Brooklyn, Oct. 29th, 1848.

Messrs. Editors:—I avail myself of the present moment to communicate to you relative to the great Liberation Meeting held in Broadway Tabernacle, New York, to raise $2,000, which, in addition to the $250 already contributed in Washington by the friends of freedom, is the sum demanded by those modern Shylocks, Bruin and Hill, to ransom the "pound of flesh nearest the hearts" of those Christian ladies, the Misses Edmondson.

The facts in the case are these: After the piratical capture of the packet schooner Pearl, by the domestic American slavetraders, these young ladies, two of the passengers of that ill-fated bark, were sold to these pagan usurers by their pirate captors. Wm. L. Chapin, a citizen of that Republic which declares slavetrading to be piracy, arriving in "Western Algeria" soon after that painful occurrence, and meeting with the disconsolate father of these ladies, who would not be comforted because his daughters were not, very naturally and rationally felt interested in their behalf, and their case soon became a part of the history of the times. The friends of freedom and haters of iniquity soon set themselves at work to effect their release. It is true they felt that, as a principle, this modus operandi would not stop the domestic slave-trade; that the chivalry of Maryland and Virginia would commence raising stock for the Northern as well as for the Southern market, and thus increase this horrible traffic; but who that has ever had a mother, wife, sister or daughter, could let an aged father, whose lovely and Christian daughters were about to be placed upon the bloody altar of slavery, and sold to the Southern sesualist, appeal in vain? As much as I despair of the abolition of slavery by such means, yet if the inhabitants of this trading city could resist such appeals, I should despair of there being salt enough in this nation to abolish that or any other evil by any means.

As in the early stages of the Anti-Slavery movement, an appeal was made to those who held the keys to the public conscience and generosity, but unlike then, the moral and political elements were set against domestic as well as foreign piracy; the co-operation of Messrs. D. D. Tyng, Peck, Dowling, with Rev. H. W. Beecher, and others, was secured, a meeting was called at the notorious Tebernacle. Humanity knocked successfully, in the shape of notices of that meeting in all the churches of New York and Brooklyn, and, as might be expected under such circumstances, long before the appointed hour, the capacious building was filled to repletion.

The Rev. H. W. Beecher, made a speech worthy of human nature, and which, in sentiment and witty sarcasm, reminded me of our own incomparable Douglass. He was followed by Dr. Dowling, and Capt. Knight, both in speeches which in sentiment, would have honored colored men. A collection was taken up, not quite up to the mark. The people were unwilling to leave until the money was made up. Pledges are given for five, ten, twenty, twenty-five, fifty and a hundred dollars; and then such enthusiasm! "I will be one of twenty to make up the deficiency, whatever it is," said a young man, whose name was Harris. "The money must be raised in this house this night," shouted a dozen voices at once. It seemed to me that these young men were bidding in behalf of God, humanity, liberty, and virtue, against the devil, barbarism, slavery, and licentiousness. They seemed to feel that one young libertine at the South would pay half the price himself, to possess half such "property." And oh, to think of lovely, intelligent, Christian women being torn from their parents, their church—I like to have said from their God:—but his displeasure is alone upon the wilfully guilty—and consigned to the Southern sink of infamy and pollution. Pledge after pledge came showing in, until it was announced that there was but $50 short, when some one quickly subscribed that. The meeting then lingered, cheering for freedom, Beecher, Knight, &c.; and finally closed by singing "Old Hundred," and benediction by Dr. Beecher, of Boston.

In speaking of the change in the moral and political elements, producing a change in the religious, I do not mean to infer that all those ministers waited for the current, and then embarked upon the waters. Far from it. We are glad to acknowledge that some of them honorably resisted the popular current of error, and contributed towards the change.—Among these, I will mention that advocate of free men, free thought, and free speech, H. W. Beecher. I regret to be compelled to look upon some as way-passengers only.

Yours for Freedom and Reform,

J. C. H.Holly, Joseph Cephas

Joseph Cephas Holly (1825–55), the elder brother of emigrationist James Theodore Holly, was a pragmatic black abolitionist who identified himself as a Garrisonian yet supported political abolitionists, including Douglass. Born to free black parents in Washington, D.C., Holly moved to Brooklyn, New York, in 1844 and became a shoemaker. Among the early subscribers to the North Star, Holly wrote five articles on American slavery for the paper between February and June 1848. He addressed antislavery appeals to northern blacks and whites and to southern nonslaveholders, linking the rights of poor whites with those of blacks. In 1850 Holly moved to Burlington, Vermont, and established a bootmaking business with the financial backing of Lewis Tappan. He embarked upon tours of Vermont, serving as an agent for Douglass’s newspaper and speaking on a number of issues related to the needs and rights of African Americans. Although Holly and his brother James held divergent views on colonization and emigration, they lectured together, debating the issues publicly. Shortly after Joseph moved to Rochester in 1853, he was a delegate to the black national convention that assembled there, and he published a volume of poetry, Freedom’s Offering (1853). NS, 4, 18 February, 10 March, 7 April, 9 June 1848, 6 July 1849, 1 February 1850; FDP, 22 January, 5 February, 23 March, 1, 15 April 1852, 17 June, 22 July, 28 October 1853, 12 January 1855; David M. Dean, Defender of the Race: James Theodore Holly, Black Nationalist Bishop (Boston, 1979), 3–20; Geraldine O. Matthews, Black American Writers, 1773–1949: A Bibliography and Union List (Boston, 1975), 148; Miller, Search for a Black Nationality, 108–10; Ripley, Black Abolitionist Papers, 4:25–26n