William Whipper Founds American Moral Reform Society

William Whipper, a prosperous Black businessman and reformer from Philadelphia, co-founded the American Moral Reform Society in 1835, an organization dedicated to temperance, education, and civil rights for Black Americans. Whipper was also a key conductor on the Underground Railroad through his lumber yard in Columbia, Pennsylvania, which served as a major transit point for freedom-seekers. He represented the intersection of Black economic success, moral reform philosophy, and direct resistance to slavery that characterized the antebellum Black middle class.