Lancaster City, Pa., Dec. 18, 1848.

Dear Douglass:ーSince my last, I have held meetings in Wilmington, Delaware, from which place I wrote; West Chester, Pa., and Philadelphia, at which place I was assisted by our worthy friend and co-laborer, Wm. W. Brown, the "noble fugitive."

There are some two thousand of a colored population in Wilmington, all of whom appear to be quite an industrious and laboring people, but seem not to have been instilled with the higher incentives of life. Education, as heretofore, has been greatly neglected and probably but little cared for by the colored people; hence, the characteristics of the slave stand prominently, and a stranger passing through the place, might well mistake four-fifths of the colored persons whom he would see in the streets to be slaves. But such is not the case. Although in a slave State, there are but few slaves in Wilmington, since, like in Wheeling, Virginia, they have nearly all run off and left the place. On Sunday evening while I was there, two slaves took the underground railroad, making good their escape, as I was informed.

There are, however, a large number of property-holders among the colored people, many of whom live neat and comfortable in their own houses. Indeed, I set it down as one of the most commendable traits among them, that their houses were both externally and internally remarkable for neatness in appearance and fact.

There are three schools for colored children here, where the minor or primary branches are taught. The best and most interesting of these schools is taught by Mr. Daniel B. Anderson, a worthy, intelligent, pious colored gentleman, who has some forty pupils continually in attendance. Mr. Anderson has, as yet, no class as far advanced as grammar and geography, and still uses Pike's old arithmetic in his school. These old books were good in their day, but are not now well adapted to the progressive system of teaching nor, the ready comprehension of the tender mind of youth. I could wish that teachers would abandon their old style and method of teaching altogether, and at once adopt the reformed and approved methods and works. It would be worth the while if every school-teacher who is not conversant with new systems, would suspend their schools for a month, and give their whole attention during that period to making themselves acquainted with new and approved methods. Mr. Anderson is a very useful member of society, and himself and family are universally respected by all classes.

The next school is taught by a young white lady, who appears to teach for the salary she receives, whatever it may be. It cannot be for anything else, since her pupils are deficient in the first evidences of a well-taught schoolーgood manners. On entering this school, I was laughed in the face by all the pupils, and the class of larger girls, some of whom were quite in their "teens," continued to snort and laugh, the teacher paying no attention whatever to their conduct. She advanced forward in a somewhat diffident manner, inquiring what I wanted. My answer being that I came to visit the school, she turned about to her seat with apparently an indignant expression upon her countenance.ーOn inquiring about the branches taught in the school, I was answered quite abruptlyーindeed, I had never been so rudely treated by a female before. It was evident that she considered it impudent for a colored person to visit the school as an inquirer. This I also learned afterwards. I pity the children taught in that school by the present preceptress. I look upon it, at present, as an academy of servility.

The third is an infant school of some 12 children, taught by an affectionate colored lady. I learned that a fourth was about to be opened by a Mrs. Shoby.

There is an excellent and most interesting Sabbath-school kept in the basement of Zion, a church of colored people, under the whites. The minister in charge is a white man, but the others are all colored. This Sabbath-school numbers from eighty to one hundred children, of both sexes and various sizes, from infants to nearly-grown youths and maidens. The teachers are all colored, and a better-conducted and more interesting Sabbath school, I have seldom visited. Every Sabbath there is a task assigned to some one of the pupils to recite an essay or portion some appropriate beautiful writing; and on this occasion, the day of my visit, on entering the school, the duty was being performed by a youth about sixteen, when the whole school, from the least to the greatest, sat with the most listful attention. I addressed the school as I usually do on visiting them, and was fully paid by the countenances of the children beaming with delight and gratitude. Indeed, whatever might be the impression created on a stranger passing through the streets, did he visit this Sabbath-school, his impression would at once be changed; for here he would find, the concentrated intelligence of the colored people, as I believe all the children go to this school, and colored persons from all the different churches teach here. There are four colored churches in Wilmingtonーthe African Methodist Episcopal Church, Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church, Union African Methodist Church, and Zion Methodist Church, under the whites. Quite too many churches for the population, in all conscience. Perhaps the people would be better with one-half the number. The meetings after the first night were numberously attended by a large concourse of anxious inquirers after truth on the great subject, which must now be considered the question of the day, of the Moral Elevation of the colored people by self-exertion. The last evening, in the Rev. Abram Cole's church, (to whom I am indeted for assisting me,) the meeting was attended with unusual interest. Crowds went away, unable to gain entrance.

I am much indebted to Mr. and Mrs. Anderson, Mr. Hill and lady, for kind hospitality during my stay in Wilmington.

Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, the 5th and 6th, I held meetings in West Chester, Pa., which were well attended by both classes. Notwithstanding the almost entire absence of anti-slavery feeling in this place, the colored people took great interest in the meetings, filling the house at an early hour. This perhaps is attributable to the fact, that Mr. A. D. Shadd, an old and tried friend in the cause of suffering humanity and the elevation of his nominally free brethren, resides here, whose excellent character must have exercised a very salutary influence over the people generally. Mr. Shadd is among the soundest and best minded men in our country, and was among the patriotic few who, in 1830, assembled together in the capacity of a National Convention of Colored Freemen, in Philadelphia, when S. Joscelin, A. Tappan, and W. L. GarrisonGarrison, William Lloyd

William Lloyd Garrison (1805-79) was the foremost white abolitionist of the nineteenth century and was credited with the discovery of Douglass as a speaker at an antislavery meeting in Nantucket in 1841. He began his career as an apprentice printer on the Newburyport (Mass.) Herald at the age of thirteen. Garrison became editor of the Newburyport Free Press in 1826, but the paper closed within a year. He was then associated with a series of periodicals in Boston that advocated reform before Benjamin Lundy offered the young journalist the opportunity to write for his antislavery newspaper. Garrison joined Lundy in editing the Genius of Universal Emancipation in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1829, during the last year of the paper's 1821-1830 run. In 1830 a libel suit against the editors forced the paper to close and landed Garrison in jail. After his release, he courted the wealthy merchants of New York and Boston in order to start the Liberator (1831-65), a weekly journal based in Boston in which he advocated an immediate end to slavery. Garrison's brand of abolition condemned any institution that would tolerate the existence of slavery, including churches, political parties. and even the United States itself and any scheme aimed at removing black people from the country. Instead, Garrison hoped to raise the public's awareness that slavery was morally wrong and thereby force its end in an almost millennial moment of emancipation. His approach appealed to both white and black antislavery advocates but earned him many enemies among those only moderately opposed to slavery and slaveholders alike. Seeing the need for greater action and organization beyond the pages of the Liberator; Garrison joined with other abolitionists to form the New England Anti-Slavery Society in 1831. Two years later he helped found the larger American Anti-Slavery Society. In 1833 he established ties with English abolitionists after a trip to Great Britain, and he later brought the noted and notorious speaker George Thompson to the United States for a tour. Garrison also dedicated himself to women's rights, encouraging women to enter the public sphere by inviting them, via the Liberator, to form female antislavery societies. In addition to the thirty-three women's antislavery societies that flourished by 1838, Garrison's American Anti-Slavery Society welcomed women as well as blacks into its ranks. However, female delegates were excluded from the World's Anti-Slavery Convention of 1840 in London. The issue of women's participation in the antislavery movement and Garrison's absolute refusal to turn to politics to end slavery caused a division in the American Anti-Slavery Society. Brothers Lewis and Arthur Tappan, who opposed women's acting as speakers and who hoped to use politics toward abolition, broke with Garrison's American Anti-Slavery Society, forming the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, or the "New Organization" in 1841. Garrison's ideas were so closely associated with the "Old Organization" that the American Anti-Slavery Society became known simply as the "Garrisonians." With the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865, Garrison believed that he had accomplished his life's work and that of the antislavery movement. He then resigned from the presidency of the American Anti-Slavery Society and closed the Liberator. Wendell Phillips Garrison and Francis Jackson Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879: The Story of His Life Told by His Children, 4 vols. (New York, 188589); Henry Mayer, All on Fire: William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolition of Slavery (New York, 1998); James Brewer Stewart, William Lloyd Garrison and the Challenge of Emancipation (Arlington Heights, Ill., 1992); John L. Thomas, The Liberator: William Lloyd Garrison (Boston, 1963); Dictionary of American Biography, 20 vols. (New York, 1928-36), 7:168-72. , being then Colonizationists, and visiting this Convention, were forced, by reason of the talent there displayed, to "turn from the error of their way," and embrace the cause of the perishing slave and American bondmanーof God and humanity. I think I am not wrongly advised in the above allegation; at least, it is what colored men generally claim. If wrong, of course I will be kindly corrected.

There are several good mechanics in West Chestor, doing well, and a number of good, well-doing farmers in the neighborhood, working their own lands. I suppose this county embraces more farmers among the colored people, than any other county in Pennsylvania. I would that every county throughout the State contained a pro rata of colored farmers. What a different aspect it would present to the affairs of our brethren in this State. Our people must become mechanics and farmersーproducers instead of consumers, if we ever expect to be elevated on a level with those who now predominate and rule over us.

Go, brethrenーgo, young men and women, to the level lands of the Westーgo to the beautiful plains of Michigan, Iowa, or Wisconsin, lands in themselves, promised by God and blessed of heavenーlands which now be suffering for the healing hand of the skilful cultivator. Will you not go? God grant that you may be brought to see your duty.

