Free Frank McWorter

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Free Frank McWorter (1777-1854) was an American slave who bought his own freedom and founded the town of New Philadelphia in Illinois. A local history group recruited archaeologists who have begun a dig that has turned up thousands of artifacts, trained students, and published reports, articles, and books. This story is reflected in 11 volumes of documentation that was donated to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in February 2008, along with a bronze bust of Frank McWorter by his great-great-granddaughter Shirley McWorter Moss.^[1]

1 Biography
2 Books
3 External links
4 References

[edit] Biography

Frank McWorter was born 1777 into slavery in South Carolina. According to family tradition George McWhorter, the owner of his mother Juda, wanted him dead even if he was his father but Juda managed to convince him to let the child live. Free Frank later dropped the "h" from his surname.

In 1795 McWhorter moved to Kentucky and took Frank to build and later manage his holdings. Frank tended the farm but his master also leased him to his neighbours. In the process Frank learned business skills and earned more money than his master required him to hand over. Eventually he used his savings to create a saltpetre production operation.

In 1817 Frank had earned enough money to buy his wife from his master with $800. Two years later he bought his own freedom with the same amount of money. In 1829 he traded his saltpetre plant in exchange of the freedom of his eldest son. At that stage his family also included three freeborn children.

In 1830 the whole family left for Illinois. In 1836 McWorter, who had purchased 80 acres from the federal government for $100, filed a plat to create the village of New Philadelphia. The town site, which was divided into 144 lots, was registered with government authorities. McWorter established residence in New Philadelphia himself and sold other lots to new residents. He was the first black man in America to incorporate a municipality. McWorter became mayor of New Philadelphia.^[2] ^[3]

Free Frank WcWorter lived most of the rest of his life in western Illinois, with an interval in South Carolina to buy freedom for more members of his family. McWorter died on September 7. 1854; by that time he had bought the freedom of 8 more of his relatives, so 14 members of his family were freedmen and freedwomen. His heirs used his inheritance to free 7 more. McWorter's gravesite is located in Barry, Illinois, and it is on the National Register of Historic Places.^[2]

[edit] Books

The life and history of Free Frank McWorter and the town of New Philadelphia, Illinois has been documented in an award-winning scholarly book by Juliet E.K. Walker, professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin. Her book, Free Frank: A Black Pioneer on the Antebellum Frontier (1983), published by the University Press of Kentucky, described the life of Free Frank, her great-great grandfather.^[4]^[5]