Through substantial efforts of many people and organizations,

 Through substantial efforts of many people and organizations, 

including donations to the cause, the grave of Henry Brown finally got a marker. A prominent free Black man, Brown helped many slaves find their way to freedom in the mid 1800s, hiding them in the basement of his Northampton Street home until the next leg of their journey began.

“Preservation is very important,” Kathleen Smith said at the ceremony. “Thanks to the community who donated to the marker, Henry Brown’s work will be remembered by future generations.” Smith belongs to the Shawnee Fort Chapter of the Daughters of The American Revolution, and she was among the nearly 100 people who attended.

Pennsylvania’s first person of color to be elected to statewide row seat was also there, state Auditor General Timothy DeFoor. “It is an honor to be here to honor someone who I consider a hero,” DeFoor said. “He was an abolitionist, he was a businessman, he risked his life to help slaves during their long journey through the Underground Railroad.”

This is an important acknowledgment in its own right, but we feel it merits more attention at a time when conservatives cheer a move by Florida requiring students be taught that “Slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit” — an education standard supported by Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Let’s be clear: A well-treated slave certainly could learn valuable skills, and there are examples. The writers of the standards cite several, with Educator Booker T. Washington among the most famous. But a funny thing about that argument: Washington needed to be emancipated and able to enroll himself in school before becoming the legend he is. His slavery work? A salt furnace and a coal mine.

Arguing that slavery had benefits for the slaves is downright Orwellian. And even if some did learn valuable skills, that doesn’t compensate for being enslaved. How could it? If slaves went on to be accomplished in their free years, think how much more they would have succeeded if they had been free from the start, been given an education and opportunities beyond those their “owners” permitted?

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