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Study AreasThe Violent Decade |
Paxton Creek and the Industrial CanalJust as the Susquehanna River defines the western boundaries of Harrisburg, two other waterways, one natural and one man-made, defined the town's eastern perimeter. Both played a significant role in the development of the town's African American community, and its subsequent anti-slavery activities. Paxton Creek is an important waterway that lent its name to the area when it was still a wilderness township of Lancaster County. John Harris settled near where the creek emptied into the Susquehanna River, a spot which was already a popular campsite for local Native Americans. As the town developed, the swampy lowlands surrounding the creek defied both farming and development, although the waterway did lend itself to use by tanneries, gristmills and sawmills. An old plat of the town shows the distinct lines of the town's eastern boundaries. with all of the intervening land sloping downward toward the creek. Because these sloped, often swampy areas were less desirable for building, they became the areas first inhabited by incoming African Americans in need of low-cost housing. The first significant area in which free African Americans clustered in Harrisburg was the block bordered by Third and Fourth streets and between Market and Walnut streets, situated on the northern limits of the town in 1810. Running east and west through the center of this block was Strawberry Alley, and it was bisected north to south by Dewberry Alley. From The Year of Jubilee: Men of God:
Some African Americans settled on the remote eastern reaches of Market Street itself, north of Third, which "sloped noticeably toward the low and often marshy ground that surrounded Paxton Creek. Here, the houses along the street were small, scattered, surrounded by animal pens and vegetable gardens, and were occupied by the poorer residents of Harrisburg, including many African Americans." (YOJMOG, p. 500) The Pennsylvania Canal
The coming of the canal changed the complexion of Harrisburg from a politcal center to a transportation and political center. It brought business, trade, prosperity, and new options for those whose business it was to aid fugitive slaves. The long, straight towpaths made ideal "roads" for escaping slaves, and some hid in the slow moving canal freight boats themselves when sympathetic crews allowed it. All photographs and text on this page copyright © 2011 George F. Nagle and Afrolumens Project. |
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