The colored people in this place have a church, which, by pro-slavery influence, they were induced to locate three-fourths of a mile out of town. This was mean in the extreme; and in perfect keeping with that miserable spirit which once obtained everywhere in this country, taking advantage of the poverty and ignorance of a people. If such spirits as reside in the place now had dwelt among them then, such impositions upon them would not have been practiced.

They have also a good daily school here, taught by an amiable and accomplished young white lady from Connecticut. This school promises much under the present teacher, though there are evidences that, previous to her charge, there has been much neglect and undue indulgence on the part of those who formerly conducted it. I am in hopes that the intelligent part of the parents will give weekly attention to this school, which is necessary in order to do the teacher justice.

On the 7th, 8th and 11th, I addressed meetings in Philadelphia, promising to return there on Christmas, to be present at the Fair got up by the ladies, for the benefit of the North Star and fugitive slaves making their escape.

Tuesday, I left Philadelphia, in company with a large delegation from that county, to attend a State Convention of the Colored Freemen of the Commonwealth, to assemble

at Harrisburg, the Capital, on Wednesday the 13th inst. This body was organized in the afternoon of the first day's sitting, (the 13th) by the selection of a President, thirteen Vice-Presidents, and four Secretaries, the memorandum of which I have lost, but which, ere this, you have received an official report of.ーThis was a praiseworthy gathering, and the Convention did much credit to their constituents and honor to themselves. Indeed, it was good to witness the assemblage of so respectable a body of colored freemen, manfully legislating for their rights and the rights of their wives and children, in common with others of their fellow-citizens. The delegates were composed of farmers, mechanics and laborers, and much talent was displayed in the discussion of the questions brought before that body. Many of the most distinguished white citizens of the Capital, and several distinguished men of Philadelphia, were in continual attendance. C. L. Remond and myself were favored with a seat as honorary members. The Convention met in the Shakespear Saloon.

Among the most important things done in the Convention, was the adoption of a Constitution and the establishment of a State Executive Board, which is located in Philadelphia, to have its auxilaries in every county throughout the Commonwealth. Each member of these societies is taxed the sum of one dollar per annum, for the purpose of raising a fund; the object of which fund is, the establishement of a political temporary newspaper, to be known as a "campaigner," to be issued every year during an electioneering canvass and the session of the Legislature, for the purpose of agitating the great question of the enfranchisement and political rights of the colored freemen of Pennsylvania; also the employment of suitable persons to tour the State as agents, and keep up the interest before the people. I opine that an agent will be immediately placed in the field. I think it probable that the Board may take some action in recommending the North Star as a permanent organ for our people in this State. This move would be well advised, since now that the North Star has quite a general circulation in the principle places through Pennsylvania; hence, whatever goes into its columns, will teach our people in this State generally.ーLarge sums of money were pledged to carry out the above measures. The Convention adjourned sine die on the evening of the 14th.

Friday morning, the 15th, a large number, as a Committee from the Convention, headed by Mr. J. B. Vashon, President of the Convention, and Robert Purvis, Esq., as orator, (C. L. Remond and myself being kindly invited to accompany the Committee,) called in a body, at 11 o'clock, A.M., on his Excellency, Wm. M. Johnson, Governor of the Commonwealth, at the Executive Chamber, State Capital, as an act of civility due the Chief Magistrate from a portion of his constituents, though the humblest portion they may be.

On entering the department, the Governor was seated, who immediately arose and advanced to the centre of the chamber, the delegation quite filling the interior of the room, forming a semi-circle, his Excellency in the centre, who gracefully turned to either side, bowing with an earnest expresson of countenance. We all bowed in return; when Robert Purvis, in behalf of the delegation, made a few neat and appropriate, yet eloquent remarks, by the way of salutation, as nearly as I can recollect in the following words:ー"Your ExcellencyーOn behalf of the Committee, a delegation from a disfranchised portion of your constituents, recently sitting in Convention in this borough, I present you, sir, our most cordial congratulations. We feel, sir, in common with the rest of your fellow-citizens, a deep interest in all that concerns the welfare of the Commonwealth, and hope to participate in all the privileges enjoyed by others," &c.

To this the Governor replied:—"Gentlemen and Fellow Human Beings:ーI feel grateful at all times for such marks of personal respect and attention from any portion of the human family; and had I the framing of the fundamental laws, there would be none of God's creatures deprived of their liberty. So far as my authority is concerned, I do assure you that nothing shall be wanting in the faithful execution of justice to all."

To this his Excellency gracefully bowed, the delegation simultaneously returning the civility; when we left the department. The Governor is a statesman, having great discretion, without which no man is suitable for the office he fills. Caution is a prominent faculty in the Governor, as you will perceive that he was very careful in the selection of his words. He is a fine-looking man, standing full six feetーgentlemanly in his deportment, with a grave and serious expression of countenance, rather ten years the senior of what his portrait would import.

