Location
Plymouth Church
75 Hicks Street
Healing Medicine Grows Wild Here
Echinacea—the willful one. Strong and determined, bold
flowers in vibrant shades, ready to fight off infection in
the name of internal regulation and restoration.
Peaceful Memories Remain Here
A spiritual safe space by day, a secret subterranean sanctuary at night, an Underground Railroad congregation operated by preacher Henry Ward Beecher.
We remember the invisible legacies of liberation, breathing inspiration into our world.
FOUNDING FREEDOM
Henry Beecher used complicated tactics to address a complex problem. In 1847, Beecher was the first minister appointed to Plymouth Church, a newly formed Protestant congregation in Downtown Brooklyn. From the outset, Beecher emphasized that the Church would embrace an abolitionist stance. To increase the assembly and spread the message, Beecher integrated himself into local and national abolitionist circles, including New York City’s Underground Railroad. Plymouth Church became such a fixture in the Underground Railroad network that Church was nicknamed “Grand Central Depot.”
No stranger to anti-slavery work, Beecher was the son of a minister who raised him to embrace abolitionism. Henry Beecher’s older sister was Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Beecher would stage slave auctions to raise funds and purchase runaway slaves to draw attention to the reality of slavery in the United States and New York.
Downtown Brooklyn became a meeting point for many wealthy white and well-positioned African American families. These distinct groups worked within their respective religious and social circles to lobby for the end of enslavement in New York City, operate a well-connected Underground Railroad in Downtown Brooklyn, open schools for African American students, and develop several free African American communities such as Weeksville in Brooklyn.
Worley, Tracee. “In Pursuit of Freedom, Anti-Slavery Activism and Abolitionism in Brooklyn 1783-1865.” Pursuit of Freedom, http://pursuitoffreedom.org/wp-content/uploads/resources/In_Pursuit_of_Freedom_Teachers_Manual_and_Student_Materials.pdf. Accessed 17 July 2023.
“Henry Ward Beecher.” Plymouth Church, www.plymouthchurch.org/beecher. Accessed 17 July 2023.