African American James Forten (Sept. 2, 1766 – March 4, 1841) was born free, the grandson of a slave who had ‘freed himself.’ He and his older sister Abigail were the only two children of Thomas and Margaret Forten; second generation of freed parents. They lived in Philadelphia on Third Street near Walnut Street in the Dock Ward. Thomas and Margaret Forten could read and write and raised their children to do so. From a young age, James was educated at the Friends African School for Colored Children (also called the Negro School of Philadelphia). Established by Quaker Anthony Benezet, he is recognized as the founder of the anti-slavery movement in America. So too, James’ parents regularly attended church and raised their children on the Anglican faith.
Early Life
Illustration by John Warner Barber in a book from 1850
James’ father was a Philadelphia sailmaker who worked on Willing’s Wharf at a warehouse belonging to Thomas Willing and Company. Thomas Forten’s employer was Robert Bridges; James’ future mentor who he would later name one of his children after. Bridges rented the building’s upper floor for his sail loft. Thomas Forten was among other employees who designed, cut, sewed and repaired sails for the merchantmen fleets who sailed out of Philadelphia.
At times, Thomas’ son James accompanied his father to work. When he did so, James was kept busy. Young children swept the floors often so the canvas, which was fashioned into sails, would not soil as it draped along the floor. They also picked up shakings (leftover cut canvas) and stirred an iron kettle containing turpentine, tallow, and beeswax – used on thread to add strength and allow it to be pulled through the canvas easier.
Additionally, the stitching became waterproof, necessary to withstand the weathered seas. Boys were also put to work holding the canvas while Bridges and his workers cut it. It was during these early years that James would develop a interest for a profession, sailmaker, that he would advance as a career after the war.
Father Dies and Forten Leaves School
At age seven, tragedy struct that changed James’ life. In 1773, his father became ill and died after a short illness. James would no longer enjoy his time at his father’s side at Bridges’ sail loft. He carried on in school for two more years. But in 1775, at age 9, he had to quit to work full time cleaning local shops to help sustain his mother and sister. Over the next five years, James continued full time work to support his family. As he aged, he became more impassioned for the American cause of freedom from England’s bonds. So too, whereas the average shipyard worker at Wharton and Humphreys might earn 9 shillings in a single month, a sailor aboard a successful privateer, hauling in a ‘fat catch,’ could earn $1,000 for that solo British merchant ship packed with goods [valued today at $35,000]. The thought of going to sea became very tempting for young men like Forten.
War and Privateers
Philadelphia was a major port for American resistance. From the very beginning of the American Revolution, privateers sailed down the Delaware River and onto the open seas to raid British merchantmen. When successful, they brought the ship and supplies captured back to port. At the start of the war and Bunker Hill, the Continental Army had on average, only nine rounds of ammunition per man. By 1777, American privateers supplied over two million pounds of captured gunpowder and shot. There were more men aboard the 1,697 privateers as were in the Continental Army. By the end of the war, American privateers captured 2,283 enemy ships, whereas the Continental Navy hauled in 196. The British Navy captured just over 1,300 privateers.
On such privateer was the Royal Louis. A 450-ton ship of 22 nine-pounder cannon, she was larger and better armed than most American privateers. She acquired her letter of marque on July 23, 1781 and was seeking a crew to sail on her maiden voyage along the coast of America looking for ‘prizes.’ She was captained by Stephen Decatur Sr., the father of future American naval hero Stephen Decatur Jr., who led daring raids in the war against the Barbary pirates along the northern coast of Africa. Decatur, by age 24, had already been a highly successful privateer. The past two years alone he brought in British ships, some valued at over a million pounds each. When Decatur outfitted the Royal Louis, he had no trouble filling the ship’s roster.
Forten Goes to War
At age 14, just shy of his 15th birthing, James joined the Royal Louis’ crew as a ‘boy’. He was assigned menial tasks and when during battle, would fetch powder and shot for gun crews. He would earn half a share of the regular sailor’s share of a captured prize ship. Of the 200-member crew, eighteen were African Americans. It was a successful first cruise. The Royal Louis, along with another privateer Holker, captured four merchantmen before a solo capture of the merchantman Nancy. All prize ships were sent back to port with capture crews so privateers could continue seeking other prizes. But shortly after capturing the Nancy, the American privateer tangled with the British sloop of war Active.
The Active had fewer guns of smaller caliber, 14 six-pounders; however, her obstinate crew of British Navy Jacks fought fiercely. After both sides sustained great damage and loss of life, on Royal Louis, all but James suffered some type of wound during the battle, the Americans won the day. When the Royal Louis returned to port for repairs with the Active in tow, they received loud huzzas and acclamations from a crowd that assembled on the wharf to greet them home. Having done well financially, James immediately signed on for a second cruise. This would prove to be his undoing.
