Letter from Esther Sturge, New Kent Road, [London, England], to Maria Weston Chapman, 14th [day] of 4th month 1842

Item Information

Title:
Letter from Esther Sturge, New Kent Road, [London, England], to Maria Weston Chapman, 14th [day] of 4th month 1842
Author:
Sturge, Esther
Addressee:
Chapman, Maria Weston, 1806-1885
Date:
April 14, 1842
Format:
Letters/Correspondence
Manuscripts
Location:
Boston Public Library
Rare Books Department
Collection (local):
Anti-Slavery Collection
Subjects:
Antislavery movements--United States--History--19th century
Women abolitionists--Massachusetts--Boston--19th century--Correspondence
Antislavery movements--United States
Women abolitionists--United States
Sturge, Esther
Fry, Elizabeth Gurney, 1780-1845
Boston Female Anti-slavery Society
Chapman, Maria Weston, 1806-1885
Places:
Massachusetts > Suffolk (county) > Boston
Extent:
1 leaf (4 p.) ; 12 7/8 x 8 in.
Permalink:
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/cv43qh16j
Terms of Use:
No known copyright restrictions.
No known restrictions on use.
Place of origin:
New Kent Road, [London, England]
Language:
English
Notes:
Holograph, signed.
Esther Sturge begins this letter by acknowledging the receipt of a copy of the Liberty Bell. She has enjoyed the charming picture of Haiti, but wishes that the country's happily emancipated people "were blessed with the more full and glorious liberty of the Gospel" (i.e. Protestantism). Mrs. Elizabeth Fry has been out of town and out of health. Sturge summarizes a letter she received from the daughter-in-law of Mrs. Fry expressing Mrs. Fry's views. Mrs. Fry finds it difficult to write to Mrs. Chapman because she "does not feel clear in her mind about the Boston Anti-Slavery Society." Sturge explains that the misrepresentation "that it is not an Anti Slavery Society only, across the Atlantic, but one mixed up with other & debatable points, questions on which there is an interest felt but rather an aversion to entering into in our land---has taken so firm a hold on the minds of many, that it seems like fighting the winds to combat these ideas." Sturge favors adhering to cause of anti-slavery, and believes women's rights and all other questions would divert from this mission.
Identifier:
2815105
Call #:
Ms.A.9.2 v.17, p.52
Barcode:
39999066746791
mq8683119