March
1837:
Early Documentation of a Racially Mixed Dance House in Harrisburg
Although
whites in the upper and middle income classes in northern cities seldom
if ever mixed socially with African Americans during the colonial and
antebellum eras, the same was not true for whites who inhabited the
lower economic rungs of society. Laborers, indentured servants, house
servants, watermen, soldiers, drovers, and craftspersons of all races
mixed freely in unlicensed taverns, and later in unregulated "dance
halls."
These
establishments offered dancing and alcohol sales, but also harbored
gambling and prostitution, and generally were located in the poorest
neighborhoods of large towns and cities. In Harrisburg, they thrived
in the African American neighborhoods of Tanner's Alley and Judy's
Town, and later in Allison's Hollow, across the Market Street canal
bridge.
Here,
whites and blacks interacted in a free-form social environment that
ignored societal taboos against racial mixing. Such businesses, though,
could be extremely dangerous for unwary patrons, and presented an unhealthy
and exploitive environment for neighborhood children. The following
news article from 1837 documents
one such establishment that
was involved
in a notorious
incident
of violence against a a young girl who had just come to Harrisburg
in search of work:
Harrisburg,
March 1.
Outrage Unprecedented.--.The morale and feelings of our community
were shocked and excited beyond description, at an occurance which
took place on Monday evening, the 20th of Feb., commenced and carried
out by the villainy and brutality of a deplorably wretched, worthless,
depraved, and unmeasurably wicked gang of youths, with which our
town is infested. In the following succinct account is embodied
the particulars of the outrage referred to.
On
the day and date above mentioned, there came to our borough a young
and apparently innocent girl, between the age of 14 and 15, from
Carlisle, in search of employment; and wandering through town, going
from house to house, inquiring for employment as a servant, she strayed
into a disreputable part of our town; being an entire stranger here,
she wsa not aware of the fact. As night was setting in, she was accosted
by one of the gang above alluded to, who inquired of her, who or
what she was in search of; upon informing him, he told her that if
she went with him, he would get a place for her; young, innocent
and unsuspecting, she accompanied him, to what she supposed was a
respectable house, but which was a grog and dance kennel, kept by
a black man, notorious for its depravity.--Here a scene took place,
which, while it beggars description, exhibits a state of moral depravity,
painful in the extreme to every well-wisher of the social community.
The
article went on to describe a brutal attack upon the girl by a gang
of persons in the dance house, and noted that a reward for the apprehension
of
several of the attackers had been offered by Pennsylvania Governor
Joseph Ritner. It continued:
We
are much pleased to see so liberal a reward offered in such an
emergency. It is evidence that our Governor properly appreciates
the injury done to society, independent of the individual wrong
suffered by this unaccountable transaction.
While
on this subject, let us, in duty bound, advert to the condition
of certain portions of our town, where debauchery has undivided
sway, and immorality stalks abroad unlicensed.
We
are informed from creditable sources that there are from eight
to ten, what are called "DANCE HOUSES," and generally kept by blacks,
in different sections of our borough, where lewd females, both
white and black, meet the dregs of our male community, such as
were engaged in the above described transaction, daily and nightly,
and where scenes such as we have attempted to describe in the case
of the poor unfortunate girl, are of no common occurance. Nay,
it is said it is even worse yet, if worse it can be.
An
eye witness to one night's reveling in one of these places gives
us an account which we, through delicacy, forbear publishing, the
best of which consists in dancing, drinking, gambling, thieving,
robbing, and fighting. All that wickedness can invent--every indulgence
that depravity can originate--and every vice that destitution,
poverty, and crime can give rise to, are here performed without
compunction, without shame; nay, their performance is gloried in.
And to "cap the climax," boys under FIFTEEN, and girls under TWELVE,
are not unfrequently seen participating with all the spirit of
youthful ardor, which in many cases is even yet heightened by intoxicating
liquors, in all and every species of iniquity that morbid sensibility,
lewdness, & drunkeness can bring about.
In
the course of railing against the existence of these illicit businesses,
the Harrisburg Chronicle article above reveals some very
important details about racial mixing in Harrisburg among those who
occupied the lower income classes in the borough. Of particular interest
are the observations that such businesses were "generally kept by
blacks," and that they employed both whites and blacks. Even more
significantly, it states that eight to ten such businesses existed
in different sections of town. This represents a major entrepreneurial
movement by Harrisburg African Americans, albeit one potentially
interlaced with violence and crime, barely a decade after breaking
free of having to live in white households as servants.
Such
illegal businesses provided employment of last resort for fugitive
slaves, newly liberated persons from the South, and others who found
their way to Harrisburg in search of better lives. Acting as a sort
of economic pressure valve, they absorbed those who otherwise might
have starved for lack of income. Not all such dance houses and lager
halls were as corrupt as the one described above. Some secured licences
and became legitimate businesses over time.
In
terms of race relations, these unlicensed dance houses provided a
venue for whites and blacks to intermingle, drink, gamble, dance,
and arrange assignations, all occurring in an atmosphere of mutual
tolerance, if not quite social equality. It was in establishments
such as these, and in their slightly more socially acceptable cousins,
oyster cellars, that acquaintances were made that would enable racial
cooperation in accomplishing the shadowy and illegal work of the
Underground Railroad. Conversely, the raucous dance houses also provided
valuable contacts for men such as Solomon Snyder, the Harrisburg
constable who worked with Slave Commissioner Richard McAllister to
break the back of Harrisburg's Underground Railroad network during
the early years of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law. Source:
Harrisburg Chronicle, republished in Adams Sentinel
and General Advertiser,
6 March 1837. |