FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO SAMUEL D. PORTER¹Samuel D. Porter (1808–81), a prosperous land agent, moved to Rochester, New York, from Waldoboro, Maine, in 1835. His wife, Susan Farley Porter, founded and belonged to several reform organizations, and he served as the first president of the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society. The Porters aided fugitive slaves in crossing the border into Canada, and their barn was reputed to be a common hiding place. In the 1840s Samuel joined the Liberty party and supported the Free Soil party, while attempting to mediate between Garrisonian abolitionists and those who, like himself, sought the end of slavery through political agitation. Additionally, he was a perennial candidate for mayor, running on an antislavery platform. Although he became a Republican in the late 1850s, he broke with that party in the 1870s, charging that it had abandoned reform and the plight of the freedmen. 1850 U.S. Census, New York, Monroe County, Rochester, 3rd Ward, 92; Dexter Perkins, “Rochester One Hundred Years Ago,” RH, 1:18 (July 1939); Hewitt, Women’s Activism and Social Change, 60, 120, 149, 180, 206.

[Rochester, N.Y. September 1851].

MY DEAR SIR,

There are three men now at my house—who are in great peril.²The Underground Railroad kept its routes, stations, and conductors anonymous. Historical documentation remains difficult to locate or verify, with notes such as this being rare instances of evidence. The tight-knit and well-connected abolitionist community of Rochester allegedly contained many safe houses for fugitives. Furthermore, many of these reformers knew expatriates in Canada who could help fugitives begin a new life in a free nation. The Posts, Porters, and Douglasses were among those informally known to assist escaped slaves by offering shelter, provisions, and passage across the border. As with the majority of fugitive slaves, no record of the identity and fate of these three men has been located. Ruth Rosenberg-Naparsteck, “A Growing Agitation: Rochester Before, During, and After the Civil War,” RH, 46:4 (January and April 1984); Blake McKelvey, “Lights and Shadows in Local Negro History,” RH, 21:6, 9 (October 1959); Perkins, “Rochester,” 18. I am unwell.³Douglass was ill with an “inflammatory sore throat” for much of November 1851. FDP, 18 December 1851. I need your advice. -

Please come at once.

D.F.