Slavery for Life or Otherwise: South Central Pennsylvania’s Enslaved and Slaveholding Families in the Age of Gradual Abolition, 1780-1847

Cory Young is pursuing his Ph.D. at Georgetown University. This program is named for the working title of his dissertation. Cory has spent a lot of time over the last few months researching here and around the area.

The dissertation examines how white and black families navigated a changing world after the state assembly enacted the nation’s first gradual abolition law during the Revolutionary War. It emphasizes the fact that there is a troubling history of slavery in Cumberland County that occurred between the sunnier events of emancipation and county participation in the underground railroad.