1843 Windsor, CW straightline. Abolitionish letter.

1843 Windsor, CW straightline.(7 DEC, 1843.) on SFL from Amherstburg, UC (DE 6) to Troy, NY via Sandwich and Detroit, Michigan. Rate is Paid 4 1/2d to border, and 25c US postage.

The letter is from Issac J Rice, an abolitionist. The letter is long and outlines his poverty and need for support. “The Abolitionists must whole families of widows, children almost literally hang around my feet for them being here like to say – how can we flinch”

From A Fluid Frontier. Slavery, Resistance and the Underground Railroad in the Detroit River Borderland, Karolyn Frost and Veta Tucker, 2016, Wayne State University Press, Detroit, Michigan.

“The American Missionary Society representative at Amherstburg, Isaac Rice, was accused of painting a highly negative picture of the condition and progress of African Americans who had fled to British North America in order to enhance his fund-raising efforts

Rice was a white Presbyterian minister who left Trumbull couty, Ohio for Amherstburg, and claimed 3,000-4,000 black were living in the area.”

This long letter is a concerted effort to convince the adressee Mrs Almyra Barnes that his plight is hopeless and he is in need of support in both material goods and money. This letter shows how the book noted above would describe him as such.