| Rachel Cliff | |
| Birth Date: | 1806 |
| Birth Place: | New Jersey, U.S. |
| Death Date: | June 28, 1885 |
| Death Place: | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Nationality: | American |
| Occupation: | Janitress |
| Known For: | Delegate to 1855 Colored Convention |
| Spouse: | Isaac Cliff |
| Children: | 1 |
Rachel Cliff (1806–1885) was one of two women to serve as an official delegate to the Philadelphia meeting of the 1855 Colored Convention, along with Elizabeth Armstrong.[1] [2] She worked as a "janitrix", or janitress, in Philadelphia.[3]
Rachel Cliff was born in New Jersey, the home-state of both of her parents, in 1806.[4] She moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and married Isaac Cliff, a barber.[5]
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.[6]
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.[7] 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.[7]
Rachel Cliff had a son, John Cliff, in 1839 or 1840. Rachel Cliff was married to Isaac Cliff, who predeceased her.[3] Rachel was widowed some time before 1874, when she is listed in the Philadelphia City Directory as a "janitrix," a female janitor.[8] She was later listed as keeping house with two of her nephews, a musician and a waiter, in 1880.[9]
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.[10]