Hannah Hincks to Frederick Douglass, December 27, 1849
HANNAH HINCKS1Hannah Hincks (1798–1871) was the eldest daughter and one of nine children of the Reverend Thomas Dix Hincks and Anne Boult Hincks. An algologist, Hincks discovered a species of brown alga that was named after her, Ectocarptts hincksiae. She was also a contributor to George Dickie’s 1864 book, A Flora of Ulster and Botanist’s Guide to the North of Ireland. Hincks served as the corresponding secretary of the Belfast Ladies Association until 1855, when she resigned the post to care for her elderly father. Both Thomas Dix Hincks and Miss Hincks of Belfast subscribed to the North Star. 1848 Mail Book of the North Star, 203, FD Papers Project, InIU; Ray Desmond, Dictionary of British and Irish Botanists and Horticulturalists (London, 1977), 310; Oldham, “Irish Support of the Abolitionist Movement,” 184–85; Dictionary of Canadian Biography, 15 vols. to date (Toronto, 1966–), 11:406. TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS
Belfast, [Ire.] 27 Dec[ember] 1849.
MY DEAR SIR—
I write a few lines by order of the Committee of “The Belfast Ladies” Anti-Slavery Association,” to let you know how much the members of it regret that they have not been able to collect a sufficient quantity of work in time to send out for your annual Rochester Fair.2The Rochester Anti-Slavery Fair was an annual fundraising event that benefited local abolitionist activities, including Douglass’s newspaper. As with similar fairs held in New England, the items for sale were donated by ladies’ antislavery societies. European donations tended to be both expensive and popular, and Julia Griffith’s presence in Rochester ensured a large supply of British items at the 1850 fair. Usually held in December, the event was postponed until late January 1850 in order to collect enough items for sale and to avoid competing with other antislavery events. NS, 9, 23 November, 21 December 1849, 1 February, 15 March 1850; Hewitt, Women’s Activism and Social Change, 116–18, 140. This is chiefly owing to the distress amongst the poor of our own country, and the number of Bazaars which have taken place in consequence of it; we have, however, collected some work, and trust that if we are spared until the time of your next Fair, we shall be able to send you a box. In the meantime, lest you should imagine that our sympathy with the slave is extinct, I enclose you a copy of a monster petition we have prepared to present to Her Majesty in behalf of
“the Victims of the African Slave Trade.”3Circulated and signed by “the women of Ireland,” this “monster petition” implored Queen Victoria to enforce against Spain and Portugal laws forbidding the slave trade. Douglass published a copy of this document in his newspaper along with this letter. NS, 25 January 1850. The procuring of signatures, which has occupied much time, it has been signed by six thousand, one hundred and eighteen Irish women, and many more would in all probability have done so, had not the language been considered by them too strong. For instance, the Society of Friends in general, objected to it on this score, and the Members of the Anti-Slavery Society in Cork, would neither sign it themselves, nor procure signatures for us, as thinking the object of the petition could not be effected without war. This we should regret as much as they, provided the greater evil can be removed without resorting to so dreadful an alternative. Our Vice President, Mrs. Thomson Jerment, who drew up the petition, has been most active and energetic; and has done more towards procuring signatures, than all the rest of our Committee together. Will you be kind enough to let me know whether the subscription of our Association for the North Star, has been paid for the year 1849? Our Treausurer has been in a bad state of health, and was obliged to remove to a warmer climate, which has occasioned some confusion in the accounts. I have just forwarded to Mrs. Richardson,4Anna Richardson. of Newcastle, our subscriptions for 1850; also, a subscription for Miss M. Ireland,5Mary Ireland was a teacher at the Royal Academical Institution in Belfast. After seeing Douglass during his visit to Belfast, she became one of the founders of a ladies’ antislavery society in the city and its corresponding secretary. In 1852 Ireland edited a gift book of abolitionist poetry. Taylor, British and American Abolitionists, 247; Oldham, “Irish Support of the Abolitionist Movement,” 180–82. a Member of our Committee. Her address is Royal College. I need scarcely say that we all derive much pleasure in perusing your excellent paper.—The letters in it addressed to your former master,6Douglass published his letters to his former master, Thomas Auld, in the North Star on 8 September 1848 and 3 September 1849. Both letters appear in this volume. have excited great and universal interest. Mrs. Richardson mentioned that the subscription to the North Star was to be raised to 10s, so I sent £1 for the Association and Miss Ireland. My father7The Reverend Thomas Dix Hincks (1767–1857) was a professor of Hebrew at Queen’s College in 1849. Born in Dublin, Hincks originally studied medicine, but entered the ministry in the Presbyterian church in 1790. Always interested in education and social reform, Hincks resigned his pastorate in 1803 to devote all his time to teaching. Elected to the Royal Irish Academy, Hincks was a founding member and secretary of the Royal Cork Institute, where he lectured on chemistry and natural philosophy. In 1821 he took the position of classical headmaster at the Belfast Academical Institute, becoming professor of Hebrew and Oriental languages at that institution the next year. In 1836 Hincks retired as classical headmaster, but retained his teaching position until the establishment of Queen’s College in 1849. An author of several textbooks on such subjects as the Greek language, geography, and history, Hincks was also a well-known botanist, having discovered Hypericum linariifolium in 1838. Martin, Martin’s Belfast Directory (1840), 387; Robert B. Todd, ed., The Dictionary of British Classicists, 3 vols. (Bristol, Eng, 2004), 2:460–61; Desmond, British and Irish Botanists and Horticulturalists, 310; DNB, 19:892. sent his through our friends in Cork. Do you think it would be possible to have some true stories of slaves, or anecdotes of slavery, embodied in small tracts, for distribution in our schools; such tracts, for instance, as the specimen I enclosed? These are sold at sixpence a hundred; and I think facts placed in the hands of children, would do more towards instilling a horror of slavery than anything else we can do; but they would require to be judiciously written, so as to excite deep sympathy for the slave, and indignation against the slaveholder, without shocking what would be termed here the refined feelings of these countries. Will you excuse the liberty I have taken in putting these queries?
My father and sister8Anne Hincks (?–1877) was the sister of Hannah Hincks and the daughter of the Reverend Thomas Dix Hincks and Anne Boult Hincks. She died unmarried at Montreal, where her brother Sir Francis Hincks, a Canadian politician, colonial administrator, banker, and journalist, had moved in 1844. DNB, 19:892; DCB, 11:406, 415. join me in wishing you the compliments of the season, and believe me your sincere friend,
H. HINCKS.
PLSr: NS, 25 January 1850.