Julia Griffiths Crofts to Frederick Douglas, June 3, 1862
15 Grove Terrace
Leeds 3rd June.
My dear Friend/
Imagine my joy when, a fortnight since I received a warmhearted note dated London, from dear Mrs. Charles MillerMiller, Elizabeth Smith
of Peterboro! telling me their party whereabouts, & wishing to see me in town as soon as possible—saying that but for the ill health of dear Mrs. Gerrit Smith they wd have come down to see me—I replied, & Mrs. M. wrote again, & the result was that Doctor C. kindly allowed me to do as I wished, & off I went & joined them at their West End Hotel & spent five delightful days with them all—Dear Mrs. Smith looks, to my thinking, better than ever I knew her! & Mrs. Miller
is as amiable & sweet as ever and a real "good time" we all had! Talking over old times & old friends! & old stories! The two gentlemen, (Mr Miller and Greene) left us very much to ourselves, & a very happy season the two dear ladies & I had. My reception, both by Mr M. & Greene was, also, a very warm one, tho' Greene is not oft to be fond of the English!—do you know him at all?—There is no apparent resemblance to his valued father—he being a "fast" young man, engrossed in pleasure-taking—kind-hearted & generous, & I should fear, an easy victim of the designing—The whole party left London for Scotland the day after I came back—I head from them from Edinburgh & thence they make a rapid tour—there on to Belfast & Dublin—thence to Liverpool & home by the Thames of 21st June—so they will be about starting as this reaches Rochester!—I expect to be in London when they sail, so cannot let them off—& feel it would be too melancholy to take leave at Liverpool.
I had the privilege of bearing some of dear Mr. Smith's letters to them! How beautifully & graphically he writes! What a rare man he is & every Whit as noble is his dear daughter! so upright—& so like her father!—We often mentioned you, my dear friend Fredrick & can assure you!—& Mrs Miller told me of her call at the hill with her father since your return from England—They have had a grand tour in Europe—There is much concerning them I see & wd chat to you about that I do not deem it wise to write about so I best bid adieu to them, dear loving fds as they are! So soon as I have
seen the Great Exhibition (which was not got into order at the time of opening,) I will, ([F. D.]) write a letter for the paper—(ready for August monthly I trust:)—We went to several grand places together, but not to that: I having arranged to go to London on the 7th I [illegible] & then to visit it—Dr. C. goes to his conference then—& will at that time come to the close of his Presidential year, which I shall be glad of—for he has had too much work, even for him!
We cannot be free from illness, yet ought to be thankful that it is no worse! My AuntGriffiths, Mary Powis
Mary Powis Griffiths (c. 1789–1877), with whom Julia Griffiths; her husband, the Reverend Henry O. Crofts; and three stepdaughters (Elizabeth, Saley, and Martha Crofts) were sharing their home in both 1861 and 1871. 1861 England Census, Halifax, Yorkshire, 110; 1871 England Census, Gateshead, Durham County, 41; Janet Douglas, “A Cherished Friendship: Julia Griffiths Crofts and Frederick Douglass,” Slavery and Abolition, 33:265–74 (June 2012).
yet keeps her son and our good Hannah is laid up—Surely never was there a spring with with more illness & more deaths!—Your letters of 22nd April & 9th May came safely, & were most welcome!—& may God keep you from all harms, amidst these times of war & bloodshed!—I dare not tend myself to enlarge on American matters: here. I am sending this thro' Miss Porter, to whom I am remitting some money. I hold a small sum for you, which will, I hope, be added to by & bye—I mark
what you say concerning the plans, & thank you!—I only wish Mr. FoggFogg, James P.
would settle up. Tis too bad of him—I told Mrs. G. Smith the circumstances, & she agrees with me that to write to him, & enclose it to Gerrit SmithSmith, Gerrit
Gerrit Smith (1797– 1874), a New York businessman and land speculator, became best known for his philanthropic work for such reform causes as temperance and abolition. Between 1828 and 1835, he donated large sums of money to the American Colonization Society, but abandoned that movement in 1835 when his sympathies shifted to the immediate abolitionists. In the 1840s, he gave approximately 140,000 acres of land in upstate New York to three thousand black settlers, thus qualifying them to vote. Smith was a founder and frequent candidate of the Liberty party, running for governor of New York on that ticket in 1840 and winning a seat in Congress in 1852. When the Free Soil merger with moderate antislavery Democrats and Whigs lured away many Liberty party supporters, Smith helped bankroll that organization until 1860. Smith befriended Douglass when the latter moved to Rochester, and Smith frequently helped finance Frederick Douglass’ Paper. Like Douglass, Smith supported John Brown, but psychological stress caused by the failure at Harpers Ferry brought on the first of a series of bipolar episodes that greatly reduced his subsequent reform activities. Ralph Volney Harlow, Gerrit Smith: Philanthropist and Reformer (1939; New York, 1972); Gerald Sorin, The New York Abolitionists: A Case Study of Political Radicalism (Westport, Conn., 1971), 269– 87; Lewis Perry, Radical Abolitionism: Anarchy and the Government of God in Antislavery Thought (Ithaca, N.Y., 1973), 170– 80; John R. McKivigan and Madeleine Leveille, “The ‘Black Dream’ of Gerrit Smith, New York Abolitionist,” Syracuse University Library Associates Courier, 20:61– 76 (Fall 1985); NCAB , 2:322– 23; DAB, 17:270– 71.
, might do good—so, I think I will write by them!—am not sure—Fogg might perhaps, feel ashamed that Gerrit Smith should know his debt to me—I do not know, precisely what he owes! I shall refer Mr. Smith to you, if I write—principal & interest were mixed up in his payment—
Doctor,Crofts, Henry O.
Lizzie,Crofts, Elizabeth Ann "Lizzie"
& MattyCrofts, Martha "Mattie" Nichol
write in kind love & best wishes for you—Is Rose still in Philadelphia? What of the boys? Is Charlie still at Mr. Pearson's? & Lewis & Freddy in the office? Alas! for the printing of my letter in the May number.—there were more mistakes than I have seen in any six preceding letters!—Why has our good Oliver left you? Remember me kindly to Mrs. D. & all the children—(children though no longer!) and with best wishes, believe me, now and ever to remain your faithful and affectionate friend.
Julia G. Crofts.
Miss 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.
has told you of the death of dear Miss RawsonRawson, Elizabeth "Lizzie"
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Rawson (ca. 1829-1862) was the only child and daughter of Mary Anne Rawson and her husband William Bacon Rawson.
. You will remember what a noble creature she was!—so "friend after friend departs"! May we, my dear friend, be found ready when our call comes! God bless & keep you—& permit you to see the day on which you have to long & faithfully labored viz: that of Universal Emancipation—