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Letter from Frederick Douglass to Anne Tyson Kirk

Description

Handwritten letter from Frederick Douglass to Anne Tyson Kirk in which he expresses his belief that a proposed published biography on astronomer and fellow Maryland native Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806), based on the writings of Kirk's mother Martha Ellicott Tyson (1795-1873), "will find a ready sale both in the North and in the South among colored and among white readers." Douglass also mentions in this letter that "there has been an attempt lately to make him [Banneker] son of a white woman by black father and thus to credit the white race with whatever ability he possessed." Douglass then confesses that his interest in Banneker would be "measurably diminished if this should turn out to be true."

Date

1879-03-29

Language(s)

Extent

2 pages

Resource ID

9433

Notes

The Benjamin Banneker biography discussed in this letter was eventually published in 1884 by the Friends' Book Association and is entitled "Banneker, the Afric-American Astronomer: From the posthumous papers of Martha E. Tyson and edited by her daughter, Anne T. Kirk." Martha Ellicott Tyson was the daughter of George Ellicott (1760-1832), who was a friend of Benjamin Banneker.

Digital Publisher

Digital resource provided by the Maryland Center for History and Culture

Rights

The Maryland Center for History and Culture believes this work to be in the Public Domain under the laws of the United States and it therefore may be used, reproduced and distributed without permission. As MCHC is responsible for the digitized version of this work, MCHC requests attribution for material obtained from this website, citing our name and the resource ID.

Rights URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/