Gateshead-on-Tyne

Novr 27^th 1876 -

My very dear friend,

I shall begin this letter this evening because I have a little leisure—after a very busy day—and I do not expect any spare time for writing tomorrow—I was so glad of your letter—doubly glad that mine had arrived just on your return home—Oh! how I wish we could have even a few hours' conversation on our respective affairs!—without the least desire to withhold from so old & true a friend any of my perplexities I feel that half an hour viva voce w^d explain more to you than sheets of foolscap possibly can! My dear, aged Aunt'sGriffiths, 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). departure from this lower scene has put me in direct possession of that while she resided with me, I had

from her indirectly—She bought me the house I live in—& no one can touch it nor any of the little property left me—it is so firmly settled on me. To go back a little—we all moved from "the Potteries" to Gateshead nine years last conference–(July)–after staying 4 years in this circuit Dr. C.Crofts, Henry O.

decided to accept a call to Manchester—he was but poorly at the time & many of his f^ds here wished him to list a year—which they (the M. N. C. Ministers) can do without becoming actual supernumeraries—however he would not cease from regular duty—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). had become more infirm—she liked the air here—& decided to stay—we had taken a few pupils–because I have always remembered that the Doctor's retiring pension w^d be but very small—the girls drew lots which shd go with their father—LizzieCrofts, Elizabeth Ann "Lizzie"

went—& 2 stayed with me—Time & patience would fail me to all of what I put up with from JaneGriffiths, Jane (dau. of Julia G. Crofts

especially from the time her father left until her marriage and now she & her husband are giving both families great pain & anxiety—She has married the only son of a very rich man–& this son has been over indulged–& has nothing to do! So you may judge–My dear Aunt's affairs were only fully wound up–in August &

the results would give me a sufficiency just for myself—and it is my choice to be mistress of what I have—Doctor W^d send the school to the winds—& have me join him at once—but he has a temper, poor man, & that has not improved!—When his preaching days are over, if I am then alive he will, as a matter of course join me—but meantime I keep firm in my resolution—MattieCrofts, Martha "Mattie" Nichol

stayed with me here until she found a very weak & foolish love, engagement;—which was unknown to me for some time—When I found it out I took her to her Papa—she now sees how silly she has been–it has long been over! but as the youth still floats about Gateshead, I will not have her back here—the responsibility is too great. She is a bright pleasant girl—I shall best finish and close this now because I want it to arrive at Washington when you arrive for Xmas–Poor Rose!Sprague, Rosetta Douglass

Rosetta Douglass Sprague (1839–1906), the first child of Anna and Frederick Douglass, was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, on 24 June 1839. In her childhood, Rosetta wrote and read letters for her mother, whom she assisted with housework and with piecework for the shoe factories in Lynn, Massachusetts. Her father sent Rosetta to school at age seven in Albany, New York, where she lived with Abigail and Lydia Mott. When the Douglass family moved to Rochester, Rosetta began attending the Seward Seminary, where her presence offended the parents of one of the white students and led to her segregation from the other pupils. Her father, in a fury, removed Rosetta from the school and hired a private tutor for his daughter. Rosetta, along with her three brothers, then led other students in the efforts to desegregate Rochester’s public school system. From 1854 to 1855, Rosetta attended Oberlin College preparatory school, one of the first institutions of higher education to accept African Americans and women. She became a teacher in Philadelphia and Salem, Massachusetts, until her marriage in 1863 to Nathan Sprague, with whom she had seven children. Before her death in 1906, she wrote a memoir of her mother that remains one of the most complete documents of Anna Murray Douglass’s life. Rosetta Douglass Sprague, My Mother as I Recall Her: A Paper Read before the Anna Murray Douglass Union, W.C.T.U., May 10, 1900 (1900; Washington, D.C., 1923); Dorothy Sterling, ed., We Are Your Sisters: Black Women in the Nineteenth Century (New York, 1984), 132–45; Ellen N. Lawson and Marlene Merrill, “The Antebellum ‘Talented Thousandth’: Black College Students at Oberlin before the Civil War,” Journal of Negro Education, 52: 145 (Spring 1983); Miriam DeCosta-Willis, “Smoothing the Tucks in Father’s Linen: The Women of Cedar Hill,” Sage, 4: 30–33 (Fall 1987); Sylvia Lyons Render, “Afro-American Women: The Outstanding and the Obscure,” Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress, 32: 306–10 (October 1975), 307–10. it is indeed a sad business–Did you approve her marriage? Or did you see through the young man'sSprague, Nathan

