Highlights from the Gates Collection of African American History and Culture

Letter written by R. H. Rose of Silver Lake, to his lawyer William Jessup of Montrose, a town in Susquehanna County, northeastern Pennsylvania February 25, 1835

In these letters, Dr. Robert Hutchinson Rose discusses his plan to settle several African-American families on his land in a cooperative community.  In 1809, at about the age of thirty, Rose had attended medical school and was living comfortably in Philadelphia when he struck out into the wilderness of northern Pennsylvania.  Finding the land "uncommonly healthy" and well-situated, he purchased 100,000 acres.  Until his death in 1842, Rose actively promoted his land as an ideal location for settlement, advertising in newspapers throughout the United States and Europe.  As a result, a series of small religious and ethnic groups settled in Silver Lake.

The proximity of Silver Lake to Canada likely appealed to former slaves wary of recapture, and it is known that at least ten families, all fugitives, settled on Rose's land in 1836.  However, the settlement rapidly dissolved after two years.  It seems Rose's prescriptions for the community, where he provided "free" rent in exchange for labor and "shares," became reminiscent of slavery and unacceptable to the settlers.  Despite the hopes he states here of forming partnerships amongst the settlers, their attempts to negotiate with him as a collective offended his sensibilities.  In his disillusionment, Rose expressed doubts as to whether former slaves had the potential to integrate into American society.

Transcription:

Silver Lake, Feb. 25, 1835
Wm Jessup, Esq.
Dear Sir,
    John Stewart came the day before yesterday to me, and brought with him a young coloured man named Obadiah Johnson.  In consequence of the very good character which you had given me of John (and which I told him that you had) I mentioned to him that I had an inclination to establish a few families of coloured people on my farm here; and that if I found their conduct to be as good as I ought to expect, it was possible that those few might increase to a considerable number; but that I thought it would be necessary for their general prosperity, and for the education of the children, and the good ordering of the whole arrangement that there should be a partnership formed among them; and that I would be unwilling to receive anyone on the farm whom the rest would not think well enough of to receive among them as a partner, &c. &c.  On the whole, I had a long talk with those persons, and gave them a general view of what I would expect of such people, and what, if they conducted themselves well, I would be willing to do for them.  Their object in coming to me was to purchase land; but on hearing the statement which I mention, they said that they would rather engage as members of such an association that have separate farms of their own…

In these letters, Dr. Robert Hutchinson Rose discusses his plan to settle several free Black families on his land in a cooperative community.  In 1809, at about the age of thirty, having attended medical school and living comfortably in Philadelphia, he struck out into the wilderness of northern Pennsylvania.  Believing the land “uncommonly healthy” and well situated, he purchased 100,000 acres.  Until his death in 1842, Rose actively promoted his land as an ideal location for settlement, advertising in newspapers throughout the United States and Europe.  As a result, a series of small religious and ethnic groups settled in Silver Lake.

It is known that at least nine African-American families, all fugitive slaves, settled on Rose’s land by 1836.  However, the community dissolved after two years.  It seems Rose’s plan, where he provided “free” land in exchange for labor and “shares,” became unacceptable to the former slaves.  Disillusioned, Rose expressed doubts as to whether former slaves had the potential to integrate into American society.