Julia Griffiths Crofts to Frederick Douglass, August 19, 1864
JULIA GRIFFITHS CROFTS TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS
Hanley, Staffordshire, [Eng.] 19 Aug[u]st 1864[.]
My DEAR FRIEND/
Your letter of June 13TH1Douglass’s letter to Julia Griffiths Crofts has not survived. was most welcome. & would have been earlier replied to but that you therein spoke of speedily writing again to enclose me the receipt for the Bristol £20—sent for Contrabands—Washington—& each week I have been hoping to hear again for I need scarcely tell my dear old friend Frederick, that the terrible & long continuous sad state of things in the States makes us cast many an anxious thought across the ocean concerning the safety & well being of our Colored friends in general & you & yours in particular—Oh! how I miss your newspaper! If no letter came we were certain to know what your movements were from that—I deeply regret its ceasing to be on other grounds. Our English friends have, so much the notion that they now can do little or nothing more to aid the cause of the slave—your paper kept them alive, & placed yourself before them & your work also—& in to your long self denying course of devoted labor in behalf of the enslaved this was only just as your last letter referred mainly to Mrs E. Sturges2Probably Mrs. Edmund (Lydia Albright) Sturge. remarks, I sent it to her to read—& she, in return, sends you her very kind regards & thanks[—]She was delighted with your letter; & had some of it printed;—but I failed to procure aid for you, I expect mainly on the PEACE subject the majority of the quakers, you know, keep strict on this subject,3The Society of Friends, also known as Quakers, adopted pacifism as a guiding principle with a declaration known as the Peace Testimony, which was presented to the English monarch Charles II upon his restoration to the throne in 1660. The declaration stated that Quakers “rejected fighting with outward weapons for any human kingdom or even the Kingdom of God.” In the years that followed, however, individual Friends struggled with the issue and sometimes chose to take up arms in conflicts ranging from the Jacobite Uprisings of 1715 and 1745 to the American Revolution. At the start of the Civil War, Yearly Meetings in both the United States and Great Britain uniformly adopted statements affirming their opposition to bearing arms. Even so, many young Friends in the North who opposed slavery chose to ignore their Yearly Meetings and volunteer to fight. While some Northern meetings disowned members who took up arms, many opted to ignore it and allow their returning soldiers to remain members in good standing after the war ended. At the same time, Quakers generally had little difficulty if they sought an exemption from service once the government began conscripting soldiers. In Great Britain, members of the Society of Friends were equally divided in their opinion of the war, torn between their sincere belief in pacifism and their commitment to abolition. Many individual British Quakers felt compelled to acknowledge, either publicly or privately, their support for the Union cause, viewing it as synonymous with a war for emancipation and the best hope for an end to slavery in the United States. Margery Post Abbott et al., eds., ), 2d ed. (Lanham, Md., 2012), 75-76; Lonnie Valentine, “Quakers, War, and Peacemaking,” in , ed. Stephen W. Angell and Pink Dandelion (New York, 2013), 363-76; Thomas C. Kennedy, (New York, 2001), 244; Blackett, , 35, 107. and, I beleive that this yeaR—although my friend, Mrs Goodrick,4Ann Mary Pritchard Goodrick (1806-87) was active in the Birmingham Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society. Her husband, George Goodrick (1802-94), was a successful rope manufacturer, alderman, magistrate, and political ally of the Quaker reformer Joseph Sturge. 