MARTHA WALDO GREENE TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS

[East Greenwich, R.I.]¹Greene added “14 Taylor St.” to her address. 3 July 1880.

MY DEAR FRIEND

I am sorry at the delay in my response to your favor of Saturday last—I
went to Providence on Monday, and Gertie²Martha Gertrude “Gertie” Greene Sherman. was to forward my letters.
I expected to stay a week—Your letter³This letter has not survived. and one from Miss Pitts⁴Helen Pitts. came
together & Gertie forwarded them as agreed. Miss Pitt’s contained a
change in her programme which required such a change in time, that it
did not impress itself upon me that my letter to you reach you before Sunday & could not, if not sent from Prov. The change in the plans of
Miss Helen & Miss Eva⁵Eva Pitts (1849–?) was Helen’s youngest sister, born on the family’s farm near Honeoye, New York. She was among the first women to graduate from Cornell University, where she eventually earned a master’s degree in literature. She taught for a time in Huntington, Indiana. Eva initially sided with her father in disapproving of Helen’s marriage to Douglass but eventually accepted it; she stands with the new couple in a photograph preserved by the National Park Service. Fought, Women, 230, 232, 240, 242, 245. was this—instead of going to Providence from
N. York, making their visit there first <as they had before arranged> they
had decided to come by Boat to Fall River⁶Located approximately seventeen miles from Providence, Rhode Island, and fifty-three miles from Boston, Fall River, Massachusetts, was initially settled in 1659 under the name Freetown. In the colonial period, it was best known as the site of a British raid on 25 May 1778 that was successfully repelled by the local militia. In 1804 the town’s name was changed to Troy, and in 1834 it was changed to Fall River. In the nineteenth century, Fall River became an important textile-manufacturing center, but today it is best known as the lifelong home of Lizzie Borden (1860–1927) and the site of the infamous axe murders of her father and stepmother, which took place in their residence on 4 August 1892. Terry M. Mays, Historical Dictionary of the American Revolution, 3d ed. (New York, 2019), 123; Michael Newton, The Encyclopedia of Unsolved Crimes (New York, 2004), 41–44; Rob Lewis, Images of Fall River (Charleston, S.C., 1995), 7–8, 91–92; Henry M. Fenner, comp., History of Fall River Massachusetts (Fall River, Mass., 1911), 15–39. direct, reaching here Sunday
May the 3d—The delay of sending the letter to me in Providence, made it
impossible for me to return any word as early as they expected, and this
I fear will cause some inconvenience but I could do nothing else but send
a and then come back myself and be in readiness to
meet them tomorrow morning—So I am alone—quite alone—with, G. &
children are gone to N. Bedford to spend the 4th—and Bluff Cottage⁷Apparently, this was the name that Martha W. Greene gave the Fall River residence she shared with her daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren at 14 Taylor Street. 1850 U.S. Census, Massachusetts, Bristol County, 225A; “U.S., City Directories, 1822–1995.”

holds me to night its sole occupant— friends in Providence hailed
me most graciously—at the Union⁸Founded in 1870, the Union for Christian Work was a literary, educational, and benevolent society based in Providence, Rhode Island. The union operated a 4,000-volume library and reading room at 151 Broad Street, which was open to anyone over the age of sixteen, along with three branch libraries in other locations in the city. The main library and reading room, which were open on weeknights and Sundays, provided “games, books, and kind influences” to “street boys” on Saturday nights during the winter months. The union also ran a flower mission that provided fresh flowers to the sick each Saturday. Martha W. Greene served as the union’s president in 1879. Richard M. Bayles, ed., History of Providence County, Rhode Island, 2 vols. (New York, 1891), 1: 531–32. they have taken no action on my resignation sent when in Washington and individually expressed the hope
of seeing me back again in the fall—I did not go about & saw but few. I
went directly to Cushing st—where they are hoping to see you—Every
one I did see asked for you most kindly. [illegible] accidently happened
in, and then came again and brought your letter for me to see—I am very
sorry you do not hold out in being in better health—I have a little place
for you when you come up East, to consult a very celebrated Physician in
Providence, who gives no medicines but after “close examinations,” will
prescribe a “bill of fare”—suited to the peculiarities of the case, which
restores the balance in the system and sets the machinary to work in order
and in harmony—That is what you need I am quite sure, and I can speak
of it, as one having authority—I will write you again soon as I learn what
arrangement Miss Helen has about being here. Could you come before the
1st of August? As our Jean (maid of all work)⁹Martha W. Greene’s maid “of all work” in 1880 was a Canadian named Jean “Jennie” M. Blair (c. 1857–?). 1880 U.S. Census, Massachusetts, Bristol County, 225A. is to be gone through July,
and will be at back by the 1st of August, it would have given me more leisure to be polite, if their visit could have been postponed, but I understood
from them that they wished to come before going to Honeoye, so I could
only do the next best thing—

Hoping your trip away, will have been beneficial to you, and that the
cool delightful rain we have had for 2 days has refreshed you.

I am as always very truly

MARTHA

ALS: General Correspondence File, reel 3, frames 415R–17, FD Papers, DLC.