Richard Henderson
Meadville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Born a slave in Maryland in 1801, he escaped as a boy and about 1824 came to Meadville. A barber, he was long active in the Underground Railroad. His Arch Street house, since torn down, is estimated to have harbored some 500 runaway slaves prior to the Ci… transcription continues on the marker
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The Story
Richard Henderson was born enslaved in Maryland in 1801 and escaped to freedom as a boy, making his way to Meadville in northwestern Pennsylvania around 1824. Working as a barber—one of the few trades open to free Black men of the era—he became a determined conductor on the Underground Railroad. From his home on Arch Street he is said to have sheltered hundreds of freedom seekers moving north toward Canada in the tense decades before the Civil War.
Why it matters
Henderson's quiet, dangerous work shows how free Black communities and their allies turned ordinary homes into a secret network that defied the Fugitive Slave Act and helped make freedom real for the enslaved.
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Related people
- · Richard Henderson
Related events
- · Underground Railroad
Themes & tags
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