The Pennsylvania History 33rd Annual Conference: Abolition in Pennsylvania took place at Luzerne County Community College (LCCC) on Oct. 13 in the college’s Educational Conference Center.
This history conference consisted of talks from professors and teachers in the local area, including Wilkes University adjunct professors Hank Hunsinger and Richelle Smith.
This event was open to the public and ran many different educational sessions between the hours of nine and two o’clock.
The first session, “Abolition in the Keystone State: Pennsylvania and the Abolitionist Movement, 1760-1860,” was hosted by William Evans, an adjunct professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences at LCCC.
Shortly after, Hazelton Area History teacher Beth Ann Mazaika presented on “The Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania: Transportation to Freedom.”
Richelle Smith educated the audience on “The Grimke Sisters: From Southern Plantation Family to Pennsylvania Abolitionists” before the conference saw participants and presenters break for lunch.
The last session by Hank Hunsinger was titled “Picking up the Torch: William Thomas, the 1853 Fugitive Slave Case, and a Still Forgotten Moment in Northeast Pennsylvania.”
As stated in the title, Hunsinger’s presentation focused on a lesser-known event and later circuit court case that occurred right next door to our campus back in 1853.
The event involved William Thomas, who happened to be a bartender and an alleged escaped slave.
The interesting aspect of this case is the impact it has on our historical understanding of Wilkes-Barre today.
Many students and staff members of Wilkes University are aware of the rich history of the Wilkes-Barre area. Many key figures, such as “Fred M. Kirby” or “Harold Raynsford Stark,” lend their names to buildings all over campus.
In most of these cases, historical markers, like the one near the sidewalk of Kirby Hall, educate locals on the importance of the figure in question.
William Thomas does appear on a historical marker in Wilkes-Barre, but he is named in one line of Gildersleeve’s marker when referring to the court case Maxwell vs. Righter. Hunsinger was quick to point out that the information on Gildersleeve’s marker is inaccurate: “That’s not the name of the court case.”
However, Hunsinger calls attention to a 2018 Op-ed written by Bill Kashatus, “It says that we should have a historical marker for William Thomas, why is it on just Gildersleeve’s?”
He continued, “Bill then goes on and also says that we don’t even have one historical marker for African Americans in this entire county. I looked since then and none. Nothing’s been added since then.”
Due to this, Hunsinger took time in his presentation to break down his sources and the research process that went into his presentation. In doing this, he encouraged his audience to continue further research on the subject and “pick up the torch” to educate the community on this important case to restore its history.
According to one of his sources by Edith Brower, “The Gildersleeve and Brower family were the only openly abolitionist families in town,” but this did not stop onlookers near the Market Street Bridge from standing up for William Thomas.
While Hunsinger read excerpts from police documents and even court cases on this topic, it was evident that many members of the community joined together to help Thomas out and send arrest warrants for deputies who opened fire on him.
“It’s sad, but at least there were people that stood up. I think that’s one of the good things, not everyone supported this– slavery, and it’s nice to see what the people did,” Hunsinger said after reflecting on the case’s failure to arrest the three deputies.
Not all hope is lost, though history has already taken its course; a difference can still be made. At the end of his presentation, Hunsinger highlighted the actions taken in recent years to restore the memory of this forgotten event.
Back in 2020, a petition was created to replace the statue of Christopher Columbus that sits in the Public Square with a statue of William Thomas. Those who have walked to or past The Square in recent years will take note that this proposal never saw a follow-through.
However, this small action is still integral to the possible change that can be made, and Hunsinger even opened the floor to audience suggestions on how to keep William Thomas’ story alive.
Many answers echoed the ideas of teaching it in local schools, fixing the inaccurate historical marker or giving Thomas his own.
This conference put the history of Pennsylvania into perspective for locals and history enthusiasts alike.
If you missed this year’s conference, do not fret because the 34th annual conference will take place at LCCC’s Educational Conference Center on Oct. 12, 2026. This conference will shift its focus from abolitionism to immigration in Pennsylvania.
