My Dear Miss PorterPorter, Maria G.

Maria G. Porter (1805–96), social activist, was born in Bristol, Maine. At twenty years of age, she moved with her family, to Rochester, New York, where she remained until her death. Maria helped to found the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Sewing Society and served as its treasurer for many years. She ran a boardinghouse in Rochester, which was a stop on the Underground Railroad from which she helped many fugitive slaves escape to freedom. 1850 U.S. Census, New York, Monroe County, 57; The Rochester Directory, Containing a General Directory of the Citizens, a Business Directory, and the City and County Register for the Year Beginning July, 1[,] 1880 (Rochester, 1880), 58; FDP, 26 February 1852; Rochester Herald, 14 December 1896; New York Times, 15 December 1896; (Bangor, Me.) Daily Whig & Courier, 17 December 1896; William F. Peck, History of Rochester and Monroe County, New York, 2 vols. (New York, 1908), 1:243. ,

You will oblige me by Sending me three Dollars, to assist John Williams, a man on his way from slavery to freedom. He comes from the neighborhood from which I escaped—and I believe him to be genuine.

Yours With respect and gratitude

Frederick Douglass—

April 29th.