character.—

I do hope the grandchildren

are any of them like dear little AnnieDouglass, Annie (Douglass's daughter)

!!—How many years her angel spirit has been in heaven! How time passes!—The pleasures of memory are very dear to me—How often I repeat to myself those favorite lines of our's—"There's a Divinity that shapes our ends, rough, bend them as we may"!—I still seem to see you on "the hill"—often for the moment forgetful of the fact that the old house there is burnt down! Is Lydia MottMott, Lydia

dead yet?–& what of IsaacPost, Isaac

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. & Amy PostPost, 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. ?–& BurtissesBurgesses family

&c—What a strange set they all were!—I owe Mrs C. D. MillerMiller, Elizabeth Smith

a letter—& must write—She is like both her noble fatherSmith, Gerrit

Gerrit Smith (1797– 1874), a New York businessman and land speculator, became best known for his philanthropic work for such reform causes as temperance and abolition. Between 1828 and 1835, he donated large sums of money to the American Colonization Society, but abandoned that movement in 1835 when his sympathies shifted to the immediate abolitionists. In the 1840s, he gave approximately 140,000 acres of land in upstate New York to three thousand black settlers, thus qualifying them to vote. Smith was a founder and frequent candidate of the Liberty party, running for governor of New York on that ticket in 1840 and winning a seat in Congress in 1852. When the Free Soil merger with moderate antislavery Democrats and Whigs lured away many Liberty party supporters, Smith helped bankroll that organization until 1860. Smith befriended Douglass when the latter moved to Rochester, and Smith frequently helped finance Frederick Douglass’ Paper. Like Douglass, Smith supported John Brown, but psychological stress caused by the failure at Harpers Ferry brought on the first of a series of bipolar episodes that greatly reduced his subsequent reform activities. Ralph Volney Harlow, Gerrit Smith: Philanthropist and Reformer (1939; New York, 1972); Gerald Sorin, The New York Abolitionists: A Case Study of Political Radicalism (Westport, Conn., 1971), 269– 87; Lewis Perry, Radical Abolitionism: Anarchy and the Government of God in Antislavery Thought (Ithaca, N.Y., 1973), 170– 80; John R. McKivigan and Madeleine Leveille, “The ‘Black Dream’ of Gerrit Smith, New York Abolitionist,” Syracuse University Library Associates Courier, 20:61– 76 (Fall 1985); NCAB , 2:322– 23; DAB, 17:270– 71. & her dear motherSmith, Ann Carroll Fitzhugh

On 2 January 1822, Ann Carroll Fitzhugh (1805–75), sometimes called “Nancy,” became the second wife of Gerrit Smith. She was born in Hagerstown, Maryland, where her father, William Fitzhugh (1761–1839), was a prominent planter connected to elite families. In 1800 Fitzhugh entered into a real estate venture with his neighbors Charles Carroll and Nathaniel Rochester. The three purchased land in upstate New York and established the town of Rochester, where Fitzhugh moved his family in 1815. He became a prominent resident and philanthropist, contributing to the growth of the town into a City. Gerrit and Ann Smith had eight children, including Elizabeth Smith Miller (1822–1911), who followed in her father’ s footsteps to become an activist and reformer in her own right. Octavius Brooks Frothingham, Gerrit Smith: A Biography (New York, 1909), 27; Harlow, Gerrit Smith, 16; Robert McNamara, “Charles Carroll of Belle Vue: Co-founder of Rochester,” RH, 42:1, 13 (October 1980). ! one of nature's nobility—Dec^er 3^rd a wet Sunday evening—so, I am at home & will finish this—we have had a most dreary november—so much rain——I am quietly meditating a removal from Gateshead—but have nothing definitely fixed—I will inform you when I have—& I shall not move at present—There are many pros & cons in the matter that have to be well weighed—I spend Xmas, if all's well with the Doctor, in Lancashire—& do not expect to return here, until 15^th of January—so, if you write me a "New year's

