Bethel Burying Ground Project

Twenty-one-year-old Elizabeth Cunningham died this date, March 26th, in 1850 of Tuberculosis and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. She was a single woman who was employed as an in-service domestic, according to the 1847 Philadelphia African American Census. Elizabeth lived with her widowed mother, Mary Cunningham, who was forty-five-years-old at the time of her daughter’s death. It appears that Mary was born enslaved in Maryland, according to the 1847 Census. She had been widowed since at least 1840-1841, as described in city directories.

Elizabeth and Mary Cunningham rented a room at #1 Cox Alley (red arrow above) for $2 a month which may have taken the women a couple of weeks to earn. There were not a lot of residences on Cox Alley. The majority of the structures were the back of businesses that fronted other streets.

In this 1925 photograph, you can see the residences at the other end of the street. The thoroughfare is now called South Darien Street.

In early October 1849, Elizabeth and Mary Cunningham endured a terrifying life-threatening experience that few of us can imagine. It was the third day of a major organized anti-Black riot by Irish gangs with the goal of running all Blacks out of the city of Philadelphia. The Cunninghams, from their home in Cox Alley, would have seen the towering flames and smelled the suffocating smoke from the torching of the California House, only three blocks away. The California House was a Black-owned tavern and hotel that posed a threat to Irish gang rule in that part of the Moyamensing District. 

The murderous thugs set a wagon on fire and rammed it into the front of the hotel. Immediately, bullets and stones came flying from the upper windows down on the arsonists. The police and fire companies supposedly were driven away by the guns, knives, and clubs of the surging white crowd. With this, the Black community struck back and a crowd of Black men and women engaged in a running battle and fought with fists, sticks, and cobblestones. 

During the battle, the terrorists cut gas lines in the hotel to speed up the blaze which had engulfed the upper floors of the hotel and adjoining buildings that included a Black church. The neighborhood was on fire. The bell atop Independence Hall began to “ring violently” and people throughout the city believed the city was “doomed.”

The fighting and fires lasted all night. The white mob put two fire companies “out of business.” Their equipment was destroyed and the firemen were seriously injured. With the city policemen overmatched, U.S. Army soldiers were eventually brought in to restore order. It helped that they brought two cannons with them. But the damage was already done. The official count was five dead and possibly hundreds injured. A Black neighborhood was in ashes and the Philadelphia Black community terrorized and put in fear of their lives – again. (1)

Elizabeth Cunningham died on a clear March day where the temperature rose to 42 degrees. Her mother buried her at Bethel Burying Ground.

(1) Evening Public Ledger, 10 August 1917.

Two-year-old John Conner died this date, March 14th, in 1853 of “Fever” and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. After researching census records, city directories, and death certificate records, I believe that the child’s parents may have been fugitives who were given shelter at a Bethel Church property. There are certainly other possibilities but a self-liberated Conner family is a likelihood. 

The address on the child’s death certificate is a four-story tenement on the northeast corner of 6th and Lombard Streets, adjacent to the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church. The red arrow indicates the location of the building.

The above 1916 photograph of Bethel Church starts to show the adjacent buildings. The photograph does not show the corner property where the Conner family resided. According to newspaper advertisements, there were businesses on the ground floor. One of them was a popular cigar and tobacco shop. 

Three months after the death of two-year-old John Conner, the remaining members of the Conner family may have been alarmed at what was happening outside their building. The whacking thud of a mace (photo above) against a human skull was echoing in the street. A city watchman, Joseph Glenn, had dragged an unidentified Black man from his home at 6th and Lombard into the street and proceeded to beat him with a mace. The newspapers reported that there was no known reason for the “cruel and inexcusable . . . unprovoked and outrageous” deadly assault. The victim was not identified by name. 

Joseph Glenn was arrested and, at his trial, he was found guilty. However, the judge, citing “former good character,” only gave the racist thug a small fine. There was no mention of the medical condition of the “colored man.”

The judge knew all about Glenn’s “character.” Only several weeks previous to this sentencing, Glenn was in his courtroom. He was a member of a gang that beat another Black man unmercifully. Glenn also got off for that offense. It appears that he was a professional thug/enforcer for the city. After years of being a constable, he was rewarded by receiving the cushy patronage position as the manager of Rittenhouse Square. (1)

A Black man was dragged out of his home in broad daylight in the center of the Black business, religion and culture hub of the city. He is beaten close to death by a racist thug who is someone that is supposed to be protecting the community. 

It is impossible to imagine what the Conner family is feeling after just losing their baby son and then having to endure the terror from the level of violence and threat right outside their window. One can only hope that the memory of Baby John was a blessing.

(1) Philadelphia Inquirer, 16 June 1853; Sunday Dispatch, 3 July 1853; Philadelphia Inquirer, 2 March 1865.

Forty-six-year-old Jonathan Shockley died this date, March 10th, in 1843 of a heart attack and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. Mr. Shockley was employed as a waiter and his spouse Catharine Shockley worked as a cook after her husband’s death. Previously, she was self-employed as a laundress. She was twenty-nine or thirty-years-old at the time of her husband’s death, according to her death certificate in 1877. Jonathan and Catharine Shockley both were born enslaved in Maryland. Both were liberated through manumission, according to the 1838 Philadelphia African American Census. 

In the 1847 Philadelphia African American Census, Ms. Shockley was identified as a single mother with three daughters. Two of them were in service and lived at their employers’ homes. The third daughter was living with her mother and was working as a waitress. Ms. Shockley was earning $2 a week as a cook. She paid $2 a month for their room on Emerline Street. All the women could read and write and they attended church services regularly.

