Robert Purvis
Encyclopedia
Robert Purvis was an African-American abolitionist in the United States. He was born in Charleston, South Carolina
, educated at Amherst College
, and lived most of his life in Philadelphia. Purvis and his brothers were three-quarters European by ancestry and inherited considerable wealth from their native English
father. They chose to identify with the black
community and use their education and wealth to support abolition of slavery
and anti-slavery activities, as well as projects in education to help African Americans advance.
. His mother Harriet Judah was a free woman of color
, the daughter of former slave Dido Badaraka. His father was the English
immigrant William Purvis. Purvis told a reporter that his grandmother Badaraka had been kidnapped at age 12 from Morocco
, transported to the colonies on a slave ship
, and sold as a slave in Charleston. He described her as a full-blooded Moor
: dark-skinned with tightly curled hair. She was freed at age 19 by her master's will. Harriet's father was Baron Judah, of European Jewish descent. He was the third of ten children of Hillel Judah, a German
Jewish immigrant, and his Sephardic Jewish wife, Abigail Seixas, a native of Charleston.
Purvis said his grandparents Badaraka and Judah had married, his biographer thought that unlikely, given the social prominence of the Judah family in Charleston. She also discovered that the Judah family had owned slaves. Badaraka and Judah did have a relationship of several years, and they had Harriet and a son together. (In 1790 Judah broke off his relationship with Badaraka when he moved with his family from Charleston to Savannah, Georgia
. In 1791 he moved to Richmond, Virginia
. There he married a Jewish woman and had four children with her.)
William Purvis was from Northumberland
, and he had come to the United States as a young man. He became a wealthy cotton broker in Charleston and a naturalized US citizen. William and some of his brothers had come to South Carolina to make their fortunes. After their father died when they were children, their mother moved the family to Edinburgh, Scotland for her sons' education.
William Purvis and Harriet Judah lived together as man and wife. Purvis was substantially older than Harriet Judah, and the couple had three sons: William born in 1806, Robert born in 1810, and Joseph born in 1812. In 1819 the Purvis family moved north to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
, where the boys attended the Pennsylvania Abolitionist Society's Clarkson School. Purvis planned to consolidate his business affairs and return with his family to England, where he thought his sons would have better opportunities. He died before they could move.
As their father wanted his sons to be educated as gentlemen, Robert and Joseph Purvis both studied at Amherst College
in Massachusetts
. They returned to Philadelphia, where their family was among the black elite. After their father died in 1826, Purvis and his brothers were to share an estate worth $250,000. In 1828 Purvis' older brother William died of tuberculosis
, which resulted in Robert and Joseph's having increased shares of the estate. The wealth helped them pay for their political activities and public service.
establish the American Anti-Slavery Society
in Philadelphia and signed its "Declaration of Sentiments
". Purvis was the last surviving member of the society.
Also in 1833, Purvis helped establish the Library Company of Colored People, modeled after the Library Company of Philadelphia
, a subscription organization. With Garrison's support, Purvis traveled to England to meet leading abolitionists.
In 1838, he drafted the "Appeal of Forty Thousand Citizens Threatened with Disfranchisement"', which urged the repeal of a new state constitutional amendment disfranchising
free African Americans. Because of widespread tensions and fears among whites following Nat Turner's slave rebellion of 1831, Purvis was not successful in dissuading state legislators from restricting African Americans' political rights.
From 1845-1850, Purvis served as president of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society
. As a supporter of the Underground Railroad
, Purvis served as chairman of the General Vigilance Committee
from 1852-1857. According to his records, Purvis estimated that from 1831 until 1861, he helped one slave per day achieve freedom, aiding a total of more than 9,000 slaves to escape to the North
. He used his own house, located outside the city, as a station on the Underground Railroad.
Purvis supported many progressive causes beyond abolition. He served as the first vice-president of the Woman's Suffrage Society, when Lucretia Mott
served as president. He also supported temperance
and similar social issues. He believed in integrated groups working for greater progress for all. By the end of the Civil War and the emancipation
of slaves, Purvis was in his late 50s and became less active in political affairs.
and Charlotte Forten of Philadelphia. Like her parents, brothers and sisters, Harriet Forten Purvis was active in anti-slavery groups in the city.
