PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — William Penn’s reconstructed estate on the Delaware River in Bucks County is hosting a free Black History Month program focused on slavery in Pennsylvania and at his country manor.
The Feb. 23 program at Pennsbury Manor will feature a chat about the history of slavery in Pennsylvania, a dramatization of the 1688 Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery, and a presentation by Shirley Lee Corsey, executive director of the Gather Place Museum at the Historic African Methodist Episcopal Church of Yardley.
Corsey will portray an enslaved woman who worked at the estate from birth until death.
“The lady that I’m portraying, Susanna Warder, she was one of the enslaved people and several others that William Penn brought with him when he came here from England,” she said.
Warder’s family was from the Caribbean. They were living in England when Penn brought several people into slave labor to his Pennsylvania estate.
Warder, who lived to be 109 years old, lived in the kitchen house with her mother. There are not many details about her life, but Corsey’s portrayal of Warder is based on primary source documents from educators at Pennsbury Manor.
Corsey said these stories of Black history must be kept alive, as there are attempts to suppress them in some spaces.
“We’re storytellers. I find if we bring these characters to life, and we’re not just reading about them — the book that someone can try to erase — that’s not going to happen. They can erase a book, but they can’t erase us who are bringing these characters to life,” she said.
“For every group … who try to block our stories, there’s more of us that will continue to deliver our stories.”