The Library Company of Philadelphia, in partnership with 1838 Black Metropolis and the McNeil Center for Early American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania will be hosting “Black Philadelphia in the 18^th and 19^th Centuries” on February 20-22, 2025. The conference aims to restore Black people as central historical actors in Philadelphia, paying particular attention to their abolitionist, cultural, economic, social, and political networks. As the nation prepares to celebrate its 250^th anniversary in 2026, Philadelphia will be in the national spotlight for its historic connections to 1776. Too often placed at the margins of these commemorations, Black historical subjects take center stage at this conference, which aims to document their labor, politics and cultural contributions and rethink the periodization that determines national celebrations while compartmentalizing the history of racial minorities as separate timelines. To that end, this conference constructs a broader chronology of Pennsylvania’s national importance, focusing on Black communities in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with special attention to 1838 as a major turning point for Black Philadelphians. Public History Scholars Kendra Field and Kerri Greenidge, Directors of the Dubois Forum, Chief Historians at 10 Million Names, and Professors at Tufts University, will be part of the Opening Plenary.

We seek a broad, diverse range of perspectives. We invite academics, public historians, students, artists, and activists to submit a proposal for a presentation (an academic paper, a video, a literary reading, or other media) that relates to but is not limited to how Black Philadelphians contributed to:

• Abolition
• Activism
• Arts
• Black Families
• Civil War and Reconstruction
• Colored Conventions
• Education
• Emancipation
• Health and Healing
• Labor
• Slavery and Resistance
• Philadelphia as a Transnational City
• Religion
• Resistance