LETTER: ALS to Myrtilla Miner.
Stowe to Miner:
“Do not be discouraged about our building – we will have it.”
Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Autograph letter signed, “H.B. Stowe,” to Myrtilla Miner, December 6, [1855]; one leaf, three pages; in full:
"We forwarded to you Miss Mann care of Dr Bailey $20 about a month since & here with enclose 110 more for her.
"None of your letters have ever contained any definite direction as to where you are to be addressed, - allow me to beg that you will always inform me on this kind particularly when money is to be sent. It seems to me quite singular that so many people who address me on business with his necessary precaution - in some cases I am prevented from answering by this cause.
"Do not be discouraged about our building. - We will have it - of this more anon. Write me from Washington. I wish you would prepare for my use a full history of the school from the very first as you have given it to me orally - all its labors, cares, discouragements & what success you have attained now with this in hand I could do something for you I think in several quarters - Love to the Edmonsons and all friends.
"Affectionately yours
"HB Stowe."
The Normal School for Colored Girls was established in Washington D.C. in 1851 by Myrtilla Miner. Although Miner received her initial funding from a Quaker philanthropist, the school’s rapid growth required new funding streams. The demand for schooling for young black women was tremendous; the school’s enrollment grew from six to forty within two months of opening its doors. Stowe donated money from the royalties she received for Uncle Tom’s Cabin, but also worked tirelessly as a fundraiser. She was also involved with administrative duties such as hiring teachers and negotiating salaries.
The Edmonsons are Emily Edmonson and her family who lived on school grounds. Emily was the daughter of a freed black man and slave black woman. Stowe had helped to raise funds so that that Emily and her sister Mary could be bought out of slavery. The sisters became celebrities in the abolitionist movement, and campaigned tirelessly for the cause.
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