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“A Person of Good Character and Considerable Property”: James Forten and the Issue of Race in Philadelphia's Antebellum Business Community

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 December 2011

Julie Winch
Julie Winch
Affiliation:
JULIE WINCH is professor of history at theUniversity of Massachusetts in Boston.
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Abstract

James Forten (1766–1842) was in business in Philadelphia for almost half a century. A sailmaker by trade, he invested the profits from his sail-loft in real estate, bank stock, and shares in various ventures, including railroads. He was also a money-lender. Throughout his long career in business, Forten struggled to be accepted as an astute and successful member of the business community who happened to be a man of color. As this essay demonstrates, that was how some of his white peers saw him. To others, however, he was a man of color first and a man of business second.

Type
Articles
Information
Business History Review , Volume 75 , Issue 2 , Summer 2001 , pp. 261 - 296
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 2001

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References

1 James Forten to William Lloyd Garrison, 2 Feb. 1831; 31 Dec. 1830; 28 July 1832; Boston Public Library.

2 Gloucester, Stephen H., A Discourse on the Death of Mr. James Forten (Philadelphia, 1843), 18Google Scholar; Abdy, Edward S., Journal of a Residence and Tour in the United States of North America (London, 1835), vol. 3, 129–30Google Scholar; Poulson's American Daily Advertiser, 31 May 1806.

3 For a more extensive discussion of James Forten's early life and family background, see Winch, Julie, A Gentleman of Color: The Life of James Forten (New York, forthcoming 2002), ch. 1.Google Scholar

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7 Winch, A Gentleman of Color, ch. 3.

8 In 1780 Pennsylvania enacted a gradual abolition law, but it applied only to children born to enslaved women after March 1, 1780, and those children would have to serve their mothers' owners as “apprentices” until age twenty-eight. On the law and its impact, see Nash, Gary B. and Soderlund, Jean R., Freedom by Degrees: Emancipation in Pennsylvania and Its Aftermath (New York, 1991)Google Scholar, especially chs. 4 and 5.

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17 Alonso B. Munoz to James Forten, 24 June 1817; Pennsylvania Abolition Society (PAS) Minutes, 1800–24, HSP.

18 New Orleans Directory, 1823; Robert Layton to James Forten, 2 May 1825; loose correspondence, incoming, 1820–49; PAS MSS, HSP.

19 State Personal Tax Assessment Ledger, New Market Ward (1832), 211; Philadelphia City Archives (PCA). Pennsylvania Abolition Society census, 1838; Papers of the Committee to Visit the black People, PAS MSS. At the time of his death, Forten owned stock in several Philadelphia banks and shares in a railroad company. Will Book 15, 445, #87; PCA.

20 James Forten to Samuel Breck, 22 July 1828; Breck Papers, HSP.

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29 St. Paul's Church, Philadelphia, Baptisms, 1782–1828; Marriages, 1759–1829; Burials, 1790–1852, 303; HSP The Fortens attended this predominantly white church, as did a number of other free black families, before St. Thomas's African Episcopal Church opened for worship in 1794.

30 Liberator, 2 May 1835; 4 Mar. 1853. Massachusetts Death Registers (1853), Massachusetts State Archives.

31 Pacific Appeal, 8 Aug. 1874.

32 Ibid, 18 July 1863.

33 Elliott Cresson to R. R. Gurley, 21 Jan. 1828; American Colonization Society Papers (microfilm), Incoming Correspondence, 12 Dec, 1827–9 Feb. 1828. Purvis, Robert, Remarks on the Life and Character of James Forten (Philadelphia, 1842), 14–15.Google Scholar

34 Forten's speeches and letters contain many references to his strict views on temperance. As for his insistence on punctuality, see Liberator 5 May 1842.

35 Moak, Jefferson M., comp., Philadelphia Guardians of the Poor: Bonds for the Support of Illegitimate Children and Other Indigent Persons, 1811–1859 (Philadelphia, 1996), 21, 23.Google Scholar

36 Anti-Slavery Record, Dec. 1835.

37 Gloucester, A Discourse, 23.

38 National Anti-Slavery Standard 10 Mar. 1842.

39 Nicholas B. Wainwright, ed., “The Diary of Samuel Breck, 1814–1822,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 102, Oct. 1978, 505.

