Philadelphia, Jan. 16, 1849.

Dear Douglass:ーSince my last, I have held meetings in Lancaster City, from which place I wrote; and on Thursday and Friday, the 21st and 22d, in the city of Reading, Berks county.

The people in Lancaster are few in number, and generally well to do, and are intelligent; yet there is an indifference about them in regard to meetings and lectures, which may only be accounted for from the almost entire absence of such meetings among them. As among our people generally, the church is the Alpha and Omega of all things. It is their only source of informationーtheir only acknowledged public bodyーtheir State Legislature, as it wereーtheir common councilーtheir supreme courtーtheir dictator and only acknowledged adviser; hence, that which does not emanate from the church, may not expect to interest the people to any considerable extent. I would not be understood to say that they did not attend the meetings, nor that opposition was given by those who had control of the church. This is not the case; as both of the clergymen who reside in the place not only gave their consent to the use of the church, but gave their continual presence at the meetings, and also subscribed for the paper; but the lateness of the hour at which the young people generally came to the meetings, and the indifference manifested when thereーthe restlessness manifested by them when in the houseーthe continued running in and out by the young womenーat least manifested and absence of good breeding, if not a want of interest in the meetings. It was evident, however, that they had no interest in anything but religious meetings, an error arising from the miserable blunders of our former spiritual teachers, instilled into them by their pro-slavery and slaveholding oppressors, thereby the easier to degrade us, and keep us in wretched servility and subjection. This error in our religion, even taught and preached now by many whose advantages of education and the times would warrant and justify them in knowing and pursuing a different course, I look upon and hold to be a curse, more grievous in its nature and evil in its tendency, than the mere existence of slavery itself; for while there is no difficulty in finding a ready response from the most abject of our oppressed brethren as to the evils and wrongs of slavery, it is among the most common circumstances in the progress of our cause, to meet with opposition from the most intelligent among them, on the ground that the means to be used, however moral, necessarily interfere with their religion.ーThe use of the churches—holding meetings on the Sabbathーa disbelief in stale and miserable doctrines, such as the necessity of the colored people being low, humble, dejected, low-spirited, sorrowful, miserable beings, suffering a life of sorrow in order to get heavenーall are objected to as essentially interfering with our religious rites; and consequently many readily declare that they would rather be slaves than do anything that will interfere with their religion! Gracious God! to what a state of degradation and ignorance have we been reduced!

There is a day-school and Sabbath-school among the colored people in Lancaster, and a tolerably good feeling towards them on the part of the whites.

Reading contains quite a respectable, industrious population of colored people, many of whom own good real estate. I was quite disappointed in the people here, not expecting to find so large a number of intelligent inhabitants.

There are two churchesーone Methodist and a Presbyterian Church. The Presbyterian church is a handsome brick building, of chaste modern structure, and does much credit to the people of the place. They have also a school, taught by Mr. Joseph L. Gardner, a fine industrious young colored gentleman.ーOur people in this place have been very much neglected by public lectures, having never been visited by any previous to my visit. A few visits by efficient men among us may make Reading a very interesting place. The city is much larger than I expected to find it, the population being numbered at about 13,000 above that of any late estimate, and several thousand above that of Lancaster City, which has always been known as the largest inland city in Pennsylvania. Reading is quite the handsomest inland town I have yet visited in the State.

On Saturday, the 23d, I left Reading, arriving in Philadelphia the same day, greeted and welcomed by many familiar faces and loved acquaintances.

On Monday, the 25th, the Fair was opened in Institute Hall, by those excellent ladies, Mrs. Harriet Smith at the head. The fair was well attended, and the occasion was one of much interest for many reasons. Here everything like party spirit, predilections, and sectarianism of every kind, were thrown aside, and the people came up to the aid of this, the ladies' first effort in a cause of the kind with "a right hearty good will," that was pleasing to behold. Among not the least pleasing features of this interesting gathering, were the young and active people, women and men, all manifesting a deep interest for the success of the undertaking, with a full promise of bringing together their whole energies when called upon another season. The design is to make this an annual undertaking, on an enlarged and extensive plan, such as, if possible, to meet the ends for which it is intended. The recent fair was hastily gotten up by suggestion, without organization, or any particular plan of operation; hence, the difference of opinion on the part of the different ladies concerned as to the appropriation of the proceeds. The fair, however, was well managed and well conducted, and the ladies concerned, one and all, have our hearty thanks. The sum donated to the Star of one hundred dollars, was liberal, generous, all the circumstances considered, and will redound to the honor and credit of the faithful spirits therein engaged.

