FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON

Glasgow, [Scot.] 16 April 1846.

WM. LLOYD GARRISONGarrison, William Lloyd

William Lloyd Garrison (1805-79) was the foremost white abolitionist of the nineteenth century and was credited with the discovery of Douglass as a speaker at an antislavery meeting in Nantucket in 1841. He began his career as an apprentice printer on the Newburyport (Mass.) Herald at the age of thirteen. Garrison became editor of the Newburyport Free Press in 1826, but the paper closed within a year. He was then associated with a series of periodicals in Boston that advocated reform before Benjamin Lundy offered the young journalist the opportunity to write for his antislavery newspaper. Garrison joined Lundy in editing the Genius of Universal Emancipation in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1829, during the last year of the paper's 1821-1830 run. In 1830 a libel suit against the editors forced the paper to close and landed Garrison in jail. After his release, he courted the wealthy merchants of New York and Boston in order to start the Liberator (1831-65), a weekly journal based in Boston in which he advocated an immediate end to slavery. Garrison's brand of abolition condemned any institution that would tolerate the existence of slavery, including churches, political parties. and even the United States itself and any scheme aimed at removing black people from the country. Instead, Garrison hoped to raise the public's awareness that slavery was morally wrong and thereby force its end in an almost millennial moment of emancipation. His approach appealed to both white and black antislavery advocates but earned him many enemies among those only moderately opposed to slavery and slaveholders alike. Seeing the need for greater action and organization beyond the pages of the Liberator; Garrison joined with other abolitionists to form the New England Anti-Slavery Society in 1831. Two years later he helped found the larger American Anti-Slavery Society. In 1833 he established ties with English abolitionists after a trip to Great Britain, and he later brought the noted and notorious speaker George Thompson to the United States for a tour. Garrison also dedicated himself to women's rights, encouraging women to enter the public sphere by inviting them, via the Liberator, to form female antislavery societies. In addition to the thirty-three women's antislavery societies that flourished by 1838, Garrison's American Anti-Slavery Society welcomed women as well as blacks into its ranks. However, female delegates were excluded from the World's Anti-Slavery Convention of 1840 in London. The issue of women's participation in the antislavery movement and Garrison's absolute refusal to turn to politics to end slavery caused a division in the American Anti-Slavery Society. Brothers Lewis and Arthur Tappan, who opposed women's acting as speakers and who hoped to use politics toward abolition, broke with Garrison's American Anti-Slavery Society, forming the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, or the "New Organization" in 1841. Garrison's ideas were so closely associated with the "Old Organization" that the American Anti-Slavery Society became known simply as the "Garrisonians." With the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865, Garrison believed that he had accomplished his life's work and that of the antislavery movement. He then resigned from the presidency of the American Anti-Slavery Society and closed the Liberator. Wendell Phillips Garrison and Francis Jackson Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879: The Story of His Life Told by His Children, 4 vols. (New York, 188589); Henry Mayer, All on Fire: William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolition of Slavery (New York, 1998); James Brewer Stewart, William Lloyd Garrison and the Challenge of Emancipation (Arlington Heights, Ill., 1992); John L. Thomas, The Liberator: William Lloyd Garrison (Boston, 1963); Dictionary of American Biography, 20 vols. (New York, 1928-36), 7:168-72.

MY DEAR FRIEND—

I have given up the field of public letter-writing to my friend 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. ,¹The next letter from James N. Buffum to William Lloyd Garrison appeared in the Liberator on 26 June 1846. who will tell you how we are getting on; but I cannot refrain from sending you a line, as a mere private correspondent. My health is good, my spirit is bright, and I am enjoying myself as well as one can be expected, when separated from home by three thousand miles of deep blue ocean. I long to be at home—‘home, sweet, sweet, sweet home! Be it ever so humble, there is no place like home.’²The phrase “mid pleasures and palaces, though we may roam / Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home” occurs in the song “Home Sweet Home,” from the first act of John Howard Payne’s opera Clari, the Maid of Milan, first staged in London in 1823. John Howard Payne, Clari, or, the Maid of Milan (New York, 1823), 11. Nor is it merely to enjoy the pleasure of family and friends, that I wish to be at home: it is to be in the field, at work, preaching to the best of my ability salvation from slavery, to a nation fast

hastening to destruction. I know it will be hard to endure the kicks and cuffs of the pro-slavery multitude, to which I shall be subjected; but then, I glory in the battle, as well as in the victory.

