Pennsylvania Hall: A “Legal Lynching” in the Shadow of the Liberty Bell

Abstract

On the evening of May 17, 1838, an angry mob of Philadelphians rallied to the corner of Sixth and Haines streets, between Arch and Race. Surrounded by a crowd of some 10,000–15,000 people, a small group of rioters burst into the newly opened Pennsylvania Hall. They piled the furniture high in the Grand Saloon, a meeting room that comprised the entire second floor and lit it on fire. Within a few hours, Pennsylvania Hall, meant to house free and open discussion, lay in a smoldering pile of ruins some three days after it had opened. Fears of amalgamation, hatred of radical abolitionists, racial tensions between whites and blacks, and a desire to preserve good relations with Southern merchants all stimulated the mob’s anger. In its brief life, the building hosted the Philadelphia Antislavery Society, the Philadelphia Lyceum, and an unofficial meeting of the Antislavery Convention of American Women. The history of the hall, beginning with its construction, Beverly C. Tomek argues, “is the story of American antislavery in microcosm” (xiii).