FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO SYDNEY H. GAY

Rochester, [N.Y.] 8 Dec[ember] 1852.

S. H. Gay Esq.Gay, Sydney Howard

Born in Hingham, Massachusetts, Sydney Howard Gay (1814-88) abandoned the study of law in his father's office to embrace the non-violent principles of Garrisonian abolitionists. After lecturing for the American Anti-Slavery Society in the early 1840s, Gay edited its official New York City-based newspaper, the National Anti-Slavery Standard, from 1844 to 1858. From there he went to work for the New York Tribune, serving as that Republican party paper's managing editor during the Civil War. Gay held the same position at the Chicago Tribune (1868-71) and then devoted most of his energies to writing popular histories and biographies. Raimund Erhard Goerler, "Family, Self, and Anti-Slavery: Sydney Howard Gay and the Abolitionist Commitment" (Ph.D. diss., Case Western Reserve University, 1975); ACAB, 2:618; NCAB, 2:494; DAB, 7:195.

MY DEAR SIR,

My friend, BoyedBoyd, George

A fugitive from Virginia, George Boyd (1824--?) ran a beer shop in 1852 on South Water Street in Rochester, where he lived with his wife, also from Virginia, and their daughter. 1850 U.S. Census, New York, Monroe County, Rochester, 5th Ward, 183; Directory for Rochester, 1851, 77. ¹A fugitive from Virginia, George Boyd (1824--?) ran a beer shop in 1852 on South Water Street in Rochester, where he lived with his wife, also from Virginia, and their daughter. 1850 U.S. Census, New York, Monroe County, Rochester, 5th Ward, 183; Directory for Rochester, 1851, 77. called upon me to day and informed me, of his purpose to ransom himself. He also told me of your kind offices in the matter. Thinking that you might feel more assured in the undertaking on his behalf, if you knew—som[e]thing of the man, I take the liberty to say a word to you respecting him. When I came to Rochester five years ago, among the first colored persons to whom I was introduced was Mr. Boyd. He was then a respectable grocer, keeping his shop on Maine Street. I found him an upright, industrious, and enterprizing man, greatly respected by the white people, and loved among the intelligent colored people.

I am sure Sir, that whatever service you may render Mr. Boyed, will be service rendered to a worthy man.²During November and December 1852, Sydney H. Gay was raising funds to aid the slaves of Jonathan Lemmon of Virginia. The "Lemmon Indemnity Fund" amounted to more than $5,000 in early December 1852. George Body is not know to have been among the Lemmon slaves. NASS, 2 December 1852.

Very truly yours
FRED. DOUGLASS

ALS: Gay-Otis Family Papers, NNC.