1871 England Census, Warwickshire, Birmingham, 41; , 11:45 (February 1863); Dennis Smith, (London, 1982), 96. (a quaker, but not strict in this matter,) would, I , gladly have sent, some portion of the proceeds of her drawing-room Bazaar to this year, as last, the Birmg: Negroes’ Friend Society5The Birmingham Ladies’ Negro’s Friend Society, originally known as the Female Society for Birmingham, West Bromwich, Wednesbury, Walsall, and their Respective Neighborhoods, for the Relief of British Negro Slaves, was founded in 1825. The society’s original purpose was to raise charity funds to relieve the suffering of slaves. During the Civil War, however, the members chose to shift their labors toward providing aid for contrabands, or freedmen. After the war, the society shifted its focus to missionary work in Africa and providing support for the education of African Americans in the southern United States. Among the organizations it supported was Booker T. Washington’s school at Tuskegee. The Birmingham Ladies’ Negro’s Friends Society did not disband until 1919. Jean Fagan Yellin and Cynthia D. Bond, comps., The Pen Is Ours: A Listing of Writings by and about African-American Women before 1910, with Secondary Bibliography to the Present (New York, 1991), 132; Midgley, , 137, 189; Catherine Hall, “Black Pasts, Birmingham Futures, Birmingham, March 2002,” , 55:264 (Spring 2003). decided that all should go to aid Contrabands. Some part has gone to Washington Colored Society,6This is probably a reference to the Ladies’ Freedmen and Soldiers’ Relief Association, originally known as the Contraband Relief Association, which was based in Washington, D.C. I—more to Mrs Barnes7A native of Rochester, New York, and member of a well-known Quaker family, Anna Mott Cornell Barnes (1824-1908) was the daughter of Silas and Sarah Mott Cornell, and the niece of James and Lucretia Coffin Mott. In 1847 she married Aaron Barnes, co-owner of Cromwell and Barnes, a retail hardware store in Rochester. Widowed the following year, she spent several years traveling before returning to Rochester in 1852 and taking a job as a schoolteacher. In the early 1860s, she served as secretary of the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society. By the end of 1864, she was living in Toledo, Ohio, with her sister Sarah Cornell Waldridge. She remained there until 1868, when she moved with her widowed sister and three nephews to Yonkers, New York. In 1878, following her sister’s death, she returned, with her nephews, to Toledo, where she spent the rest of her life. 1860 U.S. Census, New York, Monroe County, 80; 1870 U.S. Census, New York, Westchester County, 510; 1880 U.S. Census, Ohio, Lucas County, 28; Cornell, t, 186-98, 367-69; Faulkner, , 17, 19—24, 32, 85. & Rochester8Probably an allusion to the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society.—some to Loguen9Jermain Wesley Loguen. I know that our mutual friend Mrs Robbens10Probably Elizabeth Blake Robberds (1817-81), daughter of the Reverend William Blake of Crewkerne, Somerset, a Presbyterian minister, and his second wife, Elizabeth. In 1841 she married the Reverend John Robberds (1814-92), a Unitarian minister who served at the Ancient Chapel of Toxteth Park, Liverpool, from 1840 to 1866. Mrs. Robberds was active in the British antislavery and the suffrage movements. , 11:48 (February 1863); Crawford, , 133-34, 150; (online). & Mrs Carpenter11Mary Browne Carpenter. continue sound and true to your interests, or rather to those of your people, represented by you—My heart aches when I read of the poor Negroes, placed in front of the cannon at Petersburg’12Possibly a reference to what black troops experienced in the Battle of the Crater on 30 July 1864, which occurred during the protracted Petersburg Campaign. Before the battle, Union forces tunneled under the Confederate lines and, after exploding four tons of powder, created a crater that was 170 feet long, almost 70 feet wide, and at least 30 feet deep. Although black troops had been specially trained to lead the charge through the crater, General George Meade, fearing adverse publicity in Northern papers should the charge fail and black causalities be high, instead ordered ill-prepared white troops to take the lead and black troops to follow. Under heavy Confederate fire, the charge failed; Union troops, both white and black, became trapped in the crater. Out of 450 men who entered the crater, only 128 survived. Overall, Union forces suffered almost 4,000 causalities, of which over 1,300 were black; many of the casualties were killed after they had surrendered. Petersburg did not fall for another eight months. Charles M. Christian, (New York, 1995), 202; Hargrove,* Black Union Soldiers, 183-87; Spencer C. Tucker, ed., , 6 vols. (Santa Barbara, Calif., 2013), 1:457-58; Sutherland, , 29.—The Leeds Mercury well says that they have been
