JARED FREDERICK: From the Quaker principles of its early settlers to the fiery activism of John Brown, the abolition movement of the United States took root in Pennsylvania.

Amidst heated debates and societal unrest, many residents of the Commonwealth resisted the ideology of chattel slavery and stood shoulder to shoulder with the enslaved in their quest for freedom.

This is the story of Pennsylvania's 200-year-long struggle for emancipation.

[music playing] When William Penn established the province of Pennsylvania in 1681, his Quaker principles motivated him to create a haven of religious freedom, toleration and brotherly love.

Yet Penn owned at least a dozen enslaved people to attend to the everyday needs of his domestic life.

At the Philadelphia docks, the sight of Black men and women in chains was not uncommon.

The situation appalled some Quakers, compelling them to sign the Germantown petition against slavery in 1688.

Meanwhile, other Quaker families retained ownership of human property for a century, fearful that discarding slavery meant forsaking profit.

As the colony expanded westward and displaced Native Americans, slave labor was commonplace in agriculture and early industry.

However, in the aftermath of the French and Indian War, an increasing number of British colonists who espoused the potential of personal liberty began to recognize the inherent contradictions of slavery.

The very same week, the first shots of the American Revolution were fired in Massachusetts in April 1775, a group of Philadelphians established the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, the first such organization in the country.

Benjamin Franklin, once a slave owner himself, saw the error of his former ways and eventually became the society's president.

But he could not convince all of his fellow founding fathers to follow his lead.

Initial anti-slavery pronouncements included in a draft of the Declaration of Independence were removed.

After the American victory in the revolution was secured, representatives at Philadelphia's constitutional convention safeguarded slavery without even mentioning the word, deeming that those bound to service were only 3/5 human beings.

Despite institutionalized challenges in federal circles, grassroots activism in Pennsylvania forged great change as the nation prepared to enter a new century.

Even as the war for independence had raged, the Commonwealth enacted a Gradual Abolition Act in 1780 that would free young enslaved people when they reached age 28, setting into motion the eventual end of human bondage in Pennsylvania.

All the while, Absalom Jones, an African-American abolitionist and clergyman, founded the free African society and facilitated civic engagement for the growing number of free Blacks in Philadelphia.

In that same city, George Washington resided as the nation's first president.

In the shadow of Independence Hall, his enslaved servants attended to his needs while he shrewdly skirted Pennsylvania's emancipation law.

But not all were willing to let opportunity slip by.

In 1796, a young woman named Oney Judge, who Washington owned, successfully fled to New Hampshire.

Despite Washington's advertisements calling for her capture, she was never apprehended.

Judge escaped, even though the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, allowed bounty men to legally pursue and capture her in any free state.

As slavery grew in economic and political importance in the South, the institution continued to wither in Pennsylvania.

By 1820, only 200 enslaved people remained in the Commonwealth.

But this is not to say all Pennsylvanians favored abolition, let alone Civil Rights.

An 1838 gathering of abolitionists at Philadelphia's Pennsylvania hall was disbanded when a racist mob vandalized the building and smashed windows.

The next day, the crowd set the building aflame and destroyed the city's most iconic forum dedicated to free speech.

Tensions further flared between state and federal power.

In 1826, Pennsylvania had made the act of kidnapping Black residents in the quest to enslave them an illegal offense.

And the consequential 1842 Supreme Court decision, Prigg versus Pennsylvania, the justices determined that the Fugitive Slave Act overruled Pennsylvania law.

The conviction of slave catcher Edward Prigg was thereby overturned.

In light of tightening federal influence, men and women in bondage grew increasingly creative in their escapes to freedom.

In 1849, Henry Brown escaped from Virginia by being mailed in a crate to the Office of the Pennsylvania anti-slavery society in Philadelphia.

That same year, Harriet Tubman escaped a Maryland farm and eventually connected with William Still, a Philadelphia conductor on the underground railroad who kept meticulous records of those who he helped flee.

The ensuing partnership enabled Tubman to return to the South and guide fellow freedom seekers to liberty.

However, certain plantation owners had every intention of capitalizing off of the Fugitive Slave Act, which had been strengthened in 1850.

Some received more than they bargained for.

In September 1851, Maryland slave owner Edward Gorsuch, attempted to recapture four escaped enslaved people who were residing in Christiana, Pennsylvania.

The resulting shootout led to his death.

A sensational trial in which his accused killers were acquitted was yet another event that widened the gap between North and South.

By 1855, Pennsylvania was in the international spotlight as new confrontations over slavery erupted in the streets.

That July, a Quaker named Passmore Williamson was sentenced to 100 days in prison after assisting Jane Johnson and her two young sons to escape their enslaver while passing through Philadelphia, divisions only intensified.

Few were more outraged than abolitionist John Brown, a former tanner who once resided in Crawford County and funneled freedom seekers to the shores of Lake Erie.

Having already gained infamy and celebrity as a violent anti-slavery crusader, Brown secretly planned to spark a massive slave revolt by seizing the stockpile of weapons at the federal armory of Harpers Ferry, Virginia.

He and his fellow conspirators planned elements of the raid at the Ritner Boarding House in Chambersburg.

At a nearby rock quarry in the summer of 1859, Civil Rights icon Frederick Douglass argued with Brown over the merits of such an uprising.

Douglass insisted that Brown and his men would be walking into a perfect steel trap.

Douglass was right, Brown and most of his men were captured or perished in the assault, all without freeing a single enslaved person.

Brown was tried for treason and hanged.

But John Brown's succeeded in the sense that his action propelled the nation closer to the Civil War that would ultimately destroy slavery.

In the White House during this time of crisis was a Pennsylvania president who proved incapable of mending the partisan split.

James Buchanan boasted an incredible record of public service, but his pro-southern views emboldened the slave powers.

Following the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, Buchanan's limited view on constitutional power led to his inaction as Southern states seceded from the Union and created a confederacy to ensure the survival of a slave empire.

Buchanan's idleness was counterbalanced in Pennsylvania and national politics by one of the foremost abolitionists of the age, Thaddeus Stevens.

Born into poverty and with a disability, Stevens grew a strong sense of empathy for the oppressed.

Serving in Congress during the Civil War era, he was an ardent champion of racial equality and spearheaded the passage of the 13th Amendment in 1865, legally ending American slavery once and for all.

In the pursuit of justice, he was certainly not alone in that ambition.

Thanks for joining us on this episode of Past PA.