They grew up correcting everyone about their last name. Years later, they discovered the deep Philly history behind it.
For most of their lives, twin brothers Larry and Kelly Ganges viewed their last name as a source of minor social friction—a unique identifier that constantly required spelling out, repeating, or correcting in daily introductions. It was a name that seemed to belong nowhere in particular, detached from the common lineages they saw around them in Philadelphia.
But that changed when the brothers uncovered the origins of “Ganges,” revealing a stunned connection to a pivotal and often overlooked chapter in American abolitionist history.
The Ganges 135
The brothers’ surname is a direct link to the USS Ganges, a United States Navy sloop-of-war. In the summer of 1800, the Ganges intercepted two American schooners, the Phebe and the Prudent, off the coast of Cuba. These vessels were illegally transporting 135 enslaved Africans in violation of the Slave Trade Act of 1794, which prohibited American ships from engaging in the international slave trade.
The naval crew seized the ships and diverted them to Philadelphia, a city with a strong Quaker abolitionist presence. Upon arrival, the 135 survivors—many of them children and teenagers—were not sold into slavery. Instead, they were placed under the guardianship of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society.
Because their original names were often unrecorded or ignored by court officials, many of the survivors were assigned the surname “Ganges” after the ship that had intercepted their captors. They were then indentured to families across the region to learn trades, eventually forming a unique nucleus of Philadelphia’s free Black community.
A History Recovered
For Larry and Kelly Ganges, the revelation transformed their identity from a genealogical question mark into a living testament of survival and liberation. They recently visited the Lazaretto in Tinicum Township—the quarantine station where their ancestors likely first set foot on Pennsylvania soil—to honor the lineage they had unknowingly carried for decades.
“We didn’t know we were walking monuments,” one of the brothers noted regarding the discovery.
Complexities of the Past
Historians point out that while the story of the Ganges is a victory for abolitionist law, the reality for the survivors was fraught with challenges that complicate the narrative of “freedom.”
Indentured Servitude vs. Freedom: While they were not enslaved, the “Ganges Africans” were still bound by indenture contracts. They were required to work for their designated masters for years without pay, a system that, while distinct from chattel slavery, still stripped them of full autonomy.
Genealogical Erasure: Tracing the “Ganges” line remains historically difficult. Over the last two centuries, many descendants lost the name due to marriage, anglicization, or deliberate changes to avoid the stigma once associated with indenture. The survival of the name in Larry and Kelly’s family is a rare genealogical preservation.
The “Back-to-Africa” Disconnect: Unlike some liberated groups who were returned to their homelands (such as those in the Amistad* case), the Ganges survivors were absorbed into American society, permanently severing their connection to their specific cultures of origin in West Africa.
Philadelphia’s Role
This discovery highlights Philadelphia’s complex dual identity in the 19th century: a hub for the abolitionist movement and the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, yet also a city economically entwined with the Atlantic trade systems. The “Ganges” case was one of the first major tests of U.S. federal law against the slave trade, setting a legal precedent that rippled through the decades leading up to the Civil War.
For the Ganges brothers, the name is no longer just a correction at the DMV or a doctor’s office—it is a badge of survival, dating back to a wooden hull in 1800 that turned away from bondage and toward the Delaware River.
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