Washington, DC, 1999.
Preceding element provides place and date of transcription only.
For more information about this text and this American Memory collection, refer to accompanying matter.
The National Digital Library Program at the Library of Congress makes digitized historical materials available for education and scholarship.
This transcription is intended to have an accuracy of 99.95 percent or greater and is not intended to reproduce the appearance of the original work. The accompanying images provide a facsimile of this work and represent the appearance of the original.
TO THE
Freedmen.
WENDELL PHILLIPS
ON LEARNING TO READ AND WRITE.
BOSTON, July 16, 1865.
My Dear Friend:
You ask me what the North thinks about letting the Negro vote. My answer is,
two-thirds
of the North are willing he should vote, and
one
of these
thirds
is determined he
shall
vote, and will not rest till he does. But the opposition is very strong, and I fear we may see it put off for many a year.
Possibly there may be an agreement made, that those who can read and write shall vote, and no others.
Urge, therefore, every colored man
at once
to learn to read and write. His right to vote may very likely depend on that. Let him lose no time, but learn to read and write
at once.
Yours truly,
MR. JAMES REDPATH.
WENDELL PHILLIPS.