[video]
Dr James Johnson discusses his recently-published:
Black Biographies of the Lower Delaware Valley: Antebellum to Great Migration, 
including his research process and some related topics for further study.

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio on 22 March 1840, Oberlin Smith moved to Bridgeton before the Civil War, got his training here as an engineer, and lived here for the rest of his life. In an era of remarkable American industrial founders and many celebrated industrial enterprises, he stands out for his humanity, creativity, generosity and public spiritedness, right here at home. On our dedicated Smith/Ferracute page, CHABA remembers his founding the Ferracute Machine Company here in

‘Bridge-town’ was a high-profile Patriot village and a lively post-Revolutionary West Jersey junction In 1791, when a gentleman farmer from Back Neck named David Sheppard thought it an ideal place for an American patriarch to raise a family. So he and his wife Phebe (Ludlam) chose a choice little homesite for their imposing, many-storied Federal-style mansion, exactly where Commerce Street crosses Cohansey “Creek,” and right up against the high bluff that looks out over the

This is a blog of personal memories by Jeanette Stephens-El (Jan. 2026), which happens only to have been posted by me (FA) . I hope she will add more! I grew up in what I referred to as a charming 2-bedroom, 1 bath, 2-story colonial, fenced in duplex corner home where the side street is a short quiet avenue of well-kept homes, one block from the scenic Cohansey River. Before selling this--my childhood home, a realtor’s narrative was: “Discover a piece of history with this del