Marking Pennsylvania History

Four Days in May

In 1838, more than 2,000 people bought "shares" and raised $40,000 to build Pennsylvania Hall. It is a fundraising model similar to that of WHYY, which, by fate or coincidence, now occupies the site where Pennsylvania Hall once stood.

"I learnt with great satisfaction," wrote the former President John Quincy Adams for the Hall's dedication, that Philadelphians now had a place "wherein liberty and equality of civil rights can be freely discussed, and the evils of slavery fearlessly portrayed."

Adams' letter was read from the podium below the words "Virtue, Liberty and Independence." It was May 14, 1838. Three days later, in the midst of its dedication ceremonies, the building was gone, burned by an angry mob.

What words were heard there?

The great men of this country will not do this work; the church will never do it.

A desire to please the world, to keep the favor or all parties and of all conditions, makes them dumb on this and every other unpopular subject. They have become worldly-wise, and therefore God, in his wisdom, employs them not to carry on his plans of reformation and salvation. He hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and the weak to overcome the mighty.

As the crowds outside grew more threatening, three thousand in the Hall heard the last speaker to be heard in Pennsylvania Hall, Angelina Grimké Weld. Despite stones rattling the windows, Weld urged her audience to stay seated. She kept her audience for over an hour.

What is a mob? What would the breaking of every window be? What would the leveling of this Hall be?

What if the mob should now burst in upon us, break up our meeting and commit violence upon our persons -- would this be any thing compared with what the slaves endure?

When Weld finished her remarks, the audience walked out of the hall arm in arm. They were met by insults and rocks.

In fear of the worst, the Hall's managers turned their the keys over to Mayor John Swift who announced to the crowd that the meetings had been canceled. The crowd cheered, soon broke into the building, and set several fires.

By the time the mayor returned with the police, the fires had spread and the building was shrouded in flames. Firefighters arrived, but aimed their hoses only at the surrounding buildings. Pennsylvania Hall was soon a memory - and its brief story grew into a legend.

- Kenneth FInkel, Executive Director of WHYY's Arts & Culture Service

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