Wendell Phillips: Liberty's Hero

FIVE: Europe and Essex Street

FIVE Europe and Essex Street Ann Phillips remained in good health, "looking nicely," for the first year of their marriage. She and Wendell lived in Boston during the fall and winter of 1838 and spent the summer at the Phillipses' seaside estate in Nahant, near Lynn. Ann delighted in her husband's growth as an abolitionist , remarking that she had "learned little" since their marriage, "while Wendell, only two years older seems to know a world more."She mentioned nothing about the continuing friction between her and Sarah Phillips, who still resented Ann's abolitionism, especially her delight in frightening "ministers' wives about the county half to death, talking on the woman question." Soon, however, Ann curtailed such activities as she began complaining once again of shooting pains and violent nausea, although she suffered no terrible crisis this time. Baffled doctors suggested a tour abroad as a way to recuperate. Phillips hastened to resign his positions in the antislavery societies and prepared for a trip that would mark the end of Ann's public life. Ten years later he was to recall that "our last life was in England—perpetual leech chamber since—so no wonder we talk a great deal of all we saw and felt and the great kindnesses we received there."' They sailed from New York City on June 10, 1839, carrying commisi . Ann Phillips to Alvord, November 9, 1837, reprinted in Martyn, Phillips, 8y; Ann W.Weston to Aunt Mary |Weston|, July 9, 1838, Weston Papers; Phillips to Pease, February 9, 1850, Garrison Papers, BPL. 76 EUROPE AND ESSEX STREET 77 sions as delegates from the Massachusetts Anti-SlaverySociety to the World Anti-Slavery Convention, scheduled to meet in London the following year. Factions of quarreling Americans were sparring to capture English support, and the Phillipses were chosen to advance the Garrisonian cause. They mapped out an itinerary that would bring them first to London, then through France to Rome where they would winter before returning to England for the convention. Their pleasant ocean crossing promised a happy tour. Ann "never missed a meal" and was seasick only twice. The couple played shuffleboard, watched for porpoises, and mixed with an "interesting" if "motley set" of "Southerners . . . surveyors, French wanderers, East Indian middies, Irish nothings, rugged John Bulls, tradesmen's wives . . . and an old general of seventy with a wife of twenty-five." Aboard ship, Wendell also wrote the first of many loving and detailed letters to his mother. Contrary to her hopes, he did not diminish his commitment to abolitionism during his time abroad. As will be seen, European experiences only deepened and expanded his convictions . Yetin these letters Phillips also assured Sarah that he wanted as much as ever to be counted as her close and loving son.2 The Phillipses landed in London, and Wendell was seized with historical ecstasy: "We passed through an ancient gate, weather beaten, marked with 1687 and the name of ill-fated James id," he reported to Sarah. "Tell John he cannot imagine how forcibly it shatters one, these places covered so deep with the memories of the past, haunted by the great days gone by." Here was genealogy, set in ancient pavements and building stones.3 Yet contemporary England proved just as fascinating. