Black History Month: LeMoyne House
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - February is Black History Month and all month long we'll be celebrating the rich African-American heritage here in Western Pennsylvania.
This area was once home to many abolitionists, especially in Washington County.
In fact, the home of one local abolitionist still stands, providing a unique look into just one of the many stops on the Underground Railroad.
The hard-to-miss, beautiful brick home - built more than 200 years ago in downtown Washington - is rooted in local history.
It was a stop created by Dr. Francis LeMoyne.
Francis was an interesting guy. He was very forward-thinking," Washington County Historical Society Director Clay Kilgore said. "His first paper that he wrote about anti-slavery would have been when he was in Washington Academy. He went there when he was 12 years old."
LeMoyne always stood out, even among abolitionists.
"He had this belief that everybody was equal, which at that time was not something that many people believed," Kilgore said. "Even many abolitionists, even though they thought slavery was wrong, they were still abolitionists that still didn't believe that everyone was equal."
LeMoyne treated everyone equally regardless of race, both socially and medically.
In fact, he was the only doctor in Washington County who gave medical treatment to any African-Americans.
So, he used his profession as a way to try to keep people guessing about who was coming in and out of his home
"You've got a free black male walking in or do you have a fugitive slave coming in? How do you know the difference? And so he kind of hid it that way. It wasn't like you could just sit outside and say okay that's a slave, we've got to go and get him. You weren't sure," Kilgore said.
That plan, though bold, was extremely dangerous.
"That was one of the things that kind of made it a risk with this being a stop on the Underground Railroad, because people did know that he was probably helping," Kilgore said.
Ironically, the closest call for LeMoyne came while he was in West Middletown, leaving his family home to jump into action.
"There was a group of seven fugitive slaves that were hid under the bed upstairs," Kilgore said. "And Francis' wife gets into the bed, pulls the covers up over herself, basically faking sickness."
"This bounty hunter starts opening up the door, Madelaine speaks up and says, 'Sir, are you going to come into my room while I'm sick in bed and my husband is not in town?'"
LeMoyne eventually became the de facto director of the Underground Railroad here in Western Pennsylvania
"He wasn't a conductor. He wasn't out leading groups of slaves up from the south," Kilgore said. "He was the guy that kind of said, here's this conductor and this conductor, this stop and this stop and I'm going to make sure they're all working together."
It was a pivotal part played by a man well ahead of his time.
