FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO RICHARD D. WEBB

[Glasgow, Scot. mid-January 1846].

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. —

I have recieved the Books, and your letter of 10th ultimo.¹Ultimo, often abbreviated “ult.,” means of or occurring in the month preceding the present. The letter from Richard D. Webb has not been located. I have addopted your advice as to how I might correct and amend the narrative. You asked my opinion of the portrait.²In the first Dublin edition of the Narrative, Webb reproduced the original frontispiece from the first Boston edition. When all copies of the first Dublin printing had been sold, Webb prepared a second edition, incorporating changes at Douglass’s direction. Webb also commissioned a new engraving for the book’s frontispiece, but Douglass, who had an aversion to any illustrations for his autobiographies, disliked it, and an alternative was used. Douglass Papers, ser. 2, 1:xxx, 95–96. I gave it, and still adhere to it,—though I hope not without due deference to yourself, and those who think with you. That the picture don’t suit is no fault of yours—or loss of yours—I am displeased with it not because I wish to be, but because I can[’]t help it. I am cirtain the engraving is not as good, as the original portrait. I don[’]t like it, and I have said so without heat or thunder. Pardon me if I venture to say you have trifled with me in regard to getting letters from clergymen. You were the first to suggest and advise it,—and now that I have taken the advice you are the first to condemn, and oppose it. You ought to have thought of your predjudice against priest’s sooner. If clergymen read my narrative and approve of it, My predjudice against their office would be but a poor reason for rejecting the benifit of such approval.—The enclosed is from 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. ³Presbyterian minister Isaac Nelson’s letter appeared in an appendix to the Narrative. Douglass Papers, ser. 2, 1:165. the Presbyteran Minister[.] I wish both it, and that of 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. ,⁴Thomas Drew. to be inserted in the second edition. To leave them out because they are ministers would be to show ones self as much and more sectarian than themselves. It would be vertually forbiding their casting out devils because they follow not us.⁵An adaptation of Mark 9:38 and Luke 9:49. The spirit of bigotry and sectarianism may exist, and be as deeply rooted in those who condemn sects, as those who adhere to them, but I have no time to discuss the question—nor is it necesseary. Be so kind as to send me at once, three hundred copies of the Narritive to the care of Wm. SmealeSmeal, William

William Smeal (1793-1877) was a Glasgow Quaker and a successful tea merchant. He was a leading member of the Glasgow Emancipation Society and often served in its powerful position of secretary. He and his brother, Robert, also edited and published the British Friend, a monthly Quaker journal, in 1843. A friend and devoted supporter of William Lloyd Garrison, Smeal believed with Garrison that abolitionism could be achieved only under a program that pursued such related reforms as peace, temperance, and women's rights with equal fervor. A strong Union supporter during the Civil War, Smeal and Andrew Paton prevented some clippers bound for the Confederacy from leaving Glasgow. Garrison and Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 2:398, 402; 4:67, 222-23, 283; C. Duncan Rice, The Scots Abolitionists, 1833-1861 (Baton Rouge, La., 1981), 37, 41-44; Temperley, British Antislavery, 210-13. 161 Gallowgate. They will come safest by sending them in a strong box.

Let me have the second edition as soon [as] Possible. Making it shorter

and thicker agreable to your suggestion, in your former letter. Get as good, and if you can get better paper than that used in the first edition.

My first meeting here will be held tomorrow Ev. in the City Hall, a very large building.⁷On 15 January 1846, less than a week after he arrived in Scotland, Douglass spoke in Glasgow City Hall before a public meeting of the Glasgow Emancipation Society. The Glasgow Argus reported that the evening lecture attracted a substantial number of the society’s members and friends. Other platform guests included James N. Buffurn, city officials, and the co-secretaries of the Emancipation Society, John Murray and William Smeal. Glasgow Examiner, 17 January 1846; John Smith, Our Scottish Clergy: Fifty-two Sketches, Biographical, Theological, and Critical, Including Clergymen of All Denominations, 3 vols. (Edinburgh, Scot., 1848–51), 1:227–29; Merrill and Ruchames, Garrison Letters, 3:31n. You shall here from me again soon. Please make my
regards to Mrs. Webb—and the children.⁸Hannah Waring Webb and her children, Alfred (1834–1908), Richard (1835–82), Deborah (1837–1921), and Anne (1839–1921).

As ever,

F. DOUGLASS

ALS: Anti-Slavery Collection, MB. PLSr: Foner, Life and Writings, 5:42–43.