A prominent free black family’s Revolutionary War hero wealth rivaled white Bostonians

Evidence

It is not that she is a black woman and he a white man. A free black woman whose family is richer than either of theirs, the Colonel did not say, thanks to her famous grandfather, Revolutionary War hero, owner of a big sailmaking company in Philadelphia. — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 749

Categorization

• SHARE: The detail that this free Black family’s Revolutionary War hero grandfather predated — and materially exceeded locally — white wealth is a specific tidbit worth sending to someone doing U.S. Revolutionary-era Black history.
• QUESTION: The grandfather is James Forten, the sailmaker and Revolutionary patriot — the Captain’s relationship to the Forten family is lightly veiled here; worth chasing the historical precis.