Local
History Then and Now
By Albert B. Kelly
There’s an old song from the 1970’s that includes the line,
“don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s
gone”, which seemed to capture the sense of history on display in our area- all
part of the Freedom Tour that explores Greenwich, Shiloh, Hopewell and
Springtown and their connections to the underground railroad.
The tour, and the history it confronts us with, provides
quite a contrast to the headlines and issues that confront us today with regard
to race in our country- even as names like Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Walter
Scott, Sandra Bland, Freddie Gray, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, and now Terrance
Cutcher, and Keith Scott- swim in my thoughts.
But the present notwithstanding, this tour provides a more
intimate look at how those fleeing slavery in the 17th, 18th,
and 19th centuries made landfall in our area on their trek toward
freedom, showing a little of how the people in these communities provided
shelter and help to the men, women, and children in the decades before the
civil war.
The tour highlights the prominence of Greenwich and how
Springtown evolved as a rural free black community of faith. As I took the
tour, which is well-informed through literature from that period, it quickly
becomes clear that Americans of that era struggled with issues of race and
slavery through the lens of faith.
Beginning with the Quakers and the meeting house they built
along the Cohansey River in the 1690’s, faith played a prominent role in this
history- as did our waterways. This meeting house, which was replaced by a
brick structure in 1771, is still standing today.
Back then, in addition to the access provided by water, the
presence of a Quaker meeting house meant a place where those fleeing human
bondage in the south could find a safe haven or a brief respite before
continuing on northward.
The Freedom Tour includes Springtown, significant because in
the early 1800’s free black men purchased this land from farmers and merchants
in Greenwich to form their community. It was in Springtown, on Ambury Hill,
that the first African Methodist Church was erected.
There is a graveyard on Ambury Hill, which is still owned by
the AME Church, though it is not in active use these days. But still, you can
glimpse the names, a testimony to a self-emancipated group of men and women who
refused to live under the yoke of slavery.
This history intersects with names that remain prominent
today such as “Sheppard”. In the early 1800’s, Ben Sheppard granted land to fugitive-slaves
who helped him clear his land and cut down trees. It was from such kindnesses
that these newly freed men and women could establish themselves and live in
freedom with the dignity that comes with freedom.
I encourage anyone who has an interest in our local history
to take the Freedom Tour- you won’t be disappointed and you might just be
surprised at the history that took place around us.
This tour, like the history it covers, is about those who
sought freedom from slavery and those that helped. Taking the tour, if you’ll
let it, reminds us that we live in the shadow of this most American sin even
today.
I don’t think it’s an accident that religious faith and the
moral framework that comes with it allowed residents in Greenwich, Shiloh, and
Hopewell to see former slaves as worthy of kindness and dignity so many years
ago.
I suspect that faith and the moral framework that comes with
it may be the one thing that can keep us from unraveling today- but I take that
as an article of faith as well.
In generations past, the struggle was against slavery.
Today, the bondage is different and perhaps far deeper than we care to admit-
whether fear, suspicion, poverty, hopelessness, despair, or addiction; it’s not
unrelated to the past.
The Freedom Tour connects us to the past and if you’re
willing, it provides an opportunity to reflect and dial down the rhetoric and
the barrage of newsfeeds and headlines pounding us in one direction or another.
The tour is funded by the NJ Council for the Humanities with
the help of the Bridgeton Library, Cumberland Improvement Authority, Bethel
Othello AME Church, Greenwich Friends Meeting, and Gateway Community Action
Partnership.
If you’re interested in finding out more, please contact the
Office of the Mayor.