Wincobank Hall

Nov. 13^th /61.

I have been hoping to hear from dear RosettaSprague, Rosetta Douglass

Rosetta Douglass Sprague (1839–1906), the first child of Anna and Frederick Douglass, was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, on 24 June 1839. In her childhood, Rosetta wrote and read letters for her mother, whom she assisted with housework and with piecework for the shoe factories in Lynn, Massachusetts. Her father sent Rosetta to school at age seven in Albany, New York, where she lived with Abigail and Lydia Mott. When the Douglass family moved to Rochester, Rosetta began attending the Seward Seminary, where her presence offended the parents of one of the white students and led to her segregation from the other pupils. Her father, in a fury, removed Rosetta from the school and hired a private tutor for his daughter. Rosetta, along with her three brothers, then led other students in the efforts to desegregate Rochester’s public school system. From 1854 to 1855, Rosetta attended Oberlin College preparatory school, one of the first institutions of higher education to accept African Americans and women. She became a teacher in Philadelphia and Salem, Massachusetts, until her marriage in 1863 to Nathan Sprague, with whom she had seven children. Before her death in 1906, she wrote a memoir of her mother that remains one of the most complete documents of Anna Murray Douglass’s life. Rosetta Douglass Sprague, My Mother as I Recall Her: A Paper Read before the Anna Murray Douglass Union, W.C.T.U., May 10, 1900 (1900; Washington, D.C., 1923); Dorothy Sterling, ed., We Are Your Sisters: Black Women in the Nineteenth Century (New York, 1984), 132–45; Ellen N. Lawson and Marlene Merrill, “The Antebellum ‘Talented Thousandth’: Black College Students at Oberlin before the Civil War,” Journal of Negro Education, 52: 145 (Spring 1983); Miriam DeCosta-Willis, “Smoothing the Tucks in Father’s Linen: The Women of Cedar Hill,” Sage, 4: 30–33 (Fall 1987); Sylvia Lyons Render, “Afro-American Women: The Outstanding and the Obscure,” Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress, 32: 306–10 (October 1975), 307–10. , my very dear friend, during the last few weeks. And I still expect that pleasure day after day. But I cannot delay sending you a few lines—for my thoughts are perpetually with you, and I think you will like to know that you are unceasingly remembered, through all the varied scenes of my more than ever tried and chequered life, that you are daily more fervently prayed for, more deeply, more intensely sympathised with—as your conflicts are prolonged and your sufferings increased. You are continually surrounded with my prayers, borne on my heart, with all your sorrows, before my Almighty Father. I sometimes feel as if you were safer than any one on earth—for

God gives me me the sweet assurance, that my prayers for you are heard! Dear friend—I will not speak of my own personal sorrows. Only I must tell you that my beloved friends have left me. They started for Italy on the 28^th of October.

Before leaving, dear M^rs RawsonRawson, Mary Anne

gave me the enclosed note for you—and dearest LizzieRawson, Elizabeth "Lizzie"

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Rawson (ca. 1829-1862) was the only child and daughter of Mary Anne Rawson and her husband William Bacon Rawson. wished much to write a few lines also—but she had not strength to do so. She desired I would give you her affectionate regards—We talked much of you—during the last few weeks we were here together—I told M^rs Rawson how I longed to go over to help you—And that D^r Cheever thought I could be very useful indeed if I would only go—She

thinks that in my present circumstances it would not be possible even if I had not engaged to go to Cheltenham for a time because having no independence I should be obliged to find out some occupation in America. Which would be difficult with my decided preference for the dear oppressed race.

But I do not think so—for God is above all. All things are possible with Him- he has given me some talents and simple tasks. I can live on very little. I once tried if I could live on bread and milk and found that I could perfectly well. Although I am obliged to conform to the usages of this country and to the customs of the society in which I move here I could be happy in the poorest cottage and in the coarsest garb. Among the dear negroes whom

I should love and teach and make happy! Now I am going where God leads me for the present cherishing all the time in my heart the dear hope which fills it with a joy known to me alone! Even if I must wait some years before the way is made quite clear, I will continue to hope! The slaves will be free very soon—but they will want instructing by and bye—and then I hope to be ready to serve them—

I hope you have received £5 which I sent you in September—I have another little sum—which I shall send as soon as I know that the first has reached you safely—Oh that I could send you thousands of pounds instead of these poor offerings!

