Historic Jamestown, Mendenhall Homeplace and Quaker Anti-Slavery Activity

The Mendenhall Homeplace is located at the heart of Jamestown, North Carolina. Built by Richard Mendenhall c. 1811, it represents local antislavery efforts.

The Mendenhall family were Pennsylvania Quakers who established Jamestown in the late 1700s. Richard Mendenhall was a tanner, store owner and educator. He also became a founding member of the North Carolina Manumission Society in 1816. Manumission, or the formal act of freeing from slavery, was a widely supported practice in the local Quaker community. At least 75 Jamestown society members sought legal ways to free and relocate enslaved people.

During the 1810s, Quakers in Guilford County spent about $13,000 – which is the equivalent of $333,447.89 today – freeing enslaved people through manumission. Most freed people relocated to the north, Haiti or Liberia as a form of protection. However, the process became increasingly difficult. Manumission eventually fell out of favor, leading to the Society's disbandment in 1834. Local legend suggests that many former members shifted their efforts to supporting the Underground Railroad. Richard Mendenhall was a rumored contributor, but no evidence can confirm his involvement. Today, the Mendenhall Homestead does feature a rare false-bottom wagon used by Quaker teens Isaac Stanley and Andrew Murrow to carry enslaved people to freedom.

Mendenhall did support Vestal and Levi Coffin, two cousins who ferried free Black people to safer states. The Coffins also created the first Underground Railway station in the county. In 1819, they secretly helped a free Black man escape the sons of his former enslaver. John Dimery fled to Indiana where he found work and sent for his family. Dimery’s escape is one of the earliest documented uses of the Underground Railroad. 

Know Before You Go

Check out Mendenhall Homeplace online