Burlington Friends Quaker Meeting House presents Deep River, a concert of Negro Spirituals

Delores “Dee” Corbett, grew up attending Pentecostal churches in Texas, and later in California, until marriage brought her to New Jersey roughly 25 years ago.

For the last seven years, Corbett and her husband, Al Corbett, have taken part in regular Sunday worship services at the Mount Holly Quaker Meeting. They are “attenders” but not “officially Quakers,” she said.

The Corbetts became intrigued by the religion after studying the Underground Railroad movement of safe houses, trails, and boat routes that helped enslaved people seek freedom.

That led to a quest to gain a deeper understanding of why some Quakers, as early as the late 1600s, were speaking out against slavery.

“What attracted me is the history of some Quakers who were willing to speak out against fellow Quakers and make personal sacrifices to stand against slavery,” Dee Corbett said.

A human resources consultant and owner of an insurance brokerage firm, Dee Corbett began working as director of the Burlington Quaker Meeting House and Center for Conference last April.

At 1 p.m. Saturday, the Burlington center will acknowledge the historic ties between Quakers and Black freedom seekers by co-sponsoring a concert with the Essence of Harmony Choral Society, Deep River: a Musical Tribute to the Negro Spiritual.

Cherisse Bonefont, founder of the choral group, comprising both Black and white singers, said she started the choir “to showcase these songs that are so important to our nation’s history.”

“The more I studied these spirituals and the meaning behind them, I began thinking about what our ancestors had to go through during this time of enslavement and how these songs carried them through,” she said. “It’s amazing to me and it honors them and it ultimately honors myself to sing these songs.”

Bill Robbins, clerk of the Burlington Quarterly Meeting, which has oversight responsibilities for the Burlington Meeting House, said, “The Quakers in America came early to an enlightened understanding of the importance of equality, not just racial, but gender.”

In 1688, Francis Daniel Pastorius and other Quakers in Germantown, then a suburb outside of Philadelphia, wrote the first public petition protesting slavery from a religious institution in the English colonies. It was read aloud at the Burlington Meeting House, where the Burlington/Philadelphia Yearly Meeting was held at that time.

Robbins, who also worships at the Mount Holly Meeting House, got to know the Corbetts and encouraged Dee to apply for the director’s position in Burlington.

He pointed out that the Burlington Quaker Meeting, founded in 1677 is the second oldest Quaker settlement in the United States, after the Salem, N.J., Quaker Meeting, which was the first.

Both New Jersey cities’ Quaker presences predate the Philadelphia Quaker settlement, he said. William Penn did not arrive in Philadelphia until 1682.

“The Quakers in America came early to an enlightened understanding of the importance of equality...”

Dee Corbett said the concert featuring the Essence of Harmony choral group serves two functions: to recognize Black History Month and as a fund-raiser for the meeting house and conference center, at 340 High Street, just blocks away from the Delaware River.

However, the Burlington Meeting House had been “laid down,” for several years, meaning that no regular Sunday worship gatherings were taking place.

Over the years, the number of Quakers in Burlington had dwindled until there were not enough people to keep it open as a worship center. The meeting house was first “laid down,” in 1991, Robbins said.

“But we felt that this was too historic a site, that the Quakers shouldn’t abandon Burlington.”

So, in 1994, the Burlington Quarterly Meeting and the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting decided to build a conference center behind the historic Quaker Meeting House.

» READ MORE: At South Jersey riverfront, a 165-mile Walk to Freedom comes to joyous end

The meeting house, was constructed in 1783 to replace the original 1683 building, which was torn down as the Quaker settlement grew.

Since 1995, the Burlington center has been used mostly for conferences, summer camp for Quaker youth, and retreats, and as event space for weddings, family reunions, and other gathering. It also serves as a lodging space for Vrbo and Airbnb rental guests.

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Robbins said that ultimately, the goal of the Quakers is to reinvigorate the Burlington Meeting as a regular worship center again. “We are hoping to revive it,” he said.

Last May, not long after Dee Corbett took the job, the meeting house hosted the celebration of the the 165-mile “Walk to Freedom,” from Cape May to Burlington that traced the routes of the Underground Railroad through South Jersey.

Al Corbett, who lectures on Quaker history, slavery, and the Underground Railroad, also took part in segments of the walk led by Philadelphian Ken Johnston and Willingboro resident Deborah Price.

Dee Corbett said the multicultural composition of the celebration mirrored the traditions of unity at Burlington.

Buried together in the cemetery behind the Burlington Meeting House are: Peter Hill, the only Black American clockmaker working in the late 18th and early 19th centuries; Lenni Lenape Chief Ockanickon, who befriended the Quakers after they arrived; and Quaker abolitionist William Allison, who hid Black freedom seekers in his pharmacy on High Street.

If you go, the Burlington Quaker Meeting House is at 340 High St., Burlington, N.J. 08016. Tickets, which cost $25, are available at this link.