Description

Holograph, signed.Title devised by cataloger.Boston Public Library (Rare Books Department) manuscript composed in brown ink on white paper, with each page enclosed in mylar. Above the salutation the number "13" is written in pencil and along the tail edge of the first page, "V32, P9" is also written in pencil. Throughout the letter, annotations have been made in pencil. On the fifth page, the second paragraph begins under the heading "Friday, [the] 6th." On the sixth page, after naming "William Andrew Jackson" a note inserted in pencil reads "-(Jefferson Davis's late coachman.)".In this letter to William Lloyd Garrison, George Thompson lists all of the cities throughout England and Scotland where he has held meetings "on the American question" since he last wrote to Garrison. He describes these meetings as "densely crowded, sublimely enthusiastic, and all but unanimous" and states "This Anti Slavery movement is assuming gigantic proportions". He comments on the Emancipation Proclamation, saying it gave him "a degree of satisfaction and joy wh[ich] words cannot express." Thompson then praises the "working population" "who are bearing with heroic fortitude the grievous privations which your war has entrailed upon them!" The letter then continues under a new paragraph dated "Friday, [the] 6th", where Thompson discusses the beginning of the Parliamentary session and the debates about mediatiating a settlement between the North and South in the American Civil War. He also describes his success finding work for former slave William A. Jackson and the growth of the London Emancipation Society.

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Boston Public Library

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Digital Commonwealth