BLACK HISTORY MONTH TOURS of POMONA HALL
Mansion's 18th-Century Slaves Honored
CAMDEN, NJ -- Every Thursday and Sunday throughout February, the Camden County Historical Society offers special tours designed to honor the memory
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| Photo: Hoag Levins |
Camden's Pomona Hall once served as the main house of a 400-acre plantation worked by slaves.
Google Map: Location of Camden County Historical Society.
| of the slaves who lived and worked at Pomona Hall, the 18th-century home of the Cooper family.
Far from being a peculiar institution limited to the South, slavery was once a way of life right here in what would become the City of Camden with Pomona Hall being the centerpiece of a 412-acre northern Quaker plantation worked by slaves with names like Cuff, Grace, Greg, Mark, Luke, Sam and Peter.
The Black History Month tour looks at each room in Pomona Hall from the perspective of the enslaved people who lived and worked there as the cooks, nursemaids, farmhands, gardeners, laundresses, seamstresses, scrubwomen and laborers who made the lifestyle of the wealthy Cooper family possible.
This special tour highlights the contributions of slaves and servants in Colonial America; describes the daily life of a slave or servant working in Pomona Hall; talks about how Quakers, like the Coopers, viewed the issue of slavery; and tells the story of 18th-century slavery and the slave trade as it was practiced in the City of Camden.
For more information, please call the Camden County Historical Society at 856-964-3333; group tours welcome with advance notice. The Camden County Historical Society is located at 1900 Park Blvd. in Camden, right behind Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center, just across Rte. 130 from Collingswood and next to Historic Harleigh Cemetery. Please visit www.CCHSnj.com to learn more.
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