A free presentation on February 23 at Pennsbury Manor in Morrisville will portray the life of an enslaved woman at William Penn’s country estate, writes Racquel Williams for KYW Newsradio.
The presentation by Shirley Lee Corsey, executive director of the Gather Place Museum at Yardley’s Historic African Methodist Episcopal Church, is part of the reconstructed estate’s Black History Month program focused on slavery in Pennsylvania and at Penn’s country manor.
The program will also discuss the history of slavery in Pennsylvania and a dramatization of the 1688 Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery.
Corsey will portray an enslaved woman who spent her entire life at the estate.
“The lady that I’m portraying, Susanna Warder, she was one of the enslaved people and several others that William Penn brought with him when he came here from England,” she said.
Warder’s family was originally from the Caribbean but lived in England when Penn chose to bring several people as slave labor on his Pennsylvania estate.
Corsey emphasized the importance of preserving these Black history stories, especially amid ongoing efforts to suppress them in some spaces.
Read more about Shirley Lee Corsey’s Pennsbury Manor presentation at KYW Newsradio.
