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Frederick Douglass to Amy Post, February, 1849

Dear AmyPost, Amy Kirby

The Posts, Isaac (1798-1872) and Amy Kirby (1802-89), were prominent abolitionists who spent their most active years in Rochester, New York. Isaac was born on Long Island but moved to Scipio, New York, in 1823 with his first wife Hannah Kirby. After Hannah's death in 1827, he married her younger sister, Amy, a native of Jericho, New York. In 1836 the Posts moved to Rochester, where they became involved with Garrisonian abolitionism. The Posts often hid fugitive slaves, and Amy acted as vice president of the American Anti-Slavery Society in the 1850s and 1860s. In addition to abolitionism, Amy was active in the women's movement, including the seminal 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, a meeting that she helped to organize. In 1848 the Posts also numbered among the first converts to spiritualism in Rochester, and Isaac soon attracted fame as a writing medium. Douglass first met the couple in 1842 when he stayed at their home during a lecture tour, and their friendship influenced his choice of Rochester as the base for his newspaper, the North Star. Hewitt, Women's Activism and Social Change, 61, 93, 107, 118, 131-34, 142-43, 169; Blake McKelvey, "Civic Medal Awarded Posthumously," RH, 22:10-11 (April 1960); DAB, 15:117.

I am just about leaving for Rushville, and I drop this to Say, that I was yesterday detained necessarily at the office—and could not fulfil my appointment to hear the little musical prodigy
Yours hasly
F Douglass

Creator

Douglass, Frederick

Date

1849-02

Description

Frederick Douglass to Amy Post. ALS: Post Family Papers, NRU. Regrets inability to attend performance of musical prodigy.

Publisher

This document was calendared in the published volume and has not been published in full before.

Collection

Post Family Papers

Type

Letters

Publication Status

Unpublished