Margaretta Forten was instrumental in founding the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society, an influential local chapter of abolitionist and journalist William Lloyd Garrison’s American Anti-Slavery Society, and served as an active member and frequent officer of the society during its entire 37-year history.
Forten was the daughter of free blacks James and Charlotte Vandine Forten. The Fortens were staunch abolitionists, and their children spent much of their time attending abolitionist meetings while they were growing up. The family also entertained prominent abolitionists and moral reformers in their home. After one such visit, poet John Greenleaf Whittier was so taken with the family that he wrote a poem titled “To the Daughters of James Forten.”
Learn more about Margaretta Forten
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