Frederick Douglass Samuel D. Porter, January 12, 1852
FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO SAMUEL D. PORTER
Rochester, [N.Y.] 12 Jan[uary] 1852.
S. D. Porter Esq.
MY DEAR SIR,
I am in receipt of yours date 8th January.1Samuel D. Porter’s 8 January 1852 letter to Douglass has not been located. It is not necessary to tell you with what feelings I read it—or to attempt a long reply to its contents. I am a husband and a father—and withal a citizen,—honorably, and to the best of my ability, endevouring to discharge the duties of this three fold relation. When the city, which you allege to be full of scandalous reports implicating Miss G. and me, shall put—those "reports" into a definite shape—and present a responsible person to back them, it will be time enough for me to attempt to refute them.2The open friendship between Julia Griffiths and Douglass led to ungenerous speculation on the true intensity of the relationship, and the Liberator and the National Anti-Slavery Standard used the rumors to attack Douglass. The scandal forced Griffiths to find other lodging and possibly led to her return to England in 1855. She nevertheless remained a committed Douglass supporter and contributed her column, “Letters from the Old Country,” to his newspapers for many years. Diedrich, Love across Color Lines, 179–83; Palmer, “Partnership in the Abolition Movement,” 11–12.
Individuals have rights not less than society, and while I do not wish to trench3To encroach; to advance beyond the customary and proper limits into the possessions or rights of another. upon the rights of society, I am as little disposed to admit any unjust claims, which any individuals may set up in the name of society. You and I have been friends during the last two or three years—and on as intimate terms as can well subsist between the Rich and the Poor. I say this last not reproachfully. It seems to me that a friendly word might have been, ere
this, whispered to me—apprizeing me of these “scandalous reports”—and advising me how to allay them.
In not doing this you have acted more delicately than faithfully. Miss Griffiths—is a free woman—and of her own free will preferred to board in another family than mine—nearly two months ago.4From her arrival in Rochester in 1849 until summer 1852, Griffiths lived in the Douglass household. At first, this arrangement was not considered particularly unusual, since Griffiths’s sister Eliza and others, such as John Dick, were also boarders in the Douglass home. After the marriage of Eliza and Dick and their emigration to Canada in June 1850, however, Griffiths’s living situation came under scrutiny. Douglass’ s enemies suggested that the two were engaged in an illicit relationship in the Douglass household in the presence of his wife and children. Some of his allies suspected the same. In 1852 the hostility of the Rochester antislavery community toward Griffiths’s presence in the Douglass home forced her to leave and board with John and Mary Porter. NS, 27 June 1850; 1850 U.S. Census, New York, Monroe County, Rochester, 319; Diedrich, Love across Color Lines, 179–83. She is in a respectable family. I am in no way responsible for her words, her deeds or her dress,5Griffiths dressed in an elaborate fashion, including an abundance of jewelry, which caused people to notice her and comment upon it in a ridiculing manner. Anne Warren Weston to Maria Weston Chapman, 5 June 1849, Anti-Slavery Collection, MB; McFeely, Frederick Douglass, 163; Diedrich, Love across Color Lines, 179. nor indeed, for her thinking me a “God”—if she is so foolish or wicked as to think so. Still I do feel that she has a just claim upon my gratitude, respect and friendship. Were she an unworthy person I might feel, perhaps, like joining with you in speaking lightly of her. When she was in my family—I was necessarily much in her society—our walking and riding together was natural. Now we are separate and only meet at my office at business hours and for business purposes—where we are open to the observation of my printers and to the public—from ten o,clock or earlier in the morning until four o-clock in the afternoon. I know not how long she will feel it her duty, or for her interest to act as my clerk—and work for the cerculation of my paper—as she has seriously thought lately of returning to England6Griffiths returned to England in 1855 for the purpose of raising funds to help Douglass. She did not return to the United States. Diedrich, Love across Color Lines, 179–83. but whether her stay shall be long or short—shall be a matter for her own descretion, uninfluenced by any interference of mine. But I am doing what I had no intention of doing, when I took up my pen, and therefore, bring this letter to a close at once.
Believe me to be Very truly Yours—-
FREDERICK DOUGLASS.
ALS: Porter Family Papers, NRU. PLSr: Foner, Life and Writings, 2:166–67.