Raynor HCA 2013-07
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/18/2013
DOUGLASS, Frederick (1818-1895). Born a Maryland slave, Douglass rose to become the leading black abolitionist of his day. A gifted speaker, prolific writer and fiery activist, Douglass would become U.S Minister to Haiti and also serve as Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia. Autograph Letter Signed “Fredk. Douglass,” Bar Harbor. Aug. 11, 1883. 3pp. on a folded sheet, faint old fold lines, else quite fine. In a folio-sized cloth folder, gilt leather label. A friendly letter written by Frederick Douglass to George L. Clark, in which he relates his remembrance of Henry Clapp, one-time abolitionist and activist, writer, editor, and all-around Bohemian figure. Clapp edited the anti-slavery weekly, the Lynn PIONEER, before moving on to edit and write for literary magazines in New York. He was friendly with Douglass and other abolitionists, including Nathaniel Peabody Rogers, who edited the PIONEER while Clapp traveled to Europe. Douglass writes: "My dear Sir: Mr. Clapp for whom you inquire, was well known to me in Lynn Mass, where he edited the Lynn PIONEER. He was a witty and pungent writer and speaker and for a time did good service to the antislavery cause. He was very much devoted to our old friend Nathaniel P. Rogers and took sides with him in his bitter controversy with the Boston Board and Mr. Garrison. I have known little of him since that time - now more than five and thirty years ago - for he soon after that abandoned the antislavery cause, went to Newport, became a contributor to several public journals and led, as I learn, a rather wild Bohemian life - met with an accident, broke an arm, about twenty years ago, wrote to me in his poverty and distress to send him some money. I sent him a small sum, and sooner after heard he was dead. He was a brilliant man, always friendly with me and I liked him for his many good qualities, but he was not a man of deep moral condition and was only strong in the strength of others. You who know what it costs to stand by a principle through thick and thin will pity more than censure poor Henry Clapp, who was unable - constitutionally unable to stand alone." A fond - if frank - remembrance by Douglass, with choice commentary on another member of the abolitionist movement. In excellent condition.
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