ABSTRACT

When Frederick Douglass had concluded his remarkable tour from Vermont to Indiana in the interest of the anti-slavery conventions, he was one of the most popular and widely talked of men on the American platform. The public everywhere was eager to learn everything possible about the "run-away slave" who was winning his place among the foremost of American orators. His growing popularity was likewise a peril. The possibility of his capture and return to slavery increased with his influence as an orator and agitator. In going to Great Britain, he was merely fleeing to a land of safety to escape capture and a return into slavery. In a practical way his English friends showed their affection for Douglass before he left them. Having learned upon his return to America that it was his desire to publish a newspaper, in the interest of his people, the sum of $2,500 was raised and presented to him for that purpose.