File:Letter to) Dearest Mrs. Chapman (manuscript (IA lettertodearestm00estl3).pdf

Holograph, signed

Mary Anne Estlin says she is never well in damp weather, and that she has only just recovered from an illness caused by the weather. Sarah Pugh "does good work wherever she is." She is now staying with the Luptons in Leeds. Estlin comments that "never was there such an A.S. [anti-slavery] ferment over the land." She thinks Wendell Phillips could defeat "the machinations of the pro-Slavery clergy." The Quakers "no longer circumscribe the bounds of anti-slavery activity." Two of the British & Foreign Anti-Slavery Society officers are favorably inclined toward the Garrisonians. [F. W.] Chesson has applied for the Bristol Society's report. Mary A. Estlin asked Mrs. E. Michell to accept Maria W. Chapman's invitation to come to America. Harriet Martineau says she was included in the invitation. She mentions a Miss [Louisa?] Chick, a schoolmate of Mrs. Fanny Tribe Seaton. She describes Miss Leonard, the secretary of the Bristol & Clifton Ladies Anti-Slavery Association. "Mrs. Tribe continues the star of the group ..." She tells of the Quaker attitude toward a memorial. She describes the organizing of the abolitionists in Bristol. She sends a selection of letters on anti-slavery subjects, including one from Mrs. Susan Fanny [Crompton] Dawson. She discusses the attitudes of Mrs. Dawson and Mrs. Edmund Sturge toward F. Douglass and Julia Griffiths. She did not like Garrison's speeches and collected writings. The English need oral instruction. She praises Uncle Tom's Cabin. The Times says that Mrs. Harriet B. Stowe has agreed to make a progress and visit through England. No. 3 of the Anti-Slavery Advocate contains "a definition of its position." The Bristol abolitionists are not going to be dictated to by the "Disunionist Abolitionists." Mary A. Estlin considers that the head of a household has more arduous duties to perform than "the pursuers of any profession." "I always used in childhood to think men were secondary or almost supernumeraries in a family ..." She discusses the Woman's Rights question and the position of women in England. She tells of her father's correspondence with Mrs. Anna Richardson. She fears that Mrs. Richardson will stir up hostility to Sarah Pugh. She tells of inconsistencies in a speech delivered at a meeting in Dundee, Scotland

The last leaf, is dated Jan. 11, 1853, is written by Mary Anne Estlin and may have been sent to Maria Weston Chapman. It is a brief note reporting on her father, that is John Bishop Estlin's latest dealings with the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society

Subjects: Chapman, Maria Weston, 1806-1885; Estlin, Mary Anne, 1820-1902; Chesson, F. W. (Frederick William), 1833 or 4-1888; Chick, Louisa; Dawson, Susan Fanny Crompton; Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895; Estlin, J. B. (John Bishop), 1785-1855; Garrison, William Lloyd, 1805-1879; Griffiths, Julia, d. 1895; Leonard, Louisa; Martineau, Harriet, 1802-1876; Michell, Emma; Phillips, Wendell, 1811-1884; Pugh, Sarah, 1800-1884; Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 1811-1896; Richardson, Anna H; British and Foreign Anti-slavery Society; Anti-slavery advocate; Abolitionists; Women's rights; Secession; Society of Friends; Antislavery movements; Women abolitionists