FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO JAMES J. SPELMAN¹Douglass acknowledges the assistance of James J. Spelman (1841–94) in reuniting him with his brother Perry. Born in Norwich, Connecticut, to a black Baptist minister, Spelman grew up in New York City, where his father preached for many decades. He supported himself as a journalist and theatrical producer and recruited black soldiers during the Civil War for the Union army. Spelman met Perry Downs in New York City and paid for his passage to Rochester to be reunited with his brother. In 1868 he moved to Mississippi, where he taught for the Freedmen’s Bureau and was elected to the state legislature. He became a political ally of Mississippi governors James Alcorn and Adelbert Ames and was a delegate to the 1872 and 1876 Republican National Conventions. Spelman also continued to work as a journalist and aided James Lynch in founding the Jackson . He was given numerous minor patronage positions over the years and served as a trustee of Alcorn College. Simmons, , 928-32.

Rochester, [N.Y.] 11 July 1867.

MY DEAR SIR:

On my arrival here from Virginia two days ago,²Douglass delivered an address on the Fourth of July in Portsmouth, Virginia. A large parade of local blacks had escorted Douglass to the county courthouse there. A local white reporter praised Douglass as “a powerful speaker, and no doubt a natural born orator.” According to that reporter, Douglass advised his largely black audience that in order “to live right they must be honest, be industrious, be virtuous, obliging and polite, and show to the world that they could be good citizens as well as the white man.” After an hour’s speech, Douglass reportedly boarded a steamer heading north. Norfolk (Va.) , 5 July 1867. I found my lost brother
Perry³Perry Downs. and his family safely arrived at my house, and send this merely to
express my thanks to you for your kind offices towards him and them.
The meeting of my brother after nearly forty years separation is an event
altogether too affecting for words to describe. How unutterably accursed
is slavery, and unspeakably joyful are the results of its overthrow! The
search now being made and the happy reunions now taking place all over
the South after years of separation and sorrow, furnish a subject of the
deepest pathos.

Truly yours,

FRED. DOUGLASS.

PLSr: New York , 25 July 1867.