Letter from Rachel W. Stearns to Maria Weston Chapman, [1841?]

Item Information

Title:
Letter from Rachel W. Stearns to Maria Weston Chapman, [1841?]
Author:
Stearns, Rachel W.
Addressee:
Chapman, Maria Weston, 1806-1885
Date:
[1841?]
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
Freed persons
Racism
Stearns, Rachel W.
Chapman, Maria Weston, 1806-1885
Places:
Massachusetts > Suffolk (county) > Boston
Extent:
1 leaf (4 p.) ; 12 1/2 x 7 3/4 in.
Permalink:
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/7s75fs431
Terms of Use:
No known copyright restrictions.
No known restrictions on use.
Language:
English
Notes:
Holograph.
This unsigned letter was perhaps written by Rachel W. Stearns of Springfield, Mass. Stearns welcomes Mrs. Maria Weston Chapman back to New England and her anti-slavery labors. Stearns tells of her gradual conversion to abolition. She describes the section (of Springfield, Mass.?) called "Hayti," where black people live in "poverty, wretchedness & sin in every form, but especially Intemperance." In spite of the squalor and depravity, these free blacks are not worse off than slaves. Rachel W. Stearns and her sister, who kept a school at the house of a "respectable family," were evicted because they received an evening visit from a black preacher, an escaped ex-slave. Stearns, however, found a champion, who made it possible for them to stay till the end of the term. The same friend stopped the plot of some young men planning to mob Stearns and her sister when they went to "Hayti."
Identifier:
3133177
Call #:
Ms.A.9.2 v.16, p.2
Barcode:
39999066788645
mq8430625