FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO ABIGAIL KELLEY¹Abigail (Abby) Kelley (1810-87) was born to a Quaker family in Pelham, Massachusetts. In 1837 she joined the antislavery movement and became one of its first female traveling lecturers. Garrisonian abolitionists chose her as an officer of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1840, provoking the exodus of antifeminists from the organization. In 1845 she married a fellow Garrisonian lecturer, Stephen S. Foster. Although quarrels with Garrison over political action led the Fosters to curtail abolitionist participation in the late 1850s, Abby continued to work for women’s rights in the 1860s and 1870s until ill health forced her to limit her activities. Dorothy Sterling, Ahead of Her Time: Abby Kelley and the Politics of Anti-Slavery (New York, 1991); Jane Hanna Pease, “The Freshness of Fanaticism: Abby Kelley Foster: An Essay in Reform” (PhD. diss., University of Rochester, 1969); DAB, 6:542-43.

Fall River, [Mass] 19 June 1843.

MY DEAR FRIENDFoster, Abigail Kelley

Abby Kelley (1811-87) was born in Pelham village, Worcester County, Massachusetts, the seventh daughter of Wing Kelley, a farmer, and Diana Daniels, his second wife. Kelley was heavily influenced by her Quaker upbringing, but she later broke from the church because of its relative conservatism. Although her early schooling was scanty and deficient, Kelley saved and borrowed money in order to attend the New England Friends Boarding School in Providence, Rhode Island. At age nineteen she returned home and then began a career of teaching in Lynn, Massachusetts, where she became an abolitionist through the Lynn Female Anti-Slavery Society. In 1838 Kelley spoke at Pennsylvania Hall in Philadelphia as it was being attacked by an angry protesting mob. In the same year she joined the New England Anti-Slavery Society, previously a male-only organization. She began a career as a lecturer, at both women's and men's gatherings, especially in conservative Connecticut. Kelley married Stephen Symonds Foster, another radical abolitionist, on 21 December 1845. Traveling together on the reform circuit, they were among the most prominent antislavery lecturers in the 1840s and 1850s. Sterling, Ahead of Her Time; EAAH, 2:39-40. Perhaps the best known female American abolitionist. Abigail Kelley Foster (1810-87) was born in Pelham, Massachusetts. She was educated at the Friends School, Providence, Rhode Island, and later taught at a similar establishment in Lynn, Massachusetts. In 1837 she joined the antislavery movement and two years later, following the path blazed by Angelina Grimké, embarked on a career as an abolitionist lecturer. Her talents led Garrisonian abolitionists to choose her as an officer of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1840, provoking antifeminist abolitionists to bolt the organization. She continued to lecture and raise funds for the Garrisonians and in 1845 married Stephen S. Foster. another prominent abolitionist lecturer. In the 1850s both Fosters became outspoken advocates for women's rights in addition to abolition. Quarrels with Garrison over political action led Abby Foster and her husband to become inactive in the American Anti-Slavery Society in the late 1850s. Ill health forced her to be less active as a reformer after the Civil War, but in 1873 she attracted considerable publicity for woman suffrage by refusing to pay taxes on the family farm in protest against her disenfranchisement. The Fosters and Douglass had lectured together in Rhode Island in November and December 1841. Jane Hanna Pease, “The Freshness of Fanaticism: Abby Kelley Foster: An Essay in Reform" (PhD. diss., Univ. of Rochester, 1969); C. B. Galbreath, “Anti-Slavery Movement in Columbiana County," Ohio Archaeological and Historical Publications, 30: 391-92 (1921); DAB, 6: 542-43. ,
Your kind favor of the 7th instant,²Instant, often abbreviated “inst,” means the present or current month. Kelley’s 7 Jane 1843 letter to Douglass has not been located. reached me on the 16th[.] I should have answered it emmeadiately, but for other pressing engagements—I had decided to go to westeren N. York when I met you at the annual meeting of the American Society,³Douglass and Abby Kelley were among the featured speakers at the tenth annual meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society, held at the Apollo Saloon in New York City on 9 May 1843. NASS, 18 May 1843; Lib., 19 May 1843. with the understanding that I should hear from the EX. committe through our good Friend James C. HathawayHathaway, Joseph Comstock

