Allen Purvis and Margaret Franklin were married on December 27, 1806, and their son James F. Purvis was born about 1808 in Tennessee. Purvis' mother, Margaret Franklin, was older sister to
Isaac Franklin, founder of the interstate slave-trading firm
Franklin & Armfield. His father, Allen Purvis, was also a slave trader, who "in the early nineteenth century both sold people in
Natchez himself and consigned enslaved people to the Franklin brothers to sell on his behalf." was more important than the
New Orleans slave market Historians of the
interstate slave trade believe that James Purvis started his working life in
Washington and then moved to Baltimore in the early 1830s, "first operating out of Sinner's Tammany Hall on Water Street. According to
Frederic Bancroft in
Slave-Trading in the Old South, "Purvis & Company did a large business notwithstanding their strange address: their headquarters was at Sinner's Hotel and they lived 'on Gallows hill, near the Missionary churchthe house is white'. They continually advertisedat times, twice on the same page in a Baltimore daily newspaper and also in rural weekly journals; for they bought slaves of all kinds in their city and throughout the State, turning over those most suitable for the Louisiana and the Mississippi markets to a great firm in the District of Columbia." The Sinner's Hotel was located on the southwest corner of Albemarle and Water streets. The home on Gallows Hill near the Missionary Church was at Eden and Aisquith streets. Purvis also seems to have an agent or partner named Harker who was usually ensconced opposite the
B&O Railroad depot at William Whitman's
Eagle Hotel on
Pratt Street east of Light. In later years, "Mr. Bloomer's hat store" had moved in next door to the Calvert Street office, and Purvis' brother was the man to find at the Eagle Hotel. According to an online exhibit produced by the
Baltimore Sun called ''Seeing the Unseen: Baltimore's Slave Trade in Photos'', Purvis both lived and had a slave jail just north of town: "1225 Harford Ave., now missing its third floor, marks the site of a long-gone 1830s home and slave jail of trader James Franklin Purvis. Purvis once bragged that his pen, 'in one of the highest and most healthy parts of the city, having a free circulation of air, and a yard for exercise throughout the day must necessarily be more healthy than in the center of the city, especially in hot weather.'" Years later, just after the
American Civil War had ended, a man named James P. Thomas may have owned this property; he advertised that he wanted to sell "that large, commodious DWELLING, with brick Back Building, fine cellar, stable, gas and water complete, situated on Harford avenue, near Biddle street; built and occupied for years by James F. Purvis, Esq." Circa 1833–34, Franklin & Armfield had five major trading agents at work collecting enslaved people in the Upper South for shipment to buyers in the lower Mississippi watershed:
R. C. Ballard and
Jourdan M. Saunders in Virginia, and
George Kephart,
Thomas M. Jones, and Purvis in Maryland. The affiliates worked together as needed. In spring 1835, another Franklin & Armfield affiliate, J. M. Saunders & Co. sent 14 slaves to Purvis' office in Natchez. According to professor Tomoko Yagyu,
Thomas McCargo was a subsidiary trader to Purvis of Baltimore, who was, in turn, of course, subsidiary to Franklin & Armfield. At one point Purvis shipped a cargo of people to McCargo in New Orleans on a packet called
Orleans. Purvis was the shipper and McCargo the consignee on 57 people sent from Richmond as part of a total cargo of 117 people, who arrived in Louisiana minus "one child who died on the passage" in December 1838. In the late 1830s a newspaper advertisement mentioning Purvis caught the attention of abolitionist
William Jay, who later included it in his book on the ways in which the U.S. federal government protected and promoted slavery: "For New-Orleans. — A coppered, copper-fastened
packet-brig
Isaac Franklin, will sail on the 1st Feb. for Baltimore. Those having servants to ship will do well by making early application to James F. Purvis" or to George Kephart, who now operated out of the old Franklin & Armfield building in
Alexandria. The
University of Virginia Libraries hold a collection of letters to slave trader
William Crow; according to a collection guide created by the library,
Thomas Jackson wrote to Crow in autumn 1839 that the Richmond market was weak in both price and sales volume, but that "McCargo and Purvis had sold all of their slaves." Purvis shipped four lots from the Upper South to New Orleans in 1840, totaling 59 people. In November 1838 in Baltimore, Purvis was party to the complicated case of
State vs. Negro Henry Ash, which seemed to involve both conspiracy to commit fraud (by "Negro Henry Ash" and George King alias Anson B. Cook
against Purvis, by passing off a
free person of color as a
slave for life) and
kidnapping by inveiglement (in which "Negro Henry Ash" was the
victim of George King alias Anson B. Cook). In late summer 1840 a particular enslaved man named John Murphy was giving Purvis fits. In September 1840, Purvis placed not one but two newspaper ads referencing Murphy. The first offered a modest reward: "STOP THIEF! 50 DOLLAR REWARD. The subscriber's dwelling was entered on Sunday, August 30, and robbed of a considerable quantity of valuable clothing, consisting of coats, pants, &c &c and some ladies apparel, also a Silver Watch. There is no doubt the above robbery was perpetrated by a negro fellow who calls himself John Murphy." Purvis also placed a fugitive slave ad in the newspaper offering for the recapture of Murphy, "who left my premises on Monday, 30th August, under the pretence of going to the
Camp Meeting on the
Liberty Road, 6 or 7 miles out. Had on when he left, a black summer coat, light pantaloons, and black fur hat, nearly new. He has a variety of clothing, and will no doubt change his dress. John is 21 or 22 years of age, slender made, about 5 feet 6 or 7 inches high has no marks recollected, except a scar on the back part of his head, caused by a burn when small, and is of a dark copper color. He left without any provocation, and I have no doubt is making for a
Free State. I will give the above reward for his apprehension, no matter where taken." Travelers who wished to imprison their slaves for a limited time could, in 1841, use Purvis' facilities for 25 cents a day; he promised "safekeeping" and "every attention paid to their comfort and cleanliness." The advertisement appeared in a newspaper of
Richmond, Virginia, rather than in a Maryland paper, no doubt because, as of 1842, Richmond's
Shockoe Bottom hosted the largest and most important slave market in the Upper South. == Builder, broker, banker, bricks ==