letter addressed to Gateshead I shall hope to receive it on my return here–but if you are likely to be off again before then, address here all the same, as all my letters are always forwarded to me–I have many old friends around London–& in the midland counties and I often feel very lonely up here in the North—although, I have many newer friends here—Yet as we advance in life we naturally think more of old friends— Ere' this reaches you the news will have arrived of the death of hon George DawsonDawson, George

. I knew it at once—from a peculiar circumstance—He was engaged to lecture at Morpeth the end of January—I have intimate friends at Morpeth—& they asked me being aware that I was acquainted with Mr. Dawson, to convey to him an invitation' to stay at their residence on that occasion—I delayed writing to him until Wedy last – 29^th Nov—On Saturday I received a note from his only son, Bernard DawsonDawson, Bernard

to say "his father died quite suddenly on Thursday, from the bursting of a blood vessel while coughing"—Poor fellow! I fear he had for some years past been living too well—He will be greatly missed in many circles—"Friend after friend departs"—& we too, my dear friend Frederick, must

go when our call comes—Every year I live I seem to cling more closely to the dear Saviour—I know that only He can save me–& if I trust Him I know He will "even to the uttermost"—At this time our old world is turned upside down both religiously & politically: For the first time since I began to think I am ashamed, not of our nation—but of our government—but I must not begin to talk about "the East"–& the difficulties there——Religiously, Romanism is increasing rapidly—on the one hand—& new fangled infidelity on the other—until these recent exposures so called "spiritualism" was greatly increasing——Do you ever hear or see any thing of the Porters now?–Do you often go to Rochester?—Where do you stay, when you do go?—

Now be very good & answer my many questions—What a confusion your presidential election has been, & the wrong man in after all! alas!—Have you seen H. W. BeecherBeecher, Henry Ward

Henry Ward Beecher (1813-87), the fourth son of Presbyterian clergyman Lyman Beecher and brother of antislavery novelist Harriet Beecher Stowe, was the noted pastor of Brooklyn's Plymouth Church for forty years. After his graduation from Amherst College in 1834, Beecher studied at Lane Theological Seminary and served as pastor of Presbyterian churches in Lawrenceburg and Indianapolis, Indiana, before becoming minister at Plymouth Church in 1847. Committed to making the church an active instrument of social reform, Beecher in his sermons addressed the major social and political issues of his time with a force and drama that established him as one of the century's major orators. Although he denounced the evil of slavery, he denied that a constitutional basis existed for interfering with the institution in states where it already existed. Instead, Beecher urged that its exclusion from the territories would achieve abolition gradually and peacefully. His theology, minimizing doctrinal differences, stressed the religious worth of personal loyalty to Christ, and in 1882 he led his church out of the Congregational denomination. In addition to writing extensively for the secular press, Beecher edited the widely read religious journals New York Independent(1861-63) and Christian Union (1870-81). His reputation survived five years of public discussion that preceded the 1875 court trial and subsequent Congregational council's examination of New York Congregational journalist Theodore Tilton's charge that an adulterous relation existed between his wife and Beecher. Caskey, Chariot of Fire, 208-48; NCAB, 3:129-30; DAB, 2:129-35. lately?—about that case, you never told me (& I could not remember) who that lady was who touched his arm so familiarly at Miss Porter's when you & I were there? Tell me now–I want to know–Give my love to RoseSprague, Rosetta Douglass