A committee is now completely organized, with a well-devised constitution, having for its object the holding of annual fairs or bazaars for the furtherance of the great principles now being propagatedーSelf-Elevation, or the Moral Elevation of the colored people by Self-Exertion. If properly conducted, which I have no doubt of, I think the ladies will fully succeed.

On the 14th, 15th, and 16th, a series of anti-slavery meetings were held in Institute Hall, the discussions of which were participated in by Messrs. McKimMcKim, James Miller

James Miller McKim (1810-74) was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Dickinson College in 1828. After beginning the study of medicine, McKim decided to enter the Presbyterian ministry and attended both Princeton and the Andover Theological Seminary. He was ordained and assigned his first parish in Womelsdorf, Pennsylvania. After reading William Lloyd Garrison's Thoughts on African Colonization, McKim converted to the abolitionist cause. In 1836 he became a lecturer for the American Anti-Slavery Society and an ardent supporter of Garrison, whom he followed after the 1840 abolitionist rupture. In that year he settled in Philadelphia in order to serve as the editor of the Pennsylvania Freeman, the voice of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society. McKim continued as editor of the Freeman until it merged with the National Anti-Slavery Standard in 1854. He was also very active in the Pennsylvania Underground Railroad. McKim welcomed the Civil War and promoted the use of black troops. He supported aid to southern freedmen in Port Royal during and after the war through his membership in the American Freedman's Union Commission. William Still, The Underground Railroad (1872; Chicago, 1970), 654-59; William Cohen, "James Miller McKim: Pennsylvania Abolitionist" (Ph.D. diss., New York University, 1968); ANB, 15:115-16. , PurvisPurvis, Charles Burleigh

Charles Burleigh Purvis (1842-1929) was the son of Douglass's old black abolitionist associate Robert Purvis and Harriet Forten, a daughter of the wealthy black Philadelphia sailmaker James Forten and herself an active abolitionist. Raised on his family's farm in Byberry, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia, Purvis attended Oberlin College for two years and then the Western Reserve Medical School, where he graduated in 1865. He served as an assistant surgeon and chief administrator (1881-94) of the Freedman's Hospital in Washington, D.C. As a trustee of the Freedman's Bank, Purvis, more than any of his colleagues, criticized the activities of men later found guilty of fraud. When the trustees elected Douglass president in 1874, they chose Purvis as his first vice president. Purvis's career in Washington ended in 1905 when he moved to Boston, where he practiced medicine. Simmons, Men of Mark, 691; Herbert M. Morais, The History of the Negro in Medicine (New York, 1967), 50-52; Gerri Major and Doris E. Saunders, Gerri Major's Black Society (Chicago, 1976), 169; Fleming, Freedman's Savings Bank, 83; Osthaus, Freedmen, Philanthropy, and Fraud, 165-66; James Forten, "The Forten Family," NHB, 10:75-79, 95 (January 1947); DANB, 507-08. , RemondDouglass, Charles Remond

Charles Remond Douglass (1844–1920), named after the abolitionist Charles Remond, was the youngest of Frederick and Anna Murray Douglass’s sons. He was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, and, like his brothers, was both educated in Rochester and trained by his father in the newspaper office. Like Lewis H. Douglass, Charles enlisted in the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Infantry during the Civil War, but mainly served with the Fifth Massachusetts Cavalry Regiment, where he was promoted to the rank of first sergeant. After the war, Charles settled in Washington, D.C., and found employment first as a clerk in the Freedmen’s Bureau (1867–69) and later in the Treasury Department (1869–75). After his father purchased the in 1870, Charles acted as a correspondent for the newspaper. In 1871 he served as a clerk to the Santo Domingo Commission, and President Ulysses S. Grant later appointed him consul to Puerto Plata, Santo Domingo. From 1875 to 1879 he was a clerk in the U.S. consulate in Santo Domingo. Returning to the United States in 1879, he entered the West Indies import-export business while living in Corona, New York. In 1882, Charles moved back to Washington, D.C., and took a job as an examiner in the Pension Bureau. He remained there until 1892, when he entered the real estate business. Douglass Papers, ser. 2, 3:860; Douglass Papers, ser. 3, 1:126; McFeely, Frederick Douglass, 239, 257–58, 272; EAAH , 1: 407–08. , Davis, 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. , Burleigh, Weir, Smith, Wilson, Butler, myself and others. These meetings were quite interesting. On the 22d, 23d, 24th, 25th and 26th, there was a Convention of the colored citizens of the city and county of Philadelphia, held in Hurst street Wesley Church, removing after the first day's session to Institute Hall. This was a political convention, held in obedience to the State Convention recently held at Harrisburg, for the restoration of the elective franchise to our politically degraded brethren of this Commonwealthーa Commonwealth of which I once felt proud to be numbered as one of her free enfranchissed sons. But alas! that miserable gathering, misnamed "Reformed Convention," of 1838, which ended its session in this city, despotically wrested from the colored citizen his citizenship, degrading him to the condition of an alien! Thus were we stripped and disarmed of our manhood, and left to the mercy of the most consummate demagogue.

