Freedom Threatened

The Warfields, an African American family that had moved from Maryland less than a year before the battle, lived in the stone house across the field. James Warfield, a blacksmith and farmer, had worked hard to buy the property. When the family heard in June 1863 that Confederates were approaching, they fled, because remaining could have cost them both their lives and their freedom. While in Pennsylvania, the Confederate Army was abducting black men, women, and children and forcing them south into slavery; in Franklin County, free black residents were systematically rounded up. When the Warfields returned, they found their house looted and riddled with bullets, their orchard devastated, their fields trampled, and thirteen shallow graves on their land. James Warfield later tried unsuccessfully to sell the house, then in 1868 sought $516 from the state for the damage and eventually received $410 in compensation. He continued to struggle financially, and his will, written shortly before his death in 1875, showed that he intended to sell his house and personal property to pay his debts. The Warfield house endures as a testament to both the causes and consequences of the Civil War.

Freedom Township, Pennsylvania · United States