Joseph Cassey (1789–1848) was a

French West Indies The French West Indies or French Antilles (french: Antilles françaises, ; gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Antiy fwansez) are the parts of France located in the Antilles islands of the Caribbean: * The two overseas departments of: ** Guadeloupe, ...

-born American businessman, real estate investor,

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

, and activist. He prospered as a barber, and as well as a wig maker, perfumer, and money-lender. He lived in the historic

Cassey House The Cassey House is a historic house associated with the Cassey family, located at 243 Delancey Street in the Society Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was owned by the Cassey family for 84 years (from 1845 until 1929), they wer ...

Society Hill Society Hill is a historic neighborhood in Center City Philadelphia, with a population of 6,215 . Settled in the early 1680s, Society Hill is one of the oldest residential neighborhoods in Philadelphia.The Center City District dates the Free Soc ...

, and was active in the African American elite community in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Early life

Joseph Cassey was born in 1789 in French West Indies (in the present-day

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

region). He moved to Philadelphia some time before 1808. He was a member of

African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas The African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas (AECST) was founded in 1792 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as the first black Episcopal Church in the United States. Its congregation developed from the Free African Society, a non-denominational group f ...

, then located at 5th and Adelphi Streets. In 1825, Cassey married

Amy Matilda Williams Amy Matilda Williams Cassey (August 14, 1809–August 15, 1856) was an African American abolitionist, and was active with the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society. Cassey was a member of the group of elite African Americans who founded the Gil ...

from New York City, and they had 8 children. His father in-law was

Peter Williams Jr. Peter Williams Jr. (1786–1840) was an African-American Episcopal Church (United States), Episcopal priest, the second ordained in the United States and the first to serve in New York City. He was an Abolitionism in the United States, abolitionist ...

, an African-American

Methodist Episcopal The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself on a national basis. In ...

priest and abolitionist.

Career

Cassey owned many Philadelphia rental properties, and by 1840, he had amassed an estimated net worth of US $75,000, mostly in real estate. Cassey was real estate business partners with

Robert Purvis Robert Purvis (August 4, 1810 – April 15, 1898) was an American abolitionist in the United States. He was born in Charleston, South Carolina, and was likely educated at Amherst Academy, a secondary school in Amherst, Massachusetts. He sp ...

. Cassey and Purvis jointly owned a

Bucks County Bucks County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 646,538, making it the fourth-most populous county in Pennsylvania. Its county seat is Doylestown. The county is named after the English ...

farm, which was visited frequently by suffragists and abolitionists, including stays by

Lucretia Mott Lucretia Mott (''née'' Coffin; January 3, 1793 – November 11, 1880) was an American Quaker, abolitionist, women's rights activist, and social reformer. She had formed the idea of reforming the position of women in society when she was amongs ...

. Cassey was one of the wealthiest black 19th-century Philadelphians, holding this title alongside

Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 1817 or 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became ...

James Forten James Forten (September 2, 1766March 4, 1842) was an African-American abolitionist and wealthy businessman in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Born free in the city, he became a sailmaker after the American Revolutionary War. Following an apprenticesh ...

, Rev. Richard Allen, Rev.

Absalom Jones Absalom Jones (November 7, 1746February 13, 1818) was an African-American abolitionist and clergyman who became prominent in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Disappointed at the racial discrimination he experienced in a local Methodist church, he found ...

William Whipper William Whipper (February 22, 1804 – March 9, 1876) was a businessman and Abolitionism in the United States, abolitionist in the United States. Whipper, an African American, advocated nonviolence and co-founded the American Moral Reform Socie ...

, and Stephen Smith. The Haytien Emigration Society of Philadelphia was founded in 1824 by Richard Allen and James Forten, a group recruiting freed African Americans to emigrate to

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...

. The 1820s and 1830s Cassey had worked as Treasurer to the Haytien Emigration Society. In 1818, he served as an officer at the Pennsylvania Augustine Society (also known as the Augustine Education Society of Pennsylvania), a group that supported African American schools, and which helped network him with other people active in resettlement. One of those Haitian resettlement supporters was Francis Webb, Secretary to the Haytien Emigration Society and the Philadelphia-based distributor for

Freedom's Journal ''Freedom's Journal'' was the first African-American owned and operated newspaper published in the United States. Founded by Rev. John Wilk and other free Black men in New York City, it was published weekly starting with the 16 March 1827 issue. ...

from 1827 until 1829. After Webb's death in 1829, the Cassey family remained close to Webb's children, including youngest son and future author,

Frank J. Webb Francis Johnson Webb (March 21, 1828 – 1894) was an American novelist, poet, and essayist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His novel, ''The Garies and Their Friends'' (1857), was the second novel by an African American to be published, and the fi ...