too severely tried—I fervently trust that poor Charlie13Charles Remond Douglass. is safe—Lewis,"14Lewis H. Douglass.I find has quitted the army—you don’t say 15Frederick Douglass, Jr. is? Please tell me all particulars when you next write—& pray let me hear soon again. we do, indeed, feel anxious—a line , when you can—God grant that the poor lads are all safe—I begin to the American Government—I quite believe that the North in being severely punished for their unfaithfulness to the Cause of freedom—. their treachery to the Negro! Pray, dear Frederick, do not go toward Washington at this time of uncertainty—your life is one that would be sacrificed at once if you ever reached the hands of those Southern tyrants I shudder to think, for an instant, of the possibility—May our Heavenly Father mercifully preserve you to your family—your friends & your people. Look to Him for guidance, my dear friend: & He will guide you aright,—& protect you from harm Canadian friend of the Doctor’s was visiting us on Monday—In the vessel in which he sailed from Quebec was ,16Maria Isabella Boyd (1844-1900) was born in Martinsburg, Virginia (later West Virginia), to Reed and Mary Boyd, both of prominent families, and was educated at Mount Washington Female College in Baltimore. Her career as a Confederate spy began when she shot and killed a soldier trying to raise a Union flag in her home. She became acquainted with the Northern troops posted in her home to guard her, and passed information gathered from these troops to the Confederate generals Jackson and Beauregard. Her most significant act on behalf of the Confederacy came in May 1862 when she informed Jackson that Union troops planned to burn several bridges near Front Royal during their retreat. With this warning, Jackson was able to mobilize his troops and use the bridges in his advance. For her actions as a spy, she was arrested three times, banished to the South, and later exiled to Canada. She traveled to England where she wrote her memoir, , for financial support. While in England, and upon her return home, she began acting and speaking on a lecture circuit to support herself. She was married three times and had four children before she died in Kilborne, Wisconsin, on a lecture stop. Belle Boyd, Belle Boyd in Camp and Prison, Written by Herself (New York, 1865); Ruth Scarborough, Belle Boyd: Siren of the South (Macon, Ga., 1983); Current, , 1:201; Heidler and Heidler, , 1:260-61; , 2:24-25; , 3:308-09. the Celebrated Confederate spy—She is, according to his showing, a wonderfully gifted young lady. One day at dinner the Capn asked her, ““When the Southerners would give in”’?—She said, “—if the present generation were all killed off, the next would take it up”—My heart is quite full when I think of all the wretchedness & misery, & blood shedding going on; & I distrust most of the Northern generals—I heartily wish that the Colored people of the North could, have backed out altogether, & quitted America—but, I dare say, that Course WD not be a wise one; nor do I ever publicly declare this opinion—I deeply regret to say that the leading people here are nearly , “sympathizers with the South”! Shame on them—but, I believe in many cases, that it is more from of sympathy with the than from any thing else—& about Slavery itself & its workings, they know but little—lI intend circulating “My Bondage & My Freedom” among our friends here & I doubt not but that great good will be done by it among the more intelligent of them—Now, my dear fp a word about ourselves—We moved here in June—are not yet quite settled with a house—but shall winter, ([illegible], [illegible],) in the present one—we all regretted quitting Leeds—but we are in the midst of refined & cultivated Society here—& meet with extra-ordinary manifestations of kindness, from a large circle of friends,—indeed we are more out visiting than is desirable, on some accounts—The leading Chapel of our Society17In 1798, members of the Methodist New Connexion, a group that split from the Wesleyan Methodists in 1797, founded the Bethesda Methodist Chapel in Hanley. The original structure seated 600. In 1811, the chapel’s seating capacity was increased to 1,000. It was demolished in 1819, and a new chapel, featuring checkered brickwork, was built. Forty years later, Bethesda Chapel underwent a final renovation that added a colonnaded Corinthian portico to the building’s front fagade and increased the seating capacity to 3,000. J. G. Jenkins, , 20 vols. (London, 1908-2007), 8:276-307. holds 3000 & the Doctor’s preaching seems to be fully appreciated by the best Congregations who hear him—The s are with us again—but 3 miles off—It seemed so strange my dear friend to
