I created this website to honor, celebrate and do what I can to save The Fussell House. I spent my childhood in this house and from an early age understood its significance as a stop on the Underground Railroad.
When I was 6 or 7 years old, my neighbor Mrs. Way lent me a thin paperback book called “Meeting House Tales: The Story of Thomas Garrett” written and illustrated by Ann Biggs. (I’m a bit embarrassed to note that I never returned Mrs. Way’s book to her but also grateful that I still have it today!) I was awestruck by Thomas Garrett’s life story and his awareness at a young age that no person had the right to make another his slave. At the age of 11 or 12, I was introduced to Frances Cloud Taylor’s book, “The Trackless Trail” which traces the story of the Underground Railroad in Kennett Square and the surrounding community. Mrs. Taylor wrote about Dr. Fussell and explained the importance of our house as a stop on the Underground Railroad. To see the home that I loved so much printed in the pages of a book was a thrill for me at that age. Although my father sold the house in the late 1980s, it remains dear to my heart not only because of my personal history with it, but because of the role it played in the history of our country. This house stands as a symbol of an extraordinary period in America.
A time when ordinary citizens risked their reputations and livelihoods, essentially becoming criminals in an effort to help their fellow humans and defying an institution built on greed and misery. At time when runaway slaves, facing incomprehensible oppression, risked everything to reclaim their freedom. |