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{{Short description|African American abolitionist (b. 1808)}}
⚫
= Amy Matilda Williams Cassey =
{{Infobox person
Amy Matilda Williams Cassey (born 14 August 1809) was an African American abolitionist and was active with the [[Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society]]. Amy Cassey was a member of the group of elite African Americans to found the Gilbert Lyceum.<ref name=":0" />
| name = Amy Cassey
| image = <!-- filename only, no "File:" or "Image:" prefix, and no enclosing [[brackets]] -->
| alt = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software -->
| caption =
| birth_name = Amy Matilda Williams
| birth_date = August 14, 1809
| birth_place = New York City, New York, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1856|8|15|1808|8|18}}
| death_place = [[Salem, Massachusetts|Salem]], Massachusetts, U.S.
| nationality =
⚫
| other_names = Amy Matilda Williams Cassey
| education = [[African Free School]]
| occupation = Abolitionist, school founder
| years_active =
| known_for =
| 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''' (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 ==
Amy was born into a prominent African American family, in New York City, to Sarah and Peter Williams Jr. Her father, Peter Williams Jr., founded and was the pastor of St. Phillips black Episcopal church in lower Manhattan. Amy 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 Amy was seventeen, she married a businessman from Philadelphia named Joseph Cassey, after they married, she moved with him to Philadelphia.
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 ==
⚫
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.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Martin|first=Tony|date=2002|title=The Banneker Literary Institute of Philadelphia: African American Intellectual Activism before the War of the Slaveholders' Rebellion|journal=The Journal of African American History|volume=87|issue=3|pages=303–322|doi=10.2307/1562480|jstor=1562480|s2cid=144956047}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Cobb|first=Jasmine|date=Fall 2015|title="Forget Me Not": Free Black Women and Sentimentality|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/593051|journal=MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the U.S.|volume=40|pages=27–42|via=Project Muse}}</ref>
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Philadelphia Anti-Slavery Society

Several reform and educational societies

Female Literary Association

⚫
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.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Martin|first=Tony|date=2002|title=The Banneker Literary Institute of Philadelphia: African American Intellectual Activism before the War of the Slaveholders' Rebellion|url=|journal=The Journal of African American History|volume=87|pages=303-322|via=JSTOR}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Cobb|first=Jasmine|date=Fall 2015|title="Forget Me Not": Free Black Women and Sentimentality|url=https://muse-jhu-edu.ezproxy.proxy.library.oregonstate.edu/article/593051|journal=MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the U.S.|volume=40|pages=27-42|via=Project Muse}}</ref>

⚫
=== Friendship Albums ===
Mary Wood Forten, Martina Dickerson, Mary Anne Dickerson, and Amy Cassey are the current four African American women's albums that are intact today. These albums, where women wrote poetry and painted nature scenes, were circulated within a community of free people living in the North. Amy's friendship album features entries from prominent abolitionists who contributed while staying at the Cassey house. Other abolitionists and friends who lived close to the albums borrowed and exchanged the albums only to be returned when they were done contributing. These albums are kept at the [https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/islandora%3Aroot?f%5B0%5D=lcp_mods_facet_creator_or_contributor_name_ms%3A%22Cassey%2C%5C%20Amy%5C%20Matilda%2C%5C%201809%5C-1856.%22 Library Company of Philadelphia.]

== Later Life ==
⚫
[https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/islandora%3Aroot Joseph Cassey p]assed in 1848, Amy then married Charles Lenox Remond in 1850. Amy and Charles moved to Salem, Massachusetts where she continued to be active in civil rights and abolition.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=The Elite of our People: Josephs Willson's Sketches of Black Upper-Class Life in Antebellum Philadephia|last=Winch|first=Julie|publisher=The Pennsylvania State University Press|year=2000|isbn=|location=University Park, Pennsylvania|pages=167}}</ref> Amy died on the 15th of August 1856 in Salem, Massachusetts.<ref name=":1" />


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===Friendship albums===
⚫
== See Also ==
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>
⚫
[[Cassey House]]


== External Links ==
== Later life ==
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.
⚫
https://blackpast.org/aah/cassey-amy-matilda-williams-1808-1856


⚫
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>
⚫
https://blackpast.org/aah/cassey-house


⚫
==See also==
⚫
https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3ACASS1?display=list
⚫
* [[Cassey House]]
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* [[Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society]]


== References ==
==References==
<references />
Armstrong, Erica R. "A Mental and Moral Feast: Reading, Writing, and Sentimentality in Black Philadelphia." ''Journal of Women's History'' 16, no. 1 (Spring, 2004): 78-102.


==External links==
Cobb, Nichole Jasmine. ""Forget me Not": Free Black Women and Sentimentality." ''MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the U.S.'' 40, no. 3 (Fall, 2015): 28-46.
⚫
* [https://blackpast.org/aah/cassey-amy-matilda-williams-1808-1856 Amy Matilda Williams Cassey] at [[BlackPast.org]]
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* [https://blackpast.org/aah/cassey-house Cassey House] at BlackPast.org
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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


{{DEFAULTSORT:Cassey, Amy}}
Rusert, Britt. "Disappointment in the Archives of Black Freedom." ''Social Text 33,'' no. 4 125 (2015): 19-33
[[Category:1808 births]]
[[Category:1856 deaths]]
[[Category:Activists for African-American civil rights]]
[[Category:African-American abolitionists]]
[[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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