National Portrait Gallery says: Fugitive Slave Law Convention, Cazenovia, New York. On August 21, 1850, two days after the Senate passed the Fugitive Slave Act, about two thousand abolitionists convened near Gerrit Smith’s home. Douglass presided as president. Participants approved Smith’s “Letter to the American Slaves,” urging captives to avenge their enslavers. “You are prisoners of war in an enemy’s country,” Smith declared.
Here, Douglass sits at the edge of the table next to Theodosia Gilbert, the fiancée of William Chaplin, who was in prison for aiding fugitives. Behind Douglass stands Gerrit Smith, in mid-speech, gesticulating. On either side of Smith, in checkered shawls and day bonnets, are Mary and Emily Edmonson, whose freedom had been orchestrated by Chaplin.
Ezra Greenleaf Weld (1801–1874)
Half-plate copy daguerreotype, 1850
Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Set Charles Momjian
