Nell, to Garrison, supporting Maria Stewart

In March of 1852  William Cooper Nell wrote to Garrison, expressing thanks for Garrison’s  “early and constant advocacy of women’s equality…. In the perilous years of ’33’-35, a colored woman — Mrs. Maria Stewart  — fired with a holy zeal to speak her sentiments on the improvement of colored Americans, encountered an opposition even from her Boston circle of friend, that would have dampened the ardor of most women.  But your words of encouragement cheered her onwards, and her public lectures awakened an interest acknowledged and felt to this day …”