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{{short description|African American abolitionist (b. 1809)}}
{{Short description|African American abolitionist (b. 1808)}}
{{Infobox person
{{Infobox person
| name = Amy Cassey
| name = Amy Cassey
| image = <!-- filename only, no "File:" or "Image:" prefix, and no enclosing [[brackets]] -->
| image = <!-- filename only, no "File:" or "Image:" prefix, and no enclosing [[brackets]] -->
| alt = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software -->
| alt = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software -->
| caption =
| caption =
| birth_name = Amy Matilda Williams
| birth_name = Amy Matilda Williams
| birth_date = August 14, 1809
| birth_date = August 14, 1809
| birth_place = New York City
| birth_place = New York City, New York, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1856|8|15|1809|8|18}}
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1856|8|15|1808|8|18}}
| death_place =[[Salem, Massachusetts|Salem]], Massachusetts
| death_place = [[Salem, Massachusetts|Salem]], Massachusetts, U.S.
| nationality =
| nationality =
| other_names =
| other_names = Amy Matilda Williams Cassey
| education = [[African Free School]]
| occupation =
| occupation = Abolitionist, school founder
| years_active =
| known_for =
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| notable_works =
| spouse = [[Joseph Cassey]] (married 1826–1848; death),<br/> [[Charles Lenox Remond]] (married 1850–1856; death)
| children = 8, including [[Peter William Cassey]]
| father = [[Peter Williams Jr.]]
}}
}}
'''Amy Matilda Williams Cassey''' (born August 14, 1809) was an African American abolitionist and was active with the [[Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U4A7lqZHPokC&q=Amy+Matilda+Williams+Cassey&pg=PA1847-IA4|title=Black Gotham: A Family History of African Americans in Nineteenth-Century New York City|last1=Peterson|first1=Carla L.|last2=Peterson|first2=Professor of English and Comparative Literature Carla L.|date=2011-02-22|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=9780300164091|pages=1847–1848|language=en}}</ref> Amy Cassey was a member of the group of elite African Americans who founded the Gilbert Lyceum, Philadelphia's first co-ed literary society. The society had more than forty registered members by the end of the first year.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite book|title=A Fragile Freedom: African American Women and Emancipation in the Antebellum City|last=Dunbar|first=Erica|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2008|location=London|pages=102}}</ref>
'''Amy Matilda Williams Cassey''' (August 14, 1808–August 15, 1856) was an African American [[Abolitionism|abolitionist]], and was active with the [[Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U4A7lqZHPokC&q=Amy+Matilda+Williams+Cassey&pg=PA1847-IA4|title=Black Gotham: A Family History of African Americans in Nineteenth-Century New York City|last1=Peterson|first1=Carla L.|last2=Peterson|first2=Professor of English and Comparative Literature Carla L.|date=2011-02-22|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=9780300164091|pages=1847–1848|language=en}}</ref> Cassey was a member of the group of elite African Americans who founded the Gilbert Lyceum, Philadelphia's first co-ed literary society. The society had more than forty registered members by the end of the first year.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite book|title=A Fragile Freedom: African American Women and Emancipation in the Antebellum City|last=Dunbar|first=Erica|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2008|location=London|pages=102}}</ref>


== Early life ==
== Early life ==
Cassey was born free into a prominent African American family, in New York City, to Sarah and [[Peter Williams Jr.]]<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_osfBwAAQBAJ&q=Amy+Matilda+Williams+Cassey&pg=PA241|title=Picture Freedom: Remaking Black Visuality in the Early Nineteenth Century|last=Cobb|first=Jasmine Nichole|date=2015-04-03|publisher=NYU Press|isbn=9781479817221|pages=77|language=en}}</ref> Her father, Peter Williams Jr., founded and was the pastor of St. Phillips black Episcopal church in lower Manhattan. Cassey was involved in black newspapers and organizations in her early teens. She attended the African Free School for her education in New York City. In 1826 when Cassey was seventeen, she met and married an activist and businessman from Philadelphia named Joseph Cassey. After marrying, she moved with him to Philadelphia.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Rusert|first=Britt|date=December 2015|title=Disappointment in the Archives of Black Freedom|journal=Social Text|volume=33|issue=4 125|pages=19–33|via=Academia|doi=10.1215/01642472-3315874}}</ref>
Amy Matilda Williams Cassey was born free into a prominent African American family, in New York City, to Sarah and [[Peter Williams Jr.|Peter Williams, Jr.]]<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_osfBwAAQBAJ&q=Amy+Matilda+Williams+Cassey&pg=PA241|title=Picture Freedom: Remaking Black Visuality in the Early Nineteenth Century|last=Cobb|first=Jasmine Nichole|date=2015-04-03|publisher=NYU Press|isbn=9781479817221|pages=77|language=en}}</ref> Her father founded and was the pastor of [[St. Phillips Black Episcopal Church]] in lower Manhattan. Cassey was involved in black newspapers and organizations in her early teens. She attended the [[African Free School]] for her education in New York City.
In 1826, she met and married an activist and businessman from Philadelphia named Joseph Cassey. After marrying, she moved with him to Philadelphia,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Rusert|first=Britt|date=December 2015|title=Disappointment in the Archives of Black Freedom|journal=Social Text|volume=33|issue=4 125|pages=19–33|via=Academia|doi=10.1215/01642472-3315874}}</ref> settling into the historic [[Cassey House]].