Captured
Only one day after the Royal Louis cleared Delaware Bay, on October 8, 1781, her luck ran out. The HMS Amphion, captained by John Bazely, a fifth-rate warship of 679 tons of 32 mostly twelve-pounders, along with the 36 gun HMS Nymph, Captain John Ford, were cruising the waters outside the bay. The British ships spotted several sail on the horizon. While the Nymphe pursued the smaller ships, the Amphion went after the larger vessel, which proved to the Royal Louis. Outgunned, Captain Decatur tried to make a run for it, but the Amphion carried more sail and gradually closed the distance.
After a seven-hour chase, the Amphion fired her bow guns. She was answered by the Royal Louis’ stern gun. But after several more and more accurate shots fired by the British ship as it drew nearer, Decatur knew he had met his match and struck ship’s colors. The Royal Louis was taken as a prize and crewmen made prisoners. Officers would be exchanged. Sailors would either be conscripted into the British Navy or face imprisonment on one of the rotting derelicts anchored off the Brooklyn Naval Yard. Black sailors were usually quickly shipped off to West Indies interests. This was basically a death sentence due to the harsh treatment blacks suffered on the many Caribbean Island plantations plus the high death rate from disease.
James, because of his young age, was spared being shipped to the Indies. Captain Bazely had two young sons aboard. The older was a midshipman; however, the younger, Henry, aged 12, was experiencing his first time aboard ship and needed a companion. James and he became quick friends, spending their time playing marbles and such games. When they reached port at New York City, it is recorded that Captain Bazely offered James to remain on board as a freeman, but James had no desire to sail under a British flag. James would accompany the other crewmen who chose prison. As such, he soon found himself on one of the worst prison ships in the British fleet; HMS Jersey. But, as a parting gesture, Captain Bazely had listed James on the exchange roster, usually reserved for officers and white soldiers. This would ultimately save James’ life.
Interned on the Horrendous Prison Ship Jersey
The dreadful conditions of England’s prison ships anchored at mainly New York City and Charleston’s harbors were notorious. Only 1,400 American prisoners held captive on these hideous hunks would survive by war’s end. Over 11,000 men interned on British prison ships would die from disease and malnutrition during captivity. Their bodies buried in shallow graves along shorelines.
The Jersey, commissioned in 1736,had been a fourth-rate warship carrying 60 guns. She was anchored in the New York City Harbor near the Brooklyn shipyard. She was stripped of all sails, masts, and rigging with portholes sealed and gratings placed over gunports; converting her into a prison ship. Prisoner Captain Thomas Dring, while waiting for exchange, spoke of the stench writing it was, “far more foul and loathsome than anything which I had ever met with on board…and produced a sensation of nausea far beyond my powers of description.” While droves of men shrank and decayed from disease and lack of food, James maintained hope. Days were spent on deck under all weather conditions while at night, they were locked below in complete darkness “amid the noise, the vermin, and the stench of close-packed bodies.” Over 400 men were crammed below and each morning, crews wondered among the bodies, hauling the dead onto the deck. There, the corpses were lowered into longboats waiting to dump the carcasses into shallow graves along the Brooklyn coastline.
Somehow, James survived the deadly outbreaks of smallpox, dysentery, and the constant threat of malnutrition and pneumonia. He spent seven months on board the Jersey before he was finally exchanged. Left alone on the streets of New York, he started to walk home. He found passage over the Hudson River and in bare feet, hoofed it to Trenton, before he was kindly given shoes to finish his journey. Forten, only 15 years of age and a war veteran, arrived Philadelphia in a wretched condition; lean and ragged, with his hair nearly entirely worn from his head.
Home and Work at Bridges’ Sail Loft
James remained the last months of the war in his mother’s care where he was able to regain his strength. After the war, he returned to sea at the beginning of April, 1784, aged 18. Sailing to London, he remained there a full year before returning to Philadelphia. There he approached his father’s old employer and became an apprentice in Robert Bridges’ sail loft. Within a year, at age 20, due to his hard work and skill in sailmaking, James became a foreman. For the next 13 years, James learned all there was to know about sail making. He became acquainted with captains and many of Philadelphia’s leading merchantmen and ship builders.