I have been frequently counselled to leave America altogether, and make Britain my home. But this I cannot do, unless it shall be absolutely necessary for my personal freedom. I doubt not that my old masterAuld, Thomas (1795- 1880)

Born in St. Michaels, Maryland, Thomas Auld (1795-1880) was the eldest son of Hugh and Zipporah Auld. Trained as a shipbuilder, Auld supervised the construction of the Lloyd sloop, the Sally Lloyd, and subsequently became its captain. In 1823 he met and married Lucretia Anthony while a boarder in the Anthony home. Shortly thereafter Auld became a storekeeper in Hillsborough, Maryland, and inherited Douglass along with ten other slaves from the estate of Aaron Anthony. He later kept a store in St. Michaels, where he also served as postmaster, before retiring to a nearby farm. The 1850 census listed him as a "farmer" with $8,500 worth of real estate. References to Thomas Auld in Douglass's Narrative and public speeches are generally uncomplimentary, although Douglass disclaimed any personal hostility toward his former owner. Reconciliation occurred in the post-Reconstruction period when Douglass visited the dying Auld in St. Michaels. Aaron Anthony Slave Distribution, 22 October 1827, Talbot County Distributions, V.JP#D, 58-59, MdTCH; 1850 U.S. Census, Maryland, Talbot County, 1169 (free schedule); NASS, 25 November 1845; NS, 8 September 1848, 7 September 1849; Baltimore Sun, 19 June 1877; Quarles, Frederick Douglass, 342-43; Tilghman, Talbot County, 1:395; Preston, "Aaron Anthony," 5; Roberts, "Visitation of Western Talbot," 235-45. ³Thomas Auld. is in a state of mind quite favorable to an attempt at recapture.⁴In an unknown southern newspaper, Auld published a response to the depiction of himself in Douglass's Narrative. Auld denied ever having beaten Douglass and stated that he planned to free Douglass once Douglass had reached the age of twenty-five. A. C. C. Thompson included parts of this response in his own letter refuting Douglass’s accusations, which was published in the 31 December 1845 issue of the Albany Patriot and reprinted in the 20 February 1846 issue of the Liberator. Douglass Papers, ser. 2, 1:185–86. Not that he wishes to make money by selling me, or by holding me himself, but to feed his revenge. I know he feels keenly my exposures, and nothing would afford him more pleasure than to have me in his power. He has suffered severe goadings, or he would not have broken the silence of seven years, to exculpate himself from the charges I have brought against him, by telling a positive lie. He says he can put his hand upon the Bible, and, with a clear conscience, swear he never struck me, or told any one else to do so! The same conscientious man could put his hand into my pocket, and rob me of my hard earnings; and, with a clear conscience, swear he had a right not only to my earnings, but to my body, soul and spirit! We may, in this case, reverse the old adage—‘He that will lie, will steal’—and make it, ‘He that will steal, will lie’⁵A variation on the German proverb, “He that will lie will steal,” or “He that will steal an egg will steal an ox.” Stevenson, Book of Proverbs, 1397.—especially when, by lying, he may hope to throw a veil over his stealing. This positive denial, on his part, rather staggered me at the first. I had no idea the gentleman would tell a right down untruth. He has certainly forgotten when a lamp was lost from the carriage, without my knowledge, that he came to the stable with the cart-whip, and with its heavy lash beat me over the head and shoulders, to make me tell how it was lost, until his brother EdwardAuld, Edward

Edward Auld (1802–?) was the younger brother of Thomas and Hugh Auld, Jr. Edward worked as a clerk in Baltimore during the 1840s. 1840 U.S. Census, Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, Ward 7, 48; Matchett’s Baltimore Director for 1840–1 (Baltimore, 1840), 51. ,⁶Edward Auld (1802–?) was the younger brother of Thomas and Hugh Auld, Jr. Edward worked as a clerk in Baltimore during the 1840s. 1840 U.S. Census, Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, Ward 7, 48; Matchett’s Baltimore Director for 1840–1 (Baltimore, 1840), 51. who was at St. Michael’s, on a visit at the time, came forward, and besought him to desist; and that he beat me until he wearied himself. My memory, in such matters, is better than his. One would think, from his readiness to swear that he never struck me, that he held it to be wrong to do so. He does not deny that he used to tie up[ ]a cousin of mineBailey, Henny

