Graceanna Lewis (1821 – 1912)
This is another article in a series highlighting some of the voices in my poetry book INSPIRED BY THEIR VOICES. This time, I’ve chosen another Pennsylvanian, and a Quaker woman, further illustrating the diversity of what became the Underground Railroad. Graceanna Lewis is another remarkable person whose accomplishments beg to be rediscovered.
Graceanna’s first love was observing the natural world. Her second, and equal passion, was social justice. In both she was encouraged by her mother, Esther Fussell Lewis (1782-1848), the daughter of Quaker abolitionists with their own inspiring stories of courage and resistance. Graceanna’s parents supported the anti-slavery cause from their farm, Sunnyside, in West Vincent Township, Chester County, which served as a safe house for freedom seekers. Esther had been a teacher before her marriage to Graceanna’s father, John Lewis, opening a school when she was just sixteen. The combination of her passion for teaching, and the Quaker belief in education for women, meant that Esther’s four daughters— the only children to survive past infancy— enjoyed a thorough grounding in literature, art and natural history at home, further developed at the nearby Kimberton Boarding School. The school was run by Abigail Kimball, herself a botanist and a mentor to the young girls. Graceanna’s early introduction to the rigors of scientific thinking, the discipline of observation, and the inherent belief in the ability of women to perform in realms traditionally unavailable to them, led to the legacy she is best known for, as a respected and published ornithologist. Anyone curious to learn more about Lewis will easily find a plethora of articles about her many contributions to her chosen field. She even has a bird named after her— the White-Edged Oriole, Icterus graceannae. It is found in Ecuador and Peru.
As tempting as it is to share all the details of Graceanna’s extraordinary life-long accomplishments in ornithology and zoology, it was the family’s participation in the Underground Railroad that led to Graceanna’s inclusion in the book INSPIRED. The Lewis family is mentioned in every important book about the railroad in Pennsylvania, from R.C. Smedley’s tome written in 1883— which devotes an entire chapter to Esther, who was widowed in 1824, and her daughters— to Wilbur Siebert’s comprehensive investigation published in 1898. A letter from Graceanna, written on April 17, 1896, is in the collection of correspondence that Siebert used to write his history. In it, she shares, “it was work done in secrecy for humanity’s sake. In most cases, no record was kept, because in those times records were dangerous— and in the memory, one case soon obliterated another where they were of daily, weekly, or monthly occurrence.” She went on in her letter to explain how the railroad worked:
The system was a regular sending from one family to another known to be opposed to slavery. The means such as each individual might choose to adopt. Generally an unwritten word given to the fugitive to be delivered to the next host; more commonly perhaps the fugitives were driven by the entertainer, to the next home, often many miles distant. I should say the period covered at least 150 years, and the practice became heredity in families.
In this passage, Graceanne is surely speaking of her own family’s heredity. Several branches and several generations had worked to oppose slavery over many decades. Beyond their faith, the location of the family’s homesteads was an important factor. As she described to William Still in a coded letter dated October 28, 1855, Sunnyside was located along a central route of the railroad running from Kennet Township to Downingtown through Chester:
This evening a company of eleven friends reached here, having left their homes on the night of the 26th. They came into Wilmington [Delaware], about ten o’clock in the morning of the 27th and left there, in the town, their two carriages, drawn by two horses. They went to Thomas Garrett’s by open daylight and from thence were sent hastily onward for fear of pursuit. They reached Longwood meeting-house in the evening…after remaining all night with one of the Kennet friends [probably the home of Graceanna’s uncle, Dr. Bartholomew Fussell], they were brought to Downingtown early in the morning, and from thence, by daylight, to within a short distance of this place… the case seems to us one of unusual danger. We have separated the company for the present, sending a mother and five children, two of them quite small, in one direction, and a husband and wife and three lads in another…
The Lewis women did more than shelter freedom seekers. They publicly supported the movement using all their talents and resources. One of Graceanna’s earliest publications, written in 1848, was “An Appeal to Those Members of the Society of Friends Who Knowing the Principles of the Abolitionists Stand Aloof from the Anti-Slavery Enterprise”. It implored fellow Quakers to join the Anti-Slavery movement. She was certainly a role model: she served as an officer of the Pennsylvania State Anti-Slavery Society at the time of the pamphlet’s release. Ten years earlier, she was a 16-year-old delegate to the 1838 Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women.
