Letter from Jeremiah Holmes Wiffen to Mary Anne Rawson (English MS 414/33)
Froxfield, near Woburn, 12th month 9th, 1833
I now transmit the contribution which I last week
gave thee reason to expect, and which if it meets thy approval, I shall be happy.
I designd it for the close of the volume, perhaps for the concluding piece;
but of this thou will be the best judge. If there are any that refer to
the future prospects of the Negro, now that the emancipation-bill is past,
with a more ardent feeling exultation, they might perhaps start up the
book better - but I could not but express somewhat [?] our disappointment
on providing[?] such low ground taken by those who carried the bill through Parliament
in the arguying of the great question; and the base tone of policy, and interest that
was perpetually used and pleaded there.--
I shall deem it an honour to have a proof sent for my revision by the pinter when set
up in type; which I will take care not to detain more than one post. I
shall be very glad to see the little Volume make its appearance, and I
do not doubt that thy benevolent intention of thereby prolonging the
sympathy that has so justly been excited for the Slave, will be realised
I have busied my thoughts a little upon a Title, but I do not know that I
have succeeded in suggesting a suitable one. It should be sensible & yet [?]ing,
if it is to refer to be Past as well as Future, it must almost necessarily
be a little fanciful--but I would not have it too recondite. I subjoin what
here occurred to me: and in the hope that they may strike us something or
other that may be judged appropriate, I remain with much esteem,
in which my wife unites.
My Brother, I am sorry to say finds it impossible to write anything.
1. Rights and Wrongs;
or,
The Negro's Album.
A collection of original contributions
in Prose and Verse, &.
Edited by M. A. Rawson.
2. The Rainbow in the Cloud;
a collection of original pieces
upon
Negro Slavery.
-
-
3. the Star after the a Storm;
a collection of original pieces
in Prose and Verse
on
Negro Slavery and Emancipation.
-
-
Was man ordained the slave of men to toil,
Yoked with the brutes, and fettered to the soil,
Weighed with a tyrant's balance with his gold?--
No! Nature stamped us in a heavenly mold!
She bade no wretch his thankless labour urge,
Nor, trembling, take the pittance and the scourge!
Campbell
London
Printed for -------
1834 & It should be dated the new year