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Quest for Freedom: Cliveden
Home of Benjamin Chew
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Cliveden
Photo by R. Blunt
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Underground Railroad Connection
Located in historic Germantown, Clivden was summer home to Benjamin Chew, chief legal officer for Pennsylvania in the late 18th century. Known nationally for its collection of art and furnishings, Cliveden still bears the marks of the 1777 Battle of Germantown.
Among the sources for Benjamin Chew's wealth was his ownership of over 100 enslaved Africans on his properties in Delaware, including African Methodist Episcopalian minister, Richard Allen. The Chew papers reveal a long history of plantation attempts (including efforts initiated from Cliveden) to control and manage the large population of slaves, and to recover individuals who had escaped.
These papers reveal a long history of underground railroad activity in the Philadelphia region from the earliest days of the American republic in the 1770s and 1780s.
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