Covenant Presbyterian Church

Transcription

1 Covenant Presbyterian Church Butler, Pennsylvania August 17, 2013 The Underground Railroad in Western Pennsylvania celebrating our region s history during our church s bicentennial year The Rev. Dr. James E. Swanson, Pastor Pastor s Phone: Church Office Phone: Website:

2 Covenant Presbyterian Church ~ PC(USA) 230 E. Jefferson Street, Butler PA Pastor: Rev. Dr. James E. Swanson Music Director /Organist: Beverly Antis Vocal Soloist: Amy Cannard The Underground Railroad in Western Pennsylvania Guest Speakers: Reid Stewart, Bob Dayton, Roy Magee WELCOME by Rev. Swanson PRAYER OF INVOCATION VOCAL SELECTIONS by Amy Cannard When Johnny Comes Marching Home Swing Low, Sweet Chariot Go Down, Moses Patrick S. Gilmore Spiritual Spiritual BRIEF HISTORY OF OUR CHURCH INVITED SPEAKERS Rev. Reid Stewart Rev. Robert Dayton Mr. Roy Magee

3 VOCAL SELECTIONS by Amy Cannard Tenting on the Old Camp Ground I'll Fly Away Walter Kittredge Albert E. Brumley RECOGNITION OF THOSE WHO AIDED IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN /COVENANT CHURCH UNDERGROUND RAILROAD MUSEUM with special thanks to Ron Davidson & his daughter, Taylor ANNOUNCEMENTS LITANY OF DEDICATION for the Museum Leader: We were created by God. We are all God s children, People: Each one deserving the dignity of a life lived in freedom, not bondage. Leader: We were created by God. We are all God s children, People: Rich or poor, young or old, black or white or brown -- we are a part of the family of God. Leader: Let us then give thanks to God for life and for freedom. Let us remember the remarkable courage of our ancestors in the faith. Their work was holy work to set the captive free. People: They risked much for the cause of liberating the slave and aiding the fugitive; we remember them today with thanksgiving. Leader: And we dedicate to you, O Lord, the sacred space where we believe the slaves hid here, finding safety and rest before continuing their flight to freedom. People: Consecrate it, O God, for the enlightenment of all who seek to know more about those days in our nation s past.

4 Leader: Consecrate the Museum which we dedicate today. May it serve your purpose, and bring us closer to the day when none of your children will be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character that day when when we will all be truly free at last! All: Consecrate it, we pray, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. *CONGREGATIONAL HYMN Battle Hymn of the Republic Julia Ward Howe / William Steffe Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword: His truth is marching on. (Chorus) Glory, glory, hallelujah! Glory, glory, hallelujah! Glory, glory, hallelujah! His truth is marching on. I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps, They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps; I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps: His day is marching on. (Chorus) He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat; He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat: Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet! Our God is marching on. (Chorus) In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me. As He died to make men holy, let us live to make men free, While God is marching on. (Chorus)

5 BENEDICTION & ADJOURNMENT to the Assembly Room for the continuation of our program Question & Answer Story-telling about the Underground Railroad Museum Tours (please take a group number) Refreshments Quilts & the Underground Railroad Code --Carol Monk, Slippery Rock Presbyterian Church Welcome to Covenant Church! Even as the world seeks to divide us according to our economic, racial and ethnic groups, ages, gender, abilities, preferences, politics and theological positions, we believe that in Christ there is no such division. Our congregation is strengthened through difference and diversity. We welcome all to our church community and its activities, especially those who feel estranged, rejected, misunderstood or are searching for respite from the stresses and anxieties of life. Our programs, services and pastoral care are available to members and non-members alike. From 1813 until today, our purpose has been to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and to reach out to our neighbors in need with energy, intelligence, imagination and love. Rev. Dr. James Swanson (Pastor Jim) Visit us on the web at: covenantbutler.org

6 The History of Battle Hymn of the Republic On Nov. 18, 1861, Julia Ward Howe, a prominent Boston poet, attended a review of Union troops outside Washington, D.C. As her carriage made its way back to the city, inching along roads clogged with marching soldiers, Howe and her companions began singing some of the popular songs of the day, among them John Brown s Body, an earthy Union marching tune. Together, the troops and the civilian spectators belted out the song s rousing chorus: Glory, glory hallelujah, his soul is marching on! One of Howe s traveling companions suggested that she write some more elevated lyrics for the tune. She replied that she had often thought of doing so, but that the words had not yet come to her. That night, as she slept at the Willard Hotel, the city s most distinguished accommodation, the words finally came. As Howe later recalled, I awoke in the gray of the morning twilight; and as I lay waiting for the dawn, the long lines of the desired poem began to twine themselves in my mind. Having thought out all the stanzas, I said to myself, I must get up and write these verses down, lest I fall asleep again and forget them. She jumped out of bed, found an old stump of a pen nearby, and scrawled the verses on the back of a piece of stationery. Falling back to sleep with a drowsy sense of satisfaction, she thought to herself, I like this better than most things that I have written. The History of Underground Railroad Exactly how the effort to help Southern slaves flee to freedom came to be called the Underground Railroad may never be known with certainty. However, it is said that in 1831 a fugitive slave by the name of Tice Davids was fleeing from Kentucky with his former master in hot pursuit. When he came to the Ohio River near Ripley (Ohio), Davids dove into the river and swam to the other shore. According to legend, Davids' owner was chasing him in a boat when he lost sight of his swimming slave.

