Venning

The story of the Stevens-Cogdell-Sanders-Venning family, which eventually developed into a prominent middle class African American family in Philadelphia, began in the 1760s, when John Stevens emigrated from England and settled in Georgia. He began as a Georgia planter, owning a plantation until a slave rebellion ended his plantation career. After this setback, he settled in Charleston, South Carolina. There he established the Carolina Coffee House, which became an important establishment and meeting point in the community. He later received a postal appointment, which added to his success. He had a daughter, Mary Ann Elizabeth Stevens, and a son, John (Jack) Stevens. His son John (Jack) Stevens left Charleston, South Carolina and moved to Jamaica, against his father’s wishes. His daughter, Mary Ann Elizabeth Stevens, married George Cogdell.

Mary Ann Elizabeth Stevens and George Cogdell had three known sons, John Stephano Cogdell, Clements Stevens Cogdell, and Richard Walpole Cogdell. Their son, Richard Walpole Cogdell (1787-1866) married a woman named Cecilia, and they had three sons, James Gordon Cogdell, George Burgess Cogdell, and John Walpole Cogdell. Although he was married with a family, Richard Walpole Cogdell sought the relations of a black mistress, Sarah Martha Sanders (d. 1850). This relation existed despite the feelings and emotions of his family, particularly his mother, about intimacies between the races. His mother, Mary Elizabeth Stevens wrote in her diary, “the laws of country are imperfect allowing such familiarity [physical intimacy between white men and black women] with impurity, every white man having such connection should be compelled by the laws of humanity to marry the person, black or mulatto, with whom such familiarities have existed, and to have no intercourse with genteel society or to appear in any public place of amusement on an equality with other citizens,” ( Library Company of Philadelphia Annual Report, p. 27). Mary Elizabeth Stevens passed before her son Richard Walpole Cogdell fathered children with Sarah Martha Sanders.

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