"Nearly all of the first residents of Pittsburg and vicinity who were wealthy enough to afford the luxury were owners of slaves. The Nevilles, John Gibson, James O'Hara, Alexander Fowler, Adamson Tannehill, the Kirkpatricks and many others owned them, and several continued to do so as late as the war of 1812. The old newspapers contained advertisements for runaway slaves even as late as 1820." Wilson's History of Pittsburg.

"The year 1780 is memorable in the annals of Pennsylvania for the passage of the act for the gradual abolition of slavery in this State…. It provided for the registration of every negro or mulatto slave or servant for life, or till the age of thirty-one years, before the first of November following, and also provided, 'that no man or woman of any nation or color, except the negroes or mulattoes who shall be registered as aforesaid, shall at any time hereafter be deemed, adjudged, or holden within the territory of this Commonwealth, as slaves or servants for life, but as free men and free women.'" Egle's History of Pennsylvania.