The ten-month-old son of John and Rachel Colgate died this date, June 20th, in 1847 with “convulsions” as the official cause of death. The attending physician does not state the cause of the convulsions. Philadelphia Board of Health records show Cholera, respiratory diseases, and Marasmus (failure to thrive) as the highest causes of death for children under one-year-old in 1847 Philadelphia.
According to the 1847 Philadelphia African American Census and the 1850 Federal Census, John and Rachel Colgate had five children in addition to the baby. At the time of the baby’s death, John, Sr. was forty-two years old years old and employed as a porter. Ms. Colgate was thirty-seven years old and self-employed as a dressmaker. Their children were Samuel (20 y/o), Rachel, Jr. (17 y/o), Rebecca (13 y/o), and Hester and John, Jr. would have both been approximately eleven-years old. Baby Colgate had attended the 6th and Lombard Infant School before he died.
The Census shows that Samuel worked as a “boatman” on the Delaware River and Rachel worked as a dressmaker, likely with her mother. Rebecca may have been employed as a domestic. All of the family members could read and write and were members of the Bethel AME Church congregation. Rachel and John Colgate owned their home. There was no remaining mortgage and they had “personal property” valued at $750 which is estimated to be approximately $27,800 in modern currency. Their financial situation is highly unusual for a Black family at this period. They were members of a beneficial social society (savings fund) affiliated with their church. The Colgate family was righteous members of the Black community living in a violent racist city. (1)
The “South Street corridor” of the nineteenth century was the heart of Philadelphia’s African American community. Neighborhoods, such as the Colgates’, abutted the corridor and held some of the highest percentages of Black residents in the city. All these neighborhoods were the targets of every race riot of the 1830s and 1840s. Blacks were murdered, and homes, businesses, churches, and meeting halls were destroyed.
The red pin on the map above illustrates the location of the Colgates’ home at 904 Bonsall Street (now Rodman). The red arrow shows the location and proximity of the ‘South Street Corridor.’ It was the center of Black “community life” and home to many Black businesses, schools, and entertainment centers. It is likely that the Colgate women worked as dressmakers on South Street, only a short block away.
The ten-month-old son of Rachel and John Colgate died on a summer day that suddenly turned “raw and rainy.” He was buried, with dignity, by his family at Bethel Burying Ground. (2)
(1) On Bonsall Street (now Rodman), the Colgates’ neighbors were the LeCounts, Bolivars, Proctors, and Durhams. All Black families who were vital in the building of Black educational, cultural, business, religious, and civil rights institutions in 19th Century Philadelphia. Many of these family members were interred at Bethel Burying Ground. The street itself was lined with “fine dwellings of three and four stories, fronted with white marble” with doors of carved wood. Ornamental trees lined the clean sidewalks where, on occasion, passersby would be serenaded by a young person on the family piano (Press, 4 Sept 1860, p. 1). People strolling on Bonsall Street could also be serenaded by Elizabeth Greenfield, aka “The Black Swan.” Formerly enslaved, she became an internationally renowned singer and much sought-after vocal coach.
This is a 1965 photograph of the 900 block of Rodman Street (formerly Bonsall). I believe the Colgates’ home was located on the rubble-strewn vacant lot.
(2) North American, 2 June 1847, p. 1.