[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row admin_label=”Page Header” _builder_version=”4.16″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text admin_label=”Exhibit Title” _builder_version=”4.17.6″ _dynamic_attributes=”content” _module_preset=”default” border_width_bottom=”1px” border_color_bottom=”#E09900″ global_module=”6078″ global_colors_info=”{}”]@ET-DC@eyJkeW5hbWljIjp0cnVlLCJjb250ZW50Ijoic2l0ZV90aXRsZSIsInNldHRpbmdzIjp7ImJlZm9yZSI6IjxoMj4iLCJhZnRlciI6IjwvaDI+In19@[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Section Title” module_id=”section-title” module_class=”page-header” _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_margin=”||5px” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Page Title” module_id=”page-title” module_class=”page-header” _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_margin=”0px||” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_2,1_2″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” max_width=”1038px” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/oldsite.coloredconventions.org\/black-illinois-organizing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2021\/11\/CCP_050_SattiraDouglasLetter-1863.png” alt=”Newspaper clipping of a letter written by Sattira Douglas” title_text=”CCP_050_SattiraDouglasLetter-1863″ show_in_lightbox=”on” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” width=”50%” max_width=”50%” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” text_font_size=”13px” text_line_height=”1.3em” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
Sattira Douglas Letter [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n \u2014 Sattie A. Douglas, \u201cMr. Editor,\u201d Weekly Anglo-African,<\/em> June 20, 1863.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”3_5,2_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n Sattira A. Douglas, who went by Sattie, was an abolitionist activist involved in a variety of causes. She was born in North Carolina in 1840, but by the time she was ten, she and her parents were living in Racine, Wisconsin. Her parents, Alfred and Maria Steele, must have ensured that she received a good primary education, because in the 1850s, she attended Oberlin College in Ohio.[1]<\/span><\/p>\n As a young woman, Sattie participated in antislavery activities and helped drum up subscribers for <\/span>The<\/span><\/i> Provincial Freeman, <\/span><\/i>a newspaper published in Canada and edited by Mary Ann Shadd and H. Ford Douglas<\/a>. She married Douglas <\/span>in 1857 in Racine, and the couple moved to Chicago a year later. In 1859 Sattie gave birth to a daughter, Helen.[2]<\/span><\/p>\n During the tumultuous Civil War years, Sattie was active in community affairs in Chicago and became a frequent correspondent of two major Black newspapers, the <\/span>Weekly Anglo-African, <\/span><\/i>published in New York,<\/span> and the <\/span>Christian Recorder <\/span><\/i>of Philadelphia. Signing her published letters \u201cSattie,\u201d she urged African Americans to come together to support the Union war effort. She argued that if Black men did not enlist in the U.S. Army, \u201cit will only prove the correctness of the aspersion indulged in by our enemies, that we are unworthy of those rights which they have so long withheld from us.\u201d[3]<\/span><\/p>\n Sattie Douglas also wrote about the activities of a Black women\u2019s organization she helped found: the <\/span>Colored Ladies’ Freedmen’s Aid Society of Chicago (CLFAS)<\/span>. Douglas served as secretary of the organization, which supported Black soldiers and their families and gathered clothing, food, and cooking utensils to send to newly liberated people in the South. Mary Richardson Jones<\/a> <\/span>was president.[4]<\/span><\/p>\n During the first half of 1864, with support from the CLFAS, Douglas relocated to Leavenworth, Kansas, where she began teaching freedpeople who had been displaced by the war. The director of the school was Charles H. Langston, a longtime Black activist from Ohio whom Sattie likely encountered when he traveled to Chicago in 1863 to recruit Black men to serve in the U.S. Colored Troops. Sattie\u2019s husband, H. Ford Douglas, had enlisted in a white U.S. regiment in 1862 but relocated to Leavenworth in 1864 to raise a Black regiment.[5]<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”3_5,2_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/oldsite.coloredconventions.org\/black-illinois-organizing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2022\/02\/CCP_051_OberlinLadiesHall-1860.png” title_text=”CCP_051_OberlinLadiesHall-1860″ show_in_lightbox=”on” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” text_font_size=”13px” text_line_height=”1.3em” header_font_size=”13px” min_height=”51.7px” custom_margin=”-8px|||||” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Oberlin College Ladies’ Hall, 1860 [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”3_5,2_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n Sattie Douglas and Charles Langston worked closely together at first, but after he took a sick leave, she helped lead the school. Seeing the neediness of Black refugees in Kansas, Douglas sought support from the CLFAS, which, she wrote, \u201ckindly and promptly responded by shipping a lot of goods to us.\u201d[6]<\/span><\/p>\n In Leavenworth, Sattie came into contact with the women\u2019s rights activist Susan B. Anthony, who arrived there early in 1865 to visit her brother and his wife and, like Sattie, taught in schools for freedpeople. That summer, Anthony lectured in Leavenworth on the importance of voting rights for Black men, though she also acknowledged that \u201cthese belong equally to woman.\u201d[7]<\/span><\/p>\n In late August, Anthony traveled to Chicago where she spent time with Sattie again and delivered a lecture at Quinn Chapel A.M.E. Church. Introduced by Mary Richardson Jones, Anthony spoke on \u201cUniversal Suffrage\u201d and criticized President Andrew Johnson for not supporting Black men\u2019s right to vote.[8]<\/span><\/p>\n After H. Ford Douglas died in Kansas in November 1865, Sattie continued a life filled with teaching, family, and activism. She settled in Indianapolis, where she taught in the public schools.<\/span> In 1874 she married Robert McCary, a minister and activist who also worked for the U.S. Post Office. She evidently remained interested in the campaign for women\u2019s right to vote, for in 1882 she publicly defended Susan B. Anthony against charges of racism.[9]<\/span><\/p>\n She was widowed a second time in 1883, when Robert McCary passed away. At some point after that, Sattie returned to Chicago, where she still had family and friends, and by 1890 she was teaching kindergarten.[10]<\/span><\/p>\n Sattie McCary was committed to telling women\u2019s stories. On January 1, 1893, the thirtieth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, Chicago’s Bethel A.M.E. Church held a meeting honoring veterans of the abolitionist movement. Frederick Douglass gave a speech, as did Sattie McCary, whose lecture was entitled, \u201cThe Women of the Anti-Slavery Movement.\u201d[11]<\/span><\/p>\n McCary died in Chicago on June 30, 1895.[12<\/span>]<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”3_5,2_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” admin_label=”Sources” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n
<\/strong>A letter from Sattira Douglas reporting the establishment of the Colored Ladies’ Freedmen’s Aid Society. (Source: Sallie [Sattira] Douglass, “Letter from Chicago,” Christian Recorder<\/em>, Oct. 24, 1863. Courtesy of Accessible Archives<\/a>.)<\/p>\n“This war\u2026 [i]s to teach us, regardless of sex or complexion, hard lessons of sacrifice, of courage, and of fortitude… We are to stand forth in our own individual light.”<\/h2>\n
<\/strong>A photograph of Oberlin College Ladies’ Hall in 1860, where Sattie Douglas attended college. (Source: Courtesy of the\u00a0Oberlin<\/span>\u00a0College Archives<\/a>\u200b.)<\/p>\nSources<\/h4>\n