The Pennsylvania Default

Abstract

This conclusion to Part One describes how the rise of temperance politics among black Philadelphians led to massive white violence and even more withdrawal by that city’s black leaders. Pittsburgh’s African Americans, led by Martin Delany continued to act politically even after disfranchisement, attempting to organize state conventions, only to be thwarted by Philadelphians. Ultimately, in the 1850s, black Pennsylvanians acted outside of electoral politics to reclaim some agency in fighting off slavecatchers in places in Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, and many smaller sites.