CHARLOTTE L. FORTEN¹Charlotte L. Forten (1837–1914) was born into elite black society in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Robert Bridges Forten (1813–64) and Mary Virginia Woods Forten (1816–40). After her mother died, of consumption, Charlotte spent much of her childhood with her aunt Harriet Forten and her uncle Robert Purvis, both ardent and well-known northern abolitionists. In 1854, when she was sixteen, Forten’s father sent her to attend the Higginson School in Salem, Massachusetts. While there, she lived with the Remonds, a prominent black family heavily involved with the antislavery movement. Charlotte soon became active in the Salem Female Anti-Slavery Society and met leading Garrisonian abolitionists. Following her education at Higginson, Forten enrolled in the Salem Normal School and in 1856 became its first black woman graduate. Afterward, she taught white children at the Epes Grammar School in Salem but resigned after two years because of ill health. In 1862, Forten applied to be part of the Port Royal Commission, an experiment designed to educate and prepare recently freed slaves following the northern takeover of Confederate plantations in the South Carolina sea islands. Her first application was denied, but eventually she became the only black teacher to be a part of the endeavor. She lived for eighteen months on St. Helena Island and published several accounts of her activities in the Liberator. After the war, Forten worked as a clerk for the Teacher’s Committee of the New England Freedmen’s Union Commission (1865–71). In 1872, Forten moved to Washington, D.C., to serve as assistant principal at Summer High School for Negroes. In July 1873 she was appointed first-class clerk in the Fourth Auditor’s Office of the Treasury Department, where she remained until 1878, when she married the Reverend Francis J. Grimké. They moved to Jacksonville, Florida, where Grimké was a minister at the Laura Street Presbyterian Church. In 1896, Forten became a founding member of the National Association of Colored Women. Throughout her life, she wrote and published essays and poems. Charlotte Forten Grimké, , ed. Brenda Stevenson (New York, 1988); Kay Ann Taylor, “Mary S. Peake and Charlotte L. Forten: Black Teachers during the Civil War and Reconstruction,” , 74:2 (2005), 124–37. TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Washington[, D.C.] 21 June [1877.]

1209 13TH ST.

