The Film: Interview Transcripts: Karen James

Karen James, historian, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, on
the legacy of Hamilton Waters
The family of Hamilton Waters is a wonderful example of people who involved themselves in abolition.  Hamilton Waters knew slavery in a very personal way.  He purchased his freedom and that of his mother.  Once he settled in Erie County and he began to work as an abolitionist working, giving aid to fugitive slaves, he also instilled some of what they were fighting for in his children and grandchildren.  They knew what the struggle was about.

He educated himself and made sure that his children were educated, and his daughter Elizabeth, of course, was one of the first African-American women to attend Avery College.  His first son-in-law, Henry Burley, and then his second son-in-law, John Elmendorf, also were active in the abolitionist movement.  His grandson, Harry T. Burleigh, was inspired by his grandfather, mother, father and stepfather to continue the struggle for freedom and justice in the United States.  In 1892, we have record of him leading demonstrations for public accommodations in New York City, where he participated in a restaurant sit-in.  It was the beginning of a second wave of abolition.

ordinary people

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