Henrietta Duterte: The First Black Female Undertaker and Abolitionist Entrepreneur

Henrietta Duterte: The First Black Female Undertaker and Abolitionist EntrepreneurBorn Henrietta Smith Bowers in July 1817 to a free Black family in Philadelphia's Society Hill neighborhood, Henrietta Duterte grew up in a household buzzing with activism and ambition. One of 13 children, she was sister to notable figures like opera singer Thomas Bowers, known as "The Colored Mario," and abolitionist John C. Bowers. As a young woman, Henrietta worked as a fashionable tailor, crafting capes and cloaks for the city's elite, before marrying Francis A. Duterte, a Haitian-American coffin maker, in 1852.Tragedy struck in 1858 when Francis died suddenly, leaving Henrietta to take over his undertaking business. In an era when women were barred from such "unseemly" professions, she defied norms to become America's first Black female undertaker—and the first woman to own a mortuary in the nation. Operating out of their home on Philadelphia's Seventh Ward, Duterte's parlor gained a reputation for swift, dignified services, crucial in the pre-embalming days when quick burials were essential.But Duterte's impact extended far beyond business. Her funeral home doubled as a stop on the Underground Railroad, where she hid escaped enslaved people in coffins or disguised them in funeral processions to evade capture. A philanthropist at heart, she funneled profits into causes like the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church of St. Thomas, the Philadelphia Home for Aged and Infirm Colored Persons, and the Freedmen's Aid Society, aiding newly freed people post-Civil War. By her death on December 23, 1903, at age 86, Duterte had passed her thriving enterprise to her nephew, leaving a blueprint for Black entrepreneurship and resistance.Henrietta Duterte's life proves that even in death's solemn trade, one could nurture life and liberty.