163

HISTORICAL ANNOTATION 791

men in Port Royal during and after the war through his membership in the American
Freedman's Union Commission. William Still, The Underground Railroad (1872;
Chicago, 1970), 654-59; William Cohen, "James Miller McKim: Pennsylvania
Abolitionist" (Ph.D. diss., New York University, 1968); ANB, 15:115-16.

208.34 William Still] William Still (1821-1902) was born a free black to parents
Levin and Charity Still, who were escaped slaves. He left home at the age of twenty
and worked his way up through the ranks at the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society in
Philadelphia. He became chair of the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee after the pas-sage of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850. His office functioned as a social services
station where he provided food and clothing to impoverished fugitives. A major abo-litionist figure in Philadelphia, he published a masterful work, The Underground Rail
Road, in 1872. The book was very successful and well received by both white and
black audiences for its authenticity in portraying the real-life experiences of escaped
slaves as well as heralding both the men and women of the black community for their
involvement in the emancipation effort. It remains one of the most significant first-
hand accounts of activity on the Underground Railroad. Still also owned a small coal
and ice yard with which he supplied small stores and grocers in local communities, as
well as for Camp William Penn during the Civil War. He remained active in the abo-litionist community throughout his life and in social services for the poor and the
aged. Still, Underground Rail Road; Stephen G. Hall, "To Render the Private Public:
William Still and the Selling of the Underground Rail Road," Pennsylvania Magazine
of History and Biography, 127:35-55 (January 2003); ANB, 20:775.

208.34-35 Robert Purvis] Robert Purvis (1810-98) was a prominent leader of
antebellum Philadelphia's black community and one of the most influential African
Americans in the Garrisonian wing of the abolitionist movement. He was the son of
Harriet Juda, a free black woman, and William Purvis, a white cotton broker of
Charleston, South Carolina. In 1819 Robert moved north with his family to be edu-cated. Upon his father's death in the mid-1820s, Purvis inherited a substantial fortune,
which he used to support a wide array of benevolent causes, including temperance,
women's rights, penal reform, and integrated education. He helped launch the
Liberator in 1831, became a charter member of the American Anti-Slavery Society in
1833, and served as both president and vice president of the Pennsylvania Anti-
Slavery Society. From the 1830s onward, he actively assisted fugitives to escape
slavery. Still, Underground Rail Road, 711; Quarles, Black Abolitionists, 24-25,
55-56; Joseph A. Borome, "Robert Purvis and His Early Challenge to American
Racism," NHB, 30:8-10 (May 1967); Pauline C. Johnson, "Robert Purvis," NHB,
5:65-66 (December 1941); NCAB, 1:413.

208.35 Edward M. Davis] Edward M. Davis (1811-91) was born to a prosperous
Quaker family in Philadelphia. An importer of foreign goods, Davis journeyed across
the Atlantic on the Sirius, the first steamship to make the journey, in 1838. Davis
joined the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1834, although his abolitionist activities
hurt his business. In 1841 Davis reported one of Douglass's very first public antislav-