HON. FREDERICK DOUGLASS,

DEAR SIR,

Are you acquainted with Senator Patterson ²John James Patterson (1830–1912) was born in Waterloo, Pennsylvania. He received his higher education at Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, and then became involved in newspaper publishing. He served as the editor and co-owner of the Harrisburg Telegraph in the early 1850s. From 1859 to 1861, Patterson served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. Following the Civil War, Patterson moved to South Carolina, where he became involved in railroad construction as the president of the Blue Ridge Railroad. He served as U.S. senator from South Carolina from 1873 to 1879. White South Carolinians accused Patterson of being a northern carpetbagger and of buying his Senate seat. Patterson admitted that the election had cost him nearly $40,000 dollars. Following his political career, Patterson returned to Pennsylvania, where he once again entered the transportation industry and focused on the construction of electric railroads. Yates Snowden, ed., , 5 vols. (Chicago, 1920), 2:915; (online). of South Carolina? And if so,
will you allow me to ask a very great favor of you? Not a in your
office, but yet a favor. I am [illegible] of re-entering the Treasury, as I am
now out of employment.³Forten was employed as a first-class clerk with the Fourth Auditor’s Office in the Treasury Department, 1873–76. Grimké, , xxxviii, 50. The Miner Normal School⁴Myrtilla Miner, a white educator, reformer, and abolitionist from New York, moved to Washington, D.C., in 1851 to start a school for African American women, specifically to train them as teachers. This institution, known as the School for Colored Girls, opened that year in a rented room of a local black man, Edward C. Younger. Miner received financial assistance from prominent northern abolitionists. Harassment by local residents forced the school to move three times in its first three years of operation. The original school closed in 1860 as a result of continued hostility from the local government and an inability to raise funds for a permanent location. In 1863, Miner opened the Institution for the Education of Colored Youth. From 1871 to 1876, the new school was associated with Howard University. In 1879 it was absorbed into the District of Columbia public school system and renamed the Miner Normal School, in honor of its founder. The school was again renamed in 1929 as the Miner Teacher’s College. In 1955 the school merged with Wilson Teacher’s College, which taught white teachers, and was renamed the D.C. Teacher’s College. Druscilla J. Null, “Myrtilla Miner’s School for Colored Girls: A Mirror on Antebellum Washington,” , 52: 254–68 (1989); National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, “Miner Normal School (Washington Normal School #2),” 1991, nps.gov. in which I have been
doing a little teaching has now closed, & will probably not re-open until
November as the Trustees intend erecting a new building. It is necessary
that I should do something at ; I cannot even afford time to [illegible] and as the weakness of my lungs & throat would prevent doing full
teachers’ work, even were the schools in operation,—there seems to be
no alternative except to try to re-enter the Dept. I have five letters from
Whittier,⁵John Greenleaf Whittier. and others, but I have been told that, just now, influence would probably do more for me than any other, as so many of the
Southern-States have not their quota. Therefore I thought I would try to
obtain Senator Patterson’s influence. My residence and services in South
Carolina might dispose him favorably towards me. You must pardon me
for troubling you, dear Mr. Douglass, I know you are beset with applications of all kinds; but I can think of no one else of influence, none here,
whom I know, who would be likely to know the Senator. I think my uncle,
Mr. Purvis⁶Robert Purvis (1810–90) was a prominent leader of antebellum Philadelphia’s black community and one of the most influential African Americans in the Garrisonian wing of the abolitionist movement. He was the son of Harriet Judah, a free black woman, and William Purvis, a white cotton broker from Charleston, South Carolina. In 1819, Robert moved north, along with his family, to be educated. Upon his father’s death in the mid-1820s, Purvis inherited a substantial fortune, which he used to support a wide array of benevolent causes, including temperance, women’s rights, penal reform, and integrated education. He helped launch the in 1831, became a charter member of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833, and served as both president and vice president of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society. From the 1830s onward, he actively assisted fugitives in escaping slavery. Following Douglass’s split with Garrison, Purvis frequently attacked Douglass in speeches. Purvis pointedly aimed his barbs at Douglass’s relationship with Julia Griffiths. Douglass responded to many of these attacks in speeches against Garrison and Purvis as well as in editorials in his newspaper. Margaret Hope Bacon, (New York, 2007), 7–9, 126, 173; William Still, . (Philadelphia, 1872), 711; Quarles, , 24–25, 55–56; Joseph A. Borome, “Robert Purvis and His Early Challenge to American Racism,” , 30: 8–10 (May 1967); Pauline C. Johnson, “Robert Purvis,” , 5: 65–66 (December 1941); , 1: 413. knows him but he is now out of town, so, also, is my friend
Prof. Greener.⁷Philadelphia-born Richard T. Greener (1844–1922) was the first African American to graduate from Harvard College. Greener then read law and was admitted to the bar in South Carolina in 1876. He taught in Howard University’s Law Department and then became dean (1879–80). He came into conflict with Frederick Douglass, who then served as a Howard University trustee, over the issue of western migration for African Americans. As secretary of the Exodus Committee, Greener advocated migration to Kansas, but Douglass strongly opposed the Exoduster movement. Following the disbanding of Howard University’s law school in 1880, Greener worked as a lawyer and campaigned for the Republican party in 1884. In 1885 he secured an appointment as chief examiner for the New York City Civil Service Board, remaining in that post until 1889. In 1898 he was appointed the first U.S. consul to Vladivostok, Russia, remaining there until 1905. Greener later settled in Chicago, where he worked for an insurance company and became active in the Niagara movement. Allison Blakely, “Richard T. Greener and the ‘Talented Tenth’s’ Dilemma,” , 59: 305–21 (October 1974); , 7: 578–79; (online). And it seems important that whatever can be done should
be done immediately, as I am very anxious to enter the Dept. the first of
July. Therefore, I have decided to ask you if you would be so very kind
<as> to mention my case to Senator Patterson. Perhaps it would be well
to state some personal facts, as I am, of course, a perfect stranger to him.
Mr. Whittier, in his letter mentions the fact that my grandfather⁸James Forten (1766–1842) was born to free parents in Philadelphia and received his education from the Quaker abolitionist Anthony Benezet. Forten volunteered as a powder privateer during the Revolutionary War aboard the Royal Luis. After the British Amphion defeated the crew of the Royal Luis, Forten was taken prisoner. Released after seven months, he returned home to Philadelphia. Shortly thereafter, Forten traveled to England, where he lived for a year and conferred with British abolitionists. Returning to the States, Forten became the foreman of a sailmaker to whom he had apprenticed, and within twelve years, he owned the business. He employed over forty workers, both black and white, and amassed a large fortune. His success and wealth afforded him the opportunity to become a prominent member of the black community in Philadelphia. He became involved in the abolitionist movement and supported William Lloyd Garrison’s monetarily and by soliciting subscriptions within the Philadelphia black community. Forten was opposed to colonization, denouncing a request to endorse the American Colonization Society in 1817 in exchange for a high leadership position in Liberia. Forten was also deeply involved with the American Anti-Slavery Society and frequently hosted events at his Lombard Street home. Upon his death in 1842, thousands turned out for his funeral procession, which passed through the streets of Philadelphia. Julie Winch, (New York, 2002); Charlotte Forten, , ed. Ray Billington (New York, 1953), 6–11; Grimké, , 4; Taylor, “Peake and Forten,” 131. was in
the Revolution & suffered on board the Jersey Prison Ship⁹James Forten spent most of his time as a prisoner of war confined on the Jersey, a British naval ship constructed in 1736. By 1771, it had been converted to a hospital ship; later, in 1780, it served as a prisoner-of-war ship. Commonly referred to as “Old Jersey,” it became one of the most infamous British prison ships because of the inhumane conditions on board and the many prisoner deaths. Danske Dandridge, (Charlottesville, Va., 1911), 246–53; Winch, , 46.—My father
lost his life in the war for the Union.¹⁰Robert Bridges Forten (1813–64) followed in his father’s footsteps to become a sailmaker and ardent abolitionist. He was a member of the Young Men’s Anti-Slavery Society of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee, and the New England Anti-Slavery Society. Forten moved to Canada briefly in 1855 and then to England in 1858, where he worked as a commercial agent until returning to the United States in 1862 to join the Union war effort. He enlisted as a private in the Forty-third U.S. Colored Infantry Regiment in March 1864. A month later, Forten died of typhoid fever. He was the first African American to receive a funeral with full military honors. Grimké, , 13–15. I taught the Freedmen some years
in South Carolina, and also served for a time as <volunteer> nurse in one
of the hospitals for wounded soldiers in Beaufort, S. C.¹¹Following the Union defeat at Fort Wagner, South Carolina, on 22 July 1863, Forten volunteered to treat wounded soldiers of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, which included Douglass’s son Lewis. Grimké, , xxxvii. My health was
much injured by my labors in the south, and I was obliged to return to
N. E. where I was engaged for several years, in writing in the N. E. Freedmen’s Society¹²From October 1865 until 1871, Forten served as the secretary of the Teachers Committee of the New England branch of the Freedmen’s Union Commission in Boston, Massachusetts. Grimké, , xxxviii, 49. in Boston,—carrying on the greater part of the correspondence with more than a hundred Freedmen’s teachers. Afterwards I was

