Letter from Anne Knight, Paris, [France], to William Lloyd Garrison, 1838 [July] 14

Anne Knight writes to William Lloyd Garrison thanking him for his last letter and sharing her "prediction that your march to emancipation will not be a very lengthy one." She comments that the British planters embraced "emancipation from motives of self-interest, they only wanted to see if & how much more they could plunder from an outraged people in the form of compensation," hoping that after "African liberty may be obtained .. then - the Hill Coolies!" Knight blames "the villainous [William Ewart] Gladstone" for the plight of the Hill Coolies and shares her belief that while the "slave trade [was] nominally suppressed but really [it] doubled with added horrors of the middle passage .." She also states she "hope[s] Texas will not be added to the slaveries of your republican aristocracy," saying she "long[s] to see your glorious country freed from its vile chains & flourishing over its head a legitimate star-spangled banner." Knight closes her letter asking for Garrison to send her his portrait "by first opportunity."
Courtesy of Boston Public Library