PRINCIPAL OFFICE OF THE

Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company

Washington, D.C. May 15. 1874

My dear Mr. Potter,

My answer to your kind invitation has been delayed in hope of being able at last to make it affirmative but circumstances now make this impossible. My absence from the Free religious Convention will not be felt by anyone as by myself for I should come less to instruct than to be instructed. The word "free" has a charming sound to me. Perhaps, my life in slavery (only made endurable by the hope of some day being free) may account for it. At any rate, I find myself without effort in full accord with every earnest movement for larger freedom to mankind both of body and mind. I know the works of good men and women of the Free religious convention and that they are full of promise to the spirits in prison. Your mission is
a mission of light not to