The slaves' story

Old Black Alice, who died in 1802 at the wondrous age of 116, remembered well lighting the pipe of William Penn, when the proprietor and slave owner needed a puff.

She remembered attending nascent Christ Church at a time when the nave ceiling was so low she could touch it with the tips of her weathered, slender fingers.

She remembered it all: working the boats of Dunk's Ferry to help white passengers across the river during the day. And working secretly at night to help fellow slaves disappear across the water to freedom.

When Alice died, she was mourned and eulogized as the keeper of the city's memory, a long-lived resident whose life was intertwined with the lives and deaths of the city, a teller of history who saw much and forgot little and passed it all down to eager and younger listeners.

Now Christ Church, where Alice was a parishioner for decade after decade (never attaining freedom herself, despite helping many achieve theirs), has decided to make her life and stories the centerpiece of a new effort to dramatize the city's early experience with slavery.

Building on the intense interest sparked by last summer's President's House excavation on Independence Mall, the Christ Church Preservation Trust plans regular dramatic enactments of slaves and slaveholders, Founding Fathers and chattel, and slave-owning abolitionists. The dramatic presentations, scheduled to begin May 1, are designed to illuminate the church's own history as well as the early history of Philadelphia.

After all, say church officials, in 1760, Africans made up more than 10 percent of the city's population - and more than 80 percent of those Africans were enslaved.

"We thought about this for quite a while," said Donald U. Smith, executive director of the trust, a nonprofit organization that maintains the church and its property and runs programs for the roughly 250,000 annual church visitors.

"Slavery is a very prominent topic at the moment, particularly in Philadelphia, thanks to the President's House, and 2008 marks the 200th anniversary of the end of the Atlantic slave trade. We felt we have a particular story to tell, one of the stories that is not being told elsewhere, which is the story of slavery in the early city. It didn't all take place on plantations in the South. It was right here."

Smith said an additional push came from the 2006 Episcopal General Convention, which called on churches to give a frank account of their history. In Philadelphia, that means discussing the proximity of slavery to power.

The story of Christ Church, attended by the likes of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Rush and Robert Morris, becomes a story of men whose wealth and power was intimately entwined with their embrace of slavery, church officials said.

As with the President's House, where George Washington lived during his presidency with at least nine slaves, the story of Christ Church and slavery is a study in contradictions.

Franklin and Rush, for instance, both held slaves, and both were ardent abolitionists and upholders of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society.

Franklin sent funds from London for the support of a school to teach African children to read and write.

"This is something we need to discuss," said Shirley Parham, who teaches history at Cheyney University and serves as historian for the Avenging the Ancestors Coalition, a citizens group.

Of the Christ Church effort, she said, "this is definitely worth pursuing. We all need to take a look at history and we can't do it without discussing slavery. The churches should be in the lead."

Neil W. Ronk, historian for Christ Church, said Alice was a perfect vehicle for telling the story. Not only did she attend Christ Church for many decades, but she was seen during her lifetime as a keeper of the city's identity and story. Her anecdotes remained in circulation long after her death.

"It seems she never thought of herself as a slave but rather as a founding mother," Ronk said. "She was able, almost in a dreamworld, to remember her early life."

Church officials are uncertain precisely how many slaves and slave owners attended Christ Church, but records indicate there were quite a few. Slave births are recorded with single names; mothers and fathers are not mentioned - only owners. And at death, at least some slaves were laid to rest in the Christ Church Burial Ground, at Fifth and Arch Streets; their graves are unmarked and the locations are unknown.

"We're fleshing it all out as we speak," Ronk said.

Smith, head of the preservation trust, said there was some initial concern that the story of slavery in Philadelphia might be considered too lugubrious to present for tourists. But the crowds last summer at the site of the President's House archaeological excavation swept aside doubt.

The important care-giving role slaves played during the yellow fever epidemic of 1793 will be among the many subjects touched on in the dramatic reenactment, to be conducted Tuesdays and Thursdays at church and burial ground. Prominently featured will be Alice telling her own story and the stories of those she knew, and a narrator telling the broader story of slavery in the North.

"What Alice is is the exemplar of the shadows on our landscape - the stories that are not told," said Ronk. "In some ways, Alice is perfect, a haunting figure on the Philadelphia landscape. . . . We think it's time that the Alices of history are brought into the foreground."

From May 1 to Sept. 30, a reenactment will take place every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. It will begin at the Christ Church Burial Ground, Fifth and Arch Streets, at 1:30, then move to Christ Church, Second Street above Market, at 2:30. General admission is $2, $1 for students and $10 for groups.

With advance notice, evening performances for groups can be arranged.

Information: www.christchurchphila.org or 215-922-1695, Ext. 32.EndText