Cynthia Potter Bliss to Frederick Douglass, November 23, 1855
CYNTHIA POTTER BLISS1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS
Providence, Ill. 23 Nov[ember] 1855.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS:
MUCH ESTEEMED FRIEND:—
Accompanying this note you will find a curious specimen of letter writing,
and the interpretation thereof, which I hope you will accept as a child’s
offering to the cause of liberty.
In his infancy we dedicated our little boy2 to the cause of the slave,
and he has given early promise that our hopes concerning him shall not
be disappointed. The story of your wrongs has deeply affected him, and
his grief has sometimes been so passionate that I have been compelled
to lay aside the book and use all the skill I had to command of to soothe
and quiet him without detracting from the interest of the narrative or the
impression it was making. He would plead for me to read, then grieve and
cry when I answered his request. He would sit in a deep study over your
picture day after day, and when I told him that I knew you, and that his fa-
ther knew you, and that we had both heard you speak, he was at first filled
with joy, and then he cried because he did’nt know you. At last with a
countenance beaming with pleasure he wanted to know if he might write
you a letter. I told him yes, for I knew you would forgive the intrusion, and
I hope you will also forgive my long introduction.
He is five years old, old enough to be quite a scholar, but we have just
commenced teaching him. He often “writes letters” and I write them off
in his own language, to his little cousin in New England.
My husband unites with me in sending much love and kind wishes to
you, and an earnest desire for the prosperity and welfare of your family.
God be praised that you have been raised up “for this purpose.”3
I never allow myself to speak on the subject of Slavery of late years.
My language is so tame and my feelings so strong, that I can’t trust myself
to venture out, into this great ocean! But I rejoice that men and women
have been raised up who can speak, and whose light gleams forth with
promise to this bleeding and prostrate people.
When shall we see you in the Prairie Land again?4Douglass did not speak in Illinois again until August 1857. , ser. 1, 3:xxvil. Nothing would give us more pleasure than to make you a welcome guest of our humble home.
Illinois has been cursed by the crouching subservients of the slave power, but yet we hope for the triumph of those principles and those alone which can save our guilty nation.
Yours, with respect,
C. P. BLISS.5Douglass followed the letter from Cynthia Potter Bliss with the following:
The following is the letter alluded to:—
FREDERICK:—I wish you would come out here and see where we live; we live in Providence, Illinois, where I can run and jump as much as I please.
Father and mother have read your book to me, and I am very glad you have got away from the Slaveholders. I wish all the slaves could get away where they could run and play, and have books and papers, and houses and horses, but I wouldn’t have oxen for father says, they are nothing but a trouble, tearing down fences and breaking into cornfields.
I think the slaveholders are regular rascals, and if I had a cow skin I’d whip their legs off.
I’m glad you got through that squabble with old Mr. Covey, and I’m glad you laid him down on the ground. I guess he will remember it.
I’m glad your mother came and gave you that nice cake of gingerbread when old Aunt Katy was so cross and cruel to you.
PLIr: FDP, 77 December 1855.
162 CYNTHIA POTTER BLISS TO DOUGLASS, 23 NOVEMBER 1855
This is the nicest letter that I can write, I have written it to you.
Hetty used to live in old Virginia, and she says Mr. Randolph had 400 slaves; now she lives here,
and I’m so glad she came to help mother do the work because she tried every where to get a girl, and
now Hetty helps her.
Henry Bibb used to be a slave, but he got away, but his wife and child they couldn’t get away.
Frederick, I never was in a printing mill, but mother has been in because she has been to
Pawtucket.
It made me cry to think Aunt Katy wouldn’t give you anything to eat, and I wouldn’t like to
see a slaveholder, they bruise, and beat, and whip the slaves so, and they get into the habit and grow
wickeder and wickeder. No one can do better than to work a little themselves. I don’t want to be a
slave and I’m so glad I’m free.
You can see my writing, but I don’t write so nice as you I know, I string it along, but I guess you
can read what mother has written.
Father has got a hundred (hundred thousand) trees and some corn and oranges, wouldn’t you
like to see them? He tried to kill a wild goose to-night.
This is my name.
HOWARD CLARKSON BLISS
HARRIET BEECHER STOWE TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS
Andover[, n.p.] 24 Nov[ember 18]55[.]
DEAR SIR
Give me leave to ask whether the within extract fairly represents the re-
marks you made1—Until this point is ascertained I have not a basis for
expressing myself at all upon the subject—If what you said is not this
will you be so kind as to favor me with a Copy of what you did say. As
the American Anti-Slavery Society have never in the Slightest instance
volunteered me the least advice upon the subject alluded to or addressed
me a syllable in the form of a letter it is only a matter of justice to them
that this should be publicly understood—The passage in question is a real
annoyance to me2 & I beg that you will embrace an early opportunity of
giving me some definite explanation respecting it
Very Truly as Ever Yr friend
H B STOWE
ALS: General Correspondence File, reel 1, frame 653, FD Papers, DLC.
1. Harriet Beecher Stowe probably refers to Douglass’s comments about her during the National
Negro Convention held in Philadelphia on 16-18 October 1855. Douglass expressed disappointment
at the small amount of money Stowe collected for the proposed Industrial College, especially during
her tour of the British Isles in 1853-54. Stowe raised only $535 rather than the $10,000 that Douglass
had expected. FDP, 26 October, 2 November 1852; Levine, Representative Identity, 88-89, 261n62.
2. In his remarks in Philadelphia, Douglass had charged: “From the assurance made to me by
Mrs. Stowe I fully expected that on her return we should have sufficient funds to make a start in the
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