PRINTER'S NO. 3494
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
HOUSE RESOLUTION
No.
229
Session of
2022
INTRODUCED BY SAPPEY, BULLOCK, RABB, MILLARD, HENNESSEY, KINSEY,
GUENST, M. MACKENZIE, SOLOMON, SCHLOSSBERG, GILLEN, KIM,
HOHENSTEIN, McNEILL, SANCHEZ, HILL-EVANS, MADDEN, SAMUELSON,
MENTZER, BURGOS, PARKER AND DELLOSO, SEPTEMBER 19, 2022
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON STATE GOVERNMENT, SEPTEMBER 19, 2022
A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Recognizing the month of September 2022 as "Transcontinental
Underground Railroad Month" in Pennsylvania.
WHEREAS, The trans-Atlantic slave trade began as early as the
15th century, introducing a system of slavery that was
commercialized, racialized and inherited; and
WHEREAS, People were forcefully abducted from Africa,
enslaved in the American colonies and exploited to work in the
production of crops, such as tobacco and cotton; and
WHEREAS, Although the Commonwealth passed a law in 1780 that
gradually eliminated slavery, the existing 6,000 enslaved people
in this Commonwealth remained enslaved and the enslaved people's
registered children would be enslaved until their 28th
birthdays; and
WHEREAS, Although a person could no longer legally import
enslaved people, they could buy and sell those who had been
registered after 1780; and
WHEREAS, The law freed few enslaved people immediately; and
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