BUFFALO, Sept. 11th, 1848
EDITORS OF THE NORTH STAR.ーDear friends, permit me through the columns of your valuble paper, to call the attention of the public to the steamboat Saratoga, on board of which colorphobia was so virulent, that delegates from the Cleveland Convention of colored freemen were refused a cabin passage.ーThe reason assigned by the Clerk, who I think they call Merrell, (at all events he may be easily known by his diminutive, sallow sycophant expression of countenance, and much sooner I should judge by his language,) was, that colored persons could not be permitted in the cabin among whites. Such a pitiable specimen of humanity, and the officers who support him in thus treating their superiors, are certainly beings that every man should despise and abhor. I also found on board a heterogeneous mass of abomination, in the form of a black servant named Bowman, who gave countenance to their conduct by a public expression of his feelings. He resides in Cleveland. I simply mention these facts that ladies and gentlemen of color, as well as white[s] who sympathise with the oppressed, may, when travelling on our Western waters, use their means among a more worthy set. The company were compelled to lay over 24 hours for the steamer Oregon, on which a number of the delegates took passage and received all that was asked by them. The boat is of the first class in style and speedーCapt. Chatman, the Clerk Mr. Waldron, the Steward, and the balance of the crew, so far as came under our notice, are just about, to say the least, what they ought to be. My friends jointly with myself, feel safe in recommending the steamboat Oregon, officers and crew
to the travelling public.
Yours for the right,
A. H. FRANCIS.Francis, Abner Hunt

Abner Hunt Francis (1812-72), born on a farm near Flemington, New Jersey, lived in a number of locations throughout his life and became a leader of the black community wherever he resided. In Trenton, New Jersey, he protested against the American Colonization Society, acted as a subscription agent for the Liberator, and attended national black conventions in 1833 and 1834. In 1836 Francis moved to Buffalo, New York, where he established a clothing business. Not only was Francis a leading member of the integrated Buffalo Anti-Slavery Society, but he also spoke at the First of August celebrations of West Indian Emancipation, sought integration of schools, coordinated a state suffrage campaign, and acted as an agent for the Palladium of Liberty, published in Columbus, Ohio, and the North Star. In 1850 Francis openly opposed the Fugitive Slave Law and encouraged others to do so. In mid-1851, he and his wife Lynda relocated to Portland, Oregon, despite an 1849 law that prohibited black settlement in the Oregon Territory. Oregon courts in 1851 ordered 0. B. Francis, Abner's brother, to leave the territory under the exclusionary law. Two hundred eleven leading residents of Oregon offered a petition to the legislature requesting that the Francis brothers be given an exemption. The brothers were not forced to leave, but intolerance of blacks in Oregon continued to grow. In 1860 Abner and Lynda Francis moved to Victoria, Vancouver Island, Canada, where Francis became the first black elected to the city council in 1865 and remained a well-respected citizen until his death. Elizabeth McLagan, A Peculiar Paradise: A History of Blacks in Oregon, 1788-1940 (Portland, Ore., 1980), 88-89; Arthur 0. White, "The Black Movement against Jim Crow Education in Buffalo, New York, 1800-1900," Phylon, 30:380 (Winter 1969); Ripley, Black Abolitionist Papers, 4:102, 105-07n.