Nell, William Cooper. Letter to Amy Kirby Post.

Title

Nell, William Cooper. Letter to Amy Kirby Post.

Creator

Nell, William Cooper

Contributor

Post, Amy Kirby, 1802-1889

Date

1854-02-19

Description

Handwritten letter from William Cooper Nell to Amy Kirby Post, February 19, 1854. Nell writes to Post and shares with her recent events in the Boston anti-slavery community.

Subject

Post, Amy Kirby, b. 1802

Is Part Of

Isaac and Amy Post Family Papers

Rights

The organization that has made the Item available believes that the Item is in the Public Domain under the laws of the United States, but a determination was not made as to its copyright status under the copyright laws of other countries. The Item may not be in the Public Domain under the laws of other countries. Please refer to the organization that has made the Item available for more information. http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/

Identifier

1013

Location

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

Transcription

(Page 1)

                       Boston Feb 19. 1854
My Valued Friend
                          It is late Sunday
night = I have penned a few lines to
Jacob and Joseph = also to Benjamin
and must before returning Jot down
Some words of Kind remembrance to
Amy Post to forward by Mr. Watkins
      He has this evening given an
anti slavery [sic] lecture in Roxbury and
tomorrow wends his way to Rochester
where      I would liKe to be for a
few days-        I heard a grand
   discourse from Theodore Parker
this morning        and       this evening
another from Andrew Jackson Davis
from there I visited the Howards in
Poplar St. where with Louisa and
Little Ira the time passed pleasant
with Cordelia De Grasse and others
      I am anxious to hear from You
all at Rochester of Wm & Mary Hallowell
Sarah Hallowell and Edmund = of Isaac
Post = and some account of Sarah Birney
of Mary Pitkin and Willie-
        Do impart

(Page 2)

I have recently recieved [sic] a letter
from Harriet Jacobs who enquires
about her Kind friend Amy Post
She would liKe to hear from You She
is Yet with Mr. Willis = though She
and Louisa thinK of removing to
Boston before many months
                        -
     I today was favored with a
Forget me not     Valentine = but
liKe the one from Rushville I have
no Knowledge of who Sent it.

I have also Just recieved [sic] a very
interesting letter from Professor
Wm G. Allen=      He is very pleasantly
Situated in London being patronised
in one course of Lectures by Lady
Byron = He SpeaKs in the most
exalted terms      of his wife
and wishes me       to find Just
Such an one =         if wishing on
my part would do any good
the idea [obliterated] and realization
would be near nieghbours
though I have not Yet abandoned
the hope of changing my condition
it may be however from Bad to
Worse-

(Page 3)

Read what Mr. Allen says of
F. D.          Jan 1854

         To what a depth of [skinniness?] has
Frederick Douglas descended = His
last stupid article = Reviews V= proves
that he has lost his senses as well
as his conscience =His attempt to
excite the prejudice of the Colored People
against Mr. Garrison because of his very
Sensible and philosophic remarK is
unparallelled [sic] in cruelty ingratitude
and meanness = It is    with great
Sorrow that I   have    read his   last
paper =      Mr. Garrison lives however
and to be honored by all the faithful
of earth-

A few weeks since I disappointed
myself of a good time with Charles
Lenox Ramond and a party including
Miss Wood and her reputed intended
a returned Californian) = They had a
sliegh [sic] ride from Salem to Essex
to the antislavery [sic] meeting where
with C.C. Burleigh and Loring Moody
they intended a large audience
      It was in Essex many Years

(Page 3)

ago I attended a meeting with
Douglass. Remond & Henry Clapp

Clapp has Just returned from
Europe ( I have not Yet met him

A number of Young Men have
Just formed a Literature Society
I am Editor for a term.
Please give my Kind regards
to Mrs. Douglass when You see
her = To the Circle of Choice
friends You will of course
distribute the Same-.

   I want to sit down and
talK with You   Isaac
and the rest = but in this
world   few of our wants
are gratified.
I am daily looKing for a letter
which If You have not Yet
written   I trust will be hastened
by this scrawl= Believe me ever
                 Your Friend Wm C. Nell

Annotations

William Cooper Nell, an abolitionist and former slave, is writing from Boston to fellow activist, Amy Post. Jacob and Joseph are two of Post’s sons. William J. Watkins worked with abolitionist and former slave, Frederick Douglass. Theodore Parker was a Transcendentalist and reform minister in the Unitarian Church, as well as an abolitionist. Andrew Jackson Davis was a Spiritualist healer. Spiritualists believed that through mediums, the living could communicate with the dead. The Posts were two such believers. Cordelia (Howard) De Grasse was an African American abolitionist. Louisa was Nell's sister and Ira was her son. Nell refers to Post's family members, including her son-in-law and step- daughter, William and Mary Hallowell, Post's sister and brother-in-law, Sarah Hallowell and Edmund Willis, and the Post's youngest son, Willie. Sarah Birney was a mutual friend of Nell and Post. Mary Ann Pitkin lived with the Post family for a period and cared for Willie.

Harriet Jacobs was an abolitionist and former slave, who wrote the book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Jacobs was then living with her daughter, Louisa, in Cornelia and Nathanial P. Willis's home. The Willis's had helped to buy Jacobs's freedom from slavery and employed her for a period. Professor William G. Allen was editor of the National Watchman, a Temperance and abolitionist paper for African Americans. Lady Byron was poet, Lord Byron's wife, who worked as a social reformer. Nell refers to the recent split in the anti-slavery movement between Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison. Douglass no longer believed that the United States Constitution was pro-slavery- unlike Garrison- he believed it was anti-slavery. Charles Lenox Remond was an orator and abolitionist. Charles Calistus Burleigh was an abolitionist and woman’s rights activist. Loring Moody was a religion and philosophy writer. Henry Clapp was an abolitionist, as was Parker Pillsbury. Nell refers to Douglass's wife- Anna Murray.

Tags

Abolitionism; Personal; Spiritualism

Collection

D.93 Isaac and Amy Post Family Papers

Citation

Nell, William Cooper, “Nell, William Cooper. Letter to Amy Kirby Post.,” RBSCP Exhibits, accessed November 24, 2024, https://rbscpexhibits.lib.rochester.edu/items/show/3303.

Transcribe This Item