Miss PorterPorter, Maria G.

Maria G. Porter (1805–96), social activist, was born in Bristol, Maine. At twenty years of age, she moved with her family, to Rochester, New York, where she remained until her death. Maria helped to found the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Sewing Society and served as its treasurer for many years. She ran a boardinghouse in Rochester, which was a stop on the Underground Railroad from which she helped many fugitive slaves escape to freedom. 1850 U.S. Census, New York, Monroe County, 57; The Rochester Directory, Containing a General Directory of the Citizens, a Business Directory, and the City and County Register for the Year Beginning July, 1[,] 1880 (Rochester, 1880), 58; FDP, 26 February 1852; Rochester Herald, 14 December 1896; New York Times, 15 December 1896; (Bangor, Me.) Daily Whig & Courier, 17 December 1896; William F. Peck, History of Rochester and Monroe County, New York, 2 vols. (New York, 1908), 1:243. ,

Dear Friend

I have at my office a poor fugitive on his way to Canada—without money. I have assisted him as well as can—but am compelled to call upon you for two dollars—

F Douglass—

Rochester—22 Feb—