Free Frank McWorter (1777 – September 7, 1854) was an American born into slavery who bought his freedom in Kentucky and in 1836 founded the town of New Philadelphia in Illinois; he was the first African American to plat and register a town, and establish a planned community in the United States. The New Philadelphia town site was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2009 and made a National Park Service site in 2026.
Frank McWorter was born enslaved on a Southern plantation to an enslaved African American mother. His and his mother's white enslaver was also his biological father. As an adult, in his spare time, after completing work for his enslaver (and father), Frank was allowed to use a cave to gather and prepare for sale saltpeter, a natural ingredient for gunpowder. In this way, Frank saved sufficient funds first to buy his wife's freedom, and Frank then bought his own (thus, he became "Free" Frank). He eventually gave up his saltpeter operation in exchange for the freedom of some of his children and moved to Illinois. Over several decades, McWorter and his estate spent about $500,000 (in 2021 dollars) to buy the freedom of some 15 to 22 enslaved family members in Kentucky. Several of these freedom purchases were financed by selling his New Philadelphia, Illinois lots.
In the late 20th century, a local history group recruited archaeologists to explore the long-abandoned Illinois town site. Teams from the University of Maryland, College Park, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and De Paul University have worked for years on research and excavations, collected data about residents from census and land records, and turned up thousands of artifacts. In addition, they have trained students at summer field schools and published reports, articles, and books on the history of McWorter, his family, and his town.
McWorter's descendants donated the collected 11 volumes of documentation to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in February 2008. In addition, the family donated a bronze bust of Frank McWorter by his great-great-granddaughter Shirley McWorter Moss.
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