FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO AMY POST

Washington, D.C. 14 April 1879[.]

AMY POST.

MY DEAR FRIEND:

I am truly sorry to know that our friend Sojourner Truth, is still in need of
help and equally sorry that I am so little able to help her.¹Sojourner Truth, along with her biographer Frances Titus, toured New York and the Midwest in 1878 to promote the recently published expanded version of the iconic abolitionist’s . Truth used the Post home in Rochester as her base during the New York portion of her tour. Margaret Washington, (Urbana, 2009), 217, 276, 370–71; Hewitt, , 273, 275. I was pretty well
off in Rochester and had a dollar or two to put in whenever the friends of
brave Sojourner were pleased to hand around the hat for her. But now, as
I have said, I can do but little in this line. Washington has been a financial
misfortune. I lost ten thousand dollars by my news paper Enterprize²Douglass alludes to the closure of the Washington . and
have <been> losing in other directions ever since. I have now three families
to support. Three of Rosa’s children,³At one point or another, four of Rosetta Douglass Sprague’s surviving children (Annie Rosine, Harriet Bailey, Estelle Irene, and Fredericka Douglass) resided with Douglass and his wife at Cedar Hill for long stretches of time. Indeed, Annie and Harriet lived with their grandparents for such extended periods that they were more or less considered members of Douglass’s household. It is therefore likely that Douglass refers here to some combination of three of the four Sprague sisters. 1880 U.S. Census, District of Columbia, Washington, 3; Fought, , 267, 310. a part of of Charley’s whose wife is
dead⁴Mary Elizabeth “Libbie” Murphy Douglass died on 21 September 1878. At least one of Charles and Libbie Douglass’s children, Julia Ada, was still living with Douglass the following year. 1880 U.S. Census, District of Columbia, Washington; Fought, 310.—and my old sick brother Perry and his daughter.⁵Douglass most likely refers to Anna Downs, but Perry Downs and his wife, Maria, had four children, so another daughter might be the niece in question. In 1869, Anna Downs (c. 1856) was living with and working for a family named Fisher in Buffalo, New York. In October of that year, Anna’s employer wrote a letter asking Douglass to contact other family members, in particular her sister Isabella, to let them know where she was living. The following year, however, Anna was listed as a member of her uncle’s Rochester household in the 1870 census and described as a domestic servant. Anna Downs to Douglass, 5 October 1869, General Correspondence File, reel 2, frames 497–99, FD Papers, DLC; 1870 U.S. Census, New York, Monroe County, 15. Brother Perry has
been on the Doctor’s hands all winter and is still very feeble. I do not think
he will even be able to make his own living again. Slavery got about all the
work there was in him and he has come to me to spend his last days. He is
a dear old fellow and I am glad to have a shelter for him. My position here
exposes me to an unceasing stream of applications for help and I try to
respond favorably to most of them—but I have now about touched bottom.
I bought property when I came here when it was dear—and have it now on
my hands when it is nearly worthless, except in prospect.

Please find one dollar within for the Sojourner Truth fund. I wish it
were ten, but <should> half the dear old Lady’s friends will do as much
she will have many hundreds to smooth her declining years.

