r whom he was so
warmly interested. He had volunteered his services as their advocate,
and they could not have been more faithfully served had they poured out
the wealth of Croesus at the feet of the most learned counsel.

On every occasion of popular commotion where the safety of the colored
people was threatened, he was found at his post, fearlessly defending
their rights, and exerting his influence with those in authority to
throw around them the protection of the laws. In the tumultuous scenes
which disgraced Philadelphia, in the summer of 1835, in which the fury
of the mob was directed against the persons and property of the colored
inhabitants, he acted with an energy and prudence rarely found combined
in the same individual.

The mob had collected and organized to the number of several hundred,
and were marching through the lower part of the city, dealing
destruction in their course; the houses of respectable and worthy
colored citizens were broken in upon, the furniture scattered to the
winds, all they possessed destroyed or plundered, and they themselves
subjected to the most brutal and savage treatment. Defenceless infancy
and decrepid age were alike disregarded in the general devastation which
these ruffians had decreed should attend their course. The color of the
skin was the mark by which their vengeance was directed, and the cries
and entreaties of their innocent and defenceless victims were alike
disregarded in the accomplishment of their ends. Already had several
victims fallen before the fury of the ruthless band. Law and order were
laid waste, and the officers of justice looked on, some perhaps with
dismay, and others with indifference, while the rights of citizens were
prostrated, and their peaceful and quiet homes invaded by the hand of
violence. At such a time the voice of remonstrance or entreaty, would
have been useless, and had the avowed friends of the colored man
interfered in any public manner, the effect would probably have been to
increase the fury of the storm, and to have directed the violence of the
mob upon themselves.

Under these perilous circumstances, Thomas Shipley was determined to
attempt an effort for their relief. He could not look on and see those
for whom he was so deeply interested threatened almost with
extermination without an effort for their preservation, and yet he was
aware that his presence amongst the mob might subject him to
assassination, without adding to the se