FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO SAMUEL MAY, JR.¹Often confused with his cousin Samuel J. May, Samuel May, Jr. (1810–99), was also a Unitarian minister and Garrisonian abolitionist. Samuel May, Jr., held a pulpit in Leicester, Massachusetts, until becoming a full-time abolitionist. From 1847 to 1865 he served as general agent of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, coordinating its conventions and lectures. Merrill and Ruchames, Garrison Letters, 3:480n; NCAB, 29:244.

Rochester, [N.Y.] 13 June 1850.

MY DEAR FRIEND MAY:

I would most gladly respond to the kind invitation, which you have tendered me, by assembling with my Dear old friends, the members of the Massachusitts A. S. Society, on the fourth July:²The New England Anti-Slavery Society held a special meeting at Abington, Massachusetts, on 4 July 1850. The group invited Douglass, but he was unable to attend. At the meeting May read to the society Douglass’s response to the invitation. NASS, 25 July 1850. but regret to say that I shall be deprived of that pleasure—by a previous appointment, which takes me to Cincinnatti on that day.³In the 27 June 1850 issue of the North Star, Douglass announced his intent to speak at Temperance Hall in Cincinnati on 4 July. On the same day he also delivered antislavery addresses at both the Dumas Hotel and the Colored Orphans Asylum. NS, 27 June 1850. While this arrangement, perhaps, will be even more advantageous to our common cause—Since it will enable us to be heard east and west at the same time—I do not miss the opportunity of Seeing my old friends—without a pang.

I shall be most happy to attend Some of your contemplated one hundred conventions⁴In May 1850, those attending the New England Anti-Slavery Convention pledged money to support a series of One Hundred Conventions, modeled upon the successful campaigns of 1843 and 1844, and gave the responsibility of organizing the conventions to the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. While a number of conventions took place in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, it appears that the endeavor was not as successful as anticipated because many lecturers that year chose to speak instead in the Midwest and West. Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Nineteenth Annual Report: Presented to the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society (Boston, 1851).—though I fear that my duties at home—and especially those connected with my paper will make it impossible for me to attend many.

I am most Sincerely Yours

FREDERICK DOUGLASS

ALS: Anti-Slavery Collection, MB.