Anna's Correspondence

Today was one of those long, fruitless research days. Lots and lots of scrolling through microfilm, yielding nothing except the knowledge that at least I didn't miss anything there.

Some of what I went through was general correspondence, mostly from people asking for money. I thought for sure that Abby Kelly's correspondence to this guy would be juicy, since she could take a dude down when she tried, but -- alas! -- she was not giving me the goods like she did when she wrote to people in Boston. In fact, I have decided that male correspondence is not nearly as interesting as female correspondence. Women tend to chat in better detail than the men. I'm going to have to go through the women's letters next time.

Before I left for the archive today, I browsed in the Library of Congress's online Douglass collection. I came to two conclusions. The first is related to several other things that I had been reading, specifically Maria Diedrich's Love Across Color Lines, but also my thinking about Anna Murray Douglass and now about Rosetta Douglass Sprague (Douglass's daughter). This bears more discussion, but I will say here that I think that Douglass made the women who cared about him the most very sad. You could perhaps go back even to his mother and grandmother. If you loved him dearly, he would make you quite unhappy. I think his second wife may have been the exception, and even she had to endure ostracism, criticism, and the alienation of her entire family. That was outside of their relationship. Inside, they seemed to have been happy. The other women, not so much.

My second conclusion is that, at one time, there existed a correspondence between Anna Murray Douglass, his first wife, and other people. Anna got by without reading or writing. Still, in the 19th century, if a person were married to a travelling man, she might have some thoughts or news that she wanted communicated. In the Harriet Bailey/Ruth Cox Adams correspondence, there is a letter from her to Adams, dictated to Rosetta. Frederick also writes to Harriet, referencing a letter that he had enclosed for Anna that Adams was supposed to read aloud to her. As I read other letters, I kept noticing that little ending everyone would put in their correspondence, "Mother and I unite in sending our love," or "Mother begs to be remembered," or "send Mother my love," and so forth. All of that made me wonder about Anna Douglass with her husband being on tour so often and, later, with her children far from home, especially when her sons were at war. She must have wanted to say more to them, and she must have wanted to hear more from them. Did she perhaps maintain a connection by having someone write letters for her?

Then, at the end of the day, back in the Library of Congress, I found a very choice letter from Charles Douglass, one of the Douglass sons, to his father. The contents of the letter alone outline some very tricky dysfunction going on between the Douglass's and Rosetta's husband, Nathan Sprague. At this point, 1869, Rosetta and Nathan with their three children were living in Anna and Frederick's house in Rochester. Nathan was causing some trouble involving his inability to be employed and also a little pride was being thrown about amongst the men. I'm still piecing this bit of dysfunction together, but it comes down to Charles becoming very frustrated that neither he nor his father could get any information from home that had not been filtered through the Spragues.

"Sprague has the advantage of Mother," Charles wrote to Frederick, "he writes, and if Mother wants a letter written she has to go to Rosetta, and there it goes, and you only get one side of what transpires." He clearly became frustrated, continuing, "I can't hear from home when you are absent because Mother cant write and I suppose Rosetta wont write to me for her. I write once in a while but never receive any reply."

So, there I have it. The correspondence may not have been extensive, but from time to time it seems that Anna did use Rosetta to write and read letters for her.

Still, I imagine a very lonely existence for her, isolated from her family as the years passed. She would trust Rosetta, her daughter, with private business, but probably not anyone else. Who else would she have? If Rosetta were not there, then who would she turn to? Also, she would have had to edit her comments in order not to alienate Rosetta. If Nathan, Rosetta's husband, were as roundly unpopular in the family as it seems he was, and if Anna shared this opinion, how could she appeal to her sons or her husband?

Tomorrow, I take a long drive to another archive. I may have pissed off the archivist there already. I received a very terse response to my request for materials, letting me know that they would prefer more time to pull the collections. I get that. I'd have been pissed off if I were her, too. Mea culpa.

Oh, and I forget yet again! Notorious PhD reminded me that I did not let everyone know this major bit of news because it came right as I dashed out the door for the Little Berks. I am signing a book contract with a big deal press based solely on my proposal! The readers and the publisher all adored the idea. By "adored" I mean that they said things I don't think anyone has ever said about an idea of mine. I'm still jumping between ecstasy and panic. Yea, someone wants to publish the book! Yipes! Now I have to write it!