Schuylkill Corps River Research Seminar: Sharece Blakney and Starr Herr-Cardillo

Schuylkill Corps River Research Seminar

• Sharece Blakney, Graduate Student in the History MA program at Rutgers University-Camden
• Starr Herr-Cardillo, Historic Preservationist/Writer

Sharece Blakney, Graduate Student in the History MA program at Rutgers University-Camden

Equally Free With Myself: Slavery, Manumission, and Indentured Servitude in Kingsessing Township, 1780-1850

Between 1780 and 1850, the black community of Kingsessing Township experienced wealth, poverty, freedom, and enslavement. Using primary source documents, "Equally Free with Myself" explores slavery, manumission, and indentured servitude from the perspective of the black community of Kingsessing. Historical analysis reveals the ripple effect that various forms of being unfree have had on the development of the black community in southwest Philadelphia. The impact of slavery has left historians with many webs that connect the 'peculiar institution' to communities of color and race relations today.

Starr Herr-Cardillo, Historic Preservationist/Writer

Bridging the Schuylkill: Cultivating collaboration through shared history

In the colonial and early national eras, the Lower Schuylkill was home to some of the most important ornamental and botanical gardens in America. Safeguarded by early preservation efforts as the riverfront industrialized, two key players in this story—The Woodlands and Bartram’s Garden—are now recognized as National Historic Landmark Districts, bastions of Philadelphia’s horticultural legacy that live on as parks, historic sites, and important community anchors in their respective neighborhoods. Delving into the history of both sites reveals a number of fascinating historical relationships and connections that are being brought to the public through creative and collaborative programming.

Complimentary Lunch is Provided.

Founded in April 2016, the Schuylkill River and Urban Waters Corps is an informal collective of academic, non-profit, civic and community organizations. Based in Philadelphia, we are devoted to exploring and stewarding urban waters past and present. The Corps is currently fostering collaborations in other cities in the U.S., including Mumbai and New York, and we are building a digital archive for our members' varied work: contributing, collecting, and curating oral histories; developing a variety of tours, both on-line and in-person; measuring air and water quality; and designing and building an array of citizen science and public humanities projects to discover and document the waters--and invite considerations of how they will exist in the future.

@SchuylkillCorps