Editing Robert Purvis (section)

== Privileged Background ==

Robert Purvis was born on August 4, 1810, in Charleston, South Carolina, his father a wealthy English merchant and his mother Harriet Judah a free woman of African and Jewish descent. His father's wealth provided education and opportunity that few Americans of any color enjoyed, while his father's acknowledgment of his mixed-race children and provision for their welfare distinguished him from most white fathers of such children. The family's relocation to Philadelphia when Robert was young placed him in the city that would be his lifelong base.<ref name="nash">{{cite book |last=Nash |first=Gary B. |title=Forging Freedom: The Formation of Philadelphia's Black Community, 1720-1840 |year=1988 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge}}</ref>

His inheritance upon his father's death made him one of the wealthiest African Americans in the nation, his Byberry estate in Philadelphia County providing the base for both comfortable living and Underground Railroad activity. His marriage to Harriet Forten, daughter of the wealthy Black sailmaker James Forten, connected two of Philadelphia's most prominent Black families while creating partnership in activism that their combined resources enabled. His light complexion, which could have allowed him to pass as white, he rejected in favor of identification with Black America whose liberation he sought.<ref name="winch"/>

His education at Amherst College and his European travel provided cultivation that complemented inherited wealth. The combination of resources and commitment that his background provided made him invaluable to antislavery efforts that required both funding and leadership. His decision to remain identified as African American, when passing would have been possible, demonstrated moral commitment that convenience could not compromise.<ref name="nash"/>