Henny Bailey (1816-?), a cousin of Frederick Douglass, was one of seven children born to Milly Bailey, a slave on one of Aaron Anthony's farms and his mother's sister. As a child Henny suffered severe burns, which left her hands severely scarred and virtually useless and she was ill fitted for work; Anthony estimated her value at fifty dollars in 1826, less than half the value he placed on her younger cousin Frederick. When Anthony died in 1826, his son-in-law, Thomas Auld, inherited Bailey and four other slaves. Auld constantly abused Henny after he inherited her. Sometime before 1840, Auld granted Bailey her freedom. The last record of Henny's existence is an entry in the 1840 U.S. Census. which identifies her as a free black living in St. Michaels district. Aaron Anthony, Inventory of Negroes, Distribution of Negroes, folder 71, Aaron Anthony Ledger B, 1812-26, folders 96, 159, both in Dodge Collection, MdAA; Aaron Anthony Slave Distribution, 22 October 1827, Talbot County Distributions, V.JP#D, 58-59, MdTCH; Preston, Young Frederick Douglass, 91, 174, 225; Bondage and Freedom, 201. , and lash her, and in justification of his bloody conduct quote, ‘He that knoweth his master’s will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes.’Luke

⁸Luke 12:47. He finds fault with me for not mentioning his promising to set me free at 25.⁹No record, other than his own claims, exists to prove that Auld planned to free Douglass at age twenty-five. Interestingly, when Douglass’s aunt Jenny and her husband, Noah, escaped in 1825, their master, Aaron Anthony, published an advertisement for their return in which he also claimed that he had intended to free the fugitives. Preston, Young Frederick Douglass, 65–66. I did not tell many things which I might have told. Had I told of that promise, I should have also told that he had never set one of his slaves free; and I had no reason to believe he would treat me with any more justice and humanity, than any other one of his slaves. But enough.

Scotland is in a blaze of anti-slavery agitation.—The Free Church and Slavery¹⁰The non-Garrisonian American and Foreign Anti—Slavery Society launched abolitionist protests against the proslavery practices of the Free Church of Scotland. In April 1844, its executive committee sent a public letter complaining of the Church’s solicitation of financial aid from southern slaveholders. Garrisonian Henry C. Wright was already in Scotland at this time and soon took up the cause, as did Garrison’s Liberator. The Garrisonian New England Anti-Slavery Convention in late May 1844, attended by Douglass, also condemned the Free Church of Scotland. Lib., 25 April, 6, 13 June 1844; George Shepperson, “The Free Church and American Slavery,” Scottish Historical Review, 30:126–29 (October 1951); Perry, Childhood, Marriage, and Reform, 45–47. are the all-engrossing topics. It is the same old question of Christian union with slaveholders—old with us, but new with most people here.

The discussion is followed by the same result as in America, when it was first mooted in the New-England Convention.¹¹William Lloyd Garrison and a small number of sympathizers founded the New England Anti-Slavery Society in 1832. Three years later, as abolitionist support grew, the group renamed itself the Massachusetts Anti~Slavery Society, and other states founded similar organizations. Representatives from these various state societies continued to meet annually, usually in May, in a New England Anti-Slavery Convention. As early as 1834, the New England abolitionists called on churches to treat slave owning as they would any other sinful behavior and bar its perpetrator from communion. Dwight Lowell Dumond, Antislavery: The Crusade for Freedom in America (1961; New York, 1966), 172–73; McKivigan, War against Proslavery Religion, 21. There is such a sameness in the arguments, pro and con, that if you could be landed on this side of the Atlantic, without your knowledge, you would scarcely distinguish between our meetings here, and our meetings at home. The Free Church is in a terrible stew. Its leaders thought to get the slaveholders’ money and bring it home, and escape censure. They had no idea that they would be followed and exposed. Its members are leaving it, like rats escaping from a sinking ship. There is a strong determination to have the slave money sent back, and the union broken up. In this feeling all religious denominations participate. Let slavery be hemmed in on every side by the moral and religious sentiments of mankind, and its death is certain.

I am always yours,

FREDERICK DOUGLASS.

PLSr: Lib., 15 May 1846. Reprinted in JNH, 10:676–78 (October 1925); Woodson, Mind of the Negro, 412–14; Foner, Life and Writings, 1:149–50. HLSr: General Correspondence File, reel 1, frames 588–90, 591–95, FD Papers, DLC.