Belmont Mansion Juneteenth Celebration

Stephanie Gilbert will share the history of how she came to possess the unpublished memoir of her 2nd great grandfather, who’d escaped slavery at the age of 16 and settled in Philadelphia. The narrative includes step by step detail of Oliver Gilbert’s experience on the Underground Railroad, inclusive of his flight to Pennsylvania and Philadelphia’s abolitionist community. The Philadelphia story is prominent in the Memoir of Oliver Cromwell Gilbert, who became a politician, social activist, lecturer and musician. This hidden figure is now coming to light and will make his first Philadelphia 21st century debut at the Belmont Mansion in celebration of Juneteenth.