== Activism ==
== Activism ==
Line 26: Line 32:


===Friendship albums===
===Friendship albums===
From 1833 to 1856 Mary Wood Forten, Martina Dickerson, Mary Anne Dickerson, and Amy Cassey kept friendship albums in which they wrote poetry, essays, and painted metaphorical nature scenes. The albums circulated within a community of free people and abolitionists from Boston to Baltimore, who in turn contributed their own work. They shared entries focused on fighting oppression based on race and gender.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kammerer|first=Elise|title=Activism behind the Veil of Sentimentality: The Amy Matilda Cassey Friendship Album|url=http://www.criticalstudies.org.uk/uploads/2/6/0/7/26079602/kammerer_csv2.pdf|journal=Critical Studies|pages=112–121}}</ref>
From 1833 to 1856, Mary Wood Forten, Martina Dickerson, Mary Anne Dickerson, and Amy Cassey kept friendship albums in which they wrote poetry, essays, and painted metaphorical nature scenes. The albums circulated within a community of free people and abolitionists from Boston to Baltimore, who in turn contributed their own work. They shared entries focused on fighting oppression based on race and gender.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kammerer|first=Elise|title=Activism behind the Veil of Sentimentality: The Amy Matilda Cassey Friendship Album|url=http://www.criticalstudies.org.uk/uploads/2/6/0/7/26079602/kammerer_csv2.pdf|journal=Critical Studies|pages=112–121}}</ref>


== Later life ==
== Later life ==
Joseph Cassey died in 1848, Cassey then married [[Charles Lenox Remond]] in 1850. The two moved to Salem, Massachusetts where she continued to be active in civil rights and abolition.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oYQ5DQAAQBAJ&q=Amy+Matilda+Williams+Cassey&pg=PA53|title=Black Women in America|last=Vaz|first=Kim Marie|date=1994-11-02|publisher=SAGE|isbn=9780803954557|pages=48, 53|language=en}}</ref> In 1853 Cassey brought a successful suit against the management of a Boston theater when she was wrongfully ejected. Cassey died on August 15, 1856 in Salem, Massachusetts.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=The Elite of our People: Josephs Willson's Sketches of Black Upper-Class Life in Antebellum Philadelphia|last=Winch|first=Julie|publisher=The Pennsylvania State University Press|year=2000|location=University Park, Pennsylvania|pages=167}}</ref>
Her husband Joseph Cassey died in 1848. Cassey then married [[Charles Lenox Remond]] in 1850. The two moved to [[Salem, Massachusetts|Salem]], Massachusetts where she continued to be active in civil rights and abolition.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oYQ5DQAAQBAJ&q=Amy+Matilda+Williams+Cassey&pg=PA53|title=Black Women in America|last=Vaz|first=Kim Marie|date=1994-11-02|publisher=SAGE|isbn=9780803954557|pages=48, 53|language=en}}</ref> In 1853, Cassey brought a successful suit against the management of a Boston theater when she was wrongfully ejected.
Cassey died on August 15, 1856, in Salem, Massachusetts.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=The Elite of our People: Josephs Willson's Sketches of Black Upper-Class Life in Antebellum Philadelphia|last=Winch|first=Julie|publisher=The Pennsylvania State University Press|year=2000|location=University Park, Pennsylvania|pages=167}}</ref>


==See also==
==See also==
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* [https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3ACASS1?display=list Amy Matilda Williams Cassey's Friendship Album] at The Library Company of Pennsylvania
* [https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3ACASS1?display=list Amy Matilda Williams Cassey's Friendship Album] at The Library Company of Pennsylvania


{{DEFAULTSORT: Cassey, Amy}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cassey, Amy}}
[[Category:1809 births]]
[[Category:1808 births]]
[[Category:1856 deaths]]
[[Category:1856 deaths]]
[[Category:Activists for African-American civil rights]]
[[Category:Activists for African-American civil rights]]
[[Category:African-American abolitionists]]
[[Category:African-American abolitionists]]
[[Category:People from New York City]]
[[Category:Activists from New York City]]
[[Category:African Free School alumni]]
[[Category:Activists from Philadelphia]]
[[Category:People from Salem, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:African-American upper class]]

