New Philadelphia in western Illinois was founded in 1836 by Free Frank McWorter, a former slave who purchased freedom for himself, his wife, and thirteen family members. Platted on land he acquired after settling there in the early 1830s, it was the first town in the United States formally laid out and registered by an African American before the Civil War. McWorter sold lots to Black and white settlers, creating an integrated community that also became part of the Underground Railroad. After the railroad bypassed the town in 1869, it declined and largely disappeared, but its buried remains preserve a powerful story of Black enterprise, self-emancipation, and interracial cooperation.