New PhiladelphiaNational Historic Site - Illinois |
The New Philadelphia National Historic Site is the original site of the now-vanished town of New Philadelphia, Illinois. It is located near the western Illinois city of Barry, in Pike County.
Founded in 1836, New Philadelphia was the first town in the United States platted and registered by an African American before the American Civil War. The founder, Free Frank McWorter (1777–1854), was a former slave who was able to save money from work and his own business to purchase the freedom of his wife, then himself, and over time, 13 members of his family from Kentucky. Several of his freedom purchases were funded by the sale of New Philadelphia lots. The town was integrated and reached a population of about 160 near the close of the Civil War in 1865.
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The Pursuit of Freedom on the Illinois Frontier at New Philadelphia National Historic Site (NHS) in Illinois. Published by the National Park Service (NPS).
The Underground Railroad at New Philadelphia National Historic Site (NHS) in Illinois. Published by the National Park Service (NPS).
New Philadelphia NHS
https://www.nps.gov/neph/index.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Philadelphia_National_Historic_Site
The New Philadelphia National Historic Site is the original site of the now-vanished town of New Philadelphia, Illinois. It is located near the western Illinois city of Barry, in Pike County.
Founded in 1836, New Philadelphia was the first town in the United States platted and registered by an African American before the American Civil War. The founder, Free Frank McWorter (1777–1854), was a former slave who was able to save money from work and his own business to purchase the freedom of his wife, then himself, and over time, 13 members of his family from Kentucky. Several of his freedom purchases were funded by the sale of New Philadelphia lots. The town was integrated and reached a population of about 160 near the close of the Civil War in 1865.
To a casual observer, New Philadelphia looked like a typical Illinois pioneer town. But a closer look revealed a unique and racially diverse community. New Philadelphia was the first US town platted and registered by an African American. A formerly enslaved man, Free Frank McWorter, founded New Philadelphia in 1836 and purchased freedom for himself and 15 family members.
New Philadelphia National Historic Site is in rural western Illinois between the Mississippi and Illinois rivers near Interstate 72. The site can be reached by turning onto 306th Lane from County Highway 2. An informational kiosk is immediately on the left after turning onto 306th Lane. The small city of Barry lies two miles west and has the nearest services. Hannibal, Missouri, is 27 miles west. Springfield, Illinois, is 76 miles east. St. Louis lies about 115 miles south.
Perseverance and Freedom on the Illinois Frontier
A grassy field surrounded by forest under a sunny sky with large white clouds.
View of New Philadelphia National Historic Site on a sunny day.
Kiosk
Four interpretive panels mounted under a covered, open-sided kiosk overlooking a prairie landscape.
A kiosk houses several informational panels at New Philadelphia National Historic Site.
Walking Tour
A mowed path through prairie. There are numbered signs along the trail.
Visitors can take a self-guided ¼-mile-long walking tour of the site using an augmented virtual reality app managed by the New Philadelphia Association. The app is available to download for electronic handheld devices, cost-free, at the kiosk.
Schoolchildren
Twenty children of mixed ages and genders posing for the camera in front of a schoolhouse.
Schoolchildren at the New Philadelphia School, October 1925.
Lucy McWorter
Historic black and white photo of an African American woman seated looking past the camera.
Lucy McWorter, Free Frank McWorter’s wife, 1800s.
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Archeology of New Philadelphia
Twenty-seven years before the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in 1863, the formerly enslaved pioneer “Free” Frank McWorter established the first town founded by an African American man in the United States. Major excavation of New Philadelphia began in 2002, and has allowed archeologists the unique opportunity of examining a site settled by free African Americans.
Plat of New Philadelphia
New Philadelphia: A Multiracial Town on the Illinois Frontier (Teaching with Historic Places)
Learn about "Free Frank" McWorter and how archeology can help tell the story of the interracial town he founded in the years before the Civil War.
New Philadelphia
National Park Service
U.S. Department of the Interior
National Historic Site
Illinois
The Pursuit of Freedom
on the Illinois Frontier
NPS
Above: View of New
Philadelphia today.
To a casual observer, New Philadelphia looked like a typical Illinois pioneer
town. As travelers got closer, they would have found a small but bustling community where Black and White villagers lived and worked side by side. For
formerly enslaved Free Frank McWorter, the town meant new beginnings and
an opportunity to free family members. New Philadelphia, which he founded
in 1836, is the first US town platted and registered by a Black American.
