Our story · community history
Freedom and the records people left
The archive records systems of enslavement; Black students, soldiers, and veterans built institutions that changed the county’s future.
Content note: enslavement
Chapter 01
A law with a long aftermath
Pennsylvania’s 1780 abolition law was gradual. It did not free everyone already enslaved, and state law did not erase the danger faced by freedom seekers. Chester County Archives makes available indexes to the 1780 slave register, manumissions, and fugitive-slave records from 1820 to 1839. A record can establish that an event was documented; it cannot, by itself, tell the whole experience of the person named in it.
Chapter 02
Education as a local institution
In southern Chester County, Ashmun Institute received its charter in 1854 and later became Lincoln University. Lincoln describes itself as the nation’s first degree-granting historically Black college and university. Its institutional history also acknowledges the unequal educational system its founders confronted. The university is a living institution, rather than a closed chapter in a county history.
Chapter 03
Service across regiments
Chester County’s United States Colored Troops index attempts to identify local Black soldiers and sailors in the Civil War. The index explains why they can be hard to trace: Black volunteers did not muster into local Pennsylvania companies, and records do not always state a current residence. It identifies 134 men connected to Chester County in the 3rd USCT and warns that others may have been missed. The number is a documented subset, not a census of all service.
Chapter 04
Veterans made civic space
After the war, Black veterans organized Grand Army of the Republic posts. The Chester County History Center records posts in Atglen and Avondale as well as Coatesville’s Daniel Reed Post, organized in 1890. Meetings, lectures, aid, and commemorations made these more than lists of military names. The record points to Black civic life in multiple county communities, even where its surviving detail is uneven.
Chapter 05
Follow the sources, and their silences
The County Archives asks researchers to look beyond an index to the original record. The History Center’s collections point to later Black civic and labor organizing, including a civil case brought by Black steelworkers against Lukens Steel. Read these sources together: legal documents, institutions, and labor records capture different kinds of action. None stands in for a complete account of Black life in the county, and a correction or family source can deepen this chapter.
Keep exploring
Take this story further.
- Search the County Archives
Use indexes as a path to original records.
- Read Lincoln’s history
The university tells its own institutional story.
- Continue with industry
Explore work and labor records in the county.
Sources & context
About this image
Pennsylvania General Assembly; transcribed in The Statutes at Large of Pennsylvania, vol. 10 (1904), scanned by Internet Archive from the University of Pittsburgh Library System copy. · Internet Archive; University of Pittsburgh Library System · 1780 enactment; 1904 printed volume.
Public domain: scan of a 1904 printed volume and the text of a Pennsylvania statute; no repository-specific image license is stated. Collection record ↗ · Reuse terms ↗
A law with a long aftermath
Pennsylvania State Archives · Slavery and Underground Railroad resourcesChester County Archives · Servant & Slavery RecordsEducation as a local institution
Lincoln University · HistoryService across regiments
Chester County Archives · Chester County USCT IndexVeterans made civic space
Chester County History Center · Grand Army of the Republic CollectionFollow the sources, and their silences
Chester County Archives · Records, Guides & IndexesChester County History Center · United Political Action Committee of Chester County RecordsResearch notesClaim checks and source trail
Each note records what the linked source supports. An index, institutional account, or brief page may leave parts of the story untold.
The Pennsylvania State Archives describes the 1780 law as gradual abolition, not immediate emancipation.
Qualified · 2026-09-26The Chester County Archives lists a 1780 slave register, manumissions, and fugitive-slave records among its indexes.
Verified · 2026-09-26Lincoln University dates the Ashmun Institute charter to 1854 and calls itself the first degree-granting HBCU.
Verified · 2026-09-26The County USCT index identifies 134 Chester County men in the 3rd USCT and states that some soldiers may have been missed.
Qualified · 2026-09-26The History Center describes African American GAR posts in Atglen, Avondale, and Coatesville, including the Daniel Reed Post organized in 1890.
Verified · 2026-09-26The County Archives warns that an index or abstract does not replace reading the original record.
Verified · 2026-09-26The History Center’s UPAC collection guide describes a civil action by Black steelworkers against Lukens Steel.
Verified · 2026-09-26