Telling the Story of Slavery at Cliveden

Greetings Internet!

Last Tuesday, I attended (as I do the second Tuesday of every month between September and June) the General Meeting of the African American Genealogy Group in Philadelphia.* (Let me just say that I love these folks - they are very funny, very kind, and always get me excited about jumping back into my own family history research. And despite the fact that I am by far the youngest person in the group - genealogy is mostly an activity geared towards retired folks who have the time and income to pursue it - I feel entirely comfortable around my fellow AAGGers.)

Anyway, during each meeting, we have a moment where we ask guests to introduce themselves and tell a little about what brought them to us. At this meeting, we were lucky enough to meet three men from Cliveden, a historic house in the Germantown section of Northwest Philadelphia.

Cliveden is best known as the site of the 1777 Battle of Germantown, where George Washington and his troops tried to surprise the British and Hessian forces in order to retake Philadelphia, which was then the American capital. Now, Cliveden is a solidly constructed house, built as a summer home for the wealthy Chew family in what was then essentially a 'burb of the city; it has thick stone walls that would take a lot of force to break through. I won't go into all of the details (frankly, I don't even have all of the details!), but the short version is this: the Continental Army did not win the fight and Washington and his men were forced to retreat (which is how they ended up at Valley Forge). Of course, we all know how the story ends, so, whatever!

But, back to modern-day Cliveden, sort of. What these three visitors to our genealogy meeting had to say was this: a few years back, a massive amount of Chew family papers were found in the basement of Cliveden, which the Historical Society of Pennsylvania had taken on the challenge of cataloging. Now, the Chew family was a slave-holding family - they had farms in Delaware and Maryland - and, in fact, had owned Richard Allen's family (he of Mother Bethel and the African Methodist Episcopal Church). These recently discovered papers apparently contain LOADS of information about the lives of the men and women held as slaves by the Chew family.

With the papers now organized and cataloged, the staff (and volunteers) of Cliveden are working to integrate this information into a fuller picture of the true history of both the Chew family and its homes, so that the stories of the enslaved come to light. Not only that, but they are also seeking out descendants of these enslaved men and women, to include them in the process.

I think this is fantastic, and I am really looking forward to seeing how the folks at Cliveden make this happen. It seems they may even share the process with the public, so let's all stay tuned for more information (note to Cliveden: If you blog it, they will come).

In the meantime, if you get the urge to visit Cliveden (or to see grown men dressed up as toy soldiers), definitely come out for their annual reenactment of the Battle of Germantown - I believe it takes place the first Saturday in October. See http://cliveden1767.wordpress.com/ for more information.

Signing off for now,

Miss History


*(Full disclosure: I am the Publicity Chair of AAGG)