Free Frank McWorter and
the Rise and Decline of
New Philadelphia
New Philadelphia’s story began in 1777
South Carolina with Frank’s birth to Juda, an
enslaved West African woman. Frank spent
the first 42 years of his life in slavery and
during that time moved to Kentucky. On the
Kentucky frontier, Frank met his wife Lucy
and they started a family. During the time
he was not required to work directly for his
enslaver, his time and skills were hired out to
other pioneers. Frank also mined local caves
for saltpetre, a component of gunpowder,
vital for life on the frontier and in demand for
the War of 1812. While Frank was known for
his ingenuity and hard work, the opportunity
to earn income was not an option for many
enslaved people.
After some time, Frank saved enough money
to buy the freedom of then-pregnant Lucy.
This ensured that the child she was carrying
and subsequent children would be born free.
Two years later, in 1819, he purchased his own
freedom. In 1830, Free Frank, Free Lucy, and
their free children moved to Illinois, where he
had purchased land between the Mississippi
and Illinois Rivers. The family carved a homestead and farm out of the Illinois frontier.
COURTESY OF PAMELA AND SHEENA FRANKLIN
COURTESY OF CHRIS FENNELL, PROFESSOR OF ANTHROPOLOGY AND LAW, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
In 1835, Free Frank paid $100 for an
eighty-acre parcel of land just south of
the family farm. He laid out the town he
called Philadelphia (later known as New
Free Lucy McWorter, Free Frank McWorter’s wife,
1800s.
Excerpt of an April 1998 aerial photograph from the
U.S. Geological Survey shows lots and the landscape
on which New Philadelphia was located.
Philadelphia) on 42 acres of that land. He
subdivided the property into 144 lots and sold
them to Black and White settlers. There were
no reports of racial violence in the town.
Free Frank continued to save the funds he
earned from farming and the sale of New
Philadelphia lots to buy the freedom of more
family members. In total, Free Frank freed
himself and fifteen of his relatives at a combined cost of $14,000 (equivalent to about
$500,000 today). After his death in 1854, Free
Frank’s sons continued this effort.
Town descendants and neighboring communities did not forget New Philadelphia.
Historical documents, oral histories,
archeological research, organizations, and
individuals have kept the town’s story alive.
The New Philadelphia Association, a local
non-profit organization, has managed the site
since the late 1990s. New Philadelphia has
been the subject of a collaborative archeological project sponsored by the National
Science Foundation Research Experience for
The community’s population peaked in 1865
and then began declining. New developing
communities nearby and a bypassing railroad were likely contributors to the decline.
Only one family remained in the 1950s. New
Philadelphia disappeared as plows turned the
soil and buried material remains left behind.
Undergraduates program from 2004-2011.
The program was conducted by the universities of Maryland, Illinois, North Carolina,
and the Illinois State Museum. More than
150,000 historic artifacts were unearthed by
archeologists. This research has added to our
understanding of integrated towns in the late
1800s. New Philadelphia became a unit of the
National Park System in December 2022. The
National Park Service is working to establish a
presence at the site.
COURTESY OF PAUL A. SHACKEL, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND
Keeping New
Philadelphia’s Story Alive
Free Frank’s commitment to the freeing of
enslaved people did not stop with his own
family. As a free, racially diverse community
and only 20 miles from Missouri, a slave
state, New Philadelphia became a stop on the
Underground Railroad. The McWorter family
sheltered and escorted freedom seekers.
Excavation of an early twentieth-century foundation at New Philadelphia.
Visiting New Philadelphia
New Philadelphia National Historic Site
is open to the public. The site is located
three miles east of Barry, Illinois, and can
be reached by turning onto 306th lane from
County Highway 2. An informational kiosk
is immediately on the left after turning. The
site is currently maintained by the New
Philadelphia Association.
The Association manages the informational
kiosk and an augmented reality self-guided
walking tour. The app
New Philadelphia
National Park Service
U.S. Department of the Interior
National Historic Site
Illinois
On the Route to Freedom:
The Underground Railroad
and New Philadelphia
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Above: Illustration of freedom
seekers in the 1872 publication
The Underground Railroad.
