Pittsburg, Jan. 8, 1849.

Frederick Douglass:—It gives me pleasure to acknowledge that I have been a steady reader of the North Star for one year; and I look upon it as the guardian of our dearest rights—one of the great engines to effect the freedom of the slave, and to break in pieces that unrighteous, marble-hearted and iron-handed prejudice of the North, that is grinding us into the dust. It is our incumbent duty to support the North Star, as a means of elevating our race. Allow me to say, that its editorials are strong, cogent, and in very many instances eloquent. Your appeal to the friends of humanity and the public, calling them to the support of your most laudable undertaking, I hope will not be lost upon them. Surely, there is energy, spirit, patriotism and promptitude enough among the colored people to cause a loud response to the call, with an unanimity of purpose not to be gainsaid or misunderstood. Let Union be our motto, our watchword—yes, our rallying point, our standard, our lever and fulcrum, for Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.

Your friend and brother,

J. B. VashonVashon, John B.

John Boyer Vashon (?–1853) operated a barbershop and bathhouse in Pittsburgh. He joined the American Anti-Slavery Society and served on its board of managers in the 1830s. Vashon attended several National Negro Conventions, including the 1853 Rochester gathering that launched the National Council of Colored Men. Douglass frequently visited Vashon’s home while touring the Midwest and eulogized him as “one of the most consistent advocates of the slave’s freedom, and of the colored man’s elevation, who has yet arisen among our proscribed race.” FDP, 20 August 1852, 15 July 1853, 6 January, 8 September 1854; ASB, 7 January 1854; Quarles, Black Abolitionists, 20–33, 81, 108, 200; R. J. M. Blackett, “ ‘Freedom, or the Martyr’s Grave’: Black Pittsburgh’s Aid to the Fugitive Slave,” Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine, 61:117–34 (April 1978).