|
Robert Purvis (August 4, 1810 – April 15, 1898) was an American abolitionist in the United States. He was born in Charleston, South Carolina, and was educated at Amherst College in Massachusetts, but lived most of his life in Philadelphia,Pennsylvania. In 1833 he helped found the American Anti-Slavery Society and the Library Company of Colored People. From 1845-1850 he served as president of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society and also traveled to England to gain support for the movement. Of mixed race, Purvis and his brothers were three-quarters European by ancestry and inherited considerable wealth from their native English father after his death in 1826. Purvis's parents had lived in common law marriage, preventing them from marrying because their mother was a free woman of color, of Moroccan and Jewish descent. The sons chose to identify with the black community and used their education and wealth to support abolition of slavery and anti-slavery activities, as well as projects in education to help the advance of African Americans. ==Early life== Purvis was born in 1810 in Charleston, South Carolina. His mother, Harriet Judah, was a free woman of color, the daughter of former slave Dido Badaraka and Baron Judah, a Jewish American a native of Charleston. Robert's father was , an English immigrant. As an adult, Purvis told a reporter about his family: he said that his maternal grandmother Badaraka had been kidnapped at age 12 from Morocco, transported to the colonies on a slave ship, and sold as a slave in Charleston. He described her as a full-blooded Moor: dark-skinned with tightly curled hair. She was freed at age 19 by her master's will.〔Margaret Hope Bacon, ''But One Race: The Life of Robert Purvis'', Albany: State University of New York, 2007, pp.7-8〕 Harriet's father was Baron Judah, of European-Jewish descent. Also born in Charleston, Baron was the third of ten children of Hillel Judah, a German-Jewish immigrant, and Abigail Seixas, his Sephardic Jewish wife, who was simillary born in Charleston. Purvis told the reporter that his grandparents Badaraka and Judah had married. His 21st-century biographer thought that unlikely, given the social prominence of the Judah family in Charleston. She learned that Judah's parents had owned slaves. Badaraka and Judah had a relationship for several years, and Harriet and a son were their children together. In 1790 Judah broke off his relationship with Badaraka when he moved with his parents from Charleston to Savannah, Georgia. In 1791 he moved to Richmond, Virginia. There he married a Jewish woman and had four children with her.〔Bacon (2007), ''But One Race'', pp.7-9〕 William Purvis was from Northumberland; he had immigrated to the United States as a young man with some of his brothers to make their fortunes. He became a wealthy cotton salesman in Charleston and became a naturalized US citizen. After William's father died when they were children, their mother had moved the family to Edinburgh, Scotland for her sons' education.〔〔Bacon (2007), ''But One Race'', p. 11〕 William Purvis and the younger Harriet Judah lived together as husband and wife, but racial law prevented their marriage. The couple had three sons: William born in 1806, Robert born in 1810, and Joseph born in 1812.〔 In 1819 Purvis moved all the family north to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where the boys attended the Pennsylvania Abolitionist Society's Clarkson School. Purvis intended to consolidate his business affairs and return with his family to England, where he thought his sons would have better opportunities. He died in 1826 before they could move. Purvis had intended his sons to be educated as gentlemen, and Robert and Joseph Purvis both graduated from Amherst College in Massachusetts. They returned to Philadelphia, where their family was among the black elite. After their father died, Purvis and his two brothers were to share an estate worth $250,000. In 1828 the oldest brother William died of tuberculosis. Robert and Joseph inherited increased shares of the estate; they used their wealth to support their political activism and public service.〔Bacon (2007), ''But One Race'', pp. 21 and 23〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Robert Purvis」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|