listen to Mr Graham telling, in a social party in Hanley, two of the Capital stories you used to tell us in Halifax—but, of course, he gave them as coming from our mutual dear friend Mr Douglass—He has a vivid & most pleasant recollection of you Will you please, tell Rose,18Rosetta Douglass Sprague. with my love, that I have not forgotten I owe her a letter?—I meant to enclose a note to her in this—but am summoned out, away from home this afternoon—therefore, must delay. She wrote me such a nice letter—with plenty of news—which I liked to have about so many people I used to know years ago—thank you for Lewis’ Carte. What a fine looking young man! how changed since —Do send me the others, please—& don’t omit yourself. Give my love to Mrs Douglass. I am glad Rose’s husband19Born a slave in Prince George’s County, Maryland, Nathan Sprague (1840-1907) married Rosetta Douglass on 24 December 1863 in Rochester, New York. On 3 September 1864, he enlisted in the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Infantry in Rochester, listing his occupation as gardener. After spending his entire military career as a private with that regiment’s Company D, Sprague mustered out of the service in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, on 20 August 1865. With neither a trade nor an education, he found it very difficult to obtain steady employment after the war. Relying upon his father-in-law’s influence and resources, Sprague returned to Rochester in 1865 and spent the next decade pursing one failed career after another. Between 1865 and 1876, he tried his hand at farming, driving a hack, selling chickens, and working as a gardener. At one point, he even left his family (the Spragues would eventually have seven children) and moved to Omaha, Nebraska, where he hoped to succeed as a baker. Failing once again, he returned penniless to Rochester several months later. Following that, Frederick Douglass intervened and arranged for his son-in-law to get a job with the post office. In 1877, however, Sprague was convicted of opening the mail and stealing valuables from it; he was sentenced to a year in the Monroe County jail. That same year, Rosetta and the children joined her parents in Washington, D.C., after being evicted from their house in Rochester by Sprague’s creditors. Following Sprague’s release from jail, he followed his family to Washington, D.C. where he once again failed to find steady employment. Among his jobs, Sprague worked for a time as a stable hand at the home of Salmon P. Chase’s daughter, Kate Chase Sprague (no relation). For much of their time in Washington, D.C., however, Rosetta Douglass Sprague supported the family by clerking in government offices. Before his death in 1907, Sprague was working as a real estate agent. 1870 U.S. Census, New York, Monroe County, 70; 1880 U.S. Census, District of Columbia, Washington City, 52; 1900 U.S. Census, District of Columbia, Washington City, 4B; Emilio, , 358; Blight, , 205; Booker, “7 Will Wear No Chain!,” 100-01; O’ Keefe, , 70, 90; Barnes, , 101, 107, 114, 117; Sterling, , 418-23; McFeely, , 222-23, 248, 287. is a good fellow—& I hope they will continue happy & in the old hill home! I trust I , be permitted to see Grandpapa Douglass & a troop of lively little gchildren under the old peach trees—& taste some of Grand mama’s —Doctor20Julia Griffith Crofts’s husband, the Reverend Henry O. Crofts. Lizzie21Elizabeth Crofts. & Matty22Martha “Mattie” Nichol Crofts (1853-98) was the youngest of Julia Griffiths Crofts’s three stepdaughters. In 1881 she married Arthur Joseph Griffiths (1855-96), with whom she had three daughters, Vera, Ella, and Martha “Mattie.” In 1895 she was her stepmother’s sole heir, inheriting Julia Crofts’s estate, which was valued at just under £900. 1861 England Census, Yorkshire, Halifax, 110; 1871 England Census, Durham, Gateshead, 41; London Gazette, 12 July 1895, 3960; England and Wales, National Probate Calendar (online). join me in kindest love & best wishes, we should ALL unite in giving you even a warmer welcome than you had before, beneath our roof were you to come again. We have plenty of room—oOh! that war & Slavery may cease together, & then you wD come over & rejoice with your British friends! God bless you—I remain as ever, your faithful & affectionate friend
JULIA G. CROFTS—
ALS: General Correspondence File, reel 2, frames 47-51, FD Papers, DLC.
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