I too regret that I cannot see and hear more of you. I am glad to hear
from you always—and shall be glad to help you in any good work which
may engage your hand and heart—though it be ever so little—for I know
your justice as well as your benevolence. You say nothing of Willie.⁶Willet “Willie” Edmund Post (1847–1917) was Isaac and Amy Kirby Post’s youngest child. Born in Rochester, New York, he was educated at the Union Springs Friends Academy, a boarding school in Cayuga County, New York. After graduating from Union Springs, he returned to his parents’ home and began working as a clerk in his father’s drugstore. Like his parents, he was a spiritualist and supported both the abolitionist and woman suffrage movements. In 1884 he served as secretary of a meeting of the New York State Woman Suffrage Society held in Rochester. In later life he joined the Rochester Unitarian Church and took over as druggist at the family’s drugstore. 1850 U.S. Census, New York, Monroe County, 22; 1900 U.S. Census, New York, Monroe County, 73A; 1910 U.S. Census, New York, Monroe County, 8A; Hewitt, , 114–15, 219, 231, 238, 245–46, 250, 261, 271, 273, 276, 284–85; Find a Grave (online). I
should be delighted to see him and his bride.⁷Josephine Wheeler Post (1848–1929) was born in Cayuga County, New York. Her father, Edward Wheeler, was a wealthy farmer who at different times owned farms in both Cayuga and Monroe counties. In November 1877 she married Willet “Willie” Edmund Post and moved into the Rochester home of her widowed mother-in-law, Amy Kirby Post. She and her husband had three children, including Ruden Wheeler Post (1879–1955), who eventually succeeded his father as druggist at the family’s drugstore. 1850 U.S. Census, New York, Cayuga County, 203; 1860 U.S. Census, New York, Monroe County, 23; 1870 U.S. Census, New York, Cayuga County, 16; 1920 U.S. Census, New York, Monroe County, 8A; Find a Grave (online). Your hand writing implies
soundness of body and mind—and gives me hope that you may yet live
long to bless the the needy and unfortunate.

Remember <me> most kindly of Mrs Titus⁸Frances Walling Titus (1817–94) was born in Vermont to a Quaker family. In 1844, she married Richard Titus (c. 1802–68), a kinsman of Isaac Post and a fellow member of the Society of Friends. Titus spent his youth at sea, eventually becoming captain of a commercial ship that sailed to the West Indies and South America. After their marriage, Captain Titus retired from his career as a sailor and moved to Battle Creek, Michigan, where he owned and operated a flour mill. In Battle Creek, Frances Titus became active in the woman suffrage and antislavery movements and frequently hosted abolitionist speakers, such as Parker Pillsbury, when they came to town. In 1867 she organized a school for African American adults that met twice a week in city hall. In the 1870s, she befriended Sojourner Truth, and in 1875, she underwrote the cost of publishing a new edition of Truth’s 1850 Narrative and oversaw the inclusion of new material (including “Ar’n’t I a Woman?”) that was collectively known as Truth’s “Book of Life.” In 1877 and 1878 she accompanied Truth on a series of speaking engagements across Michigan to promote the book, serving as her business manager, travel companion, and secretary. In 1878–1879 she traveled with Truth on a six-month speaking engagement on the East Coast, and from September through December 1879, she went with Truth to Kansas, where both women volunteered with the Kansas Freedmen’s Relief Association. Following Truth’s death in 1883, Titus oversaw publication of a final edition of (1884). 1860 U.S. Census, Michigan, Calhoun County, 80; 1880 U.S. Census, Michigan, Calhoun County, 31; Carleton Mabee, (New York, 1993), 147; John Ernest, “The Floating Icon and the Fluid Text: Rereading the Narrative of Sojourner Truth,” , 78: 462 (September 2006); Find a Grave (online). I should have been glad
of a word about all your dear circle William⁹Arriving in Rochester in 1841, William R. Hallowell (1816–82) ran a woolen mill and leather business. In 1843, he married Isaac Post’s daughter Mary. He was a member of the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society and of the board of education in Rochester. Peck, , 2: 1243–44; Hewitt, , 61. and Mary¹⁰Mary Post Hallowell (1823–1913) was the daughter of Isaac Post and his first wife, Hannah Kirby (the elder sister of her stepmother, Amy). Mary and her husband, William Hallowell, were numbered among Douglass’s circle of friends in Rochester and actively participated in the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society. She was also a member of local temperance and women’s rights organizations and acted as an agent for the in 1865. Hewitt, , 61, 131, 163, 209–10. Mrs Titus and
sister Sarah.¹¹Sarah Kirby Hallowell Willis. I expect to forget many things before I die—but never you
or the dear members of your family. Anna¹²Anna Murray Douglass. is still pretty well, and I feel
pretty strong though official life is making me a little too fat.

With kindest regards

Yours truly always

FREDK DOUGLASS

ALS: Post Family Papers, Rush Rhees Library, NRU