40 Gloucester, A Discourse, 23.

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42 Robert Purvis, Remarks on the Life and Character of James Forten, 10. National Anti-Slavery Standard, 10 Mar. 1842.

43 Philadelphia Ship Registers, 83, 139; Blunt White Library, Mystic Seaport. True American Commercial Advertiser, 22 Dec. 1808.

44 Christ Church: Marriages, 1800–1900, 4726; HSP. Philadelphia Ship Registers, 76. Vessel Registers, 1803–4, Independence Seaport Museum, Philadelphia.

45 For the details of that agenda see Winch, A Gentleman of Color, ch. 8.

46 James Forten to Paul Cuffe, 20 Sept., 1816; 8 Jan. 1817; 25 Jan. 1817; 25 July 1817; Cuffe Papers, New Bedford Free Public Library (NBFPL).

47 Cuffe to Forten, 23 Sept., 1814; 15 Dec. 1814; Cuffe MSS, Old Dartmouth Historical Society Library (ODHSL). Forten to Cuffe, 5 Jan. 1815; Cuffe Papers, NBFPL.

48 Forten to Cuffe, 5 Jan. 1815; Cuffe Papers, NBFPL.

49 Forten to Cuffe, 6 Apr. 1815; Cuffe MSS, ODHSL.

50 Forten to Cuffe, 14 Apr. 1817; Cuffe Papers, NBFPL.

51 New Bedford Ship Registers, 144, 268, 310–11.

52 Ship Tontine bills and brig Emma bills, Barry-Hayes Papers, Independence Seaport Museum.

53 Brig Emma bills.

54 Ibid.

55 North American, 5 Mar. 1842; North Star, 10 Mar. 1848.

56 Abdy, , Journal of a Residence and Tour, vol. 3, 132.Google Scholar

57 Alfred, W. Crosby Jr., America, Russia, Hemp and Napoleon: American Trade with Russia and the Baltic, 1783–1812 (Columbus, Ohio, 1965), 24.Google Scholar

58 Garitee, Jerome R., The Republic's Private Navy: The American Privateering Business as Practiced by Baltimore during the War of 1812 (Middletown, Conn., 1977), 119.Google Scholar

59 Ibid., 118–19.

60 Philadelphia County Deeds, I.C. Book 18, 418; PCA. For the purchase by Bridges of the Forten home at 50 Shippen, see ibid., T.H. Book 179, 248.

61 On the changing patterns of residential segregation in Philadelphia, see Nash, Forging Freedom, 163–71, 247–50. For an indication of the situation in 1830, see the breakdown of the federal census in Hazard's Register, Mar. 1831, 172–73.

62 Philadelphia County Deeds,” I.C. Book 15, 397. Adams, “Wage Rates,” 27.

63 County Tax Assessment Ledger, Southwark West (1810), 47; County Tax Duplicates, Southwark West (1810), 351; (1814), 347; (1816); unpaginated; (1817), 190; (1819), 114; PCA. Philadelphia directory, 1814, 1816–19, 1831. U.S. census (1810), Southwark, 103; (1820), 116. Interestingly, Erwin is listed as white in the city directories and as a man of color in the 1820 census. Will of James Forten.

64 U.S. census (1820), Southwark, 104. County Tax Duplicates, Southwark West, (1817), 173; (1818), 156; (1819), 99–100; (1822), 104; PCA. Philadelphia directory, 1817, 1822.

65 Crosby, America, Russia, Hemp and Napoleon, 125–26, 210.

66 Philadelphia County Deeds, I.C. Book 15, 393; PCA.

67 Ibid.. I.C. Book 19, 62, 491, 486, 500, and R.L.L. Book 18, 92; PCA.

68 Adams, “Wage Rates,” 208.

69 Hickey, Donald R., The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict (Urbana, Ill., 1989), 227, 228.Google Scholar

70 Philadelphia County Deeds, I.C. Book 26, 192, 196; PCA.

71 Blackson, Robert M., “Pennsylvania Banks and the Panic of 1819: A Reinterpretation,” Journal of the Early Republic 9 (Fall 1989), 339.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

72 Philadelphia County Deeds, I.C. Book 32, 455. Sheriff's Deeds, Book D, 177.

73 James Forten to Paul Cuffe, 5 Jan. 1815; Cuffe Papers, NBFPL.

74 Niles' Register, 21 June 1828.

75 Philadelphia County Deeds, I.W., Book 7, 70. Ground rents were a common form of real estate investment in Philadelphia in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. They yielded a reliable annual or semi-annual payment. James Forten's widow invested a considerable portion of her dower in ground rents.

