To the Meeting:

As you may know, Providence Friends Meeting was recently recognized by the National Park Service Network to Freedom Program as an official site on the Underground Railroad.

The rigorous application and review process took 18 months, and required a voluminous amount of information, including 40 additional attachments, documentation, and photographs all meticulously scrutinized by the National Park Service, to justify official recognition.

I have immense gratitude for noted abolitionist Graceanna Lewis who is buried in our graveyard; in addition to members Isaac and Elizabeth Smedley Yarnall who personally gave my ancestors refuge when they arrive in Media as runaway slaves during the Civil War; and many other unsung courageous Quakers of Providence Meeting, who helped an unknown number of unnamed freedom seekers to achieve a better life.

Including those, according to our oral tradition, who were buried at Providence in unmarked graves, because they didn't survive the grueling journey north, often ill, overworked, poorly dressed, and underfed, which usually occurred during winter or the rainy season to make it more difficult for enslavers with dogs to pursue them.

This recognition is truly well deserved as a shining example of the profound and enduring strength of the human spirit, and what can be achieved when we come together in the Light, putting service to other above ourselves, often at great risk, as members of one human family. The gravity of that thought makes me misty-eyed.

Below are some additional comments I included in the National Park Service application that may be insightful to you.

National Park Service Application, P. 12, Additional data or comments (Optional)

I hope with this detailed application that I have provided the depth of documentation required for Providence Friends Meeting to receive formal recognition by the U.S. National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program. As you know from Prof. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.’s genealogy and historical programs, the institution of slavery worked all too effectively in erasing the family culture and histories of descendants of those who were enslaved. I am fortunate to be a direct descendant of the fraction (1%) of the nearly 4 million held in bondage, who successfully escaped; which enabled my family to hold onto much of its oral history, which I was able to confirm with documentary research, and supporting vintage family photographs.

However, I hope I have also added a few new subject areas for the National Park Service to consider in its programming for the Underground Railroad Network to Freedom, in citing the devasting impact that epigenetics plays in the inheritance of not only biological and health related problems from our enslaved ancestors, but those reflected by trauma and depression passed down over the generations to those a century or more removed from that initial traumatic experience. That history is written in our genes, if nowhere else.

That slave-breeding was a cottage industry in the Upper South, is a relatively unknown fact today. But it is one reason why the slave population grew exponentially. Even though enslavers often sold their offspring, some of whom had merely fractions of African ancestry.

I have also raised the aspect of filial piety, and why many descendants today hold great reverence for their ancestors who were enslaved, and feel a deep sense of obligation to pursue education and social justice as a way to pay back the debt owed to our ancestors, whose strength and courage make our lives possible today.

Finally, the remarkable aspect of intergeneration healing which ameliorates the otherwise multigenerational devasting impact of slavery is another social phenomenon that needs more attention. Because it becomes a powerful vehicle for mending deep racial divisions in our society, on a par, if not even more so, than financial reparations alone – which I believe are also greatly deserved. Recognizing that the descendants of former enslavers, and those enslaved by them, are members of one human family is nothing short of miracle.

Thank you for the opportunity to submit this application.

Samuel M. Lemon, Ed.D.

January 15, 2025