Daniel Kimball. Autograph Letter Signed. Boston, June 23, 1835. 3pp. + address leaf. To his “love…my dear Charlotte”, Charlotte C. Tenney, West Bradford, Massachusetts.
“Excuse me my dear for introducing…the Slave question…however…it is only a brief history of some of the anti-S. advocates. I am informed by undoubted authority that Wm Lloyd Garrison was last week noticed by some of the respectable inhabitants of the city walking through the Mall (I am exceedingly sorry to say it, however) with two Coloured Ladies (grade No. 1!!!) in intimate conversation, or as the term was expressed, in high glee, just think of it for a moment, all this I presume was done to [?] his [news?] but that is needless he had already done it, and further, from the same authority – he always stops at a house of Colored people in Phila. and the same I can say the same of Mr. Thompson. Is it not ridiculous. Surely it should be published to the remotest bounds of earth, do you not think so my dear? But I will not trouble you more upon the subject.”
Kimball continues with family gossip, including his visit, with friends and relatives, to “to witness the matrimonial ties of Cousin Elizabeth and now Mrs. Otis, had a very pleasant time, met quite a number of aunts and cousins…young ladies are very fascinating creatures, many deserve better husbands than they get…”
Kimball, who owned a Boston dry goods store, undoubtedly thought himself well-deserving of his “dear Charlotte”, a schoolteacher in Bradford, whom he married three years later. As there were Peabodys, Washburns and Everetts among their relatives, the nuptials must have been attended by a good cross-section of Boston society, possibly including Daniel’s cousin, Elizabeth Everett Otis and her husband, William Smith Otis - the ingenious Yankee who invented the steam shovel which would long bear his name. This made it all the more curious that Kimball should speak so ill of famous abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison and his British colleague, George Thompson, illustrious leaders of the northern anti-slavery crusade. Of course, it was one thing for Yankees to harangue against Southern slave-holders, something else to see a near-neighbor socializing with Boston “coloured ladies”, even visiting their homes. An extraordinary expression of the antebellum racism that pervaded even polite Boston society.