assemble a comprehensive history of Bethel, hence, our limited goal of prolegomenon to a history. Lancaster County is an area rich in history and tradition. Local in- dividuals, institutions, and events of not just regional but also national in- terest have been chronicled by a long series of local

of Bethel in the Union cause. After the war and especially with the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment Bethel was the focal point in Lancaster County for the inter- racial celebration of the restoring of voting privileges to Pennsylvania Blacks. What fruits did this social and political freedom