New Philadelphia, a small farming town in western Illinois within a days hike from the Mississippi River, has a unique history. In 1836, it was the first American town to be founded by an African American, Free Frank McWorter, a former slave, freed through his own entrepreneurial skills and determination to live his own life.
Frank McWorter was born in 1777 in Union County, South Carolina and purchased, with his family, by a Scottish-Irish plantation owner named George McWhorter. George moved his operation to Pulaski County, Kentucky in 1795 and then again to Tennessee. Before the move to Tennessee, Frank convinced George to let him manage the Kentucky plantation in his absence. During this time, Frank married an enslaved African American woman, Lucy, living on an adjacent farm.
During the War of 1812, in addition to his enslaved work on the McWhorter plantation, Frank established a saltpeter mining and production operation, earning him a wage. This coupled with other wage-paying tasks for other farm owners allowed Frank to purchase freedom for his wife in 1817 and himself in 1819. The combined cost was $1600.
After purchasing he and his wife's freedom, Frank and Lucy settled in Pike County, IL, where Frank established the town of New Philadelphia. Frank would eventually manage to purchase freedom for sixteen members of his family, costing approximately $14,000 (over $300,000 in today's currency). A testament to agency, Free Frank sought he and his family's freedom through his own industriousness, and established a town that may have provided a safe haven for other blacks.