14 Denmark S^t

Gateshead on Tyne

21^st Dec^r

My very dear Friend

I did not purpose Xmas being so near at hand before sending forward a kindly missive to meet you on your arrival at home for the annual gathering—but I have been extremely ill—confined to bed many days—with a severe attack of that ugly malady now so general viz: "bronchitis"—Last winter I had "slight congestion of the bronchial tubes"—& this winter the disease has, I suppose, somewhat advanced!

Well, my dear old friend, we must have some

messenger to remind us of our mortality & I predicate that this is mine. I should love to have one more friendly converse with my tried true & trusty old friend Frederick, here below—but if this may not be—may we meet in that better land "where sorrow is unknown," through the atoning sacrifice of our dear Saviour.

This 1875 year now closing has been to me, in many respects, a very trying one—I dare not even begin to enter into particulars—None of my adopted daughters are, at present, resident in Gateshead. M^rs Joe

Hanson (Jane) husband & 2 babies are at this time in Lancashire. I expect to meet them all at Bolton at the Doctor's home there on Thursday—MattieCrofts, Martha "Mattie" Nichol

got into a very inconsistent love affair & her fatherCrofts, Henry O.

& I both thought that she was better out of Gateshead than in it for some time to come—There LizzieCrofts, Elizabeth Ann "Lizzie"

keeps her Papa's Bolton house—The Doctor was here in Sep^tr & again in Nov^r—My dear aged AuntGriffiths, Mary Powis

Mary Powis Griffiths (c. 1789–1877), with whom Julia Griffiths; her husband, the Reverend Henry O. Crofts; and three stepdaughters (Elizabeth, Saley, and Martha Crofts) were sharing their home in both 1861 and 1871. 1861 England Census, Halifax, Yorkshire, 110; 1871 England Census, Gateshead, Durham County, 41; Janet Douglas, “A Cherished Friendship: Julia Griffiths Crofts and Frederick Douglass,” Slavery and Abolition, 33:265–74 (June 2012). yet lives! 87 last April— She now keeps her bed entirely—is extremely weak & low & is losing her memory fast—Her mind is "kept in perfect peace"—& she is happy in

the prospect of departing to be "with Jesus"—I have a large day school—23 resident governesses—1 French—1 German & 1 English but—my life is, in many respects, a lovely one—The "pleasures of memory" are, now to me greater than those of Hope—& in the mind's eye "the scenes of the past are often re-acted What wonderful powers the mind has!—I had a very interesting letter from dear M^rs CarpenterCarpenter, Mary

Mary Carpenter (1807-77) was the daughter of British reformer and Unitarian minister Lant Carpenter, and with her brother Philip Lant Carpenter, was a social justice activist. She began operating a girls' school in Bristol in 1829 with the help of her mother, Anna Penn Carpenter. Finding the care of poor children her life's calling, in 1835 Mary formed the Working and Visiting Society and in 1852 opened her own reformatory for boys. In the 1850s and 1860s she lobbied for industrial schooling in Britain and opened two schools of her own. In her later years she traveled widely and lectured in Britain and India on education and penal reform. She was inspired to visit India as a result of her father’s friendship with Rammohun Roy, a Bengalese teacher and religious educator who established the Brahmo Samaj, a brotherhood made up of Christians, Muslims, and Hindus. Roy visited Mary’s father, Lant Carpenter, at the Lewis Mead Unitarian Church in Bristol, but died shortly afterward from meningitis in 1833. Mary visited India four times, where she established a school for Hindu girls and became active in social reform. Jo Manton, Mary Carpenter and the Children of the Streets (London, 1976), 18-30; Jennifer S. Uglow, ed., The International Dictionary of Womens Biography (New York, 1982), 94; Mary Carpenter, Six Months in India (London, 1868).ACAB, 1:531-32; DNB, 3:1068-70, 1071-72; DAB, 1:561. a few months since & hope to write to her for "New Year's day" —I wished much to go & see them last summer, but could not bring it in—I go to visit

my old friends in & round London next summer & that is both rest & holiday to me. I was urged to go up to London again this Xmas, but duty said no & all being well, I go to Bolton—sleeping in Leeds, tomorrow on my way—I saw our mutual old friends M^rs & Miss Cash last summer & they inquired most kindly about their dear old friend Frederick.

