ORCID
0000-0001-7843-4712
Document Type
Conference Document
Date
Fall 10-2018
Keywords
Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, women's rights movement, abolitionist movement, Rochester NY
Language
English
Acknowledgements
Andrew Wender Cohen
Helene Quanquin
Leigh Fought
Disciplines
History | Social History | United States History | Women's History
Description/Abstract
This paper is an initial inquiry into the history and memory of the public pairing of Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony, and its significance for the intertwined history of antislavery and women’s rights. I will trace the evolution of their relationship from their first meeting in 1849, and some of the moments—including having tea—that established their longstanding, if contentious bond. Their relationship was grounded in a place, Rochester, New York, and grew in its diverse community of reformers. Their relationship faced two major hurdles: first, the 1869 split, and, second, Anthony’s poor response to Douglass’s second marriage to Helen Pitts, a white woman from the same part of New York State. Even so, in the context of hardening racial lines after Reconstruction, they constructed a public friendship that served to soften the radicalism of their politics as an extension of their personal ties. While their friendship served a public purpose, it was also based on their shared history.
Recommended Citation
Carol Faulkner, "The Famous Friendship of Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony," Frederick Douglass Across and Against Times, Places, Disciplines: An International Conference," Paris, France, 2018.
Source
submission
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Additional Information
Paper presented at “Frederick Douglass Across and Against Times, Places, Disciplines: An International Conference,” Paris, France, October 2018