Among the leaders of that memorable high-handed political mob of 1838, Judge Fox, of Bucks county, and Attorney Reed, of Philadelphia county, (I believe both dead,) and that pitiable and most miserable of all creatures, H. Gold Rodgers, of Alleghany county, whom the Democrats of that county recommended to Mr. Van Buren as a suitable person for Consul to Sardinia, is now the wretched inmate of an insane asylum, having lost his reason before the mission ended. Rodgers is a New Englander by birth and education, and the offspring of wealthy parentage, who have him under guardianship. He sinned against light and knowledgeーagainst reason—stripping, in a trice, fifty thousand freemen of their rights. Of this he was fully conscious. It was more than he could bear; hence, he is now "smitten of God." He outraged a great principle, violated the moral law, one of God's fixed, eternal truths; therefore, to suffer the penalty of this violation is but an inevitable consequence. Sooner or later, the vengeance of the law will overtake the transgressor. In this instance, the light of the transgressor was great; hence, the deed was the more palpable and aggravated. He did the deed; God did his willーGod's will be done.

Many interesting resolutions were freely and in some instances fully discussed in the Convention, the male citizens (colored) generally taking part in the debate. A City and County Citizens' Union was formed, and other measures entered into for carrying out the provisions of the State Convention.

J. J. G. Bias was President of the Convention, and who always presides with much dignity and great decision of character. Indeed, altogether, I prefer Dr. Bias in the chair to any other colored gentleman I know in the city of Philadelphia; my only objection being, that in some instances he is too stern and unyielding. This, however, arises not, in my opinion, from any disposition on the part of the chair to arrogate, but from a disposition on his part to sustain the dignity of the chair, an essential part, to be sure, in a chairman's fitness for the position. Dr. Bias is very excitable, and consequently requires considerable efrort to keep his balance in debate, and prevent himself, as chairman, at unguarded moments, from taking part in the discussion of questions. For the most part, the Dr. is kind and courteous when in the chair. As a man, he is generous and sociable; as a philanthropist, he is a thorough reformer, no man taking a more decided and elevated stand in the reform of the church and our religion than J. J. G. Bias. This, I am proud here to be able to acknowledge, as Dr. Bias is a minister in good and regular standing in the African Methodist Episcopal Church connection, and in point of talent and ability, is second to no preacher in the connection who has not had the advantages of a regular education. His love for his race is great, at times leading to vague extravagances. Dr. Bias is a man and gentleman, needing to be reminded that the greatest objection to him, even conceded on the part of his best friends, is, that he is too vindictive against his opponents, which, if not properly guarded against, leads at times to unjustifiable severity, and may lead to intolerance. Of the liberty I here take with the Dr.'s name, I do so in a public senseーhe being a public man, is public property, which, as a journalist and general observer, I have the right to make any proper use of.

C. L. Remond, my fast friend, and the noble, untiring advocate of the slave and his oppressed brethren in this country, and myself, were favored with a seat and voice in the Convention. Much good, it is hoped, will result from these series of meetings.

On the 25th, 26th, 29th and 30th, I again held meetings in Wilmington, Delaware, and consequently left the Convention in Philadelphia on the afternoon of the day next to that of adjournment. Our brethren of this place were much interested in my first visit; hence, I could not escape the anxious and continued solicitations to return at a given time, which according to arrangemment was fixed on the 25th inst.

