Bethel Burying Ground Project

Sixty-eight-year-old Rachel Brown died this date, June 17th, in 1840 of ovarian cancer and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. Ms. Brown was a widow living with her adult children. In addition to Ms. Brown, there were five other family members. Four out of the six were born in Pennsylvania. Her oldest son was a seaman, according to the Philadelphia 1836 African American Census. There was another son occupied as a house painter. The Brown family worshipped at Bethel AME Church.

The Brown family lived on Little Oak Street, a dead end alley barely over the border from the city into the Southwark District in south Philadelphia. The modern map below shows the location of Little Oak (red arrow) and the location of where the educator and civil rights activist Octavius V. Catto lived and was assassinated (purple arrow). During the gruesome anti-African American riots of the 1830s and 40s, this area was a war zone. The crazed white mobs advanced through the neighborhood pillaging, burning and murdering any Black man or woman that was unlucky enough to be caught outside. Many Black families left the city and escaped by ferry to Camden, New Jersey. The small city police force was overrun often by gangs with the names of Rats, Killers, Blood Tubs and Bouncers.

Little Oak Street is now known as Kenilworth Street.

The day after Ms. Brown passed away “We had showers all day, until toward night when a splendid rainbow appeared and gave promise of future fine weather.” (Public Ledger, 19 June 1840)

Seventy-three-year-old Philip Nelson died this date, May 31st, in 1850 of Tuberculosis and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. Mr. Nelson was employed as a “Gentleman’s nurse,” according to the 1847 Philadelphia African American Census. He reportedly earned $20 a month and his duties would be similar to a personal attendant or valet. Mr. Nelson was a widower. However, below is who I believe to have been his son, William Nelson, and his family. The information is from the 1850 Federal Census. The initial “M” next to the gender category stands for “Mulatto.” 

(William Nelson 49 y/o – Blacksmith born in Virginia; Henrietta 43 y/o born in Maryland; Sarah 23 y/o born in Maryland; William 17 y/o born in Maryland; Ezekiel 15 y/o born in Maryland.)

Mr. Nelson’s obituary was published in the June 3, 1850 edition of the Public Ledger. Interestingly, the obit stated that Mr. Nelson “was of the family of the late Dr. Henry Claggett, of Leesburg, Virginia.” Claggett was a white slaver who had plantations in Virginia and Maryland, according to “Laws made and passed by the General Assembly of the State of Maryland in 1835.” Claggett had to get permission from both states to move his slaves from one state to the other. Basically, the obit is stating that the white enslaver was Philip Nelson’s father and Nelson was at one point enslaved. 

At the time of Mr. Nelson’s death, one-in-four African Americans in Philadelphia were born enslaved.  (1847 Census)

Although Mr. Nelson died on the 31st of May, he wasn’t buried until June 4th. The funeral service was held at the Nelson family home on 8th Street between Catharine and Queen Streets, only three blocks from Bethel Burying Ground. Mr. Nelson’s obituary stated that, while suffering the long fatal course of Tuberculosis, he “. . . bore the last with Christian patience and resignation.” Mr. Nelson’s coffin was carried to the small cemetery and interred at approximately 4 o’clock on a warm June afternoon.

The eighteen-month-old son of William Blake died this date, May 26th, in 1849 of convulsions and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. The child’s first name was not recorded. According to the 1847 Philadelphia African American Census, Mr. Blake worked in a store that sold stoves located on 12th Street below Pine Street. Ms. Blake (unnamed) was employed as a laundress. There were a total of five in the family with one female child 15 years old or younger working as a cook, earning $2 a week. The fifth family member was identified only as “under 50.”  They all lived in one room at 54 Currant Alley for which they paid $7.20 a month.

Currant Alley was a two-city-block long narrow thoroughfare that historian Roger Lane considered “one of the worst [streets] in Philadelphia.”* Ninety-six Black families lived in the densely packed alley with a staggering total of three hundred twenty-one family members, according to the 1847 Census. The Census also showed that the Currant Alley adults were solidly working class, having a wide range of laboring and domestic jobs to which African American men and women were restricted.

On the day that the Blakes buried their child at Bethel Burying Ground, the dawn broke cool and overcast. During the day, the temperature never got above 59 degrees.

* “William Dorsey’s Philadelphia and ours . . .”