Stephanie Gilbert
Stephanie Gilbert (b. 1968) was first inspired to research and re-tell her family’s history when her father, Frank E. Gilbert, Esq (1936-2020) shared interesting and inspiring stories of the family’s legacy in Philadelphia. Stephanie, however, became even more interested when she extended the family’s historical reach into Delaware and Maryland. Stephanie’s journey traveled beyond the confines of the family’s oral traditions and into the uncharted territories of the antebellum south and…..slavery.
Discovery after discovery, the family’s rich history began to spring forth like a garden from well-nourished soil. The ancestors came forward with light and love, guiding Stephanie on paths which revealed pivotal moments and daring experiences as well as tender opportunities to learn from people who’d stood in the cauldron of American history and had not only lived to tell the tale, but had documented the story for the world to know.
Stephanie resides just outside of Philadelphia, PA.
In 2021 she retired after 28 years from her role as an executive for AT&T and now serves the role of Chief Commercial Officer for an African American owned and operated technology outsourcing firm.
His Story
Life & Legacy
O.C. Gilbert
This space is dedicated to the life and legacy of Oliver Cromwell Gilbert, who was born Oliver Cromwell Kelly in 1832 in Clarksville, Maryland to an enslaved mother, Cynthia Snowden and a free black man from Owingsville, Maryland, Joseph Kelly.
At the age of 16, Oliver and 15 others escaped slavery via the Underground Railroad, which led him to Lancaster, PA, where Oliver took the Gilbert surname in honor of the Quaker abolitionist who was hiding him, Amos Gilbert.
Oliver’s life in New Jersey, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York and ultimately, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania has been well documented via a handwritten memoir of his life, which he dictated to his wife, Maria at the turn of the century. This narrative is now in the hands of Oliver and Maria’s 2nd great granddaughter, Stephanie Gilbert, and has been termed by historians as one of the last remaining first-hand accounts of slavery in America and the work of black and white abolitionists.
In 1884, Oliver returned to Maryland as a free man to confront his former slaveholders and, in his own words “to show them what freedom had done for me”. He walked up to the door of the home where had been enslaved and bravely stepped into his past.
In 1908, Oliver again returned to ‘the old homestead, to confront Edwin Warfield, the Governor of Maryland, who had been a newborn baby in the home at the time of Oliver’s escape in 1848.
During the years following Oliver’s visit to the Governor, Oliver Gilbert and Edwin Warfield traded letters on a variety of topics, inclusive of slavery and voting rights.
Upon Warfield’s death, these letters were filed at the University of Maryland’s archives and serve as complement to the Gilbert memoir.
As this site is developed, please also visit the companion site TheQuarterPlace.com, which will center on the familial, social and spiritual lives of enslaved African Americans.
You may also find published work on Oliver Gilbert here:
University of New Hampshire
Maryland Historic Society
Thank you for visiting and please follow our blog for news and events as the 2023 events are quickly unfolding.
Stephanie Gilbert
Stephanie Gilbert (b. 1968) was first inspired to research and re-tell her family’s history when her father, Frank E. Gilb qert, Esq (1936-2020) shared interesting and inspiring stories of the family’s legacy in Philadelphia. Stephanie, however, became even more interested when she extended the family’s historical reach into Delaware and Maryland. Stephanie’s journey traveled beyond the confines of the family’s oral traditions and into the uncharted territories of the antebellum south and…..slavery.
Discovery after discovery, the family’s rich history began to spring forth like a garden from well-nourished soil. The ancestors came forward with light and love, guiding Stephanie on paths which revealed pivotal moments and daring experiences as well as tender opportunities to learn from people who’d stood in the cauldron of American history and had not only lived to tell the tale, but had documented the story for the world to know.
Stephanie resides just outside of Philadelphia, PA.
In 2021 she retired after 28 years from her role as an executive for AT&T and now serves the role of Chief Commercial Officer for an African American owned and operated technology outsourcing firm.