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

1854-09-15

Description

Handwritten letter from William Cooper Nell to Amy Kirby Post. Nell writes to Post about the Anthony Burns trial, which tested the legality of the Fugitive Slave Act.

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

1037

Location

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

Transcription

(Page 1)

[Five lines of text aligned upside down along top left margin of Page 1]

Sunday Sept— 17^th
Beautiful Day
Grand Sermon Friday Morning
from Parker                   Sept 15
(Harriet Jacobs was there             1854

Wm. W. Brown did not get
here Yesterday but leaves by
the PacKet Ship City of
Manchester = probably
reach Philadelphia by the
20^th = hope he will be
in time for Syracuse
meeting –
      Wednesday Eve I accompanied
Louisa and her friend Eliza Bundy
to hear a relative of Ira =
play upon the Piano She
is a Young Girl about 15
and is a most capital
performer = natural
easy and and graceful

(Page 2)

Mary Ann and Willie
would have been
delighted –
      Mr. Garrison = has
been enjoying Mrs
Follens company at
his house or he would
have left this morning
for the Worcester meeting
           =
   Here come T Wentworth
Higginson =   the two are
having a fine talK
about Sumner and
the Burns trial
and his (Higginsons)
looked for turn in Court

(Page 3)

as he says it matters not
which gets it the
Government or himself
It will in either case
prove a victory

Last evening I met
with a Social company
a part of whom a Year
ago = Conspired against
Louisa = a tale of
attempting to loosen the ties
of friendship between her
and Some who have grown
up with her as Sisters
                              -
They have been completely
failed = and are desirous
of healing the breach

(Page 4)

    I- of course like Louisa
   will be civil towards them
   but =I cannot forget so
   Soon = those who –
   while Smiles wreathe the face
   with Kindness beaming from the
                                          eye
And Melody in the voice –

have hate rankling in the
                               heart
-

Should I come I will bring
Mary Hallowell = Phillips
Daguerreotype. The Lithograph will be
                             out soon.
Please have delivered to F. D. paper the
note             containing an obituary
           Happy to say this
leaves me in encouraging
health and spirits
[obliterated] I wonder if Joseph
Posts wife has been waKed from
a midnight dream= by Robbers
breaKing into the house again=
[obliterated]                    W. C. N.

Annotations

William Cooper Nell, an abolitionist and former slave, is writing from Boston to fellow activist, Amy Post. Theodore Parker was a Transcendentalist and a reform minister of the Unitarian Church, as well as an abolitionist. Harriet Brent Jacobs was a former slave, who wrote Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. William W. Brown was an African American abolitionist lecturer, novelist, playwright and historian. He was born a slave and escaped to the North in 1834, where he wrote the first novel by an African American- Clotel and Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave. Louisa could refer to Nell's sister or Jacobs's daughter. Willie was Post's youngest son. Mary Ann took care of him as a child.

William Lloyd Garrison was a radical abolitionist and the editor of the Liberator. Eliza Lee Cabot Follen was an author and abolitionist. Thomas Wentworth Higginson was a Unitarian minister, author, and social reform activist. Charles Sumner was a Massachusetts Senator and a radical abolitionist. Nell refers to the Anthony Burns trial, which confronted the legality of the Fugitive Slave Act. The law prohibited Northerners from harboring or aiding escaped slaves. Following this law, the courts would return Burns to his master. Mary Hallowell was Post's step- daughter. Wendell Phillips was an abolitionist. Nell refers to Frederick Douglass and his abolitionist newspaper, the North Star. Joseph Post was one of Post's sons.

Tags

Abolitionism; Personal

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 23, 2024, https://rbscpexhibits.lib.rochester.edu/items/show/3327.

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