FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO ROSETTA DOUGLASS SPRAGUE

Washington, D.C.¹Douglass added his home address to this letter: “316. A. N. East, St.” 4 November 1872.

MY DEAR DAUGHTER:

I thank you for your dear little note urging me to come home to vote and
assuring me of every comfort in your little home on Jefferson Street.²The editors cannot confirm that Rosetta lived on Jefferson Street. Rochester city directories indicate that Nathan Sprague lived at 62 Pearl Street from roughly 1868 through 1870, and then on South Street (usually, but not always with the street address of 110, and sometimes referred to as South Avenue) for most of the time period between 1871 and 1873, with a possible brief interlude at 68 Hamilton Place in 1871. The city directories have no separate listing for Rosetta Douglass Sprague. “U.S., City Directories, 1822–1995.”
Your limited quarters is not the cause of my staying away. It is solely due

to my limited time for the preparation of my winter lecture. The troubles
and travels of this summer have left me less than my usual time for preparation and I am therefore much behind hand.³As he had most winters since the end of the Civil War, Douglass joined the nation’s lyceum circuit during the winter months. In January and February, he lectured across the Midwest. In March, he lectured in the Philadelphia Academy of Music’s Star Course. Douglass most frequently delivered the announced lecture, “Recollections of the Anti-Slavery Conflict,” but he also delivered two veteran talks: “Self-Made Men” and “Composite Nationality.” St. Louis Democrat, 10, 11, 12, 13 January 1873; Omaha Daily Herald, 19, 21, 22 January 1873; Grand Rapids (Mich.) Daily Times, 22, 24, 29 January 1873; Carthage (Ill.) Republican, 22 January 1873; Council Bluffs (Iowa) Weekly Nonpareil, 22, 23, 24 January 1873; Grand Rapids (Mich.) Daily Eagle, 29, 30, 31 January 1873; NNE, 23, 30 January, 13, 20 February 1873; St. Paul (Minn.) Dispatch, 4, 7, 8 February 1873; Philadelphia North American and U.S. Gazette, 10 March 1873; Philadelphia Inquirer, 10 March 1873; New York Times, 11 March 1873. It would spoil a whole week
to make the journey to and from and would incur the loss of two nights
sleep which to me is a serious matter. I am no longer the strong young
man—but the father of grand children. It is in the order of nature that I
now begin to favor myself—and have my children come to me. It is natural for young people to desire to travel. It is equally natural for old ones to
wish to stay at home. But for the burning and the destruction of my hard
earnings, I should be able to spare myself the coming winter from the
labors, perils and fatigues of a lecturing campaign—Miss Assing⁴Ottille Assing. leaves
us day after tomorrow. Mother⁵Anna Murray Douglass. Louisa⁶Helen Louise “Louisa” Sprague. and Miss Assing and myself took
dinner at Fred’s⁷Frederick Douglass, Jr. yesterday. Lewis⁸Lewis H. Douglass. is again on his legs—Libby⁹Mary Elizabeth Murphy Douglass. is better,
but feeble. The boy’s horses are all victims of the horse disease. I am, as
usual very much troubled to please myself with a lecture. I have taken the
old subject of slavery and Anti-slavery.¹⁰At least three manuscript drafts of Douglass’s lyceum lecture “Recollections of the AntiSlavery Conflict” survive. He delivered it on the lyceum circuit in the winter 1872–73 season and occasionally thereafter, including during his 1886 visit to Great Britain. Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 4: 360–75, 606–09. But this subject is old—and has
been handled by so many able men and has been presented in so many
aspects—that I am puzzled to know how I can invest it with new interest
and make it agreeable to lecture young people this winter. I am, however,
buoyed up considerably by the fact that I always have succeeded. Our
house is still torn to pieces—not because we are doing so much to it, but
rather because we can really get nothing done—The men work a day or
two and leave us again for weeks—Not a cent will I pay till the work is
done and well done.¹¹It is unclear what work was being done on the A Street house in 1872. Douglass undertook a major renovation project on the house in 1873, which wrapped up in 1874 with the addition of a new wing, so it is possible that the work being done at the time this letter was written might have been in preparation for the major project that began the following year. Blight, Prophet of Freedom, 572; Fought, Women, 215. Make my love to Annie,¹²Annie Rosine Sprague. Hattie,¹³Harriet “Hattie” Bailey Sprague. and Alice¹⁴Alice Louise Sprague (1868–75) was born in Rochester, New York, shortly after her father returned from his failed efforts to establish a business in Nebraska. She became ill in April 1874 and died in Rochester in early June. Fought, Women, 209, 220, 310.—I
want to see Fredericka.¹⁵Fredericka Douglass Sprague (1872–1943) was the fifth child and fifth daughter of Nathan and Rosetta Douglass Sprague and, like her four older sisters, was born in Rochester. With her mother and surviving siblings, she moved to Washington, D.C., in 1876 and joined Frederick and Anna Murray Douglass’s household in their home on A Street. During her childhood, her grandfather, Frederick Douglass, seems to have taken a particular interest in both her education and violin lessons, and like many of the Douglass grandchildren, she spent lengthy periods living in the Douglass homes, first on A Street and later at Cedar Hill. In early 1893, Fredericka began teaching at a rural school in Culpeper County, Virginia, but in 1894 she returned to Washington, D.C., moved into Cedar Hill, and began working as a copyist in the office of the Recorder of Deeds. She remained in that job until 1897, when she began teaching in the Washington, D.C., public school system. Fredericka remained in Washington until 1910, when she accepted a teaching position in Kansas City, Missouri. In 1912 she married Dr. John Edward Perry, and although she left her teaching career upon marrying, she occasionally accepted offers to work as a substitute teacher. Largely, however, Fredericka devoted her time to working with a variety of clubs, including the Missouri Association of Colored Girls; the National Association of Colored Women, an auxiliary that supported the Wheatley Provident Hospital (where her husband practiced); and the Civic Protection Organization, which gave legal assistance to African Americans. She also organized activities commemorating John Brown and was one of the few family members to work with the Frederick Douglass Memorial and Historical Association (which Helen Pitts Douglass entrusted with Cedar Hill following her death in 1903), serving as a trustee before her death. 1880 U.S. Census, District of Columbia, Washington, 52; 1900 U.S. Census, District of Columbia, Washington, 4B; Fought, Women, 216–17, 225–26, 266–69, 272, 274–76, 301–04, 310. How does she look?

Kind regards to Nathan¹⁶Nathan Sprague.—

Your affectionate father

FREDK DOUG LASS

ALS: Frederick Douglass Papers,NRU.