Frontpiece, "The City & Port of Philadelphia, on the River Delaware from Kensington, Birch's Views of Philadelphia, 1799.

Credit: Courtesy of The Free Library of Philadelphia

When Forten purchased Robert Bridge's sail loft in 1798, Philadelphia was a booming port and the largest city in the new nation. In the decades that followed, Forten would prosper providing sails and rigging for ships that sailed around the globe.