'Abolition and the Hunn Family' March 2 traces Delaware Underground Railroad

Robin Krawitz, president of the Underground Railroad Coalition of Delaware and director of the historic preservation graduate program at Delaware State University, will present "Abolition and the Hunn Family" at 2 p.m., Sunday, March 2, at The Old State House in Dover.

The Old State House will also be open for visitation and tours between 1:30 and 4:30 p.m. Admission is free and open to the public. For more information, call 302-744-5055.

Krawitz’s lecture will explore the abolition movement and the Underground Railroad in Delaware with a spotlight on the Hunn family, many of whose members participated in anti-slavery activities. In one notable incident, John Hunn of Odessa and Thomas Garrett of Wilmington were put on federal trial at the New Castle Court House in 1848 and convicted of violating the Fugitive Slave Act.

Sentenced to stiff financial penalties and stripped of much of their personal wealth, Hunn and Garrett continued in their efforts to aid freedom seekers until the Union victory in the Civil War effectively put an end to slavery in the United States in 1865.

Completed in 1791, The Old State House is one of the earliest state house buildings in the United States, serving as the home of Delaware’s Legislature until 1933, when the General Assembly moved to larger quarters in Legislative Hall. The venerable structure now appears as it would have in the late 1700s during the United States’ critical early years as a nation.

It features a courtroom, governor’s and county offices, and chambers for the state’s Senate and House of Representatives. The building is situated on Dover’s historic Green, a public area designated by William Penn in 1683.

Go to history.delaware.gov for information about Delaware's Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs.