Archeologists have uncovered the first town built by a slave: New Philadelphia, near Illinois, USA. Free Frank bought 160 acres of land in 1830 and created an amazing experiment that worked. http://www.abc.net.au/iview/?WT.svl=mainNav#/view/553905 . Slave catchers were everywhere turning free slaves back into slavery, and the underground railroad came through Frank’s homestead. So this achievement was nothing short of remarkable.
See examples of the ‘diggings’ of Free Frank at http://www.freefrank.org/
This achievement reminds me of one piece of writing that changed history–a book written in the nineteenth century by a devout Christian mother of seven—about slavery. Uncle Tom’s Cabin published twenty-two years after Free Frank’s village (in 1852), changed the minds of the nineteenth century world. It was about forgiveness and reconciliation. Abraham Lincoln–referring to the great Civil War that brought slaves freedom–was reputed to have said to the author, Harriet Beecher Stowe, ‘So you’re the little lady who started this war.” Such was her influence.
Word for today: Nineteenth century lodgings= Diggings
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