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C H A P T E R 3  Present at theBeginning A more profound influence on the young Robert Purvis than that of Benjamin Lundy was James Forten (1766–1842), the wealthy black sailmaker who lived on Lombard Street. James was the son of Thomas Forten, a journeyman sailmaker and Margaret, who may have been a former slave. Young Forten attended the Free African School, founded by Anthony Benezet and conducted by Quakers at Willings Alley. Thomas Forten died in 1773, and James had to help support the family, working as a clerk in a grocery store. He was in Philadelphia when the Declaration of Independence was read and longed to help in the struggle for freedom. General George Washington, however, was not accepting blacks as soldiers . In 1781, Forten signed on as crew of a privateer, the Royal Louis, owned by merchant Francis Gurney. The first voyage was a success but on the second sailing the Royal Louis was captured by a British man-of-war, the Amphion, and its crew was sent to a prison ship, the Jersey, in New York harbor. Before this exchange could take place, and while he was still on the Amphion, James Forten befriended the young son of the captain. As a result, the captain offered James the opportunity to go with them to England as a companion to the younger boy, to be educated and raised as a gentleman. Forten refused, saying, “I have been taken prisoner for the liberties of my country, and never will prove traitor to her interests.”1 After several terrible months aboard the prison ship, James Forten arranged his escape by hiding in the sea chest of a Continental officer who was being exchanged. At the last moment, though, he gave up his place for a fellow prisoner, Daniel Brewton, who was two years younger than he. As a result, the two became lifelong friends. After seven months, 29 his name came up for release, and he made his way back to Philadelphia. He signed on for a voyage on a merchant ship, spent a year in England, and may have worked in a sail loft along the Thames River. Returning to Philadelphia in 1785, he entered into an apprenticeship with sailmaker Robert Bridges, and soon became foreman. When Bridges retired in 1798, he left the business in charge of James Forten.2 By managing the sail loft well, employing both black and white workers, and by investing his profits in real estate and money lending, Forten became a wealthy man. Continuing in the patriotic tradition, he volunteered to help build fortifications when the British threatened Philadelphia during the War of 1812. For the next thirty years of his life, while continuing his profitable business, he gave much of his time to public service for the black community.3 Robert Purvis and his brothers had grown up in and out of the Forten household. After their mother remarried, and spent time in New York City with her new husband, they may have come to regard the Fortens as their second home. The Forten daughters with whom they had played as children were now young women; it was natural that friendships ripened into something more. For Robert Purvis, the dark, beautiful, and talented Harriet Davy Forten, six months his senior, was increasingly appealing. Sometime in the spring of 1831, they became engaged.4 James Forten must have approved of Robert as a son-in-law. Not only had the young man inherited money, but he also was beginning to increase his wealth by buying, selling, and renting real estate properties, and lending money, a business which he was to conduct for the rest of his life. In addition, James found young Robert intellectually compatible. He shared many of James’ viewpoints, was an articulate spokesman, and an accomplished writer. The two became close friends and colleagues, Forten feeling for Robert some of the warmth that he felt for his own sons. On August 4, 1831, Robert became twenty-one and a few weeks later, on September 13, Robert and Harriet were married in an elaborate ceremony at the Forten home. The Right Reverend Bishop Henry Onderdonk of the Episcopal Church of New York officiated, since the Reverend J. M. Douglass, the minister of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, to which Harriet belonged, was prevented from attending because of a death in his family.5 According to all observers it was a good marriage, which lasted fortyfour years, until Harriet’s...

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