FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO RICHARD D. WEBB

Belfast, [Ire.] 24 December 1845.

MY DEAR FRIENDWebb, Richard Davis

Richard D. Webb was a Garrisonian abolitionist from Dublin, Ireland, whom Douglass met on his first trip to the British Isles in 1845. Originally a Quaker, he turned toward Unitarianism as his antislavery passions became more radical. A successful printer, Webb guided the small, but intensely active, Hibernian Anti-Slavery Society in Dublin, of which James Haughton and his family were also members. Webb printed the organ of the British Garrisonian abolitionist movement, the Anti-Slavery Advocate, out of his Dublin-based office. The British Garrisonians were active pamphleteers, and Webb's own The National AntiSlavery Societies of England and the United States (1852) was one of the most confident and able statements of the Garrisonian cause to appear on either side of the Atlantic. Temperley, British Antislavery, 210, 212-13, 227, 237, 239, 244, 252-54, 256, 259; Taylor, British and American Abolitionists, 241-44, 248, 258-59, 293-94. ,

The Books came agreeable to your direction—the getting letters from such persons as you name is a wise suggestion and I have already adopted measures to obtain them. Dr. DrewDrew, Thomas

Best remembered as a zealous supporter of Orangeism, Thomas Drew (1800–1870) was a Church of Ireland clergyman. In 1857 his polemical rhetoric helped spark a ten-day sectarian riot between Catholics and Protestants in Belfast. As longtime rector of Christ Church, Belfast, Drew promoted programs of self-improvement and education among his working-class congregation, and these efforts probably influenced his opinion of Douglass's Narrative. The 1846 Dublin edition included a letter from Drew attesting to the authenticity of Douglass's authorship and describing the book as "a metaphysical illustration of a mind bursting all bonds, and winning light and liberty for his own good and for good of millions!" Douglass Papers, ser. 2, 1:164–65; Kevin Haddick-Flynn, Orangeism: The Making of a Tradition (Dublin, Ire., 1999), 314–15; S. J. Connolly, ed., The Oxford Companion to Irish History (New York, 1998), 156; DNB, 11:524. ¹Best remembered as a zealous supporter of Orangeism, Thomas Drew (1800–1870) was a Church of Ireland clergyman. In 1857 his polemical rhetoric helped spark a ten-day sectarian riot between Catholics and Protestants in Belfast. As longtime rector of Christ Church, Belfast, Drew promoted programs of self-improvement and education among his working-class congregation, and these efforts probably influenced his opinion of Douglass's Narrative. The 1846 Dublin edition included a letter from Drew attesting to the authenticity of Douglass's authorship and describing the book as "a metaphysical illustration of a mind bursting all bonds, and winning light and liberty for his own good and for good of millions!" Douglass Papers, ser. 2, 1:164–65; Kevin Haddick-Flynn, Orangeism: The Making of a Tradition (Dublin, Ire., 1999), 314–15; S. J. Connolly, ed., The Oxford Companion to Irish History (New York, 1998), 156; DNB, 11:524. of this place—an episcopalian minister has read the narrative and speaks of it in the highest terms of approval—a letter may be obtained from him I know. There is also a presbyterian minister here the REV. Mr. NelsonNelson, Isaac

Isaac Nelson (1812-88), a Belfast Presbyterian minister, was an active member of the anti-Garrisonian British and Belfast Anti-Slavery Society. Douglass befriended Nelson during his tour of Ireland in the mid-1840s. Nelson penned a letter of support for Douglass that appeared in the Irish edition of Douglass's Narrative. At the 29 August session of the Evangelical Alliance, he submitted the resolution, "That, whereas it is impossible for the Conference to legislate for particular cases or exceptions, no Slaveholder be admitted to any Branch of the Alliance." Merrill and Ruchames, Garrison Letters, 3:389-90; Ferreira, "Frederick Douglass in Ireland," 59; Riach, "Campaign Against American Slavery," 247, 390, 531, 539; Rice, "Scottish Factor," 353; Evangelical Alliance, Proceedings, 1846, 376. ²Presbyterian minister Isaac Nelson (1812–88) was a member of the anti-Garrisonian British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. Nelson helped host Douglass's lectures for the Belfast Anti-Slavery Society on 23 December 1845 and 2 January 1846. He also proffered a letter of support reproduced in the 1846 Dublin edition of the Narrative. Nelson wrote effusively of the "literary wonder" and its author, "an intellectual phenomenon." Belfast News Letter, 6 January 1846; Douglass Papers, ser. 2, 1:165; Merrill and Ruchames, Garrison Letters, 3:389–90n. who I know would be happy to aid me with a letter. There will no difficulty—in getting letters if they are needed. I suppose they might be used in a part of the remaining 1,000 if sent forthwith, could they?

