The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-02-02
FREDERICK DOUGLASS.
Circumstances of His Previous Marriage Re
calIed-HiS First Wife.

Circumstances of His Previous Marriage Re
called-His First Wife.
Washington Correspondence Boston Transcript.
The marriage of Frederick Douglass to a white
woman recalls the circumstances OF his previous
marriage in the minds Of those who have either
heard1t from his lips orhave rcadit in his Life
He had escaped and been in safety at the North
for several months. when he undertook the peril
Gus task Of going back to the scene Of his slave
life. finding this free colOred woman, Anna. to
whom his faith had been plightcd marrying her,
aud bringing her away with him. | rccollcct
meeting her once. on a Sunday. when by request
of Nh VIII Carleton, l had called with him upon
Mr. Douglass, A street Capitol hill She was
darker than her husband, not c0mely, and not at
all educated. She had never yielded to his per-
suaslOns to even learn to read Her intellectual
limitations were TO some extent repeated in her
four children none of whom has the fathers fun
measure Of brightness. She was not, however,
without practical shroWdnesS and managed her
husbands home with good degree of dignity
and propriety. Mr.. Cartoons talk with Mr..
Douglass interested me much. The latter had
many questions to ask the former about my
old friend Soiouner Truth as he called her.
her location being not far from Mr. Carleton's
Michigan home. At the close Of the talk Mr..
Douglass put $40 bill into Nh Cartoons hand
Tor her benefit. which he kindly undertook to
transmit TO her. | told them of old book in
my mothers library that | remembered reading
with no little curiosity in my childhood, entitled
Matthias and his lmpostulps.' in which there
figured as one of his converts character fire.
quently mentioned Isabella the colored
woman. and that | had since seen IL stated that
she was identical with the subsequent self
named ''Sojourner Truth" Mr.. Douglass had
already heard of that episode in her life, and
shared III her modification and indignation at
finding how her strong misguided in
stinct had been imposed upon Mr.
Carleton noted the name Of the book, and the
next day Went to the congressional library and
delighted the heart of Mr.. Spofford, the libra
lian by asking for the work. nothing pleasing
that lover of the reconcile in literature more
than to have an appreciative person tax his
voluminous resources in some such out-of-the
way manner. He produced it promptly from an
obscure shelf in an obscure nook of the apart
ment. On his return TO Michigan, Mr.. Carleton
sent me as memento of that call the quaint lit
tie volume of Soiourner Truths autobiography,
written in 1850 Since her death | have been
amused in referring to it, and comparing it with
the floating biographical sketches elected by the
event. to find how much misinfOrmatiOn about
her existed i'll the public mind. On one point,
notably her age, the galrulous eXaggeratiOn of
her last and broken years is corrected by the
statement in her own words that she was born,
as near as she could calculate, be
tween the years 1877 and 1900 That would make
her if still living, only about the age of an hon
ored and still live citizen, Mr.. w. W. Corcoran.
Another statement represented her having
| been the mother of thirteen children when the
correct number was five. The long talk about
her above described between her fellow African
American and Mr.. Carleton, the genial lover Of
humanity, under whatever guise or aspcct-the
man who of almost all men l have ever met
might say with old Terence, Homo sum, nihil
humanum alienum mih puto"-dwells PLEASANTLY
in my memory. think both men enjoyed the
meeting 1t was a haf-dozen rmore years ago,
and Mr.. Douglass had already become aged. as !
saw with pain. The negroes here resent his in
consistency in marrying a white woman My
quadroon seamstress says in scornful comment:
ITS just de way wild all dem nisgers. Dey1l
marry de whites woman dey can get to hab
EN-
He is at three score and ten. or thereabouts
an impressive though somewhat brolenlookng
figure; his spreading, crispy name is as white as
wool, and his countenance bears the traces of
the fascinating powers that for so many years
held audiences spell bound, forgetting everything
but the torrent of eloquent denunciation of the
wrongs done to his race.
Mr. Douglass has been much more retired
since he left Capitol Hill and went out to the
little suburban hamlet of the district known as
Uniontown. He has handsomer house there,
and more ground than he could afford to own in
the city. As marshal of the District, and as
subsequent recorder of deeds, position he now
holds, he has not shown great business capacity
his nepotism was something noteworthy.