The Press would tell you what an excitement we in England had nine months ago concerning that old subject, the

rendition of Fugitive Slaves!!—What a stir we had & what popular indignation was roused! & then the disgraceful & wicked enactment was quashed! How I wished we had had you to thunder in the ears of government & the Admiralty Lords!—well alas at an end for the present!

Query—Can they ever resume the subject? Oh! that this talk were not one sided—The Jubilee Singers sang in N. castle last week—I was too unwell to go now—My dear old f^d pray send me a bulletin of you & your's as soon as you can—address as usual to Gateshead—If all's well I return here in less than a month for another half yearly campaign of duty—Better & Oh! how much better to wear out than rust out—The truth of that old proverb is abundantly proved by the miserable lives people lead who have "nothing to do"——You & I are not of the latter class & never were!

query—in what will the "Best" of the future world consist?—Now please send me your last carte—that I may see how much older my old friend looks—& as soon as I get a new one I will send mine——Give my love to M^rs Douglass to Rose and to all the boys—I sh^d like to see every one of these grandchildren and all!

Amidst an unusual number of interruptions my paper is filled—May God bless & preserve you! my very dear friend—D^r Crofts & the girls would send love were they here.

Ever & Ever your faithful & affec^ate friend

Julia G. CroftsCrofts, Julia Griffiths

A native of London, Julia Griffiths (1811–95) was the oldest of seven children born to Thomas Griffiths, a onetime stationer turned publisher and bookseller, and his wife Charlotte Powis. She first met Douglass during the latter half of 1846 when he lectured in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where she was visiting with friends. Her mother had been a friend of William Wilberforce, who had advocated for the abolition of slavery in England, and she herself was active in the British antislavery movement. Charmed by the American, Griffiths followed Douglass back to the United States with her younger sister, Eliza, in 1848. In 1850, Eliza married John Dick, one of Douglass’s printers for the North Star, and the couple moved to Toronto. Julia became a constant companion and partner to Douglass and a leading antislavery organizer in Rochester for the next five years. She contributed to the North Star as copy editor and journalist, and saved the paper from financial ruin by organizing its books and by aggressively pursuing subscribers and donations. She helped found the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society, acting as its secretary, and organized the Rochester Anti-Slavery Fair. Initially, she lived with the Douglass family, which led to tension in the household and to unsubstantiated rumors that Douglass and Griffiths shared more than a business relationship. In 1853, the vicious attacks upon her in abolitionist newspapers drove her from the Douglass home and finally forced her to return to England in 1855, ostensibly to raise funds for the North Star. In 1859 she married a Methodist minister from Halifax, Henry O. Crofts (1814–80), who acted as an agent for Frederick Douglass’ Paper. Through the Civil War, she continued to organize and revitalize ladies’ antislavery societies and to lecture against slavery. After the war and her husband’s death, she ran a boarding school and worked as a governess. Her friendship with Douglass continued in frequent correspondence, and she welcomed him and his second wife, Helen Pitts Douglass, when they visited England in 1886. British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Reporter, new ser., 5:82 (1 April 1857); 1871 England Census, Durham County, Gateshead, 41; London, England: Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538–1812, Ancestry.com; Maria Diedrich, Love Across Color Lines: Ottilie Assing and Frederick Douglass (New York, 1999), 179–84; Waldo E. Martin, Jr., The Mind of Frederick Douglass (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1984), 40–41; Janet Douglas, “A Cherished Friendship: Julia Griffiths Crofts and Frederick Douglass,” Slavery and Abolition, 33:265–74 (June 2012); Erwin Palmer, “A Partnership in the Abolition Movement,” University of Rochester Library Bulletin, 26:1–17 (Autumn/Winter 1970–71).