At the time of Mr. Shockley’s death, the family lived at 23 Prosperous Alley, illustrated by the red circle above. They paid between $2.50 – $3.50 a month for the rental of one room. Mr. Shockley would have earned approximately $3 – $5 a week while Ms. Shockley may have earned $0.50 – $1.00 a week, depending on the amount of business he had each week.

“Negro waiter,” The New York Public Library Digital Collections.

There were approximately five hundred Black men employed as a waiter in Philadelphia, according to the 1847 Philadelphia African American Census. They occasionally were categorized as “public” or “private,” with the latter referring to those who were employed in a private home.  

The Shockley family physically survived the deadly anti-African American riots of the Summer of 1842. The murders, assaults, and the destruction of Black homes and churches led to a large percentage of African American to just pack up and leave the most racist city in the north. One estimate of the loss was close to 25% of the Black population.

Mr. Shockley died on a cold day in March. “It commenced snowing early in the morning and continued till it was about half an inch when it turned to rain which became the order of the day for the remainder of it.” (1) Mr. Shockley was buried at Bethel Burying Ground.

(1) North American, 1 April 1843.

Eighty-seven-year-old Amelia Turpin died this date, March 8th, in 1851 of “old age” and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. The 1850 U.S. Census shows that Ms. Turpin had a roommate. She was Hannah Baker who was fifty-four-years-old at the time of Ms. Turpin’s death. She was born in Pennsylvania, while Ms. Turpin was born in South Carolina. There was no occupation/employment mentioned for either woman.

Ms. Turpin lived at #3 Green Street, near the intersection of 4th and Spruce Streets. In the above map, Green Street is circled in red. The red pin illustrates the location of Bethel A.M.E. Church at 6th and Lombard Streets. 

Green Street was a crowded neighborhood of Black working-class and poor. The 1847 African American Census registered forty-two families on Green Street with a total of 145 individuals who were employed in the following occupations: Barber, Dressmaker, Domestic, Laborer, Seamstress, Steward, White Washer, Laundress, Hat Dryer, Seaman, Coal Heaver, Porter, Waiter, Clothes Dealer, Cake Maker, and Boot Maker. There were many large families, some with three generations living under the same roof. The 1847 Census reported that up to 50% of Black Philadelphians were formerly enslaved!

“Leap of the Fugitive Slave”: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division.

On the day that Ms. Turpin died, a Black woman and her son were brought to Philadelphia to appear before the federal Fugitive Slave Commission to determine if they were self-liberated. She gave her name as Hannah Dellam and her son’s as Henry Dellam. The slave catchers swore that their names were Helen and Dick from the plantation of James Perdue of Baltimore County, Maryland. Ms. Dellam stated she was forty-years-old and had given birth to seven children, only three of whom were still living. She also was pregnant and due to deliver any day. Henry Dellam was approximately twelve years old.  The draconian 1850 Fugitive Slave Law was enacted the year before. It granted free rein to slave catchers for hire to roam the northern states and kidnap Black men, women, and children off the streets, out of their beds and to send them back to the whip and the field. This tragedy occured regardless of whether they were actually the formerly enslaved or not.

Ms. Dellam and her son were represented by capable abolition and anti-slavery lawyers in Philadelphia who were responsible for the successful legal representation of scores of self-emancipated African-Americans. However, in this case, the evidence overwhelmingly was in favor of the slavers and, after several days of testimony, the heavily pregnant woman and her son were transported back to Maryland. When the child Henry Dellam was asked why he ran away from the plantation, he stated that he was tired of being tied up and of being whipped. (1)

Ms. Turpin died on a snowy day in early March where the temperature did not rise above freezing until later in the afternoon. The day before was a day filled with sleet and snow. 

(1) Pennsylvania Freeman, 13 March 1851; Sunday Dispatch, 9 March 1851; Albany Evening Journal (NY), 11 March 1851.

Seventy-two-year-old Ann Richards died this date, February 5th, in 1848 of Inflammation of the Lungs and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. According to census records and city directories, Ms. Richards was a single woman. The death certificate identifies her as ‘Mrs.,’ which likely means she was a widow. The 1847 Philadelphia African American Census reports that she resided alone at #8 Gray’s Alley in a 9’x9′ room for which she paid $2.33 a month. She was self-employed as a laundress for which she may have made from $0.75-$1.00 a week when she was able to get the work. Ms. Richards reported that she was not born in Pennsylvania and that she could read. She belonged to a beneficial society and attended Bethel A.M.E. at 6th and Lombard Streets.

The red circle in the above map illustrates the location of Mrs. Richards’ home at #8 Gray’s Alley. The red arrow in the map below shows the location of the address in relation to the Delaware River (blue line). In the mid-1850s, Gray’s Alley was renamed Gatzmer Alley.

There were two large tenements in Gray’s Alley that contained all the African Africans on the block, according to the 1847 Philadelphia African American Census. The two buildings contained sixty-eight Black men, women, and children. The men in Gray’s Alley worked as laborers and porters, likely on the nearby wharves loading and unloading ships. The women were self-employed as wash women and domestics. There was one woman who listed her occupation as a “cake and pie maker.” She may have sold her baked goods at the nearby outdoor market, just around the corner.

Tenement Life

Ms. Richards died on a day in early February where it snowed 2 1/2 inches “but most of it melted on reaching the ground.” She was buried at Bethel Burying Ground.

Note: The death certificate for Ms. Richards was signed by “George Webber, M.D.” However, the city directories listed him as a botanical and herb physician. He resided very close to Ms. Richard’s home.