Brown, Mary. Letter to Frederick Douglass.

1847-11-01

Handwritten letter from Mary Brown to Frederick Douglass.

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Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester

(Page 1)

 

                        Riverside November 1^st 1847

My dear M^r Douglass

            I suppose it is no good expecting

to hear from you, unless we first write

and say to you how very much

pleasure it would give us to do so;

we have been hoping for some time

to see your hand writing – certainly

it was rather unreasonable to so do,

for I can well imagine that you

are nearly overwhelmed with necessary

correspondence; still, when you do

find a spare half hour, if now &

then you will bestow it upon your

Riverside friends, I can promise you

that it will be gratefully appre-

ciated; it would indeed be delightful

to hear form yourself a little of your

proceedings, for we long to know more

of you than the public prints can

tell us – Any paragraph with

your name in it is eagerly devoured,

but in this way we learn but

little about you.

 

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I am glad of an opportunity of saying

to you how vexed and annoyed we

have been about the Testimonial with its

odious conditions; immediately that we

received the circular I wrote to M^rs Nicholson

expressing our feeling on the matter, &

strongly urging the omission of the objecti-

-onable clause before the propositions

should be forwarded to you; but they were

already dispatched – I felt grieved and

ashamed that you should see them;

and we delayed sending our contribution

to the general fund until we understood

from M^rs. N. that you had expressed

yourself as perfectly satisfied with the

arrangement – how could she so mistake

you! I felt sure that you would never

accept a self-styled presuit [sic] on

such terms; – but I will not fill

my short space with this unpleasant

subject – I do not like to think of it.

We have just begun taking the Liberator

and look forward with much

interest to the days of its arrival.

We often think and talk of the

 

(Page 3)

 

days you were with us, short as the

time was – it was very delightful

and each ride and walk that you

took with us is associated with

the remembrance of the pleasant conver

sation we had,                        I suppose you have

not had much time for reading and

study since your return to America;

your illness, w^ch we were very sorry

to hear of, and since that, your

expedition Westward, must have

fully occupied you: besides, I should

think you must be too deeply

engrossed and agitated with

pressing present interests, to turn

with much relish to remote subjects,

which must appear cold & valueless

in their distance from all that you

are so closely bound up with – I should

like to know what books are your

favorites.

I do not think that I can tell you

anything very interesting of our

doings since we saw you, our life

is not varied so gloriously or so

 

(Page 4)

 

painfully as yours is; we spent a

fortnight in London last May, being

our first visit to the metropolis –

we worked hard at sight-seeing;

the picture galleries, and three evenings

that we spent at the Opera, seeing

and hearing the farfamed [sic] Jenny

Lind, Grisi; &c &c were what most

delighted me. –

This thin paper is dreadful to

write on, I fear it will be still

worse to read from.

            Mamma wishes to be kindly

remembered, so I am sure would

Papa & my sister M^rs [BlaVie?] if

they knew that I were writing,

Believe me to remain

            sincerely and affectionately yours

                                    Mary Brown

Abolitionism; Personal

Brown, Mary, “Brown, Mary. Letter to Frederick Douglass.,” RBSCP Exhibits, accessed March 16, 2025, https://rbscpexhibits.lib.rochester.edu/items/show/2986.