Robert Purvis's Moroccan ancestry influenced his work as an American abolitionist

Robert Purvis, a prominent 19th-century American abolitionist, had a family history rooted in Morocco that shaped his fight against slavery.

Purvis was born in Charleston, South Carolina, to a British immigrant and a woman of mixed heritage. His maternal grandmother, Dido Badaraka, was a Moroccan woman of Jewish faith who was born free in Morocco. History suggests that Dido Badaraka was kidnapped by a slave trader at age 12 and transported to Charleston in 1766.

While her companion was released to maintain peace with Barbary pirates, Dido remained in the United States. A woman named Mlle Harried Deas owned Dido and treated her as a companion, eventually arranging for her freedom and a yearly payment of 60 dollars upon her death. Dido later married Baron Judah, an ethnic German Jew, and they had the mother of Robert Purvis. Purvis used his personal background to fuel his activism in Philadelphia.

He helped William Lloyd Garrison establish the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833 and served as president of the Anti-Slavery Society from 1845 to 1850. He also worked on women's suffrage and managed a secret railway to assist enslaved people seeking freedom. The city council plans to renovate his former home at 16th and Mount Vernon streets to preserve his legacy.