Joseph Comstock Hathaway (1810-43), a Quaker farmer from Farmington, New York, was the recording secretary of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1843. Philadelphia Friends Review, 27:328 (10 January 1874). .⁴Joseph Comstock Hathaway (1810-43), a Quaker farmer from Farmington, New York, was the recording secretary of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1843. Philadelphia Friends Review, 27:328 (10 January 1874). I have not heard any thing from them, or him, since that time. I have therfore decided to spend the summer and a part of the fall, in attending Conventions in Vermont, N. York Ohio—&c. &c.⁵As part of a Garrisonian lecturing campaign known as the “One Hundred Conventions, Douglass traveled extensively in July, August, and September 1843. He usually spoke in the company of George Bradburn and John A. Collins, but Sydney H. Gay, Charles Lenox Remond, William A. White, Abby Kelley, and other abolitionists sometimes joined him. After speaking in Vermont in mid-July, Douglass and his companions lectured in central and western New York in August, and Ohio and Indiana in September. Lib., 23 June, 21 July, 11 August, 8, 22 September, 13 October 1843; NASS, 22 June, 3, 10, 31 August, 14 September, 19 October 1843. In company with Mr. CollinsCollins, John Anderson

John Anderson Collins (1810-c. 1879) of Manchester, Vermont, trained for the Congregational ministry at Middlebury College and Andover Theological Seminary before becoming a general agent for the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society in 1837. In 1840 he toured England, where he became interested in the utopian economic reform plans of Charles Fourier and Robert Owen, which included the abolition of all private property. From 1840 to 1841 Collins edited the Monthly Garland and compiled a book of antislavery songs, Anti-Slavery Pic-Nic. After leading the One Hundred Conventions tour in 1843, he resigned from the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society and founded a short-lived communal farm near Skaneateles, New York. During the 1849 gold rush, Collins migrated to California, where he attempted journalistic and mining enterprises but found little success. Carleton Mabee, Black Freedom: The Nonviolent Abolitionists from 1830 through the Civil War (London, 1970), 76, 80- 82, 88, 112-25, 212, 264, 394; Dorothy Sterling, Ahead of Her Time: Abby Kelley and the Politics of Antislavery (New York, 1991), 103, 136, 158, 177-79; Merrill and Ruchames, Garrison Letters, 2:453-54n; DAB, 4:307-08. ⁶John Anderson Collins (1810-c. 1879) of Manchester, Vermont, trained for the Congregational ministry before becoming a general agent for the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society in 1837. While touring England in 1840, he became interested in the utopian economic reform plans of Charles Fourier and Robert Owen, which included the abolition of all private property. From 1840 to 1841, Collins edited the Monthly Garland and compiled a book of antislavery songs, Anti-Slavery Pic-Nic. After leading the One Hundred Conventions tour in 1843, he resigned from the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society and founded a short-lived communal farm near Skaneateles, New York. During the 1849 gold rush, Collins migrated to California, where he attempted journalistic and mining enterprises but found little success. Carleton Mabee, Black Freedom: The Nonviolent Abolitionists from 1830 through the Civil War (London, 1970), 76, 80-82, 88, 112-25, 212, 264, 394; Merrill and Ruchames, Garrison Letters, 2:453-54n; Sterling, Ahead of Her Time, 103, 136, 158, 177-79; DAB, 4:307-08. and BradburnBradburn, George