The meetings held during this visit were interesting in a high degreeーmany, very many of the young people entering into the spirit and measures of reform, being stimulated to act and do for themselves, instead of waiting for others to do for them, or like the man in the fable, looking up to Jupiter to do that for them which God has given them strength and means to accomplish for themselves. The impression made I hope is a lasting one, and will only require renewed efforts to keep up the sensibility or alive the sensation.

Among the young people, a choice character is found in the person of Mrs. Mary Ann Shadd, niece of the lady of whom I spoke in my letter, rising up in the meeting and declaring that the subject upon which I spoke was the "very food for which the people's minds in Wilmington were starving to death," and daughter of that most excellent man, A. D. Shadd, of Chester county, Pa. Miss Shadd is the author of a work, now in press, on the elevation of our people. I had the favor of examining this pamphlet in manuscript before it went to press, and take pleasure in saying and recommending it as a creditable production, and an excellent introduction to that great subject, the Moral Elevation of the colored people. This pamphlet will be deposited, as soon as published, at the book store and anti-slavery office of G. W. Goines, 198 S. Sixth street, Philadelphia, also at the grocery store of A. J. Williams, French st., Wilmington, Delaware; price, 12 1-2 cents. Miss Shadd is an excellent girl, and will henceforth give her whole attention to writing.

There is one difficulty and grievous wrong under which the colored people of Wilmington laborーa difficulty in getting the North Star from the post office. One half of the papers that are sent never reach the subscribers in this place, they being told by those attending the office sometimes one thing and sometimes anotherーsometimes that we are "impostors and have got their money," and don't intend to send the paperーthat there is no other 'North Star' in existence than that in the heavensーthat the paper is sent by mistake to Baltimoreーthat only one or two papers came 'this time'ーthat the paper is not publishedーsometimes actually giving one person's paper to another; all of these outrages and impositions are practised with impunity upon the colored subscribers to our paper in Wilmington, and that too by persons in the employment of the United States, whose business is to serve the people, instead of trampling upon their rights.

But what better can be expected in a slave State, where the will of every white man is the law—at least over a colored person?ーSuch numbers of the North Star as they think unfit for the eye of the colored people, they read themselves, and then destroy. We shall take advantage of this baseness, and send our Wilmington package by another arrangement.

There is one fact, here worthy of remark, which is, that the post office arrangements under the most vexatious bungler and amusing excuse for a Post-Master General, Cave Johnson, have been the worst managed, and most abused in all parts of the country, of any period during my observation of public affairs. It is fortunate for the people of this country, that his time in that position is but short, when the people will be rid of as consummate and contemptible a despot as ever toddled in the moccasins of a conceited upstart. I am indebted for assistance in my meetings in Wilmington to Rev. A. Cole, pastor of the Wesley Church, and Rev. Mr. Smith, Pastor of Bethel Church.

You will perceive that my letter was commenced several days since; but such have been my continual engagements in meetings and changes from place to place, that I have kept it unfinished until now, the 1st of February, before I could make an intelligent conclusion to it.

G. W. Goines' book store and anti-slavery office, No. 198 South Sixth street, will be the Philadelphia office of the North Star, where single copies can be had, and also subscribers received. Persons above Arch street, can call at the anti-slavery office, No. 31 North Fifth street, where subscribers are received to the North Star.

Having several meetings to attend between this and Monday, I shall leave here on Tuesday next for the West, en route to Rochester, where I expect to be in March.

Our much-esteemed, long-tried and faithful friend of the slave and his oppressed country, and of man, Robert Douglass, senior, has gone from labor to reward. He departed this life on the 28th of January, after a tedious affliction of protracted duration, in the 78th year of his ageーripe in years, and ripe in the fruitfulness of works of goodness. He died the death of the righteous. I frequently called to see him before his demise, and in one instance had a long conversation with him. He lamented much, and shed tears at the thought, that the young laborers in the cause of philanthropy and reform would so far forget the OLD as to totally neglect them in their hours of seclusion and affliction. This, of course, I endeavored to palliate as well as I could.

Though enfeebled by age, and almost exhausted with disease, at the mere mention of liberty, or the condition of our race, the bosom of the old gentleman would heave, his eyes sparkle, and all the animation of youth and vigor light up the full expression of his countenance. May the young of the present age live so useful a life, and eventually die as happy a death!

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.