Latest revision as of 22:46, 16 December 2024

Amy Cassey
Born
Amy Matilda Williams

August 14, 1809
New York City, New York, U.S.
DiedAugust 15, 1856(1856-08-15) (aged 47)
Salem, Massachusetts, U.S.
Other namesAmy Matilda Williams Cassey
EducationAfrican Free School
Occupation(s)Abolitionist, school founder
Spouse(s)Joseph Cassey (married 1826–1848; death),
Charles Lenox Remond (married 1850–1856; death)
Children8, including Peter William Cassey
FatherPeter Williams Jr.

Amy Matilda Williams Cassey (August 14, 1808–August 15, 1856) was an African American abolitionist, and was active with the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society.[1] Cassey was a member of the group of elite African Americans who founded the Gilbert Lyceum, Philadelphia's first co-ed literary society. The society had more than forty registered members by the end of the first year.[2][3][4]

Early life

[edit]

Amy Matilda Williams Cassey was born free into a prominent African American family, in New York City, to Sarah and Peter Williams, Jr.[5] Her father founded and was the pastor of St. Phillips Black Episcopal Church in lower Manhattan. Cassey was involved in black newspapers and organizations in her early teens. She attended the African Free School for her education in New York City.

In 1826, she met and married an activist and businessman from Philadelphia named Joseph Cassey. After marrying, she moved with him to Philadelphia,[6] settling into the historic Cassey House.

Activism

[edit]

Cassey was active in the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society which focused on providing access to opportunities for education, moral reform, and vocational training for the free black community living in Philadelphia. In 1841 Amy and Joseph Cassey along with Robert Douglass, Sr., Jacob White, Sr., John Bowers, Robert Purvis, Sarah Douglass, Hetty Burr, Grace Douglass, Harriet Purvis, and Amelia Bogle founded the Gilbert Lyceum. The Gilbert Lyceum was the first co-ed literary society for African American Philadelphians and included literary and scientific interests.[3][2]

Friendship albums

[edit]

From 1833 to 1856, Mary Wood Forten, Martina Dickerson, Mary Anne Dickerson, and Amy Cassey kept friendship albums in which they wrote poetry, essays, and painted metaphorical nature scenes. The albums circulated within a community of free people and abolitionists from Boston to Baltimore, who in turn contributed their own work. They shared entries focused on fighting oppression based on race and gender.[7]

Later life

[edit]

Her husband Joseph Cassey died in 1848. Cassey then married Charles Lenox Remond in 1850. The two moved to Salem, Massachusetts where she continued to be active in civil rights and abolition.[8] In 1853, Cassey brought a successful suit against the management of a Boston theater when she was wrongfully ejected.

Cassey died on August 15, 1856, in Salem, Massachusetts.[9]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Peterson, Carla L.; Peterson, Professor of English and Comparative Literature Carla L. (2011-02-22). Black Gotham: A Family History of African Americans in Nineteenth-Century New York City. Yale University Press. pp. 1847–1848. ISBN 9780300164091.
  2. ^ a b Cobb, Jasmine (Fall 2015). ""Forget Me Not": Free Black Women and Sentimentality". MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the U.S. 40: 27–42 – via Project Muse.
  3. ^ a b Martin, Tony (2002). "The Banneker Literary Institute of Philadelphia: African American Intellectual Activism before the War of the Slaveholders' Rebellion". The Journal of African American History. 87 (3): 303–322. doi:10.2307/1562480. JSTOR 1562480. S2CID 144956047.
  4. ^ Dunbar, Erica (2008). A Fragile Freedom: African American Women and Emancipation in the Antebellum City. London: Yale University Press. p. 102.
  5. ^ Cobb, Jasmine Nichole (2015-04-03). Picture Freedom: Remaking Black Visuality in the Early Nineteenth Century. NYU Press. p. 77. ISBN 9781479817221.
  6. ^ Rusert, Britt (December 2015). "Disappointment in the Archives of Black Freedom". Social Text. 33 (4 125): 19–33. doi:10.1215/01642472-3315874 – via Academia.
  7. ^ Kammerer, Elise. "Activism behind the Veil of Sentimentality: The Amy Matilda Cassey Friendship Album" (PDF). Critical Studies: 112–121.
  8. ^ Vaz, Kim Marie (1994-11-02). Black Women in America. SAGE. pp. 48, 53. ISBN 9780803954557.
  9. ^ Winch, Julie (2000). The Elite of our People: Josephs Willson's Sketches of Black Upper-Class Life in Antebellum Philadelphia. University Park, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press. p. 167.
[edit]
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