Book Review

Canada and the United States

In her thoroughly researched and well-written biography of James Forten, Julie Winch explores the multifaceted life of a prominent African American in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. She effectively places Forten within the changing social, economic, and political contexts of Philadelphia and examines, in considerable detail, his business, religious, and reform activities as well as his relationship with family members.	1
Winch argues that, when compared with the vast majority of his African-American contemporaries, Forten enjoyed significant advantages. He not only was born a free person but also acquired literacy and sailmaking skills at a time when most people of color were slaves, illiterate, and unskilled laborers. An ambitious and intelligent man who was mentored by both blacks and whites in his early years, he became a wealthy and respected sailmaker whose business employed a large, integrated work force. Winch also underscores the fact that, although most northern blacks were disfranchised, they were far from voiceless. Guided by revolutionary ideals, Forten and other African Americans devised a broad range of tactics to press their case for fundamental rights and opportunities.	2
Nevertheless, as Winch clearly indicates, Forten's skin color and ancestry were what mattered most to whites in Philadelphia and throughout the nation. From early childhood until his death in 1842, he was forced to endure a hostile racial environment in which whites refused to accept him as a citizen, or even as a man who deserved respect for his character and accomplishments. Especially during the first half of the nineteenth century, he and other people of color were despised and deemed expendable by most white Americans.	. . .