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ARCHIVES

Reports, essays, research & more

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The Negro Entry Book:

A Document of Lancaster City's Antebellum Afro-American Community.

 

Click on the image at left for a graphic introduction to this project.

 

Review the new data base of entries.

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Read the full 39-page article by Leroy T. Hopkins, Jr., in Volume 88, Issue 4 of Journal of the Lancaster County Historical Society, published by the Lancaster County Historical Society in 1984.

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In 1870, citizens of Lancaster celebrated what was called a "Jubilee"...a community out-pouring of happiness and satisfaction that a cherished prize -- after years of struggle and waiting -- had finally been won. What was it? The right to vote as full-fledged citizens finally had been restored...to black men at least. They had been stripped of that basic democratic right in Pennsylvania since 1838. Hundreds of citizens marched in the streets of the City and elsewhere across the County in peaceful mass demonstrations of prayer, joy and hope for the future. But those "Days of Jubilee" were short-lived, since the weeks, months and years thereafter have been long on continuing struggles through the years of Jim Crow segregation, and far too short on joy. We know well today, as citizens take to the streets again with hopes and demand for change, that the future envisioned by people in 1870 is still coming into focus. Please read Dr. Leroy Hopkins' essay and share with your friends and family.  Find out what inspired protests and public demonstrations by Lancaster's civil rights pioneers at that critical time in American History. And think about today... Just click on the cover illustration at left. 

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Columbia and its diverse community have been at the center of the national narratives about the Underground Railroad and early anti-slavery sentiments. This community also faced fierce resistance to the modest social and economic gains of its residents of African descent. 

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Download this 57-page reprint from History of Lancaster County to find one set of perspectives on these issues from the community's most well-known 19th century historian. 

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