Julia G[riffiths] Crofts to Frederick Douglass, November 23, 1864

Hanley Staffordshire

Nov 23^rd 1864—

My Dear friend Frederick,

Your very long-looked-for & most welcome letter & carte reached me safely ten days ago, and most glad was I to receive both—We think the likeness capital—Lizzie's love, & she begs you will send her one next time—I have great pleasure in sending you the half of a twenty pound bank England note. It is from your faithful co-worker, good M^rs Robberds—& as usual is the proceeds of her annual Anti-Slavery Bazaar. She sends it to you free and unfettered, & with many good wishes. I will, all being well, send you the other half by next week`s mail—Please acknowledge as soon as possible and enclose me a few lines

in your letter that I may forward to M^rs. Robberds—She is a sterling friend—The £10—. I last sent you from M^rs Goodrick, was in aid of the Washington Contrabands—Surely I explained matters? but probably you were away from home when the two half notes reached? (via Miss Porter)—You know how rigid especially our Birmingham quakers are on the Peace subject—& though dear Mrs. Goodrick is the exception; yet all the proceeds of her last Bazaar were voted, beforehand by "the Negroes' Friend Society", for Contrabands—so, my dear Friend, please say something in the next that I may forward to these Bir^g "Friends" for they will want to be sure that the £10. have reached Washington—& alas! You have forgotten to send me a Washington

Receipt for £20— sent to you for them, through me, in May or June from the Bristol quakers—I had a letter from you, saying, this £20 had reached safely—& you would send a receipt from Washington—I am continually in expectation of a Bristol enquiry on this head so, prithee dear old friend mine, try to remember; trifling as amidst all your great matters all these small affairs must seem to you—

Accept my heartfelt congratulations on your Syracuse appointment of President—Oh! that I could have looked in on that convention! In fact I should have seen many changes since our Rochester Colored Convention—the memory of which will ever be "green in my soul"— was D^r McCune Smith present? And the Langstons? Downings &c—So, even young William Watkins is dead?—how

do I know this? You may, perhaps, ask? We have had an 'Indian' among us for some time, preaching & lecturing—Rev. J. J. Kelly. Do you know anything of him? He tells me that Dr. Watkins was one of his most intimate friends & that he was with him in Toronto shortly before he died—We all like Kelly very much—but sometimes suspicions cross my own mind as to his being a Negro, in part at least?—He dresses in "his native dress" in some of the meetings"—does not take up subscriptions, but receives proceeds of his Lectures—& is most good natured in preaching, freely, anywhere he is sent for—& he has been much wanted here of late. You will be sorry to know that the Doctor has been very alarmingly ill—dangerously so for several days—"lodgment in the colon of the bowels" is the medical term for the complaint—

the pain was, I suppose, excruciating—& the debility that followed has been far greater than we could have imagined. He is now at his brother's in Leamington for change of of air, & reports well of himself—He hopes to resume duties here next Sunday—I cannot send a first rate report of myself—a series of colds settled in my face & mouth—& I have been quite laid up—having had many extra matters to attend to in the Doctor's illness & absence.

As soon as possible, I hope to snatch a fortnight's rest & country air near Stratford-on-Avon, with those old & true friends the Burberries—whose names you will well remember.

You will, I know dear Frederick be pleased to learn that the Doctor's present sphere of labor is peculiarly congenial to us all—he is well appreciated; the