Sarah Pugh

Life

Pugh was born in Alexandria, Virginia in 1800 to Jesse and Catherine Pugh. Her parents were Quakers, and her grandfather was an active abolitionist. When her father died when she was three, she moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with her mother. Her mother and aunt established a dressmaking business in Philadelphia. When she was 12, Sarah attended Westtown Boarding School for two years in Pennsylvania. Afterward, she began teaching in 1821. She taught at the Friends School of the 12th Street Meeting. She eventually resigned and started her own school after the Quakers split into factions. This split led her to become Unitarian in 1828. She established many schools over the course of her life.

Activism

In 1855, Pugh became involved in the abolitionist movement after hearing a speech given by George Thompson. After the New American Anti-Slavery Society was founded in December of 1933, 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. They finalized their constitution on December 14, 1833. Pugh was involved in the organization as its presiding officer from 1833 until 1870.

The Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society established a school for African Americans and argued for African American emancipation from slavery. They also organized a boycott of slave-produced goods. In 1841, Pugh spoke out against abolitionists using slave-produced goods, saying that through their continued use of such goods, they were complicit in slavery.

In May 1838, Pugh attended the second Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women. The convention was held in Pennsylvania Hall in Philadelphia. The building was built to serve as an abolitionist headquarters for those in Philadelphia. On May 17th, a mob of people that supported slavery burned down the building. Sarah Pugh escaped the building by escaping arm in arm with a black woman, as all the women fleeing did. This baffled the onlookers, who were distracted by the show of solidarity long enough for all the women to escape the burning building. The mob returned to burn the rest of the building down on May 18th. Thus, the rest of the convention continued in a schoolroom Pugh owned.

In June 1840, Pugh was chosen as a delegate to attend the World Anti-Slavery Convention. However, women delegates were barred from the convention. Pugh spoke out about this from her space at the convention, which was cordoned off from the main proceedings. 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.

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. This was presented to the Centennial Exposition of 1876, which was the first World's Fair in the United States. She continued her activism until her death in 1884.