John Jones to Frederick Douglass, December 1, 1862
JOHN JONES TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS
Chicago[, Ill.] 1 De[cembe]r 1862[.]
FREDERICK DOUGLASS,
MY DEAR FRIEND
I now attempt to break the silence that has so long existed between US
by writing you a few lines that you may know that I have not forgoten
Frederick Douglass and if I had done so that Appeal to the British people
Published in the New York Indiependent1“The Slave’s Appeal to Great Britain," New York Independent, 22 November 1862. Would have refreshed my mind
that the GREAT CHAMPION FOR Human FREEDOM throughout the
wide WORLD still lives in the beautiful City of Rochester N.—Y.— in
the person of Frederick Douglass. My Dear Friend that Appeal will hand
your name down to all Coming Generations. I am proud of it My dear Sir
and friend keep your Head up you are all right go a head. It is my inten-
tion to wright more frequent to you and I Shall be glad to receive a letter
from you as often you can Spore The Time to wright one I know I hear
from you once a Month Through the Douglass Monthly but that is not lik
a Writen letter, though we are held in suspense on the first of every month
untell we receive it. and by the way you will I hope be kind enough to
send me No.. 1 of Vol..—5 as I did not recieve it and I want it to make my
Vol..— Complete before Binding it do not forget to Send it.
My Wife2 The daughter of a blacksmith, Mary Jane Richardson Jones (1819-1910) was raised in Memphis, Tennessee. The Richardson family moved to Alton, Illinois, shortly after Mary met her future husband, John Jones, in 1841. Jones followed Mary to Alton and married her in 1844. In 1845 the couple moved to Chicago. Mary, an antislavery activist in her own right, participated in her husband’s activities to further the cause. She played a major role in the Underground Railroad in Chicago, hosting antislavery meetings in their home. She and her husband were known to be gracious entertainers, and Douglass was a frequent visitor. Arna Bontemps and Jack Conroy, Anyplace but Here (1945; New York, 1966), 43-52; William Loren Katz, The Black West: A Documentary and Pictorial History of the African American Role in the Westward Expansion of the United States (1987; New York, 1996), 67-70; Juliet E. K. Walker, ed., Encyclopedia of African American Business History (Westport, Conn., 1999), 343-44. and Daughter3Lavinia Jones Lee (c. 1845—?) was the only daughter of John and Mary Jones. She was an infant when her parents moved from Alton to Chicago, Illinois, in 1845. Little is known of her life except that she attended the National Conservatory of Music in New York, married, and was involved in philanthropic activities. Newspaper accounts indicate that Lavinia was an officer in the Prudence Crandall Club, an association dedicated to study and social activism. The club was named after the teacher in Connecticut who maintained a school for African American girls despite public pressure and criticism. In addition, records indicate that Lavinia donated John and Mary Jones’s certificates of freedom, dated 1844 in Madison County, to the Chicago Historical Society. New York Freeman, 22 May 1886; Afro-American, 9 May 1896; Chicago Historical Society: Annual Report (Chicago, 1906), 103; Karen Graves, Girls’ Schooling during the Progressive Era: From Female Scholar to Domesticated Citizen (New York, 1998), 75. Join me in Sending My best regards to you and your Family
We will Speak of that visit in Some future letter
Yours ever
JOHN JONES
ALS: General Correspondence File, reel 1, frames 754-55, FD Papers, DLC.