For many years, women had cared for the dead, washing and dressing bodies for home burials. However, when the funeral home industry emerged with the rise of embalming in the 1800s, burials became a man’s job.
In 1858, Henrietta Bowers Duterte defied gender norms to become America’s first female undertaker. In other words, she became the first African-American funeral home owner in America, as well as the first American woman to own a mortuary.
In Philadelphia, Duterte thrived as a Black entrepreneur, and her funeral home catered to both Blacks and Whites. She owned many properties at the time of her death in 1903, including hearses, horses, carriages, homes, and cemeteries. Her company had also grown to be one of the city’s most successful African-American businesses, earning around $8,000 per year.
While running her funeral home, Duterte was also a key figure in the Underground Railroad, facilitating the escape of many fugitive slaves from the South. Her Philadelphia store at 838 Lombard Street became a stop on the Underground Railroad.
“Henrietta Bowers Duterte, the first African-American undertaker in Pennsylvania, on several occasions cleverly concealed runaway slaves in caskets,” according to historian Charles L. Blockson. “She also led slaves dressed in northern clothes from Philadelphia to freedom.”
Philadelphia was the final destination for some of the most daring slave escapes from the South at the time. It had a well-organized Underground Railroad network. Philadelphia was home to the Anti-Slavery Society and a large number of Quakers. In addition, the city had the most free Black people in the North.
Duterte was born in the city’s Seventh Ward in 1817, which WEB DuBois described as being home to some prominent African Americans. Duterte is one of 13 children born to John Bowers and Henrietta Smith Bowers, both of whom were born in Baltimore, Maryland but moved to Philadelphia around 1810. Duterte’s family prospered, with many succeeding in various fields. According to the Courier Post, two of her siblings became accomplished singers, and one of her brothers was a well-known public speaker who helped found Pennsylvania’s Anti-Slavery Society.
Duterte fared well in her family’s clothing business. In 1852, Duterte married Francis Duterte, a Haitian-born local coffin maker, who was a tailor who made coats, cloaks, and capes for the city’s upper and middle classes. They had several children, but none survived childhood. That didn’t stop Francis Duterte from campaigning. He belonged to the Moral Reform Society and worked as a secretary for the National Colored Convention of 1855, whose theme was economic and social liberty for free Blacks.
He continued to work for the abolition of slavery until 1858, when he died suddenly of an illness. Duterte was now forced to carry on her husband’s funeral business as well as his work for the abolition of slavery. In the process, she made history.
“As far as we can tell, she was the first woman of any race to engage operatively in undertaking and embalming in this country,” author Charles Frederick wrote in 1912. Duterte was also the only female among the 63 professional undertakers listed in McElroy’s Philadelphia City Directory in 1860. Duterte was praised for her work at funerals. According to the Christian Recorder, she was “prompt in her business affairs, and sympathizing and accommodating to all — rich or poor.”
Duterte donated profits from her business to the African-American community. She contributed financially to the AME Church of St. Thomas by paying the pastor’s salary, and she served as a benefactor on the board of the Philadelphia Home for Aged and Infirm Colored Persons.
Behind closed doors, however, Duterte was assisting enslaved people in escaping to freedom. She put her own life in danger to do so. Despite the fact that Philadelphia became a haven for fugitive slaves, the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 required slaves to be returned to their owners, even if they were in a free state. Because slave catchers were almost everywhere in Philadelphia, assisting fugitive slaves was risky. Each slave helped escape could result in a six-month sentence in a federal penitentiary.
However, knowing that it was difficult for White people to recognize Blacks when they were dressed differently, Duterte was able to dress fugitive slaves in northern garb, place them in coffins, or ask them to join funeral processions in mourning clothes, allowing them to get to a safehouse en route to Canada without being noticed.
Even after the Civil War, Duterte continued her funeral business and activism. Her nephew, Joseph T. Seth, took over the funeral business before her death on December 23, 1903, at the age of 83. Her nephew carried on the family business until his death in 1927. Duterte is buried in Eden Cemetery, Pennsylvania’s oldest Black-owned cemetery.
No one knows how many enslaved people she assisted in escaping, but Kaitlyn Greenidge, who has resurrected Duterte’s story in her novel “Libertie,” told the Courier Post that “even if it happened just once, it’s still really fascinating.”