The Burning of Pennsylvania Hall

Due to strong Quaker influences, Philadelphia was a hub of abolitionist organizing and a busy station on the Underground Railroad. The Pennsylvania Abolition Society, founded in 1775, is the oldest such organization in the country. The American Anti-Slavery Society was established here as was the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society, an interracial abolitionist group. Less widely known about Philadelphia, however, is that our city was also a hotbed of pro-slavery sentiment. As the first big city north of the Mason-Dixon Line, Philadelphia had well-established social and business ties to the South. As the city industrialized, owners of local textile mills grew rich by selling items manufactured with southern cotton. Anti-abolitionist sentiments were so strong that abolitionist groups could not find venues willing to host their meetings. A coalition of these groups raised $40,000 to build a grand building, Pennsylvania Hall. The building, on 6th St, near Race, contained offices, meeting rooms, a lecture hall for 300, and a Grand Saloon, which could hold 3,000 people. In May of 1838, the second Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women was the newly finished building’s inaugural event. Abolitionists from throughout the Mid-Atlantic and New England regions gathered in Philadelphia. The hall, erected as an arena for "free discussion", was set on fire by a mob of hostile Philadelphians who had witnessed 3 days of interracial dedication ceremonies and services. For disputed reasons, the fire companies did not attempt to extinguish the burning hall. The building was razed and never rebuilt.