Sarah Pugh

Sarah Pugh (6 October 1800 – 1 August 1884) was an American abolitionist, activist, and teacher.[1][2][3][4]

Sarah Pugh, from a 1910 publication.

Life

Pugh was born in Alexandria, Virginia in 1800 to Jesse and Catherine (Jackson) Pugh.[1][2][3][4] Her parents were Quakers, and her grandfather was an active abolitionist.[3][4] When her father died when she was three, her family moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where Pugh's mother and aunt established a dressmaking business.[2] Pugh attended Westtown Boarding School for two years, starting at age 12.[3] In 1821, she began teaching at the Friends School of the 12th Street Meeting. She remained there until 1828, when the Quakers split into factions. Pugh resigned her position, ultimately adopting a Unitarian belief.[2][3] With her friend, Rachel Peirce, she started her own school in 1829.[2]

Activism

In 1855, Pugh became involved in the abolitionist movement after hearing a speech given by George Thompson.[2][3][4] After the New American Anti-Slavery Society was founded in December 1833, some female members in attendance, including Lucretia Mott, sought to create a female organization for abolition. Thus, they created the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society three days later, on December 9, 1833. Mott and Pugh, along with 20 other women, were in attendance.[1][4] They finalized their constitution on December 14, 1833. Pugh was involved in the organization as its presiding officer from 1833 until 1870.[1][2][3]

Pugh was also active in other anti-slavery organizations. She was a delegate to the first meeting of the American Women's Anti-slavery Convention and a member of the American Anti-slavery Society, which had been formed in Philadelphia in 1833.[3] She also served as treasurer of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society from 1843 to 1860.[5]

In May 1838, Pugh attended the second Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women. The convention was held in Pennsylvania Hall, the newly built abolitionist headquarters in Philadelphia. On May 17, a mob of people who supported slavery burned down the building.[1][4] The women who were inside, including Sarah Pugh, escaped the building in pairs—one black woman and one white woman, arm-in-arm. This baffled the onlookers, who were distracted by the show of solidarity long enough for all the women to escape the burning building. The next day, the mob returned and burned down the building. The abolitionist convention continued, however, at Sarah Pugh's school.[1][3][4]

In June 1840, Pugh was chosen as a delegate to attend the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London, along with Mott, Mary Grew, Elizabeth Neall, and Abby Kimber.[1][4] The committee declined to recognize the American women as delegates, admitting them only as spectators, and Pugh authored a protest statement, on behalf of the delegates.[3] In the 1850s, she traveled around with Lucretia Mott to attend women's rights conventions. In 1851, Pugh returned to England and spoke about the American abolitionist movement.[1]

After the Civil War, Pugh created schools for now-freed slaves and their children. She also became a suffragette. She became involved with the Moral Education Society, an organization that worked to decriminalize prostitution. In 1876, she signed the Declaration of Rights for Women, which was presented to the Centennial Exposition of 1876, the first World's Fair in the United States. She continued her activism until her death in 1884.[1][4]

Further reading
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References
  1. "Sarah Pugh - 19th Century Abolitionist And Feminist". Women's History Blog. Women's History Blog. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
  2. James, Edward; James, Janet; Boyer, Paul (1971). Notable American Women, 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary, Volume 3. Harvard University Press. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
  3. Memorial of Sarah Pugh: A Tribute of Respect from Her Cousins. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: J.B. Lippincott Publishers. 1888. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
  4. Rodriguez, Junius (2015). Encyclopedia of Emancipation and Abolition in the Transatlantic World. Routledge. ISBN 978-0765612571. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
  5. The Abolitionist sisterhood : women's political culture in Antebellum America. Yellin, Jean Fagan., Van Horne, John C. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 1994. pp. 326. ISBN 9780801480119. OCLC 29389865.CS1 maint: others (link)
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