This evening, I addressed the Good Samaritan Division of the Sons of Temperance, in the Colored Methodist ChurchーRev. Geo. Galbrath, Messrs. McCrummell, Martin and McGlue participating. Saturday evening, the 16th, I attended a meeting at Columbia, which was addressed by Messrs. BiasBias, James Joshua Gould

James Joshua Gould Bias (1807–60) was a physician and preacher living in Philadelphia. Born a slave in Maryland, he learned some medical knowledge while working with a physician there. When Bias obtained his freedom, he moved to Philadelphia, attending the Eclectic Medical School and graduating in 1852. He devoted much of his time before the Civil War tending to the medical and dental needs to fugitive slaves in Southeast Pennsylvania. Bias also was the pastor at the Bethel Church in Philadelphia. He played a leading role in the Colored Conventions movement, holding a number of positions. While Bias endorsed emigration, he rejected the policies of the American Colonization Society, rejecting its White leadership. “Our Philadelphia Letter,”(New York, N.Y.) Weekly Anglo-African, 7 July 1860; George F. Bragg, Jr., Men of Maryland (Baltimore: Church Advocate Press, 1925), 54–55; Michael Dickinson, “Dr. J. J. Gould Bias,” Colored Conventions Project, Coloredconventions.org. , Night and Martin, of the Philadelphia delegation, and that rare spirit, A. D. Shadd, of the Bucks county delegation.

This and to-morrow evenings, I hold meetings in this place, when I shall leave on Wednesday morning for Reading, Berks county, where I expect to spend the remainder of the week, and be in Philadelphia Christmas morning. There is truly a great interest now being awakened among our people wherever I go; indeed, they hail my visits with gratitude, declaring, as an intelligent body rose up in a meeting, after I had done speaking, and eloquently expressed it, that my lectures on the moral elevation of the colored people, was "the very food, for the want of which the people's minds are starving to death."ーThis subject appears to be to the minds of the people generally, what electricity is to the great area of nature. But a single flash is necessary to light up the whole in a brilliant flame, reflecting light in every direction, which startles the most torpid and indifferent. It is the great sensitive nerve, but a touch of which arouses every fibre throughout the system.

What a reflection for the colored people of this country, that while the oppressed of France, Denmark, Sweden, Wallachia, Tunis, and even Bohemia, as well as several other places, have demanded a restitution of wrongs, demanded liberty and had it conceded, we are comparitively standing fast, not yet having made the first stride towards it.ーAnd yet our efforts are but moral, our weapons Truth and Justice.

"If every foe stood marshaled in the van,

I'd fight them single combat, man to man!"

Yours for God and Humanity,

M. R. D.Delany, Martin Robison

Born to a free mother and a slave father in Charlestown, in western Virginia, Martin Robison Delany (1812-85) was an editor, physician, and leading advocate of black emigration. In 1822 Delany's mother moved to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, where his father later joined them, and the young Delany attended a local school. In 1831 he moved to Pittsburgh where he worked as a barber, attended a school run by a black Methodist minister, and studied medicine, upgrading his occupation from “cupper and leecher“ to physician. Between 1843 and 1847, Delany was editor of the Mystery, a black Pittsburgh newspaper. For the next two years he served as co-editor of Doug1ass’s North Star and lectured and traveled extensively to gain new subscriptions for that paper. In 1850-51 Delany attended Harvard Medical College but, owing to protests from white students, was denied admission to the final term needed to complete his medical degree. The following year he wrote The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States, Politically Considered (Philadelphia, 1852), in which he argued that emigration was the only remedy for the oppressed state of black Americans. When many black abolitionists, including Douglass, rejected Delany's position, he organized a series of National Emigration Conventions that met in 1854, 1856, and 1858. These assemblies created a permanent National Board of Commissioners, of which Delany was president and chief propagandist. In 1856 Delany moved to Chatham, Canada West, and three years later explored the Niger river valley in Africa looking for possible emigration sites. His novel Blake was serialized in the Weekly Anglo-African from November 1861 through May 1862. During the Civil War, Delany served the North first as a recruiter and examining surgeon and eventually as a major of the 104th U.S. Colored Troops. From 1865 to 1868 Delany was a Freedmen's Bureau officer in South Carolina and later was active in that state's politics, running unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor on the Independent Republican ticket in 1874. Ullman, Martin R. Delany, 52-103, 115-21, 140-71, 211-46; Dorothy Sterling, The Making of an Afro-American: Martin Robison Delany, 1812—1885 (Garden City, N.Y., 1971); Thomas Holt, Black Over White: Negro Political Leadership in South Carolina during Reconstruction (Urbana, Ill., 1977), 74-75, 176-77; Miller, Search for a Black Nationality, 115-33, 171-83; Martin R. Delany, Blake; or, The Huts of America, ed. Floyd J. Miller (Boston, 1970), ix; DAB, 5: 219-20.