The Underground Railroad refers to the efforts of enslaved Black Americans
(freedom seekers) to gain their freedom by escaping slavery. Wherever slavery
existed, there were efforts to escape. The laws of the time said that freedom
seekers were “fugitives” who could be captured and sent back into slavery.
Most freedom seekers began and completed their journeys without aid; however, assistance efforts grew over the course of the 1800s.
Free Frank McWorter broke the bonds of slavery by purchasing freedom for
himself and 15 family members, all through his own initiative and enterprises.
In 1836, Free Frank made history as the first Black American in our nation to
plat and record a town, New Philadelphia. New Philadelphia and area residents
actively participated in the Underground Railroad by sheltering, concealing,
and sometimes accompanying freedom seekers north to Canada. Once a bustling town on the Illinois frontier, today New Philadelphia is an archeological
site and now a unit of the National Park System.
On a South Carolina plantation in 1777,
Frank, as he was known in his youth, was
born into bondage to his enslaved mother
Juda. It is likely that George McWhorter, their
enslaver, was Frank’s father. Frank grew up
working his enslaver’s land in South Carolina.
When McWhorter expanded his land holdings in Kentucky and Tennessee, Frank managed the Kentucky property. In 1799, Frank
married Lucy, a woman enslaved on a nearby
plantation. Frank and Lucy became parents to
four surviving children while in bondage.
George McWhorter hired out Frank’s time,
allowing him to keep a portion of the earnings. Frank also earned money mining caves
for saltpetre, a component of gun powder.
This was a key commodity on the frontier
and in the War of 1812. By 1817, Frank saved
enough money to purchase Lucy’s freedom,
ensuring that the child she was carrying and
subsequent children would be born free. In
1819, Frank purchased his own freedom and
acquired land in Pike County, Illinois. He was
known as Free Frank after his release from
slavery. A devoted family man, he traded his
lucrative saltpetre operation to enable his
son, Frank, Jr., who had fled to Canada, to
return to Kentucky and remain free. Free
Frank and Free Lucy left with their free-born
children and Frank, Jr. to the free state of
Illinois in 1830. In 1836, Free Frank founded
a town he called Philadelphia, later known as
COURTESY OF PAMELA AND SHEENA FRANKLIN
Built on a Foundation
of Self Determination,
the Pursuit of Freedom,
Opportunity, and Love
for Family
Free Lucy McWorter, Free Frank McWorter’s wife,
1800s.
The North Star Leads
Through Illinois
New Philadelphia, and sold lots to Black and
White pioneers. In 1837, the state legislature
approved Free Frank’s petition to assume a
last name, McWorter, for legal standing. With
money earned from lot sales, the McWorters
returned to Kentucky, again risking capture
by slave patrols, to free children still enslaved.
Before his death in 1854, in addition to himself, Free Frank had purchased the freedom
of nine family members and made provisions
in his will to free six more family members
from bondage at a cost more than of $14,000,
equivalent to more than $500,000 today.
New Philadelphia was on a route followed by
many freedom seekers fleeing enslavement
north through Illinois. The community was
13 miles northeast of the Mississippi River,
which separated Illinois from the slave state
of Missouri. The town’s rural and remote
landscape was like other communities in
Illinois that were stops on the Underground
Railroad. New Philadelphia became a racially
diverse community working in concert to help
freedom seekers evade capture and achieve
freedom.
“There seems to be reason to believe that
the fugitives are enticed to flee here. They
came as far as Barry, as though they were
among friends. There they were set upon and
returned.”
NPS
Oral histories and historical records by
residents support New Philadelphia’s participation in the Underground Railroad.
Clarissa Shipman, who lived on a farm near
New Philadelphia, wrote to her family in New
England that freedom seekers were captured
in Barry, only three miles away. Shipman
believed that the freedom seekers wanted to
come to the New Philadelphia area, writing,
Other oral histories also support the community’s participation in helping freedom
seekers. Descendant Ruby Duke remembered
stories passed down by her grandmother. Her
grandmother told of freedom seekers who
worked in her grandparents’ garden and their
efforts to thwart bounty hunters. Familiar
with the route north and escape routes from
the south, the McWorters helped and sometimes accompanied freedom seekers. Ellen
McWort