The Purvises had five children, including son Charles B. Purvis, who became a surgeon and professor for 30 years in the medical school at Howard University
. In addition, they raised Harriet's niece, Charlotte Forten Grimké
, after her mother died. In her later life, Harriet Forten Purvis lectured publicly against segregation and for expanded suffrage for all citizens.
After Harriet died, Purvis married Tacy Townsend, who was of European descent.
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
, educated at Amherst College
Amherst College
Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...
, and lived most of his life in Philadelphia. Purvis and his brothers were three-quarters European by ancestry and inherited considerable wealth from their native English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
father. They chose to identify with the black
Black
Black is the color of objects that do not emit or reflect light in any part of the visible spectrum; they absorb all such frequencies of light...
community and use their education and wealth to support abolition of slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
and anti-slavery activities, as well as projects in education to help African Americans advance.
Early life
Purvis was born in 1810 in Charleston, South CarolinaCharleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
. His mother Harriet Judah was a free woman of color
Free people of color
A free person of color in the context of the history of slavery in the Americas, is a person of full or partial African descent who was not enslaved...
, the daughter of former slave Dido Badaraka. His father was the English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
immigrant William Purvis. Purvis told a reporter that his grandmother Badaraka had been kidnapped at age 12 from Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
, transported to the colonies on a slave ship
Slave ship
Slave ships were large cargo ships specially converted for the purpose of transporting slaves, especially newly purchased African slaves to Americas....
, and sold as a slave in Charleston. He described her as a full-blooded Moor
Moors
The description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of the Maghreb region who are predominately of Berber and Arab descent. They came to conquer and rule the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. At that time they were Muslim, although earlier the people had followed...
: dark-skinned with tightly curled hair. She was freed at age 19 by her master's will. Harriet's father was Baron Judah, of European Jewish descent. He was the third of ten children of Hillel Judah, a German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
Jewish immigrant, and his Sephardic Jewish wife, Abigail Seixas, a native of Charleston.
Purvis said his grandparents Badaraka and Judah had married, his biographer thought that unlikely, given the social prominence of the Judah family in Charleston. She also discovered that the Judah family had owned slaves. Badaraka and Judah did have a relationship of several years, and they had Harriet and a son together. (In 1790 Judah broke off his relationship with Badaraka when he moved with his family from Charleston to Savannah, Georgia
Savannah, Georgia
Savannah is the largest city and the county seat of Chatham County, in the U.S. state of Georgia. Established in 1733, the city of Savannah was the colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later the first state capital of Georgia. Today Savannah is an industrial center and an important...
. In 1791 he moved to Richmond, Virginia
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
. There he married a Jewish woman and had four children with her.)
William Purvis was from Northumberland
Northumberland
Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...
, and he had come to the United States as a young man. He became a wealthy cotton broker in Charleston and a naturalized US citizen. William and some of his brothers had come to South Carolina to make their fortunes. After their father died when they were children, their mother moved the family to Edinburgh, Scotland for her sons' education.
William Purvis and Harriet Judah lived together as man and wife. Purvis was substantially older than Harriet Judah, and the couple had three sons: William born in 1806, Robert born in 1810, and Joseph born in 1812. In 1819 the Purvis family moved north to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
, where the boys attended the Pennsylvania Abolitionist Society's Clarkson School. Purvis planned to consolidate his business affairs and return with his family to England, where he thought his sons would have better opportunities. He died before they could move.
As their father wanted his sons to be educated as gentlemen, Robert and Joseph Purvis both studied at Amherst College
Amherst College
Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...
in Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
. They returned to Philadelphia, where their family was among the black elite. After their father died in 1826, Purvis and his brothers were to share an estate worth $250,000. In 1828 Purvis' older brother William died of tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
, which resulted in Robert and Joseph's having increased shares of the estate. The wealth helped them pay for their political activities and public service.
Political life
In 1833, Purvis helped abolitionist William Lloyd GarrisonWilliam Lloyd Garrison
William Lloyd Garrison was a prominent American abolitionist, journalist, and social reformer. He is best known as the editor of the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator, and as one of the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society, he promoted "immediate emancipation" of slaves in the United...
establish the American Anti-Slavery Society
American Anti-Slavery Society
The American Anti-Slavery Society was an abolitionist society founded by William Lloyd Garrison and Arthur Tappan. Frederick Douglass was a key leader of this society and often spoke at its meetings. William Wells Brown was another freed slave who often spoke at meetings. By 1838, the society had...
in Philadelphia and signed its "Declaration of Sentiments
Declaration of Sentiments
The Declaration of Sentiments, also known as the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments, is a document signed in 1848 by 68 women and 32 men, 100 out of some 300 attendees at the first women's rights convention, in Seneca Falls, New York, now known as the Seneca Falls Convention...
