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C H A P T E R 1 0  “Are We Not Men?” Perhaps in part to fill the empty place in her heart, Harriet Purvis invited her niece, Charlotte Forten, to live with them at Harmony Hall during the school year of 1858–1859. Charlotte, a schoolteacher, was to tutor the younger children, Georgianna and Granville, and to keep Hattie company . Charlotte was the daughter or Robert Bridges Forten and his first wife, Mary Woods. Mary had died early, and Charlotte had been raised in the household of her grandparents, James and Charlotte Vandine Forten; she was privately tutored. In 1854, she went to Salem, Massachusetts to attend an integrated school and live in the household of the black abolitionist Charles Remond. After graduating from the Higginson Grammar School, she took a one-year course at the State Normal School at Salem, and then taught for almost two years in the Salem public schools. She resigned in March 1858 because of ill health; she spent eighteen months in Philadelphia, living with her grandmother and visiting her relatives.1 Charlotte kept a journal at intervals during her life, including her visit in 1858 to the household at Harmony Hall. She described the farm, and the well-ordered and elegant family life which her Aunt Harriet oversaw . She and her aunt often read aloud together from the classics, or went to Philadelphia to attend cultural events. In April, they had gone together to see the paintings of Rosa Bonheur; in November they attended a lecture by George Curtis entitled, “Fair Play for Women.” Charlotte thought the lecture was “as much Anti-Slavery as Women’s Rights.”2 She also admired her uncle Robert, enjoyed horseback riding with him, and accompanied him to lectures at the local lyceum. “Mr. P. very eloquent and excelled himself. I think the amount of good he does in 131 awakening and arousing the people is incalculable,” she wrote on January 29, 1859. She read a letter he received from William Lloyd Garrison and enjoyed hearing him tell about his trip to England in 1834.3 Hattie, her cousin, was only two years younger than she, and the two were often together. For entertainment, Charlotte helped the children perform in tableaux. In one, Hattie and Charlotte were bride and groom, and Granville and Charles, traveling minstrels. In another, Hattie was Rebecca, a role which Charlotte thought became her because of her “decidedly Jewish features.” Together, Charlotte and Hattie attended meetings of the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society, and of the antislavery sewing circle that met at the home of Edward and Anna Mott Hopper. Lue Hopper, the oldest Hopper daughter, became a special friend. In the fall, Charlotte went with the Purvises to Byberry Meeting to hear Lucretia Mott speak; afterwards she helped her aunt entertain the Motts and “a large company” for dinner.4 Tacie Townsend, the young Quaker woman who had attended Central College and written a poem about Joseph’s death, was a constant companion to Charlotte during this visit. Together the two young women joined a literary society organized at Harmony Hall. In December, Ellen Wright, who had attended Eagleswood School with Hattie, came for a visit. “I like her very much—an independent, intelligent girl,” Charlotte wrote in her diary. Ellen stayed through the holidays and was still at Byberry on January 9 when Hattie, Ellen, and Charlotte went to Bristol to visit an antislavery family, the Pierces. While there they performed tableaux.5 During her visit to Byberry, Ellen flirted with Robert Purvis Jr. They went horseback riding together, talked about “everything, from books to beasts to consumption” while they walked their horses. When it began to snow, they fantasized about “some sort of romantic scene such as being snowed up.” But the storm abated, and the ten- mile ride came to a “safe conclusion” though Ellen confessed to her mother that, exhausted, she slid off the saddle “like so much lead” into Robert’s arms at the end of the ride.6 She confessed to her journal that she thought Robert was fond of her and might ask her to marry him. What then would she do? Her sister would never approve because of his African blood.7 During the following Christmas season, Robert Purvis Jr. commenced paying attention to Ellen’s first cousin once removed, Anna Davis, daughter of Anna Mott and Edward M. Davis. Ellen, perhaps stung, wrote to Anna to commiserate. “I think there is the utmost...

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