Frederick Douglass to Amy and Isaac Post, April 22, 1849
Westbury, [N.Y.]1The placeline of the letter also includes “L. I.” after Westbury. 22 April [1849].
MY DEAR FRIENDS AMY & ISAAC,
Here I am in the family of your Brother and sister2Douglass visited the home of Joseph Post (1803-88) in Westbury, Long Island, New York. The brother of Isaac, Joseph Post inherited the family farm and remained there his entire life with his wife, Mary Robbins Post, and their daughter, Elizabeth. Joseph, a Hicksite Quaker and friend of Lucretia and James Mott, was an officer of the Garrisonian-controlled American Anti-Slavery Society in the 1840s and 1850s. Philadelphia Friend’s Intelligencer, 45:89 (11 February 1888); Merrill and Ruchames, Garrison Letters, 4:440n.—seated in the quiet—so pleasant after ten days of confusion in the city of New York.3On 13 April 1849 Douglass arrived in New York City to attend meetings and deliver lectures on African American improvement. He also hoped to boost subscriptions to the North Star. Between 16 and 24 April he delivered several addresses in the city and surrounding area, including two anti-colonization speeches at a convention held at the Shiloh Presbyterian Church on 23 and 24 April. NS, 27 April, 4 May 1849; Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 2: 148-67. This is a beautiful place. The little lake lies sleeping lovingly at the right of the window—and all looks sweet quiet and quakerly around. I have two meetings appointed for this good Sabbath day4Douglass spoke at Westbury, New York, on 22 April 1849 and then returned to New York City to attend an anticolonization meeting on 23 April. NS, 27 April 1849.—One at the colored meeting house, and the other in this room. Your Brother Joseph tried to get Friends’ meeting house and asked for it— but friends were unwilling. They are too godly to favor goodness.
I came here on the cars yesterday from Brooklyn— and on reaching
the westbury station—I found that I had come the whole distance with E. P. Willis5Edmund Willis (1818-?), the nephew of Isaac Post, was a Rochester druggist and wool dealer and an active member of the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society. In the 1850s he became the second husband of Amy Post’s sister Sarah Kirby Hallowell. 1850 U.S. Census, New York, Monroe County, Rochester, 5th Ward, 182; 1860 U.S. Census, New York, Monroe County, Rochester, 2nd Ward, 80; Peck, History of Rochester, 2:1243; Hewitt, Women’s Activism and Social Change, 61. and had not known it. I some expect to see him here to day—when I hope to here from Sophia Street.6Isaac and Amy Post lived on Sophia Street in Rochester. The meeting here to day will not probably be larger than your meeting in the Antislavery office.7On 25 April, a meeting of the executive committee of the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society was scheduled for 4:00 P.M. in the antislavery office located at 25 Buffalo Street, Rochester. This office may have been Harriet Jacobs’s antislavery reading room, which, like the North Star office, was located in the Talman Building at this address. NS, 20 April 1849. You will have J. S. Jacobs8John S. Jacobs (1815-73), a black abolitionist and antislavery lecturer, was the brother of abolitionist and author Harriet Jacobs. Born a slave in North Carolina, Jacobs escaped while visiting New York with his master. After working on a whaling ship for three years, Jacobs returned to New York, where he became active in the antislavery movement and helped his sister and her family to escape slavery. During March and April 1849, he toured western New York and lectured in numerous small towns and villages. He later sought fortune panning for gold in California and Australia in the 18505. By 1861 Jacobs was living in London, where he returned to his antislavery activities and published the narrative of his life as a slave. NS, 20 April 1849; Harriet A. Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, ed. Jean Fagan Yellin (Cambridge, Mass., 1987), 245-47; Ripley, Black Abolitionist Papers, 4:168-69n. with you I suppose. But what a time he has had on his last tour. Will it not dishearten him? I fear it. How I wish you were here with us to day.
My friends have not yet arrived from London.9Douglass awaited the arrival of Julia and Eliza Griffiths from England, but apparently bad weather delayed the steamer until May 1849. Halbersleben, Women's Participation, 191-92. The steamer was due five or seven days ago. The high winds from the west have opposed her passage. She will probably reach New York and I shall not, you see, be there to recieve my friends. I shall however be there early tomorrow morning. I have not been spending my time idly in New York—but have been holding meetings among the colored people mostly—and in this way increasing the circulation of the North Star. I have already obtained the names of forty or fifty in New York and have succeeded in getting a North Star committee appointed to obtain subscribers.10While in New York, Douglass hoped to increase the circulation of his newspaper. He was pleased when a meeting, held at Shiloh Presbyterian Church on 20 April 1849, led to the formation of a committee of ten to act as subscription agents for the North Star. NS, 4 May 1849. My success here has been far greater than I had any idea it would be. I shall not dispair of the North Star yet. I want to see you greatly, and shall probably do so on thursday next.
Thinking that you would not be displeased by a line from me at this place I have been moved to pen this hasty scroll.
I shall try to persuade Julia and her sister Eliza11Julia and Eliza Griffiths. to remain in New York to attend the annual meeting12Both the American Anti-Slavery Society and the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society held their annual meetings in New York City on 8 May 1849. The American Anti-Slavery Society, which also celebrated its fifteenth anniversary that day, convened in the Tabernacle on Broadway. The American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society met the same afternoon, immediately following the adjournment of the first meeting. NS, 4, 18 May 1849.—and not come home with me at this time. With best Love to your Dear family and family circle William and Mary13William and Mary Hallowell. one and inseparable.
Yours Always
FREDERICK DOUGLASS
ALS: Post Family Papers, NRU.