Takes Over and Expands Bridges’ Business; Inventor and Marries
Robert Bridges became both James’ employer and close friend. In 1792, Bridges purchased a two-story, brick house at 50 Shippen Street for James and his family with the understanding that James would pay him back. Six years later, in 1798, Bridges retired and James took over the successful business. On November 10, 1803, James married Martha Beatte at the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas. However, tragedy struck and she died the following year. The next year, December 10, 1805, James married again. Charlotte Vandine (Jan. 2, 1785 – Dec. 3, 1884). At age 20, Charlotte had a diverse ancestry of African, European, and Native American roots. She would outlive James by over forty years, dying at age 99 in 1884.
By 1805, Forten had 25 apprentices working for him; many of them white, in addition to his full-time employees. It was during this time that he invented and perfected a sail designed to help guide ships easier. His patent would help revolutionize the next generation of sailing before steam ships commanded the seas. The next year, James’ mother, at age 84, passed away.
Active in the Abolitionist Movement to Fight Racism and Bigotry
As James’ business ventures grew, so did his family; nine children would be born, all but one living to adulthood. Beginning shortly after the War of 1812 and into the 1820’s, then in his fifties, James had flourished as businessman and leader of African American rights. With his six-foot frame, intelligent whitism, intense work ethic, and financially successful, along with his active fight against slavery, he become one of the most influential black men in the country. Gaining accolades from as far away as England and France.
James Forten would use his wealth, notoriety, and social standing to work for civil rights for African Americans in both Philadelphia and nationwide. Starting in 1817, he opposed the colonization movements, particularly that of the American Colonization Society, established to address the prevailing view that free ‘people of color’ could not integrate into U.S. society. Founded in 1816 by Robert Finley, it sponsored relocating African Americans to Africa. Forten persuaded William Lloyd Garrison, prominent journalist, to adopt an anti- colonization position and founded and helped fund his newspaper The Liberator (1831–65), frequently publishing his and other social leaders’ letters on public issues. Forten also became vice-president of the biracial American Anti-Slavery Society, founded in 1833, and worked fervently for the national abolition of slavery.
Family Legacy in Abolition and Suffrage
As his children grew, they became committed to the abolition movement. Margaretta Forten (1806-1875) suffragist, was a lifelong educator who in 1845, became an officer of the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society; Harriet Forten Purvis (1810-1875) and Sarah Louisa Forten Purvis (1814-1884) were both abolitionists and suffragists who married Robert Purvis and Joseph Purvis, brothers who used their great wealth to fund anti-slavery movements and promote public service; Robert Bridges Forten (1813-1864), named for his father’s former boss and mentor, was a Union Officer and vigorous anti-slavery activist; James Forten, Jr. was an abolitionist; William Deas Forten studied at the abolitionist Oneida Institute. Mary Theresa Forten (1785 – 1884), James’ wife, along with Thomas Willing Francis Forten (1827-1897) were both active in the American Anti-Slavery Society.
James’ Death
In his seventy-fifth year, James fell ill. He died on 4 March 1842 at nine o’clock in the morning. His estate was valued at $67,108 (today’s valuation would be close to two million dollars). He was an honest man who was highly respected by those who knew him. J. Miller McKim, one of James’ friends, described the funeral.
The vast concourse of people, of all classes and complexions, numbering from three to five thousand, that followed his remains to the grave, bore testimony to the estimation in which he was universally held. Our wealthiest and most influential citizens joined in the procession; and complexional distinctions and prejudices seemed…forgotten, in the desire to pay the last tribute of respect to the memory of departed worth.
William Douglas, renowned abolitionist, delivered the eulogy:
His heart and hand were ever open to supply the needy; and to every species of distress, he was ever ready to give relief. Nor was his generosity regulated by any complexional distinctions. He stopped not to inquire to what nation they belonged, in whose behalf an appeal was made; it was always enough for him to know, that the appeal was made in behalf of suffering humanity. Hence, all those societies whose operations tend to the benefit of man, such as literary, temperance, anti-slavery, bible, tract, and missionary societies, all found in him a liberal patron.
Black Founders Expedition in Philadelphia
The Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia celebrates Black History Month, February, 2023, by revealing a new exhibit: Black Founders: The Forten Family of Philadelphia. Open Through November 26, 2023, the exhibit’s web site reads, “In our newest special exhibition Black Founders: The Forten Family of Philadelphia, explore the story of James Forten and his descendants as they navigated the American Revolution and cross-racial relationships in Philadelphia to later become leaders in the abolition movement in the lead-up to the Civil War.”
Check out this youtube video on James Forten by the American Battlefield Trust
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO READ MORE ABOUT JAMES FORTEN, THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT, PRIVATEERS, AND AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, CHECK OUT THESE FREE PREVIEWS ON AMAZON
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RESOURCE
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