Mrs. Coates Esqre

St Ives
Huntingdonshire—

June 13^th/76

My dear friend—

I do not know when this may reach you—but I feel constrained just to tell you how deeply I feel for you in the trials which you confide to me—And to assure you I shall keep that confidence sacred in my own heart—My first impulse was to write to dear Rosa—to express all that I felt for her—poor dear Rosa!

But then I thought that she might not know, that you had told me of her troubles—and that I would wait to write to her—until you had given me leave to do so. Oh, that I could do something to comfort her!—Give my dear love to her—please. I do trust there are brighter days in store for her—She has indeed suffered but you are left to her. And oh how happy she still ought to be—with you—for her support and comfort how happy!!– No doubt she feels it and realizes it!– and this must indeed console her–

If I were not afraid of tiring you—I would tell you of many meetings to which I have been in London—where the future of Africa was the subject of discussion you would have been cheered dear friend had you been present—All think it will be a glorious future! I think it more likely that the colony races will rule over the white race—than vice versa—It is the opinion of many in Europe—God who is just—must bring it to pass—I have seen and conversed much with dear Dr. Moffett

lately—He speaks most confidently—like a prophet—at the bright future of Africa—The Jubilee Singers are now at Huntingdon—They are most enthusiastically received. And you would be glad to hear the speeches that are made at their concerts by many good & eminent men every where. I have just had a long letter from dear Mrs. CarpenterCarpenter, Mary Browne

Mary Browne Carpenter (c. 1824–98) was the wife of the prominent Unitarian minister Russell Lant Carpenter (1819–92). They were married in Bridgwater, Somersetshire, in 1853. She was one of four daughters born to William Browne, a wealthy Unitarian merchant, and his wife, Mary. William Browne served as mayor of Bridgwater in 1854. In addition to her support of the antislavery effort, Mary Browne Carpenter was also deeply involved in the woman suffrage movement, belonging to one of the more radical suffrage societies in Bridport. She also supported the animal rights and temperance movements. 1841 England Census, Gloucestershire, Bristol, 22; “England and Wales, Christening Records, 1530–1906,” FamilySearch.org; “England and Wales, Death Index, 1837–1915,” FamilySearch.org; “England and Wales, Marriage Index, 1837–1915,” FamilySearch. org; “England and Wales, Non-Conformist Records Indexes, 1588–1977,” FamilySearch.org; Elizabeth Crawford, The Women’s Suffrage Movement in Britain and Ireland: A Regional Survey (New York, 2006), 161, 169.She has not been identified by name. —She says you have sent her a magnificent photograph—I am not jealous—but I had the weakness to shed a few tears because I have not one!

I ought to know that you must have some good reasons for not granting my often repeated requests—And I hope I shall not trouble you any more about it—I saw the one you gave Miss 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. —And I shall have the pleasure of seeing this—when I stay with our dear friends—and thus try to be satisfied – It is really surprising how long it takes me to become inured to such things—I do not think I ever shall—It is rather humiliating but such is human nature!

I am going to ask you something—not for myself—but for Mr. CoateCoates, Benjamin

Benjamin Coates (c. 1808-87) mostly likely formed his opinions on slavery and abolition under the influence of his devout Pennsylvania Quaker parents. A successful wool merchant and a publisher, Coates was active in many antislavery organizations in Philadelphia, such as the Pennsylvania Abolition Society. Despite his abolitionist connections, Coates argued that colonization was the best way to end slavery. From the 1840s until his death, Coates actively sought financial support from wealthy donors for colonization efforts in western Africa and started a correspondence with Joseph Jenkins Roberts, a successful immigrant to Liberia. In 1858 Coates published Cotton Cultivation in Africa: Suggestions on the Importance of the Cultivation of Cotton in Africa, in Reference to the Abolition of Slavery in the United States, through the Organization of an African Civilization Society, which advocated an increase in international cotton production in order to diminish the world’s dependence on cotton from the American South. Coates believed that with a decrease in profits, Southern slave owners would be compelled to free most, and perhaps all, of their slaves. Coates’s endorsement of colonization hurt his standing in the abolitionist movement, yet Douglass defended Coates, stating that he was a “humane and benevolent man” and “no more a negro hater than we.” , ser. 3, 1:538n; Ripley, 4:322. who has heard of your oration on the unveiling of the Freedmen's monument to Abraham LincolnLincoln, Abraham

Whig turned Republican Illinois politician Abraham Lincoln (1809-65) was sworn in as the sixteenth president of the United States on 4 March 1861. Douglass met Lincoln at the White House in 1863 and was charmed by the president's earnest political consideration of emancipation. A year later Lincoln granted Douglass's request that his son Charles be discharged from the Army because of illness. Douglass met in private with Lincoln on 19 August 1864, when they discussed stepping up efforts to recruit slaves to the Union's cause. Lincoln was elected to a second term in November 1864, and Douglass attended his inauguration festivities. James M. McPherson, Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution (New York, 1990), 109, 134-35, 139; Phillip Shaw Paludan, The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln (Lawrence, Kans., 1994), 4-5, 15-16, 183, 285-87; McFeely, Frederick Douglass, 229-35. . He has begged I would ask you to send him a Paper—containing it if you possibly can do so—He would be truly obliged to you for one—I have not seen it—but I hope I shall sooner or later—I am indeed disappointed that you are not coming over this summer—but of course you could not—in view of the presidential elections—May God strengthen you for the hard labors before you –this coming summer—And bless you with abundant success – My poor prayers always follow you and shall follow you to the end—I shall be here with the Coates for some weeks or perhaps months—My letters addressed to the care of M^r Coate for me—will always find me—

God Bless you my dear friend Farewell—

Ever yours most faithfully and affectionately.

R. Amé-DrazAmé-Draz, Rosine

A Swiss national, Rosine Amé-Draz (c. 1816–?) first arrived in England on 11 July 1838, listing her profession as teacher. In 1841 she was teaching and living in the parish of Egg Buckland, Devonshire. After spending an undetermined length of time back in Switzerland, she returned to England in July 1848, this time listing her profession as governess. According to the 1861 English Census (where she was recorded as “Rosine Ann Davy,” a native of Neufchatel, Switzerland), she was staying in the home of Mrs. Elizabeth Read of Ecclesfield, Yorkshire. By 1871 she was serving as governess to the children of George S. Kemp, a wealthy Lancashire manufacturer. 1841 England Census, Devonshire, Egg Buckland, 11; 1861 England Census, Yorkshire, Ecclesfield, 56; 1871 England Census, Lancashire, Castleton, 1; “England, Alien Arrivals, 1810–1811, 1826–1869,” Ancestry.com.