FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO CHARLES HAPP

Rochester, [N.Y.] 16 Oct[ober] 1860.

CHAS. HAPP, ESQ.—
DEAR SIR:
You are an entire stranger to me, and direct me to no one from whom I can
learn your real character and responsibility. This, if no other difficulty ex-
isted, would seriously embarrass me in making a favorable answer to your
proposition. You should have at least given me one respectable reference.
The fact that you have not done so, with other circumstances connected
with your letter, makes it quite doubtful whether I could honorably accede
to your proposition. You date from Auburn, and tell me to direct to you
at Auburn, but do not name the street. Pardon me for regarding this as a
suspicious circumstance. You may be an inmate of the State Prison,¹Auburn Prison opened in 1816 as one of New York’s first large-scale prisons. Immediately after opening, the prison became an experimental site for Protestant reformers hoping to cure criminals of their behavior. By 1860, Auburn Prison had become notorious for widely circulated reports that it was a site of torture and cruelty to inmates. Jennifer Graber, (Chapel Hill, N.C., 2011), 73–76, 169–70; Myra C. Glenn, (Albany, N.Y., 1984), 10, 29–36, 132–34. or on your way there—a fact which you see would interfere with the fulfillment
of your part of the proposed bargain, even if I could fulfill the part you
assign to me. You want $15,000 or $20,000. This is a common want, and you are not to blame for using all honorable means to obtain it. But candor requires me to state, that if you were in every respect a suitable person to be brought, for the purpose you name, I have not the amount to buy you. I have no objection to your complexion; but there are certain little faults of grammar and spelling, as well as other little points, in your letter, which compels me to regard you as a person, by education, manners and morals, as wholly unfit to associate with my daughter in any capacity whatever. You evidently think your white skin of great value. I don't dispute it; it is probably the best thing about you. Yet not even that valuable quality can commend you sufficiently to induce even so black a negro as myself to accept you as his son-in-law.
Respectfully

FREDERICK DOUGLASS.

PLSr: Rochester , 17 October 1860. Reprinted in New York , 7 November 1860; ., 9 November 1860; , 10 November 1860.