[Letter to] My dear Friend
Contributors: Chapman, Maria Weston, 1806-1885, recipient
Series: Maria Weston Chapman Correspondence (1835-1885)
Published: 1851
Place of publication: Dublin, [Ireland]
Language: eng
Format: [manuscript]
Subjects: Correspondence; United States; Abolitionists; British and Foreign Anti-slavery Society; Women abolitionists; Antislavery movements; History
Notes: Holograph, signed.

Richard Davis Webb would have replied sooner to Maria Weston Chapman's letter, but he went to London to protest against the excise tax on paper. He called on Eliza Lee Cabot Follen and Miss Susan Cabot at 5 Albion Street, Hyde Park. He met Miss Montgomery. Webb writes that "it is very difficult to excite a real interest in the English mind towards anything outside their own bounds." He believes the English are readily repelled by the language which the abolitionists have used, and that they don't feel that the anti-slavery cause is their own. He comments on Mrs. Follen's poor health. Miss Cabot is somewhat eclipsed by Mrs. Follen. Mrs. Follen's son is studying chemistry at the University of London. Webb refers to John Bishop Estlin's article about the Fugitive Slave Law. Mrs. Massie is the wife of an anti-Garrisonian minister; Webb praises her for her anti-slavery zeal. Mrs. George Thompson told Richard D. Webb that her son was dying of consumption. Mrs. [Isabella] Massie said that George Thompson had no chance to be reelected to Parliament. Richard D. Webb's sister, Deborah Juliot, visited the Westons. Webb tells of two abolitionists, a mother and her daughter, who live in Manchester and who helped Joseph Barker when he was falsely arrested. Webb's brother-in-law returned to Ireland. Webb expresses pity for Mme. Bardonneau. Samuel May, Jr., notified Webb of the approach of the anti-slavery fair. The Estlins think they can undermine the influence of the British & Foreign Anti-Slavery Society in Bristol. Webb's youngest child is in bed with influenza.