Mercersburg is a

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle A ...

in Franklin County, located near the southern border of

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, United States. The borough is southwest of

Harrisburg Harrisburg is the capital city of the Pennsylvania, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, Dauphin County. With a population of 50,135 as of the 2021 census, Harrisburg is the List of c ...

, the state capital. Due to its location in a rural area, it had a relatively large percentage of African-American workers who had been enslaved from the Revolution. It was called "Black Town" in the early nineteenth century before incorporation under its current name. Refugee African Americans escaping from slavery in the South also settled here, and the area was known as "Little Africa".

History

Mercersburg was

plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Surveys to show the distance and bear ...

ted in 1780. The borough was named after

Hugh Mercer Hugh Mercer (16 January 1726 – 12 January 1777) was a Scottish-born American military officer and physician who participated in the Seven Years' War and Revolutionary War. Born in Pitsligo, Scotland, he studied medicine in his home country ...

, a general and hero in the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

. A post office has been in operation at Mercersburg since 1812. Located near the southern border of Pennsylvania, the rural community became a place of refuge during the antebellum years for escaped African Americans who had been enslaved in the S