Rash's Surname Index
Notes for Sarah PUGH
Sarah Pugh was a schoolteacher who devoted her life to the abolition of slavery and advancing the rights of women.
Born in Virginia, she moved to Philadelphia at the age of three when her father died, and spent her life in this city. She attended Westtown boarding school for two years, and in 1821 began teaching at the Friends School connected to the 12th Street Meeting.
At the time of the separation between the Hicksite and Orthodox Quakers, 12th Street became Orthodox, and Sarah resigned and started her own school, which she ran for most of her life.
When the English abolitionist George Thompson spoke in Philadelphia in 1835, Sarah was converted to the immediate abolition of slavery. A member of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, she also joined the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society and became its presiding officer for many years.
In 1838, the Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women held its first meetings at the newly constructed Pennsylvania Hall. When that building was burned to the ground by an angry pro-slavery mob, Sarah was one of the women who escaped by walking out, two by two, one black woman and one white woman, arm in arm. The next day, the convention met at Sarah’s schoolroom and pledged to expand their relationships with black men and women.
After the Civil War, Sarah became interested in establishing schools for the freedmen and worked for the Pennsylvania Woman’s Suffrage Association. She died in 1884 and was buried at Fair Hill.
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