Beyond their organized activities, the Lewis women were nurturers. Esther, who had the natural healing instincts of a physician, would care for injured and sick runaways for weeks until they were strong enough to continue their journey north. The family hired runaways to work at the farm and in the house. R. C. Smedley recounts an incident that deeply affected the young Lewis girls when they saw two men bound with ropes, eschewing resistance, and taken away to be returned to their owners. These men had been working on the farm and were never heard from again. In another passage, Smedley asserts that in one week, the family passed forty freedom seekers on to the next safe house. Some runaways were put on the Reading Railroad, going directly through to Canada. To pass as free Blacks, the runaways had to be dressed well, and this clothing was provided by the Lewis and Fussell families.
The Lewis women and their relatives continued their activism, but Graceanne left home in the 1850s to study at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. There she worked with renowned ornithologist John Cassin, who mentored her. During her work with Cassin at the Academy’s museum, she discovered a new bird species. By 1865, Lewis was teaching ornithology, although she was unable to land a college-level position because of her gender and lack of secondary education. Undeterred, in 1868, she published “Natural History of Birds,” generally considered to be the first comprehensive monograph on North American birds. In 1870, Lewis became one of the first three women admitted as members to the Academy. She never married, and remained active in her field well into her eighties.
One of the most fascinating intersections of Graceanna’s two passions— social justice and ornithology— came at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. Her “Chart of Natural History,” accompanied by a wax model illustrating relationships in the animal kingdom, won an award from the Centennial Judges for its important and original approach to zoology. Her botanical paintings garnered the praise of leading scientists including the English biologist Thomas Henry Huxley. At that same centennial, William Still’s groundbreaking book, “The Underground Railroad: Authentic Narratives and First-Hand Accounts,” was showcased. The book included letters written to him by Graceanna Lewis all those years ago. It is entirely possible that they met on the grounds of the exhibit, reliving their dangerous collaboration decades before. He certainly was on her mind years later. In her letter to Siebert written on April 17, 1896, she mentions the passage in Still’s book about her family, and encourages Siebert to contact Still, who was still alive. They were some of the last of that generation of abolitionists who knit together the life-saving connections of the Underground Railroad.
Travelers through East Pikeland Township in Chester County will find a historical marker commemorating Graceanna Lewis:
An early female scientist considered one of the best educated female naturalists of her day, Lewis dedicated her life to the study of botany and zoology. She exhibited her Chart of the Animal Kingdom at the Centennial Exposition in 1876, and won awards for her natural science drawings at the Columbian and Louisiana Purchase Expositions. A Quaker abolitionist, she was active in Underground Railroad activities at her family’s farm nearby.
Sources:
Bonta, Marcia. “GRACEANNA LEWIS: PORTRAIT OF A QUAKER NATURALIST.” Quaker History 74, no. 1 (1985): 27–40. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41947033.
Lapansky, Phillip S., “Afro-Americana: Frank Webb and His Friends.” Library Company of Philadelphia: 1990 Annual Report. N.p.: The Library Company of Phil, (n.d.).
Lewis, Graceanna. Letter to Wilbur H. Siebert, April 17, 1896.
https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/siebert/id/22997
Siebert, Wilbur. “The Underground Railroad: A Comprehensive History.” Ohio State University, 1898.
Smedly, R. C. “History of the Underground Railroad in Chester and the Neighboring Counties of Pennsylvania.” Lancaster: The Journal, 1883.
Still, William. “The Underground Railroad,” Philadelphia: 1872.
Switala, William J. “Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania, Second Edition.” Mechanicsburg: Stackpole Books, 2008.
The Lewis-Fussell Family Papers Collection, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania
Warner, Deborah Jean. Graceanna Lewis, Scientist and Humanitarian. United States: Smithsonian, 1979.
Websites:
sierracollege.edu/ejournals/jscnhm/v6n1/lewis.html
paconservationheritage.org/stories/graceanna-lewis/
blog.library.si.edu/blog/2021/03/22/graceanna-lewis/#.YhpWsy-B1QY