76 There is no record of this deed. However, a summary of it is included in Philadelphia County Deeds, Book A2, 526.

77 Sheriff's Deeds, Book C, 122; Philadelphia County Deeds, I.H. Book 4, 408; ibid., A.M. Book 22, 413.

78 Mintz, Steven, Moralists and Modernizers: America's Pre–Civil War Reformers (Baltimore, 1995), 82.Google Scholar

79 James Forten vs. Thomas Ellis, District Court: Appearance Docket, Mar. to Sept. 1821, 136; PCA. Philadelphia directory, 1820.

80 Philadelphia County Deeds, M.R. Book 19, 655.

81 Ibid., G.W.R. Book 4, 49.

82 Ibid., A.M. Book 45, 242.

83 Ibid., G.W.R. Book 4, 49; Book 5, 643; Mortgages G.W.R. Book 12, 625.

84 Philadelphia County Mortgages, G.W.R. Book 8, 533; Book 11, 153–55; Book 12, 624; Book 15, 718–19. Philadelphia County Deeds, A.M. Book 46, 86.

85 Will of James Forten. County Tax Duplicates, Cedar (1814), 91. Philadelphia directory, 1814, 1825.

86 County Tax Duplicates, Cedar (1817), Philadelphia directories, 1814, 1817. U.S. census (1820), Locust, 59.

87 County Tax Duplicates, Cedar (1814), 116; (1817), unpaginated. U.S. census (1820), Locust, 59. Philadelphia directory, 1814, 1817.

88 County Tax Assessment Ledger, New Market (1809), 64; (1810), 60. County Tax Duplicate, New Market, (1810), 269.

89 Will of James Forten. Although it pertains to New York rather than Philadelphia, the discussion of landlord-tenant relationships in Blackmar's, ElizabethManhattan for Rent, 1785–1850 (Ithaca, 1989)Google Scholar is very important for understanding Forten's relationship with his tenants. See especially 236–46.

90 For the trade in notes of various kinds undertaken by a contemporary of Forten's, see Tooker, Elva, Nathan Trotter, Philadelphia Merchant, 1787–1853 (Cambridge, Mass., 1955), 4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

91 Purvis, Life and Character of James Forten, 17. On other African American “note-shavers,” see Walker, Juliet E. K., The History of Black Business in America: Capitalism, Race, Entrepreneurship (New York, 1998), 88.Google Scholar

92 St. Thomas's African Episcopal Church, Vestry Minutes, 1813–21, entry for 15 Apr. 1818. I am grateful to the current Minister and Vestry of St. Thomas's Church for granting me access to these records.

93 James Forten to Samuel Breck, 22 July 1828; Breck Papers, HSP.

94 Will of Joseph Sloan (1809), Book 3, 20, #107; PCA. The True American Commercial Advertiser, 3 Oct. 1809. Philadelphia directories, 1805, 1806.

95 James Forten and Charlotte his wife vs. Henry Powers, Common Pleas: Appearance Docket, Mar. to Dec, 1810, 175.

96 Martin, John Hill, Martin's Bench and Bar of Philadelphia (Philadelphia, 1883), 301, 308.Google Scholar

97 James Forten vs. Jacob Vanderslice, District Court: Appearance Docket: Mar. to Sept. 1812, 427; Mar. 1814 to Sept. 1814, 357; Execution Docket, June 1814; Dec. 1814; Sept. 1816; Philadelphia directories, 1810–11. Philadelphia Board of Health Records; HSP.

98 James Forten vs. Miles H. Hughes, District Court: Appearance Docket, Sept. 1814 to Sept. 1815, 637; Philadelphia directory, 1818.