employed in teaching in Charleston S. C. & trouble in my throat & lungs
obliged me to give up teaching, and four years ago I entered the Treasury
Dept. & was employed as clerk in the Office of the Fourth Auditor, where
I remained three years. Serious illness compelled me to resign my situation last summer, but my health is now so much better that I feel able to
resume the duties there. I have the most satisfactory testimonials as to
faithful discharge of duty from the officials.

Pardon me for wearying you with all these personal details. It
seems best to give them. I shall send in my application with letters from
Mr. Whittier and others tomorrow. And if you can, conveniently communicate with Senator Patterson, or in any other way further my desires,
I shall be exceedingly obliged to you. And if there is any way whatever in
which I can serve you in return, I shall be most happy to do so. I hope your
family are well Please present my regards to them. Excuse this hurriedlywritten letter. I can write more legibly.

Believe me, dear sir;

Very Sincerely Yours

CHARLOTTE L. FORTEN

P.S. Since I wrote the above, I have heard of the loss you have sustained
in your family.¹³Forten probably alludes to the death, on the same day that her letter to Douglass is dated, of Maud Ardelle Douglass, the three-month-old daughter of Frederick Douglass, Jr. Fought, , 310. Accept, dear sir, my sincere sympathy, and pardon my
sending you this under the circumstances.

ALS: General Correspondence File, reel 9, frames 15–18L, FD Papers, DL.