02/08/2024
Frederick Douglass, former enslaved person and advocate for abolition, came to Schuylerville in the summer of 1849. The article detailing this visit was published on June 22, 1849, in The North Star, an African American Newspaper co-published by Frederick Douglass.
Below is the full transcription of the article. The image (containing a section that details Douglass' trip to our area) is from the the African American Newspaper electronic database.
If you would like to know more about the Abolitionist movement in our area, please message me - I am happy to answer any questions you may have.
"I omitted to mention last week for want of room, my visit to the several towns named above; and I recur to the subject now, both as a matter of duty and of pleasure. Immediately after the New England Convention, in company with my friend C.L. REMOND, I visited Plymouth, and held three meetings there on Sunday. They were well attended by an attentive audience. Mr. Remond made some of his happiest efforts during the meeting, and undoubtedly produced a most favorable impression for the cause. His description of the many hardships and deprivations to which the colored people at the North are subject, was just, powerful, and thrilling; and his denunciation of slaveholders was impassioned, eloquent, and overwhelming. Our anti-slavery home during our stay in Plymouth, was at the house of our esteemed friend, BOURNE SPOONER, whose hospitable door is always open to the friend of the slave. The kindness of himself and family will be held in grateful remembrance by us.
On Monday, the 4th of June, we left Plymouth for Weymouth; and though the places are not wide apart geographically, morally they stand at an immeasurable distance from each other. Our meeting in Weymouth was held in Elias Ridand's Hall, under a shoe manufactory; the churches in the place being closed against anti-slavery meetings. During the evening, we were assailed with an old pro-slavery weapon in the shape [ ] chantable egg, which breaking the window, struck one of us on the side of the head, be-spattering his clothing, and otherwise making its influence felt. Our meeting there was a failure. The only satisfaction we heard expressed anywhere, was that expressed by Mr. Remond, with his own speech - who said that "if he had not done his audience good, he had at least freed his mind."
On Tuesday evening I went to Warren, (Mr. Remond parting from me at Weymouth.) The meeting at Warren was large and attentive. My visit there, I have no doubt, served to remove much prejudice and to create some interest in the anti-slavery cause. I obtained several subscribers to the NORTH STAR in Warren which I hope may pave the way for a large number in that place.
On Friday, 8th June, I lectured in Schuylerville , Saratoga County, N.Y. Quite unexpectedly to persons acquainted with the place. I had a quiet an undisturbed meeting, and circulated a number of my Narratives, which may pave the way for anti-slavery effort in that place.
On Saturday, June 9th, I lectured at a school-house, near Dean's Corners, which was chiefly attended by members of the Society of Friends. Adapting my address to the circumstances of my audience, I referred to the injurious influence exerted by many of the ministers of that Society, in voting for Zachary Taylor, standing aloof from abolitionists and uttering sentiments condemnatory of Anti-Slavery Associations. I instanced the case of NICHOLAS BROWN, a distinguished preacher of theirs, who is reported to have said, that "he had visited in the South, and had seen that the slaves were better provided for, and were better off than the colored people North' - thus affording aid and comfort to the slaveholder, and steeling his conscience against the appeals of the abolitionist. I alluded also to the remark of the same person, that "abolitionists had better confine their efforts to the colored people at home." At the close, Mr. A. DORLAND rose and asked me to explain. He said that I had misrepresented Nicholas Brown. He had seen Mr. Brown, and had received from him a different version of the statement. It was not that the slaves at the South were better off than the free colored people of the North, but than the free colored people of Philadelphia. In reply to Mr. Dorland, I stated the notorious fact, (which seemed to cover with confusion the praters [?] about the degradation of the free colored people of Philadelphia) that they not only supported their own poor, but paid annually $500 towards supporting the white paupers in that city.
On Sunday, I held a meeting at the Friends' meeting-house, Saratoga, and addressed a large audience who listened with attention during the space of two hours. - F.D."