Son of a woolens manufacturer in Attleboro, Massachusetts. George Bradburn (1806-80) trained for the Unitarian ministry, but subsequently devoted his energies to championing numerous secular reforms. Bradburn also acted as an agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1839, and he attended the World's Anti-Slavery Convention in 1840. He was not a strict Garrisonian however, opposing all propositions in favor of dissolving the Union and favoring political means to accomplish the abolition of slavery. Bradburn represented Nantucket as a Whig in the state legislature (1839- 42), where he led the successful effort to repeal Massachusetts's antimiscegenation law. In the 1840s he lectured for the (Garrisonians and traveled with Douglass on many occasions. He later joined the Free Soil party and edited two Free Soil newspapers, the Pioneer and Herald of Freedom and the True Democrat. In addition to abolitionism. Bradburn supported women 's rights, temperance, pacifism, and an end to capital punishment. Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Eleventh Annual Report: Presented to the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society by its Board of Directors (Boston, 1843 ), 44, 90-91; idem. Twelfth Annual Report: Presented to the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society (Boston. 1844), 34; George Bradburn, A Memorial of George Bradburn, comp. Frances H. Bradburn (Boston, 1883). .⁷Son of a woolens manufacturer in Attleboro, Massachusetts, George Bradburn (1806-80) trained for the Unitarian ministry, but subsequently devoted his energies to championing numerous secular reforms. Bradburn also acted as an agent for the American, Anti-Slavery Society in 1839, and he attended the World’s Anti-Slavery Convention in 1840. He was not a strict Garrisonian, however, opposing all propositions for dissolving the Union and favoring political means to accomplish the abolition of slavery. Bradburn represented Nantucket as a Whig in the state legislature (1839-42), where he led the successful effort to repeal Massachusetts's antimiscegenation law. In the 1840s he lectured for the Garrisonians and traveled with Douglass on many occasions. He later joined the Free Soil party and edited two Free Soil newspapers, the Pioneer and Herald of Freedom and the True Democrat. In addition to abolitionism, Bradburn supported women's rights, temperance, pacifism, and an end it capital punishment. Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Eleventh Annual Report: Presented to the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society by Its Board of Directors (Boston, 1843), 44, 90-91; idem, Twelfth Annual Report: Presented to the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society (Boston, 1844), 34; George Bradburn, A Memorial of George Bradburn, comp. Frances H Bradburn (Boston, 1883). You will see by the liberator of last Friday, a notice of some of those Conventions.

I Attended the annual meeting of the New Hampshire A. S. S.⁸The New Hampshire Anti-Slavery Society held a contentious annual meeting on 7 through 10 June 1843 at the town hall in Concord. Concord (N.H.) Herald of Freedom, 23 June 1843. It was a strange gathering. I never saw any thing like it. It was what Br RogersRogers, Nathaniel Peabody

New Hampshire abolitionist Nathaniel Peabody Rogers (1794-1846) left a law practice in Plymouth to edit the Concord abolitionist weekly Herald of Freedom in 1838. He also worked to desegregate transportation facilities, promote temperance, and end capital punishment. In the mid-1840s Rogers quarreled bitterly with other Garrisonian abolitionists, charging that disunionism carried an implicit threat of war. Perry, Radical Abolitionism, 162-63; Mabee, Black Freedom, 116, 123; Robert Adams, "Nathaniel Peabody Rogers: 1794-1846," NEQ, 20:365-76 (September 1947); NCAB, 2:320. ⁹New Hampshire abolitionist Nathaniel Peabody Rogers (1794-1846) left a law practice in Plymouth to edit the Concord abolitionist weekly Herald of Freedom in 1838. He also worked to desegregate transportation facilities, promote temperance, and end capital punishment. In the mid-1840s, Rogers quarreled bitterly with other Garrisonian abolitionists, charging that disunionism carried an implicit threat of war. Lewis Perry, Radical Abolitionism: Anarchy and the Government of God in Anti-slavery Thought (Ithaca, N.Y., 1973), 162-63; Mabee, Black Freedom, 116, 123; Robert Adams, “Nathaniel Peabody Rogers: 1794-1846,” NEQ, 20:365-76 (September 1947); NCAB, 2:320. says: disgraceful, mortifying, alarming, divided, united, glorious, and most effective meeting.¹⁰Rogers used this phrase to describe the meeting in a newspaper editorial. Concord (N.H.) Herald of Freedom, 16 June 1843. I am to lecture here to night. tomorrow I go to N. Bedford.¹¹The Liberator reported that Douglass addressed an abolitionist meeting on that date in Fall River at which he implicated northern churches in the perpetuation of slavery. The same paper also listed Douglass at a meeting of the Bristol County Anti-Slavery Society in New Bedford on 20 June 1843. Lib., 30 June, 7 July 1843.

In haste Yours in the Glorious Cause

F. DOUGLASS