Bethel Burying Ground Project

One-year-old John Alexander Ricks died this day, August 24th, in 1851 of Pertussis and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. The disease, which is also called Whooping Cough, is a highly contagious bacterial disease. Children with this disease develop a “100-day cough” that racks their bodies with pain and can lead to broken ribs, pneumonia, seizures, inflammation of the brain, and death. Today, children receive vaccines that successfully prevent the disease.

Alexander Ricks’ parents were Sarah and Charles Ricks. Ms. Ricks was twenty-nine-years-old at the time of her son’s death. Mr. Ricks was thirty-five-years-old and he had been born in Maryland. She was born in Delaware, according to the 1850 U.S. Census. They had two other children: William was seven-years-old and Charles was five-years-old. Both were born in Pennsylvania.

Mr. Ricks was formerly enslaved in Maryland. He reported to the census taker of the 1847 Philadelphia African Census that he was neither manumitted nor had he paid for his freedom. It appears he was a passenger on the Underground Railroad.

The family lived in one room at #8 Little Pine Street for which they paid $11 a month. That amount is several dollars above average. Mr. Ricks was employed as a coachman and may have owned his own horse and cab. The high rent may have included rent of a stable in the rear of the property. The 1847 Census also reports the family owned $150 in personal property, which may have included the horse and cab. In modern currency that amount equates to approximately $5,000. On a busy week, Mr. Ricks would have earned between $5-$8. Ms. Ricks labored as a laundress and may have earned $1 a week if business was good.

According to the 1847 Census, either Mr. or Ms. Ricks could read and write. But even without that skill, they would have been aware of the most popular book in 1851 Philadelphia. “Negro-Mania” by John Campbell stated that it was God’s will that the Black man was subservient to the white man. The book contained many supporting statements from white businessmen, politicians, jurists, and clergy. They readily led their names to the book’s thesis that the “Colored Race” would never be the “mental, political, or social equal of the white man” And all of the “sickly sentimentalism” and “maudling philosophy” of the abolitionists would not change what God decreed. The African race was created to service the white race.

Frederick Douglass’s comment on race relations in Philadelphia two years before the book was published – “No (Black) man is safe – his life – his property – and all that he holds dear, are in the hands of the mob, which may come upon him at any moment – at midnight or mid-day and deprive him of his all.” (1) These were the streets that the Ricks family had to walk everyday to go to work, market or church.

Between 1850 and 1851, two-hundred thirty-five Philadelphia children died of Whooping Cough. One-year-old John Alexander died on a hot and humid day in late August where the temperature rose to 85 degrees. He was buried, with dignity, by his parents at Bethel Burying Ground.

(1) North Star, 19 October 1849.

Eight-year-old Mary Jane Ridgeway died this date, August 20th, in 1851 of “typhoid fever with perforation of the intestines” and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. Typhoid on its own may not have led to her death, however, perforation and subsequent abdominal bleeding cause a deadly bloodstream infection (sepsis). Mary Jane would have suffered terribly from nausea, vomiting blood, and severe abdominal pain.

Her parents could only watch and provide very little relief. They were Margaret and Peter Ridgeway. Ms. Ridgeway was 30 years old at the time of their daughter’s death as was Mr. Ridgeway. He was born in Delaware and she in Pennsylvania. They had two other children: Elizabeth, 10 years old, and John, who was six years old. Both children were born in Pennsylvania, according to the 1850 U.S. Census.

Mr. Ridgeway was employed as a “seaman,” according to the 1850 Census. It is unknown if he was a “blue water” sailor, also known as a deep-water sailor, which would mean long stretches away from home. Or he may have been employed on the Delaware River on the coastal ferries to New Jersey and Delaware, which would give him more time at home. Either one was seasonal and would mean unemployment during the winter months. There was no occupation reported for Ms. Ridgeway.

Plum Street was described by a journalist of the era as a “small dark alley”and “long known as the most concentrated street of white prostitution in the city” and “a center of low-life in the city.” (1) The center of this mayhem was Dandy Hall. In a large three-story house at the eastern end of Plum Street, there was a saloon, a dance hall, and a brothel in one structure. On any given night, the drunken chaos from the building spilled out onto the street and created an extremely violent environment. That was never truer when on Christmas Eve in 1846 Dandy Hall came under attack by the “Home Squadron,” a group of hardcore murderers from the Killers gang. Blood ran in the street as throats were slashed and skulls crushed as constables tried to stop the destruction. (1)

It appears that the owner of Dandy Hall was not paying protection money and/or not buying his liquor from the bosses of the Killers which was the Moyamensing volunteer fire company. There was a number of failed arson attempts on the building in the following years. The Moyamensing gang succeeded in burning it to the ground in May of 1849. (3)

Such was life on Plum Street for the Ridgeway family.

Between 1850 and 1851 eighty-three children are reported to have died of Typhoid Fever, according to Philadelphia Board of Health records. Eight-year-old Mary Jane Ridgeway died on a late August day where the temperature rose to only 65 degrees. She was buried, with dignity, by her parents at Bethel Burying Ground.

(1) Maria Carlisle, “Disorderly City, Disorderly Women: Prostitution in Ante-Bellum Philadelphia,” Philadelphia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 110, No.4 (Oct., 1986), pp. 549-568. Sun (newspaper), 29 Dec 1846, p. 3.

(2) Philadelphia Inquirer, 24 May 1849, p. 1.

