Robert Purvis
Robert Purvis (
August 4,
1810 -
April 15,
1898) was an
African-American abolitionist. He was born in
Charleston, South Carolina to a wealthy white father and a
mulatto mother. After graduating from Amherst College in Massachusetts, he moved to Pensylvania. In 1833, he helped
William Lloyd Garrison establish the
American Anti-Slavery Society and signed its
Declaration of Sentiments. In the same year, Purvis helped establish the
Library Company of Colored People. In 1838, he drafted
Appeal of Forty Thousand Citizens Threatened with Disfranchisement, which supported the repeal of a new state barring African-Americans from voting. As a supporter of the
Underground Railroad, he served as chairman of the General Vigilance Committee from 1852 until 1857. According to records that he kept, from 1831 until 1861, he estimated that he helped one slave achieve freedom per day. According to these figures, he helped 9000 slaves achieve freedom.