Settled beginning in 1826 by formerly enslaved and free Black people along Rancocas Creek in Burlington County, Timbuctoo grew into a community of roughly 125 residents by 1860, with its own school, AME Zion church, and benevolent society. In December 1860, when a slave catcher named George Alberti arrived with armed men to seize an escaped resident named Perry Simmons, Timbuctoo's villagers fought them off with axes, knives, and guns in what became known as the Battle of Pine Swamp. Thirteen U.S. Colored Troops veterans are buried in the community's surviving cemetery, and Temple University archaeological excavations beginning in 2009 recovered more than 15,000 artifacts documenting daily life in the settlement.