Fall River Ms. Apr. 6. 73

My dear Friend,

I have to thank you for yr kind favors, both of which were received in good time and yet more for your invitation to stop in Washington. This however is an impossibility. My friend Mrs. Hayward is here & I return with her to Hannibal. We go to Providence Tuesday Aft. & on Wednesday or Thursday start for Schenectady where we shall stop over Sunday, and leave Monday mor^g probably for Detroit, where I stop to see a friend whilst Mrs. H goes to Kalamazoo for a few days, where we meet again at Chicago & continue our Journey. Were you only in Rochester, I should be most happy to stop there instead

of Chicago—or Schenectady— but you are not, & it is no use to wish —I shall hope to hear from you whilst in Hannibal, and if on my return, you should be in Washington, & wish me to do so, I may come that way—but all that is in the Future wh. is always uncertain —I hope you are recovering from your Cold, & over-exertion—I have not forgotten my long-ago promise, but trust you will have no occasion for its realisation—tho' with the necessity I shall be only too glad to render it. I can't help a shade of sadness at the week wh. lies before me—but I trust I shall be aided and I have been. William does not seem to me to be gone—and I think I have his help still. GertieSherman, Martha Greene "Gertie"

Daughter of Martha Waldo Brown Greene and William Arnold Greene (Finding Aid, Martha Waldo Greene and Frederick Sherman Collection of Frederick Douglass papers, Brown University). She married William F. Sherman in 1872. & WillSherman, William Frederick

, with Minnie who is spending Sunday with us, would be remembered to you

Please give love to Rosetta, with my best wishes—always yrs

"Sister Martha"Greene, Martha Waldo Brown

Martha Waldo Brown Greene (1820-1902) was the daughter of John and Mary Hodges Brown. She married William Arnold Greene (1822-73) on 9 May 1842. Her husband was engaged in the mercantile business in New York City in 1842-43, when Martha Greene was an officer of the American Anti-Slavery Society. The couple then moved to Worcester, Massachusetts, where they had six children. Martha and Douglass were close friends and remained so after the Civil War. The contents of the letters often addressed private matters such as his relationship with Ottilie Assing. Greene helped Douglass recover from depression after his first wife died in 1882. Martha died in Melrose, Massachusetts, which was the residence of her daughter Martha Greene Sherman. Martha W. Greene to Frederick Douglass, 7 July 1864, 2 August 1865, 22 July 1871 in General Correspondence File, DLC, reel 2, frames 40-42, 138-39, 604-05, FD Papers, DLC; David W. Blight, Frederick Douglass’ Civil War: Keeping Faith in Jubilee (Baton Rouge, 1989), 167; Diedrich, Love across Color Lines, 306, 368; McFeely, Frederick Douglass, 313.