On October 8, 1868, Samuel Ganges, an African American nearly 100 years old, died in the Chester County Poor House in West Bradford. He was laid to rest in Chestnut Grove Cemetery, West Chester, by his son George. He had deep ties to the Chester County community, but his life story didn’t begin there. Remarkably, rather, it began with his birth in West Africa around 1772.
This talk will tell the story of how the African Samuel Ganges witnessed a rare success of the new republic’s efforts to curb the foreign slave trade, came by his unusual surname, and began a new life in Pennsylvania. This story spans the Atlantic world from London to Newport and Charleston to Sierra Leone, Havana and Philadelphia. It exhibits, yet again, how the lives of our African American brethren form an important part of our nation’s history, if only we would look.
About the Speaker: Michael Kearney, PhD, has been a genealogist and family historian for more than 30 years. His work has been published in the NEHG Register, the NYGB Record and the Connecticut Nutmegger. His most recent work has been “The Ganges Family History Project — Constructing the histories of 135 enslaved Africans rescued by the sloop-of-war USS Ganges in 1800” , found online at thegangesfamiliies.com.
Admission is Pay as You Wish! Your donation is greatly appreciated. All proceeds benefit the development of future programming and the preservation of the History Center and its collections. The History Center is home to over 750,000 manuscripts, 100,000 photographs, and 70,000 artifacts. Your donation helps us to preserve and share those resources. Register here for this pay-as-you-wish event
Presentation is via Zoom, and will be recorded and available for 7 days for all registered participants. We will email out a Zoom link the day of the presentation, and email a link to the recording within 24 hours. Note: the Zoom link emailed out the day of the presentation only takes you to the live presentation; the link emailed out the day after will contain the recorded version.
This presentation is made possible by the generous support of The Haverford Trust Company.
225 N. High Street, West Chester, PA 19380 | 610-692-4800
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