. In 1831, Cassey attended as a delegate the First Annual Convention of the People of Color in Philadelphia, a

colored convention The Colored Conventions Movement, or Black Conventions Movement, was a series of national, regional, and state conventions held irregularly during the decades preceding and following the American Civil War. The delegates who attended these convent ...

with a focus on building and supporting African American education. After the event, Cassey focused his efforts on the advancement of African American education. In the early 1830s, Joseph Cassey worked with other abolitionist to funded the efforts to start a manual labor college "College for Colored Youth" in

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...

, home of

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

, which met with resistance from the local townspeople. Cassey became an early agent in Philadelphia of ''

The Liberator Liberator or The Liberators or ''variation'', may refer to: Literature * ''Liberators'' (novel), a 2009 novel by James Wesley Rawles * ''The Liberators'' (Suvorov book), a 1981 book by Victor Suvorov * ''The Liberators'' (comic book), a Britis ...

'', (1831–1865), an early abolitionist newspaper published by

William Lloyd Garrison William Lloyd Garrison (December , 1805 – May 24, 1879) was a prominent American Christian, abolitionist, journalist, suffragist, and social reformer. He is best known for his widely read antislavery newspaper '' The Liberator'', which he found ...

in Boston. Cassey actively funded and distributed the newspaper in Philadelphia, working alongside James Forten, John P. Burr, and James McCrummill to promote the newspaper. In 1833, he became the Vice President of Boston's

New England Anti-Slavery Society The Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, headquartered in Boston, was organized as an auxiliary of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1835. Its roots were in the New England Anti-Slavery Society, organized by William Lloyd Garrison, editor of ...

, an auxiliary of the

American Anti-Slavery Society The American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS; 1833–1870) was an abolitionist society founded by William Lloyd Garrison and Arthur Tappan. Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave, had become a prominent abolitionist and was a key leader of this society ...

and another group he helped fund. From 1834 through 1836, Cassey was on the Board of the

; and from 1835 until 1841, he was Treasurer of the

American Moral Reform Society William Whipper (February 22, 1804 – March 9, 1876) was a businessman and abolitionist in the United States. Whipper, an African American, advocated nonviolence and co-founded the American Moral Reform Society, an early African-American aboli ...

. In 1839, Cassey joined with colleagues Forten and Smith, to establish a student scholarship for low income African Americans at the

Oneida Institute The Oneida Institute was a short-lived (1827–1843) but highly influential school that was a national leader in the emerging Abolitionism in the United States, abolitionist movement. It was the most radical school in the country, the first at w ...

, a school in

upstate New York Upstate New York is a geographic region consisting of the area of New York State that lies north and northwest of the New York City metropolitan area. Although the precise boundary is debated, Upstate New York excludes New York City and Long Is ...

that had a race-blind admissions policy. In 1841, the Gilbert Lyceum, the first scientific and literary club founded by African Americans, including the Cassey family, Jacob C. White, John C. Bowers,

Harriet Forten Purvis Harriet Forten Purvis (1810June 11, 1875) was an African-American abolitionist and first generation suffragist. With her mother and sisters, she formed the first biracial women's abolitionist group, the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society. Sh ...

Sarah Mapps Douglass Sarah Mapps Douglass (September 9, 1806 – September 8, 1882) was an American educator, Abolitionism in the United States, abolitionist, writer, and public lecturer. Her painted images on her written letters may be the first or earliest survivi ...

Grace Douglass Grace Bustill Douglass (1782 – March 9, 1842) was an African-American abolitionist and women's rights advocate. Her family was one of the first prominent free black families in the United States. Her family's history is one of the best documented ...

, Hetty Burr, and Amelia Bogle. A significant number of the founders of Gilbert Lyceum had also helped found the earlier

Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society The Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society (PFASS) was founded in December 1833 and dissolved in March 1870 following the ratification of the 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. It was founded by eighteen women, including Mary ...

(PFASS) in 1833. Cassey died on January 9, 1848, and is buried in the Saint James the Less Episcopal Churchyard in Philadelphia.

Early life

Career

See also

References

Further reading