James Forten

Name

James Forten

VIAF link

First Name

James

Last Name

Forten

Born

2 September 1766

Died

4 March 1842

Parents

Thomas Forten
Margaret Forten

Spouse

Charlotte Vandine Forten

Children

Harriet Forten Purvis
Robert Bridges Forten
Margaretta Forten
Sarah Louisa Forten Purvis
Charlotta Forten
William Deas Forten
Mary Theresa Forten
Thomas Willing Francis
James Forten Jr.

Profession

Sail-maker

Note

Shared a podium with Garrison, Rogers, and Charles C. Burleigh at one of his last public appearances in May 1841 in Philadelphia
Grandfather to Charles Burleigh Purvis
Portrait by Robert Douglass Jr. - Probably by Robert Douglass Jr. - Public Domain,

Charles Burleigh Purvis

Wiki link to picture

Library Company of Philadelphia

From Julie Winch's biography of Forten:
p. 323 - Despite his deteriorating health, James Forten continued to serve the cause. In May 1841, when the eastern branch of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society was meeting in Philadelphia, he and his two eldest sons attended a fundraiser for the Vigilance Committee. In what was probably one of his last public appearances, he shared the platform with old friends from the antislavery movement, Garrison, Charles C. Burleigh, and Nathaniel P. Rogers. He also took paternal pride in listening to his sons. Robert "delivered a brief address of the finest declamatory style," while James Jr. "sang the 'Pilgrim Fathers' . . . in a manner that would have won a foreign singer at our theatres or concerts, no small applause."43
Winch, Julie. A Gentleman of Color : The Life of James Forten, New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
National Anti-Slavery Standard, May 13, 1841

Related Places

Eastern Pennsylvania

Associated Causes

Underground Railroad URR

Suffrage, African-American

Temperance

Women's Rights

Free Black Civil Rights

Abolition