". Purvis was the last surviving member of the society.
Also in 1833, Purvis helped establish the Library Company of Colored People, modeled after the Library Company of Philadelphia
Library Company of Philadelphia
The Library Company of Philadelphia is a non-profit organization based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded by Benjamin Franklin as a library, the Library Company of Philadelphia has accumulated one of the most significant collections of historically valuable manuscripts and printed material in...
, a subscription organization. With Garrison's support, Purvis traveled to England to meet leading abolitionists.
In 1838, he drafted the "Appeal of Forty Thousand Citizens Threatened with Disfranchisement"', which urged the repeal of a new state constitutional amendment disfranchising
Disfranchisement
Disfranchisement is the revocation of the right of suffrage of a person or group of people, or rendering a person's vote less effective, or ineffective...
free African Americans. Because of widespread tensions and fears among whites following Nat Turner's slave rebellion of 1831, Purvis was not successful in dissuading state legislators from restricting African Americans' political rights.
From 1845-1850, Purvis served as president of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society
Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society
The Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society was established in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by James and Lucretia Mott in 1833.At the time, Pennsylvania was an openly racist state, withdrawing blacks' voting rights in 1838....
. As a supporter of the Underground Railroad
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists,...
, Purvis served as chairman of the General Vigilance Committee
Vigilance committee
A vigilance committee was a group formed of private citizens to administer law and order where they considered governmental structures to be inadequate. The term is commonly associated with the frontier areas of the American West in the mid-19th century, where groups attacked cattle rustlers and...
from 1852-1857. According to his records, Purvis estimated that from 1831 until 1861, he helped one slave per day achieve freedom, aiding a total of more than 9,000 slaves to escape to the North
The North
The North may refer to:* a geographical section of the world * the wealthy and technologically advanced nations of the world, as contrasted with the nations comprising the South...
. He used his own house, located outside the city, as a station on the Underground Railroad.
Purvis supported many progressive causes beyond abolition. He served as the first vice-president of the Woman's Suffrage Society, when Lucretia Mott
Lucretia Mott
Lucretia Coffin Mott was an American Quaker, abolitionist, social reformer, and proponent of women's rights.- Early life and education:...
served as president. He also supported temperance
Temperance movement
A temperance movement is a social movement urging reduced use of alcoholic beverages. Temperance movements may criticize excessive alcohol use, promote complete abstinence , or pressure the government to enact anti-alcohol legislation or complete prohibition of alcohol.-Temperance movement by...
and similar social issues. He believed in integrated groups working for greater progress for all. By the end of the Civil War and the emancipation
Emancipation
Emancipation means the act of setting an individual or social group free or making equal to citizens in a political society.Emancipation may also refer to:* Emancipation , a champion Australian thoroughbred racehorse foaled in 1979...
of slaves, Purvis was in his late 50s and became less active in political affairs.
Marriage and family
In 1832, Purvis married Harriet Forten, daughter of wealthy African-American sailmaker and prominent abolitionists JamesJames Forten
James Forten was an African-American abolitionist and wealthy businessman. He worked at many jobs, including dentist, carpenter, pastor and minuteman....
and Charlotte Forten of Philadelphia. Like her parents, brothers and sisters, Harriet Forten Purvis was active in anti-slavery groups in the city.
The Purvises had five children, including son Charles B. Purvis, who became a surgeon and professor for 30 years in the medical school at Howard University
Howard University
Howard University is a federally chartered, non-profit, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States...
. In addition, they raised Harriet's niece, Charlotte Forten Grimké
Charlotte Forten Grimké
Charlotte Louise Bridges Forten Grimké was an African-American anti-slavery activist, poet, and educator.-Biography:...
, after her mother died. In her later life, Harriet Forten Purvis lectured publicly against segregation and for expanded suffrage for all citizens.
After Harriet died, Purvis married Tacy Townsend, who was of European descent.