99 James Forten vs. George L. Seckel, District Court: Execution Docket, Sept. 1816; Philadelphia directory, 1817.

100 James Forten vs. Francis Hearis, Chester Barley, Paul S. Brown, William Tabele, and James Forten vs. John R. Mullin, District Court: Appearance Docket, Dec. 1819 to Mar. 1820, 545; Philadelphia directories, 1816, 1818.

101 James Forten vs. Henry Witmer, and James Forten vs. Edward Tilghman, District Court: Appearance Docket, Mar. 1820 to Mar. 1821,336, 626; Execution Docket, Sept. 1821; Philadelphia directories, 1816, 1820, 1821. Moak, Jefferson M., comp., Insolvency Petitions and Bonds Filed in the Common Pleas Court of Philadelphia, 1790–1874 (Philadelphia, 1992), 109.Google Scholar

102 James Forten vs. Thomas Hope and William McPherson, Common Pleas: Appearance Docket, Sept. 1820 to June 1822, 153; James Forten vs. J. and H. Brady, Common Pleas: Appearance Docket, Sept. 1822 to Mar. 1824, 335; Philadelphia directory, 1819, 1825.

103 James Forten vs. Thomas Reily, District Court: Appearance Docket, June to Sept. 1824, 47; Philadelphia directory, 1823.

104 James Forten vs. Joseph Beylle, Joseph Severlinge and Andrew Curcier, District Court: Appearance Docket, Dec. 1825 to Mar. 1826, 211; Philadelphia directories, 1817, 1825; Ship Registers of the Port of Philadelphia, 11, 80–81, 178, 186.

105 James Forten vs. William R. Boyer, District Court: Appearance Docket, June to Sept. 1826, 293.

106 James Forten vs. Joseph Head, District Court, Appearance Docket, June to Sept. 1826, 77; Wainwright, Nicholas B., ed., “The Diary of Samuel Breck, 1827–33,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 103 (Apr. 1979), 227.Google Scholar

107 James Forten vs. Andrew Hodge and William L. Hodge, December Term 1823; Pennsylvania Supreme Court, Appearance Docket, December Term 1817 to December Term 1823, 477; Pennsylvania State Archives, Harrisburg (PSA).

108 See James Forten vs. Francis H. Nicolle & Edward Thompson, District Court: Appearance Docket, Dec. 1825 to Mar. 1826, 301; James Forten vs. John Hughes who suro. William Sammers, District Court: Appearance Docket, Dec. 1824 to Mar. 1825, 200. Thompson and Hughes eventually declared bankruptcy. Moak, comp., Insolvency Petitions, 58, 108.

109 James Forten vs. Elias Wolohon, Common Pleas: Execution Docket, Mar. 1831 to Sept. 1835, 160.

110 Minutes of the African Lodge, Philadelphia, 1797–1800 (microfilm), Library of the Massachusetts Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, Boston, Massachusetts. I would like to thank the librarian of the Lodge, Cynthia Alcorn, for allowing me to have access to this material.

111 Ibid..

112 Petition of the Minister, Wardens and Vestry of the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas to the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (1804); McAllister Papers, HSP. African Church of St. Thomas vs. Joseph Randolph (Mar. 1820); transcript in Edward Carey Gardiner Collection, HSP.

113 Will of Joseph Head (1807), Book 2, 301, #56.

114 Will of George Jones (1821), Book 7, 412, #179.

115 Major, Jerry with Saunders, Doris E., Black Society (Chicago, 1976), 18.Google Scholar Will of John Appo (1818), Book 6, 623, #151. Philadelphia Board of Health Records.

116 National Anti-Slavery Standard, 10 Mar. 1842.

117 Ritter, Philadelphia and her Merchants, 46–7.

118 For a discussion of racial violence in Philadelphia and its impact of well-to-do residents like the Fortens and the Purvises, see Emma, J Lapsansky, “‘Since They Got Those Separate Churches’: Afro-Americans and Racism in Jacksonian Philadelphia,” American Quarterly 32 (Spring 1980): 71–7.Google Scholar

119 Sir Lyell, Charles, Travels in North America (London, 1843), 207.Google Scholar

120 On this point see James Forten's letter in the Liberator, 12 Feb. 1831.

121 For the growing hostility on the part of many white Philadelphians toward their black neighbors, see Nash, Forging Freedom, ch. 8; and Lapsansky, “‘Since They Got Those Separate Churches,’” 54–78.