FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO GERRIT SMITH

Rochester. [N.Y.] 2 Sept[ember] 1871.

MY DEAR GERRIT SMITH:

Though I know you to be a cheerful giver—I am not pleased that you have
been called upon to aid in the circulation of the Era among the Freedmen.
My boys seem to think that because you have helped the father you are
bound to help the sons. On this principle you will be likely to have your
hands full, for you have helped a good many fathers in your day. They
sent you the Circular without my knowledge and though you have my best
thanks for the donation of twenty dollars—I am not pleased that they sent
you the Circular. You may now be safely left without prompting in all
matters of benevolence.

I am just now spending a few weeks at my old home in Rochester.¹Few details have survived concerning Douglass’s activities in late summer 1871. A brief clipping in the New York National Anti-Slavery Standard reported that in mid-September, Douglass was “confined at his home in Rochester, N.Y., by illness,” and wished him a speedy recovery. NASS, 23 September 1871.
Rose and her husband live in my house here and Mrs Douglass and I came
here to spend a few weeks with them.²Douglass’s daughter Rosetta, her husband, Nathan Sprague, and their children resided at a number of houses in Rochester in the late 1860s and early 1870s, including one on Pearl Street owned by Douglass. They were living in Douglass’s own home on South Avenue, along with Anna Murray Douglass, when it was destroyed by arson in June 1872. Rochester Union and Advertiser, 3 June 1872; O’Keefe, Frederick and Anna Douglass, 57–58, 86; McFeely, Frederick Douglass, 171–72, 274–76.

I certainly do hope to see you once more at your home in Peterboro—
and <it> is possible that I may do so sometime during the coming winter.³Douglass visited Rochester in early February 1872 while on a lecture tour that had taken him through the Midwest. Later that month, he lectured in Elmira, New York, about sixty miles southwest of Smith’s home in Peterboro, but no record has survived of a visit that winter. Frederick Douglass to Rosetta Douglass Sprague, 7 February 1872, General Correspondence File, reel 9, frame 207R, FD Papers, DLC; Rochester Union and Advertiser, 17 February 1872.
Our friend Charles Sumner never wearies of the subject of his visit to you
last winter—You must have made him very happy there.⁴Surviving correspondence indicates that Sumner was a guest at Gerrit Smith’s estate in Peterboro, New York, the day after he addressed an audience in nearby Canastota, New York. Palmer, Selected Letters of Charles Sumner, 2: 531–32.

I have bought the entire printing establishment of the New National
—paying eight thousand dollars for it—and have given it to my three
sons—in the hope that they may be able to serve themselves as well as
their people.⁵On 12 December 1870, Douglass purchased the remaining half interest in the New National Era and its printing office for $8,000. Douglass had placed much of the management of the newspaper into the hands of his sons Lewis and Frederick, Jr., both experienced printers. Charles retained his job as a federal government clerk but wrote articles for the newspaper. Foner, Frederick Douglass, 281. I am sure, you will say this is pretty well for a fugitive slave.

It is just thirty three years tomorrow, since I ran away from Master
Tommy Auld⁶Born in St. Michael’s, Maryland, Thomas Auld (1795–1880) was the eldest son of Hugh and Zipporah Auld. Trained as a shipbuilder, Auld supervised the construction of the Lloyd sloop the Sally Lloyd and subsequently became its captain. In 1823 he met and married Lucretia Anthony while a boarder in the Anthony home. Shortly thereafter, Auld became a storekeeper in Hillsborough, Maryland, and inherited Douglass, along with ten other slaves from the estate of Aaron Anthony, his father-in-law. He later managed a store in St. Michael’s, where he also served as postmaster before retiring to a nearby farm. The 1850 census lists him as a “farmer” with $8,500 worth of real estate. References to Thomas Auld in Douglass’s Narrative and public speeches are generally uncomplimentary, although Douglass disclaimed any personal hostility toward his former owner. The two men met once in the post-Reconstruction period when Douglass visited the dying Auld in St. Michael’s. Aaron Anthony Slave Distribution, 22 October 1827, Talbot County Distributions, V.JP#D, 58-59, MdTCH; 1850 U.S. Census, Maryland, Talbot County, 1169 (free schedule); NASS, 25 November 1845; NS, 8 September 1848, 7 September 1849; Baltimore Sun, 19 June 1877; Tilghman, Talbot County, 1: 395; Emerson B. Roberts, “A Visitation of Western Talbot,” Maryland Historical Magazine, 41: 235–45 (September 1946); Dickson J. Preston, “Aaron Anthony” (unpublished paper, Easton, Maryland, 1977), 5, MdTCH.—and it seems but yesterday—though a world of change
has taken place since then. My old Master has reached a good old age and
is still hale [illegible] <[He must now be well> toward eighty [illegible]
<felt like much> to see him—but I shall never go to him without being
invited. He wants to see me—but he is too proud to invite me—and I shall
probably never see him. I have a better opinion of my old master now than
formerly. From all that I can learn of him through my sister Eliza⁷The third oldest of six children born to Harriet Bailey, Eliza Bailey (1816–c. 1876), a slave owned by Aaron Anthony, was the sister of Frederick Douglass. When Anthony died in 1826, Eliza became the property of Thomas Auld, Anthony’s son-in-law. Eliza married Peter Mitchell, a free black who worked as a field hand in Talbot County, with whom she would have nine children. In 1836, Mitchell bought Eliza and their (at that time) two children from Thomas Auld for one hundred dollars. After settling on an acre of land that they rented from Samuel and John Hambleton of Talbot County, they raised their own vegetables and meat and hired themselves out as a domestic and a field hand. Eliza and her brother Frederick were separated after the latter’s escape from slavery in 1838. On 6 June 1844, Mitchell freed Eliza and the other children because state laws no longer required removal from Maryland upon manumission. Eliza and Frederick were reunited in 1865 when Douglass stopped in Baltimore while on a speaking tour. Lewis Douglass to Douglass, 9 June 1865, FD Papers, DHU-MS; Thomas Auld to Peter Mitchell, 25 January 1836, Talbot County Records, V.52, 258; Aaron Anthony Slave Distribution, 22 October 1827, Talbot County Distributions, V.JP#D, 58–59, Sale of Slaves, Manumission of Eliza Mitchell, 1 July 1844, Talbot County Records, V.58, 234–35, all in MdTCH; New York Independent, 2 March 1865; Preston, Young Frederick Douglass, 164–65, 184, 206-07, 229.—he
was always much troubled about slavery—and was puzzled as to the path
of duty.

Please remember me kindly to Dear Mrs Smith.⁸On 2 January 1822, Ann Carroll Fitzhugh (1805–75), sometimes called “Nancy,” became the second wife of Gerrit Smith. She was born in Hagerstown, Maryland, where her father, William Fitzhugh (1761–1839), was a prominent planter connected with elite families. In 1800, Fitzhugh entered into a real estate venture with his neighbors Charles Carroll and Nathaniel Rochester. The three purchased land in upstate New York and established the town of Rochester, where Fitzhugh moved his family in 1815. He became a prominent resident and philanthropist, contributing to the town’s growth into a city. Gerrit and Ann Smith had eight children, including Elizabeth Smith Miller (1822–1911), who followed in her father’s footsteps, becoming an activist and reformer in her own right. Frothingham, Gerrit Smith, 27; Harlow, Gerrit Smith, 16; Robert McNamara, “Charles Carroll of Belle Vue: Co-founder of Rochester,” RH, 42: 1, 13 (October 1980).

I am always your grateful friend.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS

ALS: Gerrit Smith Papers, NSyU.