The Motts and the Purvises: A Study in Interracial Friendship

The Morts and the Purvises: A Study in Interracial Friendship Margaret Hope Bacon* The concept of social relations among persons of different races was virtually unknown in America until the nineteenth century, when it was introduced and to a limited extent practiced by the radical abolitionists clustered around William Lloyd Garrison. The vast majority of Americans , however, believed that mixing the races, or "amalgamation" as they called it, would be a disaster. Instead, many supported the colonization movement, an effort to persuade or force African-Americans to "return" to Africa, the home of their ancestors, or to settle in the Caribbean, or on vacant lands in the western part ofthe United States.1 Although American Quakers exerted some leadership in the anti-slavery movement, declaring their opposition to slavery as early as 1688, and founding the Pennsylvania Abolition Society in 1775, the first such society in the world, and although they insisted that all members free their own slaves starting in 1776, they were as slow as any other religious body to take up the idea that skin color should not interfere with social relations. They did not formally agree to admit blacks to membership in their society until 1796, and frequently thereafter discouraged applications for membership , either directly, or by asking African-Americans to sit on a separate bench. A number of Friends supported the concept of colonization, sincerely believing that black Americans would be better off living away from the white race.2 A handful of Friends, however, understood that their protestations against slavery were meaningless unless they accepted African-Americans as equals. In Philadelphia, Isaac Hopper, a Philadelphia tailor and philanthropist , made it a point to entertain the few black Friends, such as David Mapps, who came to Philadelphia to attend Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.3 He was also a friend ofRichard Allen, founder ofthe Methodist Episcopal Church, Mother Bethel, and later of Frederick Douglass, who once said that only at Isaac Hopper's home did he feel completely comfortable. Angelina and Sarah Grimké, as well as Hannah White Richardson and Rebecca White, made friends with Sarah Mapps Douglass, a teacher at the Institute of Colored Youth. Abby Kelley Foster, a Massachusetts Quaker, also befriended Sarah, while Stephen Gould, ofRhode Island, had a close relationship with Quaker seaman Paul Cuffe.4 * Margaret Hope Bacon is an independent scholar who has written a number of biographies of Quaker activists, including Lucretia Mott, and is now at work on the life of Robert Purvis. Quaker History Among this small group, none worked harder at cultivating and maintaining interracial friendships than James and Lucretia Mott of Philadelphia . Starting around 1830, Lucretia frequently felt called to visit and preach at black churches, and to attend the Annual Conventions ofColored Americans held in Philadelphia. James accompanied her on many ofthese visits. Through such contacts they came to know many black leaders, including James and Charlotte Forten, Grace and Sarah Mapps Douglass, Amy and Joseph Cassey. They worked with these and other black colleagues in the anti-slavery organizations to which they belonged, and entertained them regularly in their various homes in Philadelphia and later in Chelten Hills, a suburb. The closest among these black friendships was that with Robert and Harriet Purvis, a well-to-do black couple who played leadership roles in the anti-slavery movement both in Philadelphia and nationally. In time, the two couples had a profound influence on each other. An examination of this friendship is useful, not only for the example it set, but also for the occasional blind spots it reveals. In 1 830 William Lloyd Garrison, a journalist, stayed with the Motts on his way home to Boston from Baltimore. Garrison had recently completed seven weeks in jail, having been convicted of libel for an article he had written for the Genius ofUniversal Emancipation, attacking a slaveowner without adequate proof. In Baltimore, Garrison had come to know such black leaders as William Watkins, and had discovered the strong feelings in the black community against the colonization offormer slaves to Africa. From Watkins and others he had heard ofJames Forten, a prominent black sailmaker, who had presided at a historic protest against colonization in Philadelphia in 1817...