Another fine meeting here last night croweded to overflowing—in the independant chapel.³Douglass spoke on 23 December 1845 at the Independent Meetinghouse on Donegal Street under the sponsorship of the Belfast Anti-Slavery Society. Belfast Northern Whig, 25 December 1845; Belfast News Letter, 26 December 1845. I hold another on friday next. The Books go off grandly[.] A very kind quaker lady a Mrs. Wakefield⁴Hannah Wakefield lived at Great Victoria Place in Belfast. Matthew Martin, Martin's Belfast Directory for 1840–41 (Belfast, Ire., 1840), 53; Slater, Directory of Ireland (1846), 376. I believe her name is has taken the sale of them in hand[.] They must go in such hands. Let us have the picture as soon as you can[.] I wrote yesterday to your Friend at Bristol. He is evedently of the right stamp.⁵Taken from current coin, which has the valid stamp and superscription of official currency, the metaphor "of the right stamp" means that something or someone has the stamp of true worth. Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, ed. Ivor H. Evans (New York, 1981), 1065. I got a letter last night from Freind BuffumBuffum, James Needham

James Needham Buffum (1802—82), born of Quaker parents in North Berwick, Maine, spent most of his life in Lynn, Massachusetts, where he amassed considerable wealth as a carpenter, house contractor, real estate speculator, and financier. Dissatisfied with Quaker passivity on reform issues, Buffum was an early convert to Garrisonianism and participated in the campaign to desegregate New England’s public transportation during the early 1840s. From 1845 through 1847 Buffum accompanied Douglass on a lecture tour of Great Britain. He served as treasurer of the Essex County Anti-Slavery Society and vice-president of a Fourierist organization called the Friends of Social Reform. During Reconstruction he was director of Charles Steams’s Laborers’ Homestead and Southern Emigration Society, which bought land in Virginia for resale to freedmen. Chosen a presidential elector in 1868, Buffum served as mayor of Lynn from 1869 to 1825 and was elected to the Massachusetts legislature in 1.873. Garrison and Garrison, Garrison Life, 3 : 324 45. 4: 358; Mabee, Black Freedom, 114, 119—21, 125, 210—11, 221, 225, 250, 342; Merrill and Ruchames, Garrison Letters, 3 : 138n.; Douglass, Life and Times, 251, 259; James M. McPherson, The Struggle for Equality: Abolitionists and the Negro in the Civil War and Reconstruction Princeton, N.J., 1964), 415; Clarence W. Hobbs, Lynn and Surroundings (Lynn, 1886), 141—42; James R. Newhall, Lynn: Her First 250 Years (Lynn, 1880), 133—34; James R. Newhall, History of Lynn, 1864-1893 (Lynn, 1897), 337; Renfrewshire (Scot.) Advertiser, 11 April 1846; Concord (N.H.) Herald of Freedom, 28 November 1845.James Needham Buffum (1807- 87), born of Quaker parents in North Berwick, Maine, spent most of his life in Lynn, Massachusetts, where he amassed considerable wealth as a carpenter, house contractor, real estate speculator, and financier. Dissatisfied with Quaker passivity on reform issues, Buffum was an early convert to Garrisonianism and participated in the campaign to desegregate New England's public transportation during the early 1840s. From 1845 through 1847 Buffum accompanied Douglass on a lecture tour of Great Britain. He served as treasurer of the Essex County Anti-Slavery Society and vice president of a Fourierist organization called Friends of Social Reform. During Reconstruction he was director of Charles Stearns's Laborers' Homestead and Southern Emigration Society, which bought land in Virginia for resale to freedmen. Chosen a presidential elector in 1868, Buffum served as mayor of Lynn from 1869 to 1875 and was elected to the Massachusetts legislature in 1873. Clarence W. Hobbs, Lynn and Surroundings (Lynn, Mass., 1886), 141-42; Garrison and Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 3:324- 25, 4:358; Merrill and Ruchames, Garrison Letters, 3:138n; Mabee, Black Freedom, 114, 119- 21, 125, 210-11, 221, 225, 250, 342. ⁶Buffum described his antislavery activities in London in a letter to Garrison on 2 December 1845. Lib., 26 December 1845. he is now in London and proposes to join me—if I wish him to do so. I shall write him to day—and request him to meet me in Glasgow—as early as the fifth of january—if it will suit his convenience to come.⁷Douglass joined James N. Buffum on the stage at a public meeting of the Glasgow Emancipation Society on 15 January 1846. Glasgow Argus, 22 January 1846. I must see more of Joseph Sturge⁸When Douglass visited Birmingham in early December 1845, he dined at the home of Quaker reformer Joseph Sturge (1793–1859). Sturge abandoned a successful career as a grain merchant to champion such causes as temperance, adult education, and abolitionism. He also was active in the Anti–Corn Law League and Chartist organizations. Sturge visited the West Indies in the mid-1830s to campaign for greater economic assistance to the emancipated slaves there. Lib., 26 June 1846; Temperley, British Antislavery, 12–13, 24–25, 36, 69, 72, 123, 140; DNB, 19:130–31. before I can write more of him.

I worte yesterday to Shortt⁹William Shortt. counselling him to stand fast. My love to all the family.

Truly yours

F DOUGLASS

ALS: Anti-Slavery Collection, MB.