Rosetta Douglass Sprague (1839–1906), the first child of Anna and Frederick Douglass, was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, on 24 June 1839. In her childhood, Rosetta wrote and read letters for her mother, whom she assisted with housework and with piecework for the shoe factories in Lynn, Massachusetts. Her father sent Rosetta to school at age seven in Albany, New York, where she lived with Abigail and Lydia Mott. When the Douglass family moved to Rochester, Rosetta began attending the Seward Seminary, where her presence offended the parents of one of the white students and led to her segregation from the other pupils. Her father, in a fury, removed Rosetta from the school and hired a private tutor for his daughter. Rosetta, along with her three brothers, then led other students in the efforts to desegregate Rochester’s public school system. From 1854 to 1855, Rosetta attended Oberlin College preparatory school, one of the first institutions of higher education to accept African Americans and women. She became a teacher in Philadelphia and Salem, Massachusetts, until her marriage in 1863 to Nathan Sprague, with whom she had seven children. Before her death in 1906, she wrote a memoir of her mother that remains one of the most complete documents of Anna Murray Douglass’s life. Rosetta Douglass Sprague, My Mother as I Recall Her: A Paper Read before the Anna Murray Douglass Union, W.C.T.U., May 10, 1900 (1900; Washington, D.C., 1923); Dorothy Sterling, ed., We Are Your Sisters: Black Women in the Nineteenth Century (New York, 1984), 132–45; Ellen N. Lawson and Marlene Merrill, “The Antebellum ‘Talented Thousandth’: Black College Students at Oberlin before the Civil War,” Journal of Negro Education, 52: 145 (Spring 1983); Miriam DeCosta-Willis, “Smoothing the Tucks in Father’s Linen: The Women of Cedar Hill,” Sage, 4: 30–33 (Fall 1987); Sylvia Lyons Render, “Afro-American Women: The Outstanding and the Obscure,” Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress, 32: 306–10 (October 1975), 307–10. –and Mrs. DouglassDouglass, Anna Murray

Anna Murray Douglass (c. 1813-82), Douglass’s first wife, was born free in Denton, Maryland. She was the eighth child of Bambarra and Mary Murray, slaves who had been manumitted shortly before her birth. At seventeen she moved to Baltimore, where she worked as a domestic and met Douglass at meetings of the East Baltimore Mental Improvement Society. In 1838, Murray helped Douglass finance his escape, and she joined him in New York City, where they were married on 15 September 1838. During Douglass’s first tour of the British Isles (1845-47), she remained in Lynn, Massachusetts, where she supported the family by binding shoes. She gained a reputation for frugality and skillful household management, qualities that would contribute greatly to her family’s financial prosperity over the years. A member of the Lynn Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society and a regular participant in the annual antislavery bazaars in Boston, she continued her antislavery activities after moving to Rochester in 1847. Unlettered, reserved, and, according to her husband, never completely at ease in white company, she seldom appeared at public functions with Douglass. She was nevertheless affectionately remembered by her husband’s associates as a “warm” and “hospitable” hostess at their home. On 9 July 1882, Anna Douglass suffered an attack of paralysis in Washington, D.C., and died there on 4 August. Lib., 18 November, 2 December 1853; Philadelphia Christian Recorder, 20 July 1882; Washington (D.C.) Post, 5 August 1882; Rosetta Douglass Sprague, My Mother as I Recall Her: A Paper Delivered before the Anna Murray Douglass Union, W.C.T.U., May 10, 1900 (1900; Washington, D.C., 1923); Jane Marsh Parker, “Reminiscences of Frederick Douglass,” Outlook, 51:552-53 (6 April 1895); Dorothy Sterling, ed., We Are Your Sisters: Black Women in the Nineteenth Century (New York, 1984), 132-37; Julie R. Nelson, “The Best of Intentions: Anna Murray Douglass, Helen Pitts Douglass, and the Challenge of Social Equality,’ Proteus: A Journal of Ideas, 12:39-42 (Spring 1995); Sylvia Lyons Render, “Afro-American Women: The Outstanding and the Obscure,” Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress, 32:306-10 (October 1975). –and believe me to the end (there will be no end to desiring)

Your faithful and affectionate old 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).