

Sidney and Levin made a good life for themselves in the North, but they were still in hiding—bounty hunters and slave catchers roamed the area looking for fugitive slaves. The couple moved to a farm in southern New Jersey, and to stay undercover, Sidney changed her name to Charity; the family name became Still. Born in 1821, William was the youngest of Charity and Levin's 18 children.
But the tragedy of the two lost boys clouded the family's happiness, and those memories helped make William a dedicated abolitionist.

William Still moved to Philadelphia in 1844, when he was 23 years old. He arrived with just three dollars and the clothes he was wearing. At first, he took jobs doing manual labor, but he later taught himself to read and write in order to find better employment. In 1847 he landed a position in the office of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society where, along with janitorial work, his duties included being a mail clerk.

Still moved up quickly. Soon he was helping the society's Vigilance Committee, which maintained “lines” on the Underground Railroad and housed runaway slaves. By 1851, William Still was the committee's chairman; his responsibilities included finding safe housing, food, and clothing for hundreds of former slaves who were coming to the city from as far south as Georgia. He was part of a committee that interviewed the runaways, taking down their biographies and records of family left behind.

He also kept a lookout for suspicious “packages” . . . trunks or boxes that might contain living human beings. Some slaves were so determined to escape that they hid in parcels and shipped themselves north.

Still also housed fugitives in his own home, where they would rest and gather their strength before hiking a difficult, dangerous trail over the Appalachian Mountains to New York and then Canada. The runaways couldn't stay in Philadelphia because the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 permitted bounty hunters to track slaves down—even in free states—and return them to their masters.
To find real freedom, they had to cross into Canada.

Despite the law, Still's operation continually frustrated slave catchers. He was arrested only once, for allegedly kidnapping a woman named Jane Johnson and her two children. The trio had come to Philadelphia with J. H. Wheeler, their wealthy master, and when Still escorted them to a safe house, Wheeler accused him of kidnapping. Johnson ultimately testified at Still's trial as a surprise witness for the defense, and Still was acquitted of all charges. (Johnson was arrested at the trial, but she managed to escape again.)

Over the years, hundreds of people came to William Still for help, but one man who came to see him in 1850 became particularly important. Peter Friedman wasn't a fugitive; he'd already bought his freedom. But he had traveled 1,500 miles from Alabama to Philadelphia hoping to find some word of his mother. Her name was Sidney, he said, and he hadn't seen her since he was six years old when she left him to go north to find his father. William later wrote that as he listened to Peter, “My feelings were unutterable. I could see in the face of my newfound brother, the likeness of my mother.”

Levin Sr. had died a few years before, but Sidney was still alive. William took Peter home to introduce him to their mother and siblings. Peter told them his story: After Sidney's former master sold him and his brother, Peter and Levin Jr. were resold again and again. Levin Jr. died in his early 30s from a beating he'd received. Peter had taken the name “Friedman” from a pair of Jewish brothers who helped him buy his freedom, but he'd had to leave his wife and children in the South. After an attempt to free his family failed, Peter spent years saving money until he
finally purchased them in 1854 for $5,000—an incredible sum at the time.

William Still ran his line of the Underground Railroad until 1861, when the Civil War began. The fighting halted many slaves' escape attempts, and President Lincoln's 1863 Eman-cipation Proclamation officially freed them. Thus began the next phase of Still's life; he bought a coal yard and sold coal to the Union army during the Civil War. After the war, he continued his coal business and used some of its profits to buy real estate.

He also spent time going over records from his days with the Vigilance Committee. Since finding his brother, Still had been especially careful to keep records of his interviews with fugitives, in case their families later came looking for them. But because he'd essentially been running a criminal operation and was often in danger of arrest, he'd kept his records well hidden inside a basement wall.

In the years after the Civil War, though, William Still pulled out those records and compiled them in a book called
The Underground Rail Road: A Record of Facts, Authentic Narratives, Letters, etc
. It was published in 1872 and was an immediate best seller. The 780-page collection included letters, biographies, and interviews with fugitive slaves. Among them were the story of one of President Tyler's slaves, who left the presidential caravan in Philadelphia, and that of Ellen Craft, a light-skinned woman who escaped with her husband William, who had darker skin. Ellen pretended to be a young white man, and William masqueraded as her butler.

At the time, biographies and interviews were new to most
people, and few Americans knew anything about the details of life on the Underground Railroad. Both factors helped make Still's book enormously popular. He went on to publish three editions and exhibited the volume at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition.

Slavery had come to an end, but William Still continued to champion civil rights. He led a successful campaign to integrate local railway cars in the 1860s. He founded the Mission School (a church-sponsored school for African American children) in North Philadelphia, organized the first African American YMCA, and helped manage homes for the aged, destitute, and orphaned. He spent most of the rest of his life in Philadelphia (with a brief foray to New Jersey) and died there in 1902.

 

 

One of the NBA's top teams since their opening tip-off in 1963, the Philadelphia 76ers have won 8 division titles and 2 championships. Find out more about this dynamic franchise from the Quaker City
.

Ranking of the 1966–67 squad, arguably the best Sixers team of all time. In fact, in a poll conducted as part of the NBA's 35th anniversary celebration in 1980, the '66–'67 Sixers were considered the best of their era. That season's squad included Wilt Chamberlain, Hal Greer, Chet Walker, and Luke Jackson.

Number of backboards shattered by center Darryl Dawkins during the 1979–80 season. Dawkins, who liked to name his dunks. Examples: Go-Rilla, Yo-Mama, and In-Your-Face-Disgrace. He called his first backboard-breaking slam the “Chocolate-Thunder-Flying, Glass-Flying, Robinzine-Crying, Babies-Crying, Glass-Still-Flying, Cats-Crying, Rump-Roasting, Bun-Toasting, Thank You-Wham-Bam-I-Am-Jam.” After the game, Dawkins told reporters, “I didn't mean to destroy [the backboard]. It was the power, the Chocolate Thunder [his nickname for himself]. I could feel it surging through my body, fighting to get out. I had no control over it.”

Players who received the league's Most Valuable Player Award:
Wilt Chamberlain, Julius Erving, Moses Malone, and Allen Iverson.

Conference titles the 76ers have won: 1976–77, 1979–80, 1981–82, 1982–83, 2000–01.

Height of former 76ers center Shawn Bradley.

Number of different uniform designs used by the team since 1963.

Wilt Chamberlain's scoring average during the 1965–66 season—the highest in franchise history.

Jersey number of Charles Barkley. The 6'5" “Round Mound of Rebound” averaged 22.1 points and 11.7 rebounds per game over 16 NBA seasons.

Number of consecutive home wins from January 14, 1966, to January 20, 1967, a franchise record.

Number of regular-season victories during the 1966–67 season. Philadelphia went on to capture the NBA crown for that season by defeating San Francisco in the finals, four games to two.

Number of fans who submitted suggestions to name Philadelphia's team after they moved there from Syracuse in 1963. The winning entry was submitted by the late Walt Stahlberg of West Collingswood, New Jersey, in honor of Philadelphia's revolutionary heritage.

Games played by Hal Greer, the most of any 76er.

The second (and last) year the 76ers won the NBA championship.

Seating capacity of the Wachovia Center, Philadelphia's current home arena.

Record home attendance during the 76ers' 2001–02 season.