[Letter to] My Dear Mrs. Chapman
Contributors: Chapman, Maria Weston, 1806-1885, recipient
Series: Maria Weston Chapman Correspondence (1835-1885)
Published: 1843
Place of publication: Leominster, [Mass.]
Language: eng
Format: [manuscript]
Subjects: Correspondence; Abolitionists; Fund raising; Women abolitionists; Antislavery movements; History
Notes: Holograph, signed.

Maria Weston Chapman's very kind and instructive letter was read to Mrs. Frances H. Drake's little society. Drake quotes the remarks of sceptics who wonder what "those few women think they can do to abolish slavery." She complains at length about the negative attitude of "our clergy & our physicians & the most influential among our church members." Drake was able to collect for the Western [Anti-Slavery] Mission no more than $2.25 from persons of standing and property. The Unitarian minister said he could not "consistently do anything for the Massachusetts society so long as they send out such men as Collins and Remond." The Unitarian church in this town is by far the most popular, but "not a member of that church will do a thing." Drake has been accused of keeping some fifty ladies from joining the (Anti-Slavery) Society, because she was "so familar with coloured people" when they came here and she went riding and walking with the Remonds.