The Dennis Farm
Brooklyn Township, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Settled by Prince Perkins, a free African American Revolutionary War veteran who came from Conn. in 1793, the property has remained in his descendants' ownership for over 200 years. Granddaughter Angeline Perkins Dennis and husband Henry W. Dennis expanded the farm. It provides an understanding about free African American settlement and life in an integrated rural Pa. community and attests to the prevalent antislavery activity in northeastern Pa.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
In 1793, Prince Perkins, a free African American veteran of the Revolutionary War, came from Connecticut to settle this land in the hills of northeastern Pennsylvania, and his descendants have held it for more than two centuries. His granddaughter Angeline Perkins Dennis and her husband Henry expanded the farm, sustaining a rare, lasting Black landholding in an integrated rural community. The property offers a window into free African American settlement and the strong antislavery currents that ran through this corner of Pennsylvania.
Why it matters
The Dennis Farm preserves the too-rarely-told story of free Black landowners in the early republic, evidence that African American families built, held, and passed down property across generations of American history.
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Related people
- · Prince Perkins
- · Angeline Perkins Dennis
- · Henry W. Dennis
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Jonathan Jasper Wright (1840-1885)
Springville Township, PA · est. 2001
Born in 1840 to parents who had escaped slavery, Jonathan Jasper Wright grew up in Springville and went on to become the first Black lawyer admitted to the bar in Pennsylvania. He stood with Frederick Douglass in the fight for the vote and legal equality, and in 1870, during Reconstruction, he was elevated to the South Carolina Supreme Court—the first African American to sit on a state's highest court. His rise from a runaway slaves' son to the bench marked a breathtaking, if fragile, moment of possibility.
Susquehanna County
Montrose, PA · est. 1982
Split from Luzerne County in 1810 and named for its great river, Susquehanna County became an early hotbed of antislavery activity, with Montrose serving as an Underground Railroad stop. It was also home to Galusha A. Grow, the congressman who championed the 1862 Homestead Act. That law opened millions of acres of western land to ordinary settlers.
Hickory Grove Cemetery
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