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EJ Murphy

@ejmurphy.bsky.social

750 followers 420 following 390 posts

Educator/public historian. 19th century U.S. history & the Underground Railroad. Views are, for better or for worse, my own.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · Nov 13

Made the jump, and I’m happy to be here.

For new friends - I’m EJ, I’m from Scranton, PA (yes I love The Office), I’m a teacher, & run a NPS affiliated Underground Railroad program in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

I post stuff like this picture of USCTs returning to NEPA UGRR town Montrose in 1865 👋

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 1d

“Robert E. Lee was a traitor to his country and the military leader of an armed rebellion against the government of the United States…if Robert E. Lee had received his just dues he would have been hanged and the scaffold preserved as a monument to his infamy.”

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 7d

There was pushback and it became a major talking point until the passage of the 15th amendment. The 1838 PA convention got brought up quite a bit including at the 1865 State Equal Rights Convention and the USCT reception in Harrisburg the same year.

EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 7d

Great thread. I get into this a little at work too when I discuss Black disenfranchisement in PA in the late 1830s.

A state Supreme Court decision & members of a constitutional convention argued that Black men didn’t have voting rights bc they were “a caste.” They got ahistorical and extra-legal…

EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 7d

Love that this was written by a teacher and a former Park Ranger. Kudos, @oupress.bsky.social.

EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 7d

New book alert. This should be interesting.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 9d

With my luck it’s gonna come back and just say “this cemetery is super old.”

EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 9d

I noticed while giving a tour the other day that Hickory Grove’s state historical marker was missing. Luckily all is well, but you can get the sense “meh” just from the background of this that I took Saturday.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 9d

Thought about that on my drive to work today. These are from roughly this time last year. Doesn’t look like this at all driving around Waverly.

EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 9d

Source: digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/ob...

[Funeral procession for President Lincoln, 1000 block of South Broad Street, Philadelphia, April 22, 1865] [graphic]. | Library Company of Philadelphia Digital Collections

View showing throngs of mourners at Abraham Lincoln's funeral procession. Mourners crowd the sidewalks as well as the rooftops and balconies of buildings and businesses, including the Union House and ...

digital.librarycompany.org

EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 9d

Just stumbled upon this great photo of Lincoln’s funeral procession in Philadelphia. I wish they noted which military unit is shown along the street. I know the 24th USCT, which included a formerly enslaved Scranton resident, participated and I would love to know if it’s them.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 10d

Happy Sunday, folks.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 20d

Damn right 😂

EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 20d

Glad you know the name of two Hoyas that got the GMac treatment…

a man in a suit and tie is sitting in a crowd of people and making a funny face .

ALT: a man in a suit and tie is sitting in a crowd of people and making a funny face .

media.tenor.com

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 20d

Oh I am 100% in the baggy short generation. One of my former students actually asked me that once 😂

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 20d

Currently on my work desk:

EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 20d

Middle school me is very excited about this.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · 25d

Super excited to be partnering with Steamtown National Historic Site for my first official National Park Service program!

This upcoming Friday I’ll be hopping aboard their “Scranton Limited” yard shuttle and discussing Civil War Scranton.

Pumped.

Reposted by EJ Murphy

Stephen West @stephenwest.bsky.social · Sep 3

“…the longor you keep my Child from me the longor you will have to burn in hell and the qwicer youll get their…”

Spotswood Rice, a Black soldier in the US Army, to a Missouri woman who held his daughter in slavery, #otd 1864

that the longor you keep my Child from me the longor you will have to burn in hell and the qwicer youll get their for

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · Sep 2

“It may not be many years before the anticipations of Washington and Jefferson will be fulfilled, and Virginia will be added to the fraternity of Free States.”

They were right, just not necessarily in the way they thought. Wonder how/if this impacted WV statehood? Cc: @5thborderstate.bsky.social

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · Sep 2

Found an interesting local 1857 article titled “SLAVERY ABOLISHING ITSELF IN VIRGINIA.” It makes the claim that the Underground Railroad was so successful in helping slaves escape bondage that enslavers were selling their “property” in order to not take a loss.

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EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · Sep 1

I’m doing some more research about Civil War era Binghamton and found this short article reporting on the fact that during the 1864 presidential election every town in Broome County, including Binghamton, gave a majority for Lincoln.

“We call this a clean-sweeping Broome.”

EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · Aug 31

Books of the day.

EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · Aug 31

This is my all-time favorite take on a potential McClellan administration, from the Pittston Gazette.

“Worse than Buchanan Times.”

EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · Aug 29

But that’s okay, the West Point Museum has a much more interesting piece of the 22nd United States Colored Troops regiment (a unit of formerly enslaved & freeborn Black men & white officers) successfully charging Confederate works outside of Petersburg, Virginia in 1864.

EJ Murphy @ejmurphy.bsky.social · Aug 29

Once again.

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