Haddonfield's African-American Community Endures Through the Ages

The 2010 Census shows Haddonfield as one of the least diverse towns in America, with 1.1 percent black population and 95 percent white.  

Yet this nearly 400-year-old borough has one of the oldest, historically African-American populations in the country. 

At one time slavery existed not far from Haddonfield, here in Camden County. According to the 1920 Census, three women and two men were being held in the county. But before 1920, the Gloucester County Abolition Society was able to reduce the number of slaves in the county from 191 in 1790 to 63 in 1800, according to historical records.

The tradition of tolerance instilled by the Quaker founders of Haddonfield is still alive today. Quakers donated land in the early 1800s for free blacks to found Free Haven, now known as Lawnside, on its eastern boarder, one of the oldest historically black incorporated towns in the nation. 

Haddonfield resident Lance Curley, a member of the borough Human Relations Commission, says that, generally, there have been amicable relationships between blacks and whites at least since the 1860s if not before.

"Many whites in Haddonfield assisted in the efforts of the Underground Railroad to move slaves to freedom," Curly said. "I think that such efforts have taken place throughout most of Haddonfield's history, from the beginning with the original settlers working with native Americans through the efforts to help slaves get to freedom, through Quaker roots and the belief in the individual's dignity up to today with the efforts many religious and political leaders.

"The best recent example was when the Mount Pisgah Church burned down and without hesitation their congregation being invited to worship at Grace Episcopal until Mount Pisgah was rebuilt."

The Rev. Mark-Anthony Rassmann remembered the fire that destroyed his Mt. Pisgah, A.M.E. Church in 2006 and the gesture of Grace Episcopal Church to open its doors to them. The Rev. Patrick Close accepted an award for Grace Church from Haddonfield and its human relations commission on Martin Luther King Day in January to commemorate the gesture. Rassman and Close embraced after the ceremony, to the delight of the overflow crowd during the annual King Day celebration.

Mt. Pisgah reopened in 2009 after dropping its A.M.E., African Methodist Episcopal, title and renaming itself the Greater Mt. Pisgah Church of Haddonfield in a gesture of unity, Rassman said.

There have been at least a few black residents in Haddonfield and its environs since the early 18th century, according to borough historians Douglas B. Rauschenberger and Katherine Mansfield Tassini in their book Lost Haddonfield. Some early Quakers owned slaves who worked on their farms, the book reports.

"The Religious Society of Friends determined at an early date, however, that the practice was immoral and formed groups within the meetings to convince their members to abandon the practice," the historians noted. 

Many of the African-Americans settled in places like Bellmawr, the Blackwood section of what is now Gloucester Township, Haddon Township and in an area of Haddonfield called The Point. The Point," according to This is Haddonfield, a book published by The Historical Society of Haddonfield, takes its name from the actual point of land formed by the juncture of Potter and Ellis streets a short distance above Cooper’s Creek, where Mt. Pisgah stands.

The influx of African-Americans in the north during and after the Civil War grew in Camden County through the Underground Railroad.

The Haddonfield Monthly Meeting and the Gloucester County Abolition Society led local efforts help the blacks after their freedom. Both societies devoted funds to education projects and Quaker preacher John Hunt arranged meetings of up to 200 blacks in Haddonfield, according to the History of Camden County by Jeffery M. Dorwart.

Shortly after the Civil War, a number of black families came to that area and rented wooden, single and twin houses located near the intersection of Ellis and Potter streets.

Residents of this area were generally employed as domestic workers in the larger homes in the borough and as laborers on the farms, according to Lost Haddonfield. Later, many went on to work at the Campbell Soup Co. in Camden.

Rent for the houses from 1916 to 1918 ranged from $8 to $10 a month, according to Rauschenberger and Tassini. The dwellings had no indoor plumbing or central heat. Instead they had outhouses and either wood stoves or kerosene heaters to keep them warm. The houses remained until about 1950.

In 1868, the public school trustees discussed the possibility of establishing classes for black children, according to the borough historians. They thought the black community would not be interested in the plan. But parents of 15 prospective pupils agreed to send their children if a school was established. A black teacher was hired and space was rented in the Odd Fellows Hall, which once stood at Colonial Avenue and Kings Highway. The first public school classes for African-Americans were held there in September 1869 and later moved to the Grove School. A new school for black children was built in 1904 at 230 Douglas Ave. and was simply known as School #4. This school was inadequate and had no indoor plumbing, the local historians noted.

"The present toilet for both sexes consists of two outside privies of the crudest sorts, more or less exposed to the weather, unsanitary and a breeding place for flies," the board of education property committee reported in 1920. Black students began attending Haddonfield High School in 1910, but the lower grades were not integrated until the state ordered desegregation of all public schools around 1948.

Curley says he has lived in Haddonfield for about 20 years and has never experienced any hostility of any note towards him or his family.

"That's not to say that it doesn't exist," he says. "Over the years I have met many of the borough's elected officials and I think that they have been genuine and sincere in trying to make Haddonfield an inclusive community and often going out of their way to right wrongs."

He feels that Haddonfield is better and more welcoming than many other communities in South Jersey, but that doesn't mean that it's ideal for African-Americans.

"It's a very expensive place to live and the general population is overwhelmingly white," he says. "That means that blacks from other areas are somewhat reluctant to settle here and raise their families. "I know that the school board and borough officials have made efforts to recruit blacks for jobs that are available, but their efforts have not been as successful as they would have liked." 

"Progress for blacks throughout the country is an exceedingly slow process and the bad economy and the politics of the extreme right do not help to advance our progress." 

Reporter Julie Dengler contributed to this report.

Thomas A. Bergbauer Sr., a retired journalist, can be reached at tbergbauer@verizon.net.