I have just received some numbers of the National Anti Slavery Standard from New York with a powerful discourse of D^r Cheever—the subject "Emancipation by the War power, A duty and a Necessity." You will no doubt have seen and read it. Also a sermon preached by him on the fast day—how can Slavery withstand such champions of Liberty! It must perish ere long. Ah May God give each of you Noble Souls!—increased strength and power to fight on! M^rs Cheever in her last letter to me says—that the Doctors Church is crowded every Sunday with people eager to know and to listen to what he has to say against the National Sin—they quite hope that something will

speedily be done—by the rulers for the deliverance of the down trodden. Dr. Tyng has assumed a bold stand for emancipation. This they had long hoped for—God bless their efforts.

I am very busy preparing to leave Wincobank! I dread the change—though I could not remain here—in the altered circumstances of the place—I cannot live with automatons!—You will think it strange that it will be a greater trial to me to part with the inanimate objects around me—than with the beings, whom I have ever endeavored to attach to me! Now that I am really going I do not meet with the same perpetual opposition and coldness—I am glad of it—for it has always been my desire to part as friends.—

The dear little kitten which you petted when you were here suddenly disappeared some months ago—It was a great grief to some of us—who loved it for your sake now I am glad not to have to part with it.

I shall write again before I leave towards the end of December—My dear friend, have you you my address in Cheltenham. I believe you will not forget me—and that you will pray for me—Sometimes I am nearly overcome with anxiety My position will be one of the greatest responsibility. Yet I look upon it as a great step towards the accomplishment of my longing desire—to devote my last days to your cause—

Perhaps when you have time—you will just write your own name to put under a likeness which was sent me from Glasgow instance of the imperfect impression which I got first from the Photographer—I do not think the portrait in the book at all good So I covered it over with the beautiful Glasgow photograph which is larger and covers your autograph—

I have not yet been able to discover where M^r Martin is—So I cannot thank him for having so kindly taken charge of the books—he did not write to me in sending them—I should also have liked to show kindness to M^r Garnett. because you so warmly commended him to the kindness of your friends in England—only I cannot find him out. I do hope I shall see them both before they return to America—Dear friend—I am continually thinking of what I could do for your own perpetual comfort during the coming winter when

you are going from place to place exposed to every kind of discomforts. Do tell me if there is anything I could make for you myself. It would be such joy to me & in the midst of coming trials and toils to work for you! And I want to help to take care of you for the poor slaves—for you are their hope! God bless you my very dear friend—excuse this hurried letter. I felt as if I must write to day—though I had but a short time to do it. God ever bless you and prosper your work! God save the Slaves!—Remember me to every member of your dear family. I include them in my prayers for you—do not forget in yours. Your own sincerely attached friend

Rosine Amé-DrazAmé-Draz, Rosine

A Swiss national, Rosine Amé-Draz (c. 1816–?) first arrived in England on 11 July 1838, listing her profession as teacher. In 1841 she was teaching and living in the parish of Egg Buckland, Devonshire. After spending an undetermined length of time back in Switzerland, she returned to England in July 1848, this time listing her profession as governess. According to the 1861 English Census (where she was recorded as “Rosine Ann Davy,” a native of Neufchatel, Switzerland), she was staying in the home of Mrs. Elizabeth Read of Ecclesfield, Yorkshire. By 1871 she was serving as governess to the children of George S. Kemp, a wealthy Lancashire manufacturer. 1841 England Census, Devonshire, Egg Buckland, 11; 1861 England Census, Yorkshire, Ecclesfield, 56; 1871 England Census, Lancashire, Castleton, 1; “England, Alien Arrivals, 1810–1811, 1826–1869,” Ancestry.com.

I will send the money as soon as I know the last has been received— so pray for me that I may be strong and thus worthy of being your friend

I have had such very kind notes from dear Mrs. Carpenter lately—They both wish very much to see me—before I leave this neighborhood—but I fear I shall not be able to go over to Halifax—unless it be for one day only—I have not heard from Mrs. Crofts for a very long time—though I have written to her several times Perhaps she is absent from home—I have received the precious books my dear friend & thank you a thousand times for them though I fear you will think me very ungrateful when I tell you that I was very much disappointed when I found that you had not written my name in one of the copies! I however chose one of the two for myself—and though there is none of your hand writing in it—it is not likely that I shall ever forget the friend who sent it to me.