7 Frustrated and perplexed by his slave s remarkable disappearance, the owner thought Tice Davids must surely have taken an underground railroad or something. That comment was reported in the press, and the term has been used ever since. A slave in 1850 didn't have many choices in life. Escaping was a very uncertain prospect. The master would either hunt the slave himself or send brutal slave hunters to track him down. If caught, not only did the runaway face almost certain death, but the rest of the slaves on his plantation were often witness to his execution and were punished themselves. And life on the run was difficult, to say the least. The fugitive had to be wary of everyone -- strangers could recognize him as a slave and turn him in; other slaves could rat him out to curry favor with their masters. If the runaway did make it to a Northern state, there were still perils. Plenty of people, white and black, wanted the reward money they could receive for turning him in. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 (which was made even harsher in 1850) meant that all citizens -- Northerners included -- were obligated to aid in the recovery of escaped property" or face punishment themselves. Historians do agree that, especially early on, most fugitives escaped from the southern border states -- Maryland, Kentucky and Virginia. Very few made it out of the Deep South, where conditions were often the most harsh, for multiple reasons. First, the journey North was much longer -- those who left usually went to Spanishcontrolled Mexico or Florida. Second, when the government banned the African slave trade in 1808, slaves became much more valuable (due to a lack of supply). So in the Deep South, where the larger cotton plantations required more labor, masters were that much more inclined to control their "property." And finally, because slaves in the Deep South were farther away from the free states, they didn't have as much access to information about escape and what life was like in freedom. Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty we are free at last. Martin Luther King Jr., I Have a Dream (1963)

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9 A Brief List of Resources for Further Exploration of the Underground Railroad August 17, 2013 Historical Research Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania (2nd Edition) by William J. Switala Paperback, $ from Amazon.com ISBN-13: Organized in antebellum America to help slaves escape to freedom, the Underground Railroad was cloaked in secrecy and operated at great peril to everyone involved. The system was extremely active in Pennsylvania, with routes running through cities and towns in all parts of the state. This revised second edition retraces the routes with detailed maps, discusses the large city networks, identifies the houses and sites where escapees found refuge, and records the names of the people who risked their lives to support the operation. Expanded with recently uncovered information; eyewitness accounts of fugitives.

10 Bound for Canaan: The Epic Story of the Underground Railroad, America's First Civil Rights Movement by Fergus M. Bordewich Paperback (2006), 576 pages -- $ from Amazon.com ISBN-13: Though the Underground Railroad is one of the touchstones of American collective memory, there's been no comprehensive, accessible history of the secret movement that delivered more than 100,000 runaway slaves to freedom in the Northern states and Canada. Journalist Bordewich fills this gap with a clear, compelling survey of the Railroad from its earliest days in Revolutionera America through the Civil War and the extension of the vote to African Americans in Using an impressive array of archival and contemporary sources (letters, autobiographies, tax records and slave narratives, as well as new scholarship), the author reveals the Railroad to be much more complicated--and much more remarkable--than is usually understood. The Underground Railroad: Authentic Narratives and First-Hand Accounts by William Still Paperback, (2007), 304 pages -- $ from Amazon.com ISBN-13: A "conductor" based in Philadelphia, Mr. Still ( ) helped guide fugitive slaves to safety in the years before the Civil War. He also created this unforgettable history, a collection of carefully preserved letters, newspaper articles, and firsthand accounts about refugees' hardships. More than 50 illustrations.

11 Resources for Children The Underground Railroad: An Interactive History Adventure (You Choose Books) by Allison Lassieur Paperback, (2008), 112 pages -- $ 6.25 from Amazon.com ISBN-13: For children, grade 3 7. Describes the people and events of the Underground Railroad in the 1850s after the Fugitive Slave Act was passed. This volume has "3 Story Paths, 37 Choices, 16 Endings" to give children an interactive reading experience and varied outcomes. Readers can be a runaway slave, a slave catcher, or an abolitionist. If they opt for the first choice, they are instructed to turn to page 13 to continue the story. There they find out that their father wants to escape, but their mother wants to stay behind. Now readers must decide whether to remain with one parent or go with the other. The text exclaims, "What a terrible choice!" Good point. After all, most slaves' options were not really good ones, so the story is a realistic exercise in futility. Throughout the book, reproductions of photos and illustrations from the period make the information visually appealing. The Story of the Underground Railroad coloring book Dover History Coloring Book Paper, (2000), 48 pages -- $ 4.65 from Amazon.com ISBN-13: Forty-four dramatically illustrated scenes tell the story of the secret network that took runaway slaves from southern states to the North and Canada between 1830 and Fact-filled captions.

12 Quilts & The Underground Railroad Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad. by Jacqueline L. Tobin & Raymond G. Dobard Paperback, (2000), 240 pages -- $ from Amazon.com ISBN-13: Historian Jacqueline Tobin and scholar Raymond Dobard offer the first proof that certain quilt patterns, including a prominent one called the Charleston Code, were, in fact, essential tools for escape along the Underground Railroad. In 1993, historian Jacqueline Tobin met African American quilter Ozella Williams amid piles of beautiful handmade quilts in the Old Market Building of Charleston, South Carolina. With the admonition to "write this down," Williams began to describe how slaves made coded quilts and used them to navigate their escape on the Underground Railroad. Facts & Fabrications: Unraveling the History of Quilts & Slavery by Barbara Brackman Paperback, (2006), 111 pages -- $ from Amazon.com ISBN-13: This unique volume looks at the history of quilting and the use of quilts as visual aids in the context of slavery and the Underground Railroad in pre-civil War America. The author uses the most current research -- including firstperson accounts, newspaper and military records, and surviving quilts -- to provide a controversial, yet thorough and informative examination of the role of quilts in the era of slavery and emancipation. This volume also includes 9 projects and 20 block patterns that represent the history of slavery, inspired by stories of the Underground Railroad.