PCN
DONATE CART
Sign InRegister
Politics & Policy History & Culture PA Sports & PIAA State Championships Battle of Gettysburg Pennsylvania's Neighborhood America's 250th in Pennsylvania Civics 101 Weather World
Schedule Shop About Donate Contact
Programs Politics & Policy History & Culture PA Sports & PIAA State Championships Battle of Gettysburg Pennsylvania's Neighborhood America's 250th in Pennsylvania Civics 101 Weather World

Cart

SCHEDULE
12:11 AMLee and His Army from the Seven Days to Gettysburg
01:05 AMGrant and Lee, Masters of War
02:00 AMGeorge Meade at Williamsport
03:00 AMGettysburg Day 2: Company K, 1st Pennsylvania Reserves
03:34 AMGettysburg Day 1: Collapse of the 11th Corps
04:00 AMGettysburg Day 3: McGilvery's Artillery
05:20 AMGettysburg Day 3: Pickett's Charge Aftermath
07:00 AMPennsylvania Country Roads

ADVERTISEMENT

PCN app
PCN app
Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook
You are here: Home / Archive PA Books / PA Books: “Street Diplomacy” with Elliott Drago (2023)

PA Books: “Street Diplomacy” with Elliott Drago (2023)

As the most southern of northern cities in a state that bordered three slave states, antebellum Philadelphia maintained a long tradition of both abolitionism and fugitive slave activity. Although Philadelphia's Black community lived in a free city in a free state, they faced constant threats to their personal safety and freedom. Enslavers, kidnappers, and slave catchers prowled the streets of Philadelphia in search of potential victims, violent anti-Black riots erupted in the city, and white politicians legislated to undermine Black freedom. In Street Diplomacy, Elliott Drago illustrates how the political and physical conflicts that arose over fugitive slave removals and the kidnappings of free Black people forced Philadelphians to confront the politics of slavery. Pennsylvania was legally a free state, at the street level and in the lived experience of its Black citizens, but Pennsylvania was closer to a slave state due to porous borders and the complicity of white officials. Legal contests between slavery and freedom at the local level triggered legislative processes at the state and national level, which underscored the inability of white politicians to resolve the paradoxes of what it meant for a Black American to inhabit a free state within a slave society.

Elliott Drago is an independent scholar in Philadelphia.

Description courtesy of Johns Hopkins University Press.

ABOUT PCN
About
History
Our People
Awards
Privacy Policy
Certifications
WATCH PCN
How to Watch
Schedule
Channel Listing
Stream Now
Subscribe
Shop PCN
CONNECT
Careers
Contact Us
FAQ
Request Coverage
Support
Satellite Truck
Production Truck
PROGRAMS
Politics and Policy
History and Culture
Sports
Gettysburg Collection
FOLLOW US
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Instagram

For closed captioning issues, please call 717-730-6000 or email closedcaption@pcntv.com
©2025 Pennsylvania Educational Communications Systems. All rights reserved.