The new spirit of abolitionism received its widest expression in the formation of the American Anti-Slavery Society at Philadelphia on December 4, 1833. The sixty-three delegates from eleven states proclaimed as their twin objects "the entire abolition of slavery in the United States," and the elevation of "the character and condition of the people of color." Three Negroes took part in the proceedings: James McCrummell, Robert Purvis, and James G. Barbadoes. The Negroes of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, had sent as their representative a white man whom they had swung over to the abolition cause, J. Miller McKim, destined to be a stalwart in the movement for more than a quarter of a century.
No public gathering of abolitionists was more memorable than this three-day organizational meeting at Adelphi Hall. The sessions had to be confined to the shortening daytime hours at the insistence of the city fathers. The police authorities feared an outbreak of violence, and indeed the delegates were taunted as they made their way along Walnut Street to the entrance of the hall. Disorder inside the building was also a distinct possibility inasmuch as no one was refused admission, although the doors were locked once the meeting was called to order. But more than threats would have been re- quired to deter the earnest and able group, a plainly dressed if youngish-looking band of reformers.
At one of the sessions, on the morning of Thursday, December 5, the presiding officer was James McCrummell of Philadelphia. But his fellow townsman, Robert Purvis, was the most observed of the Negro trio at the convention. Soon to marry the daughter of James Forten, but independently wealthy of inheritance from his white merchant father, Purvis could be depended upon to make his presence felt in a public gathering. Forty years later John Greenleaf Whittier could still remember his initial impression of Purvis at Philadelphia: "I think I have never seen a finer face and figure, and his manner, words, and bearing were in keeping. Who is he, I asked."
Purvis himself did not feel that he was at his best, confessing that his heart was too full for his tongue. But he did add: "it is indeed a good thing to be here." The other Negro delegates could have echoed that sentiment, even James G. Barbadoes who en route on the boat trip from Boston had to walk the deck during a stormy night, his color a bar to a cabin berth.
On the final day of the sessions the delegates ratified the Declaration of Sentiments, a forthright call to action couched in revolutionary language. It had been written the evening before at the home of delegate James McCrummell, where its chief author, William Lloyd Garrison, was a house guest. Of the sixty-three signers of the declaration, the twenty-three-year-old Purvis was destined to live the longest. On the board of managers named by the convention, six Negroes were given seats—the three delegates plus John B. Vashon, Peter Williams of New York, and Abraham D. Shadd of Chester County, Pennsylvania.
Critical Pamphlets of Slavery and Formation of Abolitionism Discourse
