Independence National Historical Park

This is the address that Octavius V. Catto gave to the 1864 graduating class of the Institute for Colored Youth. Catto spoke on the history of the school, their Quakers funders, and encouraged the class to do what they could for the improvement of the formerly enslaved people who will join society w

Few of the millions of visitors to Independence National Historical Park may know that it made history by once displaying a mastodon skeleton in Independence Hall. This skeleton was part of Charles Willson Peale’s museum, which operated out of the building in the early 1800s. It was the first fossil

In April 1787 Richard Allen and Absalom Jones formed the Free African Society, a mutual aid organization to service the Black American community of Philadelphia since they received little help from other sources

On July 8, 1776, nine-year-old James Forten heard the first public reading of the Declaration in Philadelphia, from a Dunlap broadside. He spent his life arguing it meant what it said.

This article details the Citizens' Suffrage Association meeting that took place on July 19, 1876 at 333 Walnut Street (now the 18th century Garden in Independence National Historical Park). In addition to white female suffragists, attendees included people of color, such as Frances Ellen Watkins Har

This is a writ of habeas corpus for Cato [unidentified last name], a formerly enslaved man, after he was apprehended for “stealing” his wife and three children from their enslaver in Chester County. A few days later he was requested to appear in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in Independence Hall, f

In 1786, Betsey [unidentified last name] was ordered to appear before Pennsylvania Supreme Court Chief Justice, and signer of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas McKean. Her father, Cato, took her from her enslaver. Her enslaver demanded her return.

This is the Pennsylvania Freeman newspaper article, “Meeting in the State House Yard” about Frederick Douglass’s speech on Independence Square on August 22, 1844.