Frederick Douglass at Honeoye

26 July 1876

Unknown Author - The Livonia Gazette

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Frederick Douglass circa 1876.

The Hon. Fred Douglass, of Washington, D. C., came to this place last Saturday and took the stage for Honeoye, where he stayed over Sunday with Gideon Pitts. Mr. Pitts has a brother, Hiram Pitts, who lives in Washington, and both are old and long-tried Abolition friends of Mr. Douglass. When they commenced, a half a century ago, to tell the wrongs of the slaves in public meetings, they were often received with rotten eggs and vile abuse. Honeoye was a sort of country headquarters for Abolitionists.

The Pitts, the Pennells, and the Gilberts were earnest, out spoken men, who dared to face the cowardly popular pro-slavery sentiment, and say what they thought and they encouraged some of the first men in the cause - Gerrit Smith, William Lloyd Garrison, Fred Douglass, William Goddell, Samuel R. Ward, Rev. Samuel J. May, Rev. Theodore Parker and many others.

The original Abolitionists, and no others in the nation, saw and put their predictions in print that slavery must end in blood. Whenever any of these brave survivors journey near each other, they take a few hours for retrospective social enjoyment.