The unnamed seven-month-old son of Mary and Richard Hubert died this date, August 4th, in 1851 of Cholera and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. Ms. Hubert was thirty-four-years-old at the time of her son’s death while Mr. Hubert was thirty-six-years-old. Both were born in Delaware, according to the 1850 United States Census. The family also included nine-year-old Maria and two-year-old Stephan. Both were born in Pennsylvania.

Mr. Hubert worked as a laborer earning $4-$5 a week. Ms. Hubert was a house cleaner, according to the 1847 Philadelphia African American Census. However, the census taker noted that Ms. Huber was “weakly” and “not able to work regularly.” The family lived at #15 Lisle Street in the Moyamensing District. The narrow thoroughfare was home to more than two dozen Black families. The men and women were employed as waiters, porters, seamstresses, carpenters, laundresses, sailmakers, and tailoresses (female tailors).  The Black children in the neighborhood attended the St. Mary’s Street School or the Lombard Street School. The Huberts paid $8-$10 a month in rent.

The early 1850s in Philadelphia was a fearful time for white people. Every week it seems there was an insurrection by enslaved Black men and women in the slave states such as Alabama and Virginia. There also was a bloody insurrection in Cuba. Hundreds of Blacks were attacking plantations and murdering their enslavers. The southerners blamed the abolitionists for filling the minds of the Blacks with ideas such as equality and liberty. The most famous African American abolitionist was Frederick Douglass. He had visited Philadelphia many times and made numerous friends. But in July of 1852, a month before the Hubert baby died, he decided it was too dangerous to come to Philadelphia. Douglass wrote a friend that he was about to travel from his home in Rochester, New York to Cincinnati, Ohio. He had made this trip before and normally he would stop in Philadelphia. He wrote his friend that he felt sure that this time he would be attacked on the street by white mobs. Douglass also shared with his friend that the potential violence in the city was at a fever pitch, fueled by the “American Demon” – racism. (1)

The baby son of Mary and John Hubert died on a day in early August where the temperature only rose to 74 degrees with light showers falling in the afternoon. He was buried, with dignity, at Bethel Burying Ground.

(1) Philip S. Foner, “The Battle To End Discrimination Against Negroes On Philadelphia Streetcars,” Pennsylvania History, vol. 40, no. 3, July 1973, p.266.

On July 22nd in 1814, John Richardson lost a fifteen-month-old child, gender and name unknown. He or she died from swelling of the brain caused by an unknown disease. Conditions such as kidney disease, heart disease, and Meningitis were common causes for the brain to swell in size. Philadelphia Board of Health Records reveal that the Richardson child was one of seventy-seven children to die with that diagnosis between 1813 and 1814.

According to the 1814 Philadelphia City Directory, Mr. Richardson was employed as a “woodsawyer.” He likely worked in one of the city lumberyards, such as Buntings & Watson’s lumber yard that was located only several blocks away from his home at Shippen Street near 7th in the Moyamensing District of the County. (1)

Given the early (1814) date of the child’s death, the mother’s name is not known. History tells us that she was likely self-employed as a laundress or seamstress. Geographically, they lived on the fringe of the county’s population. Only several years earlier, the neighborhood was a pasture.

In 1813, African Americans in Philadelphia were put on official notice that the white citizens and their political representatives wanted apartheid to be the law of the land. At the urging of the mayor and other Philadelphia politicians, the state senate took up bills that if passed would have made it legal to force all free Black men and women to be registered and carry documents on their person to prove it. It also was proposed that no more Blacks be allowed to enter the city and that the existing residents be taxed to pay for the cost of caring for indigent Blacks. The white officials estimated that there were over 4,000 fugitives from southern slave states. (2)

The Quakers no longer had any political influence in Philadelphia. The political group that succeeded them wanted the city turned into a slave state that would control every aspect of African American lives.

From the little we know about John Richardson, he lived the life of most Black men in early 19th Century Philadelphia. He was a husband, father, laborer, and likely a Christian who worshipped at Rev. Richard Allen’s Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church at 6th and Lombard Streets. This made him a very likely candidate for a member of the “Black Warriors.”

Amid all of that was happening with the proposed racist legislation, the War of 1812 with the British was in full fury. The English fleet was sailing north up the eastern seaboard taking coastal cities one after the other. It appeared that Philadelphia was next. In late August of 1814, the U.S. Army Engineers urgently needed to build a fortification up on the west bank of the Schuylkill River in an area known as Grays Ferry. From there, the cannons of the army would have a clear shot at the large ships of the British navy as they sailed up the river.

The Army started using white men as laborers, but that became a problem when it became apparent the majority were not fit enough to handle the heat and humidity. Military officers approached Reverends Richard Allen and Absalom Jones to rally the Black community to help with the construction project. Over a thousand Black men answered the call and gathered at the State House Yard, now known as Independence Mall. From there, they marched to Grays Ferry and worked without stopping for two days straight until the job was accomplished. African American historian Martin R. Delany called these men the “Black Warriors” of Philadelphia. Was Mr. John Richardson one of the “Warriors?” Very likely.

The Richardson baby succumbed to his or her illness in late July and was buried with dignity at Bethel Burying Ground.

(1) I have been able to track Mr. Richardson through city directories up to 1822. The family moved to German Street sometime between 1817 and 1818. German Street is now Fitzgerald Street.

(2) Edward R. Turner, The Negroe in Pennsylvania (1911), p. 229-230.

(3) Martin R. Delany, The Condition, Elevation, Emigration and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States, p. 75.