James Forten used his wealth and social standing to work for civil rights for African Americans in both the city and nationwide.

He persuaded William Lloyd Garrison to adopt an anti-colonization position and helped fund his newspaper The Liberator (1831–1865), frequently publishing letters on public issues.

"[2] However, Thomas Forten died young (possibly because of falling from a high place), and his son James started to work at the age of seven to help his mother and sister.

He also attended the African School, run by Quaker abolitionist Anthony Benezet, who founded it to educate black children free of charge.

At the age of 14, during the Revolutionary War, Forten served on the privateer Royal Louis, commanded by Captain Stephen Decatur Sr.

[4] The prisoners were all transported to HMS Jersey, then moored in Wallabout Bay, later the site of the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

[4] When Forten returned to Philadelphia in 1790, he became apprenticed to sail-maker Robert Bridges, his father's former employer and a family friend.

[7] James Forten married twice: his first wife, Martha Beatte (or Beatty) of Darby Township, Delaware County, died after only a few months of marriage (1804).

[8] Having become well established, in his 40s Forten devoted both time and money to working for the national abolition of slavery and gaining civil rights for blacks.

In his "Letters," Forten argued that the bill would violate the rights of any free blacks entering the state and set the people apart as somehow not equal to whites.

The British evacuated thousands of freed slaves along with their troops, and resettled more than 3,000 Black Loyalists in Nova Scotia, where it granted land.

[9] The American Colonization Society (ACS) was formed in December 1816, organized to found the colony of Liberia in West Africa for a similar purpose.

In the first two decades after the Revolution, the number of free blacks rose significantly, due both to wholesale abolition of slavery in the North, as well as an increase in manumissions in the South by men moved by revolutionary ideals.

News about the organization, especially racist remarks by such leaders as Henry Clay of Kentucky, a national politician, raised fears among many free blacks that the ACS proposed to deport them wholesale to Africa.

[11] Forten had supported Paul Cuffee, a Boston shipbuilder, who in 1815 transported 38 free blacks to Sierra Leone, with the idea they could make a better life where not impeded by white racism.

To address community concerns and discuss the potential for colonization, James Forten worked with Bishop Richard Allen of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the first independent black denomination in the United States; Absalom Jones, and James Gloucester to organize a meeting on this topic in Philadelphia.

Following the January meeting, Forten helped draft a Resolution of the sense of the public, which he and other leaders sent to the Pennsylvania congressional delegation.

[9] Although the ACS advertised Liberia as a place of opportunity for free blacks, the colony struggled to survive and many colonists died of disease.

He also gained official recognition for the nation from France for the first time, but at the cost of a high indemnity that crippled the country financially for generations.

[2] According to his biographer Julie Winch: By the 1830s, his was one of the most powerful African-American voices, not just for men and women of color in his native city, but for many thousands more throughout the North.

His rise to prominence, his understanding of the nature of power and authority, his determination to speak out and be heard are object lessons in the realities of community politics.

[2]James Forten managed his sail loft and stayed active in the abolitionist movement until very late in his life, continuing to write for The Liberator.

[12] Bolden wrote of him: "When James Forten died, he left behind an exemplary family, a sizable fortune, and a legacy of philanthropy and activism that inspired generations of black Philadelphians.