Hebron, N.Y., Dec. 9, 1848

Dear Brother Douglass:ーThough personally unknown to you, I take the liberty of sending you a line, requesting of you a favor. As an Agent of the Baptist Free Mission Society, I am endeavoring to call the attention of Baptists to the Cherokee slaveholding Baptist churches.

I remember hearing brother Henry Bibb make some remarks in his lecture in the great anti-slavery meeting in Chicago, some two or three years since, respecting the slaveholding professors in that nation. Will you please inform him of my desire to obtain any facts in his possession or knowledge in regard to the Baptist Churches in the Cherokee countryーthe number of slaveholders in those churchesーthe number of slaves heldーpreaching to missionaries in regard to this question, and whatever else may throw light upon the matter. I am yours for Christ's suffering members.

Edward Mathews.