FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO RICHARD D. WEBB

Kilmarnock, Scot. 29 March 1846.

MY DEAR FRIEND WEBBWebb, 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. , —

It struck me to day that it had been a long time since I wrote to you—some three or four weeks I believe.¹Douglass wrote to Webb on 2 March 1846, requesting more copies of the Narrative to sell in Glasgow. He also discussed his speaking tour of Scotland. That letter appears in this volume. I fear you will begin to think I have forgotten you. I have therefore resolved to write although I have nothing of importance to communicate. I should have done so before—but I knew you were a business man and like to get letters written for some purpose more than stating the good health of the writer.

I have received the books—and am pleased with them. I got the liberty bell²The Liberty Bell was a gift book that the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society sold at its annual fair. with a note from Mrs. ChapmanChapman, Maria Weston

Maria Weston Chapman (1806-85), known as "Garrison's Lieutenant," was a forceful writer and editor of several antistavery periodicals. From a family of wealthy Bostonians who educated their daughters in Europe, she briefly supervised one of the nation's first female high schools. After marrying merchant [Henry Grafton Chapman]] in 1830, she became active in the abolitionist movement. When her husband died in 1842, abolition became the consuming work of her life. Chapman was a driving force in both the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society and the American Anti-Slavery Society. Although she shunned public speaking, she served on committees and organized bazaars and other fundraising events for the Garrisonians. She also edited the annual report of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society, and she assisted in editing both the Liberator and the National Anti-Slavery Standard. Clare Taylor, Women of the Anti-Slavery Movement: The Weston Sisters (New York, 1995); Catherine Clinton, "Maria Weston Chapman," in Portraits of American Women, comp. G. J. Barker-Benfield and Catherine Clinton, 2, vols. (New York, 1991), 1:147-67; Jane H. Pease and William H. Pease, Bound with Them in Chains: A Biographical History of the Antislavery Movement (Westport, Conn., 1972), 28–59; Edward T. James et al., eds., Notable American Women, 1607-1950: A Biographical Dictionary, 3 vols. (Cambridge, Mass., 1971), 1:324-25; DAB, 4:19. which you sent. I got the letters from home, for all which I thank you, until you are better paid. I did not expect a ‘liberty bell” from Mrs. Chapman. Since she is so fearful that I may be bought up by the London committee [i]t may be pleasant to her to learn that I am not yet bought up by the London Committee[.]³British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. I am still an old organized-garrison abolitionist And shall probly remain such. At any rate poverty shall not drive me nor money allure me from my present position.⁴In a letter that infuriated Douglass, Maria Weston Chapman told Richard D. Webb that Irish abolitionists should “watch over” Douglass in the handling of any funds collected for the American Anti-Slavery Society. Taylor, British and American Abolitionists, 259–60.

Yours in haste,

FREDERICK DOUGASS

ALS: Anti-Slavery Collection, MB. PLSr: Foner, Life and Writings, 5:41–42.