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ELIZABETH BLACKWELL. B3>
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
To The Editors Of The English Woman's Jo...
promising field for the sugar-trade . Such , however , was the esteem in which he was held bhis fellow-townsmenthat a number of the
most influential of the y Bristol merchants met , in the Exchange , and addressed to him a letterin whichafter expressing their conviction
that his intended removal , to America , -would be a public loss to the town and the countrythey begged him to re-consider his decision ,
, and stated that , if this decision had been prompted , as they presumed it to have beenby embarrassment resulting from the recent
insolvency of houses known , to be largely indebted to him , they were prepared to place at his disposal , for any number of years , and at a
merely nominal interest , any amount of capital he might require for the ing on of his establishment . This offermost delicately
made carry and honourable alike to those from whom it emanated , and to him to , whom it was addressed , though fully appreciated , by the
latter , was declined ; and in August of the same year , Mr . Blackwell , ¦ with his wife and family , two sisters , a governess , and a couple o £
servants , sailed for New York . Of his habitual kindness and generosity his last act on leaving England may serve as an
illustration . Just as the ship in which he had embarked with his family was heaving her anchorsit was discovered that two very
decentlooking young women , who , had taken places as steerage passengers , were unable to for them ; and the Captain , highly incensed at
what he regarded pay as a dishonest attempt on their part , had ordered them on deck , and -was sending them ashore with their boxes and the
provisions they had prepared for the voyage . It appeared that they were dressmakers , without friends or advisers ; they had conceived
an exaggerated idea of the possibilities of the New World , and , imagining that if they could only get themselves on board they
would be sure of their passage , they had contrived to scrape together h to purchase provisions for the voyage , and had installed
themselves enoug in the quarters allotted to them , intending to pay for their passage out of the fortune they counted on making in New
York . They had spent their last penny in making these _preparationsand their despair-when ordered ashoremay be imagined .
Touched , by their distress , , and finding that their , error appeared to have proceeded from sheer simplicityand not from any dishonest
intentionMr . Blackwell paid their , passage on the spot . Such things were , of constant occurrence with him .
On reaching New York , Mr . Blackwell established a Sugar Refinery in that city , and was for some years exceedingly successful _*
Shortly after his arrival there he had received copies of Besolutions " expressive of regret at the loss of his services , and good
wishes for his future career , which had been passed at the annual meetings of the various benevolent societies of Bristol , of which he
had been so prominent a member ; and notwithstanding the almost incessant demands of a very extensive business upon his time , he
took an active part in the organization of the American Anti-Slavery
Elizabeth Blackwell. B3>
ELIZABETH BLACKWELL . B 3 _>
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), April 1, 1858, page 83, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01041858/page/11/
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