MILFORD, PA — Running through the heart of the Delaware Valley is the Delaware and Hudson Canal (D&H Canal). And running through the heart of the canal’s history is the Black experience.

The transportation of coal—America’s main source of energy during the Industrial Age—would not have been possible without Black canal workers, said Bill Merchant, historian and deputy director for collections at the Delaware and Hudson Canal Historical Society. 

He talked to about 25 people who gathered Sunday at the Columns Museum of the Pike County Historical Society.

The canal that ran along the Delaware River between Pennsylvania and New York provided energy to the burgeoning young country in the 19th century, solving an energy crisis that was caused by the scarcity in timber. 

Merchant said he studies the experience of marginalized workers so people don’t just hear history about “old white men like me.” Merchant said that most of the workers on the D&H were Irish immigrants and recently freed slaves, and that understanding the experience of Black canal workers can help us understand immigration history in the United States more broadly.

Historical research paints a picture of the Black canal workers’ experience. They were paid about $15 a month and held a range of jobs. One oral history talks about a Black man who worked as the captain of a canal boat. A newspaper article identifies a Black woman who cooked on a canal boat and suffered a horrific injury while on board.

The D&H canal is notably linked through the Black abolitionist Sojourner Truth. Truth was the first Black woman to successfully free her son, who was illegally enslaved, by applying to the courts. Truth got her son, Peter Van Wagenen, a job working on the D&H canal. In fact, Van Wagenen worked the canal’s first fully operational season, in 1828.

“Black canal workers are so important to this story and to America,” he said. When the current discussion turns to how immigrants are stealing jobs from Americans, he said, “We aren’t telling the truth about immigration in America,” and the cheap labor that builds the country one generation after another.

Merchant was honored by the Museum Association of New York in 2023 in the Individual Achievement category, which honors a dedicated museum professional or volunteer that played a significant role in advancing their organizations.

LEARN MORE

To learn more about the Black experience on the D&H Canal watch here:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgGUlh59yNA&ab_channel= D%26HCanalHistoricalSociety

Find more information here:

www.pikehistorical.org

www.canalmuseum.org/dhtv

www.canalmuseum.org