FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO FRANKLIN B. SANBORN

Washington[,] D.C. 4 Sept[ember] 1879[.]

FRANK B. SANBORN ESQR

My paper on the Exodus¹Douglass first criticized the Exoduster movement in a speech in Baltimore in May 1879, and he subsequently faced a barrage of accusations of callousness from other black leaders. When the American Social Science Association offered Douglass a chance to present a detailed explanation of his position at its annual general meeting in Saratoga, New York, on 12 September 1879, he readily accepted. Three days before the scheduled session, however, Douglass canceled his appearance, pleading the press of duties as marshal of the District of Columbia. He sent his paper to the meeting with permission for it to be read and published. The New York reported that the audience displayed “great disappointment” when it was announced that Professor Francis Wayland of New Haven, Connecticut, would present Douglass’s paper. New York , 13 September 1879; Douglass to Francis B. Sanborn, 9 September 1879, in Joseph A. Borome, ed., “Some Additional Light on Frederick Douglass,” , 38: 219 (April 1963); Douglass, “The Negro Exodus from the Gulf States,” , 11: 1–21 (May 1880); Billie D. Higgins, “Negro Thought and the Exodus of 1879,” , 32: 39–52 (Spring 1971). will be sent to your address tomorrow. I am
sorry not to have been able to send it to you sooner.

I hardly think I shall be able to reach Saratoga before the 10th—

I dont like the announcement in the Tribune that I am to debate the
question with Prof: Greener.²Richard T. Greener. I hope to meet you in the spirit of social science and not in a spirit of controversy.

Very truly yours

FREDERICK DOUGLASS—

[P.S.] 41 years to day I became a freeman.³Douglass fled slavery in Baltimore, arriving in New York City on 4 September 1838. Preston, , 156. It is my birth day though I am
more than forty one years old.

ALS: Alfred W. Anthony Manuscripts, NN.