The only known photo of Henrietta Smith Bowers Duterte to exist.

As a city with a long history of abolitionist activism, Philadelphia was home to one of the most dynamic and influential free Black communities in 19th century America. In fact, Philadelphia would give rise to a number of successful Black Americans, many of whom had professional careers as teachers, ministers, entrepreneurs, artists, and more. One of these people was an extraordinary Black woman named Henrietta Smith Bowers Duterte, who would go on to not only become the first woman undertaker in the United States but would play a vital role in Philadelphia’s abolition movement.

During the time Henrietta was born in Philadelphia in 1817, the city was home to a growing free Black population. This was largely due to the fact that Pennsylvania had become the first state to abolish the institution of slavery with the Gradual Abolition Act of 1780. While this law did not immediately end slavery, it provided freedom for children born into the institution when they turned twenty-eight years old. Even though slavery would remain legal under the gradual abolition laws until 1847.

Despite the death of slavery in Pennsylvania, Philadelphia would remain a major hub for abolitionist activism throughout the 19th century. It is important to note that these were the decades building up to the Civil War and slavery was easily the most hotly debated, controversial issue in American politics at the time. In fact, Henrietta was born into a family that was at the forefront of the fight for racial equality. Her father, John Bowers, was the warden of the St. Thomas African Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. Founded in 1794 by Absalom Jones, a prominent pastor and abolitionist, St. Thomas’s was one of the first Black congregations in the city as well as a major center of Philadelphia’s Black community.

Henrietta and her siblings were undoubtedly influenced by the St. Thomas African Episcopal Church as well as Philadelphia’s socially active Black community. In fact, she would not be only one of her brothers and sisters who would go one to use their professional success to campaign for the rights of Black Americans nationwide. Two of her siblings, Thomas J. Bowers and Sara Sedgwicke Bowers, would go on to become renowned touring singers. In fact, Thomas would not perform in certain venues if they refused entry to Black people or if said venues enforced segregated seating.

St. Thomas African Episcopal Church was established as one of Philadelphia’s first Black churches by Absalom Jones in 1794. It played an important role in the lives of Henrietta and her siblings.

Another one of Henrietta’s prominent siblings was her older brother, John C. Bowers. John’s activism included being a founding member of Pennslyvannia’s Anti-Slavery Society as well as a vocal opponent of the American Colonization Society, a group which advocated for free Black citizens to return to Africa to the West African settlement of Liberia. John would also serve as a delegate to the 1855 Colored National Convention and as a member of the leading body of the St. Thomas African Episcopal Church. He used his position as a successful tailor and entrepreneur to advocate for abolition and the success of Black people throughout the United States. In fact, Henrietta began her professional career as a tailor -- it isn’t a long shot to assume that she worked under her older brother and took inspiration after him.

Henrietta learned the trade of undertaking through her husband, Francis Duterte, a Haitian-American coffin maker and funeral home owner whom she married in 1852. Much like Henrietta’s family, Francis was also engaged in social activism. He was a member of a local Philadelphia organization that advocated for abolition as well as women’s equality known as the Moral Reform Retreat. Unfortunately, Francis succumbed to a sudden illness in the year 1858. It was after her husband’s tragic death that Henrietta assumed leadership of his funeral home. During a time when it was incredibly rare for Black women to own their own businesses at all, Henrietta not only operated the funeral home under her own name but did so very successfully. It was noted that she was “prompt in her business affairs, and sympathizing and accommodating to all—rich or poor.’”

This surviving document shows that Henrietta operated her funeral home business under her own name — something that was unprecedented at the time.

The success of her business provided Henrietta with the resources to financially support her community through a number of philanthropic acts. She financially supported the church that had long been at the center of her family, the St. Thomas African Episcopal Church, by helping to pay the pastor’s salary. Additionally, she also provided funds for the Philadelphia Home for Aged and Infirmed Colored Persons. In the direct aftermath of the Civil War, she provided assistance to formerly enslaved people in Tennessee when she helped organize the Freedman’s Aid Society.

However, Henrietta’s philanthropy was only a portion of how she used her business as a catalyst for change and mutual aid. Similar to Black churches, much like her beloved St. Thomas African Episcopal Church, Black-owned funeral homes like Henrietta’s were centers of social and political activism. Both the St. Thomas African Episcopal Church and Henrietta’s funeral home provided the Black community of Philadelphia a space to gather and push forth change. In Henrietta’s case, she became a member of the Underground Railroad and used her business as a means to bring escapees of slavery to freedom.

As the nearest free city to the slave-holding Southern states, Philadelphia became a key destination for many formerly enslaved people as well as escapees from slavery. The city sat only about fifteen miles north of the Mason-Dixon Line, which made up Pennsylvania's southern border and separated it from Maryland and West Virginia. During the 19th century, the line had become the symbolic boundary between Northern “free” states and Southern “slave” states for many Americans, despite the fact that different forms of forced labor existed on both sides of the boundary.

As a result of Philadelphia’s location, it became a central stop along the Underground Railroad in the early 19th century. The city was home to not just a large, vibrant, and socially active free Black community but also housed several Quaker abolitionist networks. Both communities would often work together to develop routes through which escapees from slavery could journey towards freedom. It has been estimated that by the time the Civil War began, over nine thousand escapees had made their way along the Underground Railroad to Philadelphia. Having lived her entire life in Philadelphia, Henrietta would have understood the unique proximity her funeral home had to the Underground Railroad and it is very likely that this is the reason she chose to donate her time and resources to ensure its success.

Henrietta’s funeral home on 838 Lombard Street in Philadelphia.

Henrietta would hide escapees in coffins or even disguise them as members of funeral processions in order to allow them safe passage through Philadelphia. She was incredibly courageous in doing what she did as she risked her business and livelihood to ensure the safety of the escapees that came under her care. Even though Philadelphia was a hot spot for abolitionist activism, its proximity to Southern slave-owning states also created a series of violent clashes between abolitionists and slave-owners along the Pennsylvania border. Additionally, there were heavy legal penalties for those who were caught aiding runaway slaves including jail sentences, fines of around a thousand dollars, and the possibility of facing civil suits from slave-owners.

Furthermore, despite Philadelphia's large abolitionist network, a majority of white people in the state still openly viewed Black people as inferior and showed disdain towards the abolitionist cause. Black people were frequent targets of mob violence in Philadelphia in the decades which Henrietta was most active in her work, a reality that she would have been very aware of as a prominent Black woman in the city. However, she never let any of this deter her. Not only was she a prominent abolitionist and philanthropist, she continued to operate a compassionate and accommodating funeral home that served the Black community of Philadelphia for the rest of her life. In fact, she served as the undertaker of a young Black man just two days before her own death on December 23, 1903.

Henrietta dedicated her life to serving her community and advancing the cause of Black Americans in a number of ways, whether it was helping them escape to their freedom or providing the Black families of Philadelphia with care for their deceased loved ones. In fact, author Kaitlyn Greenidge shows us that Henrietta’s work as an undertaker was just as important as her activism for it was through her funeral home that she provided members of Philadelphia’s Black community with the dignity and respect that many of them were denied in life:

“To be able to determine when and how to bury and mourn your dead is an act of autonomy and self-expression for a community that is denied personhood by the larger civic and social systems at every turn. Because segregation in the United States runs even into the grave, black-owned funeral homes have often been the only places black people could turn to when burying their dead.”

— Kaitlyn Greenidge

The Life and Activism of Henrietta S. Bowers Duterte

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