Background
Rachel Cliff was born in New Jersey, the home-state of both of her parents, in 1806.
Rachel Cliff was born in New Jersey, the home-state of both of her parents, in 1806.
She worked as a "janitrix", or janitress, in Philadelphia. Cliff was involved with the Colored Conventions Movement, a movement composed of free and fugitive African Americans that sought to advance African American rights in law, labor, and education. 1855 Colored National Convention
Cliff was a delegate at the 1855 National Colored Convention in Philadelphia, one in a series of conventions comprising the Colored Conventions Movement.
She was one of only two female delegates from Pennsylvania.
During the 1855 convention, delegates discussed the creation of an Industrial School for African Americans, heard a report from the Committee on Mechanical Branches among the Colored People of the Free States, and issued an address on behalf of those held in slavery. Rachel Cliff died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on June 28, 1885 at the 24th Ward Home for Aged and Infirm Colored Persons and was interred on June 30 in Lebanon Cemetery.