[Letter to] My dear Annie
Contributors: Weston, Anne Warren, 1812-1890, recipient
Series: Anne Warren Weston Correspondence (1834-1886)
Published: 1853
Place of publication: 47 Park St., [Bristol, England]
Language: eng
Format: [manuscript]
Number of pages: 12
Subjects: Correspondence; Women abolitionists; Antislavery movements; History
Notes: Holograph, signed.

In this letter, Emma Michell reflects on the spiritual bond that unites all abolitionists. She imagines the pleasure with which Anne Warren Weston will look upon the daguerreotype of Mr. John Bishop Estlin, which cannot, however, give "the benevolent play of his countenance." She discusses at length on the state of the Estlins' health. Mr. Estlin's lack of strength in his right hand appears to be the only trace left of his attack, and his vigor for long walks remains unimpaired. Mary [Estlin] has been overworked and will try the water cure near Birmingham. She refers to (evidently another) daguerreotype, which they consider a failure in regard to John Biship Estlin, his coloring being so high "that it gives one the idea of his not belonging to anything in the shape of a Temperance Soc[ie]ty." Emma Michell tells of the meeting of the Bristol and Clifton Ladies Society; Mr. [Francis] Bishop "touched and warmed all our hearts" with an account of his American experiences. Mr. S. Alfred Steinthal sketched the formation of a new society in Bridgewater. Steinthal wrote to the American abolitionists for information and "there seems now to be an opening for awakening a more extensive interest than hither to." Though [Frederick] Douglass "has been their hero," Mr. Steinthal, who had seen only Douglass's own paper [The North Star], "gathered from it what Douglass really is--with regard to his late attack on the real abolitionists ..." She points out the difficulty of finding in Bristol "anything like masculine energy in behalf of the slave." She congratulates Anne W. Weston on not having to get up a Liberty Bell this year. She looks forward to a possible reunion with Mrs. Maria Weston Chapman. She wishes that Mr. [James Miller] M'Kim could have stayed longer in England and that Mr. Wendell Phillips would come. She hopes Anne W. Weston will find her brother's health improved by his visit to Europe. She has heard from Mr. [Richard David] Webb, whose son Alfred has arrived safely in Australia.

See Ms.A.9.2 v.7, p.26B for the envelope that accompanied this letter.