M[artin] R. Delany to Frederick Douglass, April 13, 1853
Letter from M. R. Delany.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS, ESQ: MY DEAR SIR:—I have many things to say to you; and as I
desire to be as laconic as possible, seeing
that you now have many able and interesting
correspondents, and not wishing to encum-
ber your valuable space with such as I have
to write, I must make it the subject of three
letters. The first, I write now; the second I
design writing next week; and the third, the
week after. Severally, a brotherly reply, to
set you right in your kindly remarks on my
letter, in relation to Mrs. Stowe's project, the
subject of a National Council of colored
freemen; and in regard to your article on
the business pursuits of our people and
youth, and the elevation of our people in gen-
eral—all of which, you know, I highly ap-
prove, and have long and generally advoca-
ted. I am well pleased with some of the re-
marks of "B," in your paper of the 8th inst.,
which came to hand to-day, and desire to
say, whatever difference of opinion there
may exist between us, if any there be, in re-
gard to the means to be used to attain our
long-desired end—the elevation of ourselves
and brethren—bond and free—upon the
manner in which you treated this subject, we
shall never disagree, and to all of what you
then said, I give a long and loud Amen! the
fretful letter of a mistaken brother—if such
he considers himself-to the contrary not-
withstanding.
But my object just now, was to write you
on the subject of Eliza Greenfield, the BLACK
SWAN, and her confidential friend, Colonel
Wood, with whom she now travels; than
whom, a meaner, and more unprincipled ha-
ter of the black race does not live in this
land of oppression. Miss Greenfield's course
and conduct have been equally void of prin-
ciple, but so induced to act, through this
man, Wood, and his friends. Elizabeth
Greenfield had engaged herself to a compe-
tent, and in every respect suitable colored
man, who had made ample provisions for giv-
ing concerts. She had also engaged Mr. D,
an accomplished artist and gentleman of
Philadelphia, as her private Secretary and
treasurer. Mr. D., in November, 1851, had
already entered on the discharge of his du-
ties, closing a good business at an honorable
profession, and at his own expense accom-
panied her from Philadelphia to Western
New York. Wood met her in Buffalo, when
she broke her contract with the former, to-
tally disappointing him, after his spending
much money; and right in the face of Mr.
D., and without his knowledge, appointed an-
other person over his head, as her Secretary
and Treasurer, Wood telling her that it
would not do to have a colored man, as he
would not have one about him, except as a
servant, and actually insulted Mr. D. by tell-
ing him and ordering indirectly to do menial
services for him; calling Mr. D., when referr-
ing to him, in presence of Miss Greenfield,
"That colored man," disdaining to treat him
with the common politeness of even calling
him by his name. When he did so, he dared
to use his Christian name with a servant's
signification. Of course, after this, Mr. D.
left them indignantly.
So little regard had Wood for a colored
person, that in presence of Mr. D., standing
obliquely behind Miss Greenfield, at a reher-
sal with some of his unprincipled friends, he
was distinctly seen, and heard to make de-
risive remarks of her person and color; then
in a low, mean, rowdy-like manner, shrug-
ging up his shoulders, winking and licking
out his tongue, step before her, uttering au-
dibly the flattering words, "O! lovely! de-
lightful! isn't she angelic!" then stepping
back behind her, wink, and lick out his
tongue again.
She is the merest creature of a slave, in
the hands of this fellow Wood, and his asso-
ciates, and does not know what she is getting
for her services; as she does not handle her
own money, but the person whom Wood ap-
pointed, one of his own troup, being her
treasurer, and holding, as they pretend, the
money for her! All that talk about her get-
ting $25,000 a year, is the most barefaced
falsehood.
Every letter that she receives is first open-
ed and read by the man Wood, lest she may
be advised to her own interest; and he has
been known to destroy two or three several
letters written to her by the colored contrac-
tor, who made the previous engagement with
her. When she is in a place, she dare not re-
ceive and see colored company, as this im-
poster Wood uses every devise and low cun-
ning to prevent it.
This Wood is the same mean person, who,
three years ago, was proprietor of a museum
in Cincinnati, Ohio, and kept a constant no-
tice, that no colored person would be admitted.
Indeed it is said of him that he has said
that he would as "willingly see a black dog
coming into his museum, as a colored per-
son;" and this is the man who intends leav-
ing the United States to fill his coffers with
the generous contributions of British philan-
thropy!
I will simply add, that Mr. D., the artist
here spoken of, is well known in Great Brit-
ain, particularly in Liverpool and London;
and Miss Greenfield was fully apprised of the
character of Wood, and the superior advan-
tages to her in going to Europe with a suit-
able colored gentleman and lady. In addi-
tion to Wood's other principles of negro
hate, he is a most uncompromising supporter
of the infamous Fugitive Slave Law. What
I write, I do as a duty I owe to our oppressed
selves, and stand individually responsible for.
In a concert held in Cincinnati, last winter,
a year, where Jenny Lind and Parodi had
held concerts, and two or three hundred of
the colored citizens attended, in common
with others, without distinction, this same
Col. Wood and Miss Eliza Greenfield object-
ed to colored persons attending. In regard
to this unparalleled act of meanness and in-
sult to a large and respectable population,
the Dispatch of this city, one of the leading
daily papers, has the following just rebuke:
MEAN SPIRIT.—"We find the following an-
nouncement in the Cincinnati Nonpareil of
Friday:
'Colored persons are excluded from the Black
Swan's concerts at Smith and Nixon's Hall.'
"Then the 'Black Swan,' if she has a par-
ticle of true spirit, should exclude herself
from the same hall. If she consents that
her own people shall, on account of their
color, be shut out from a room where she
sings, the glorious gifts of Genius and of
Song have been bestowed on one most un-
worthy of their possession."
Your for God and Humanity,
M. R. DELANY.
PITTSBURGH, April 13, 1853.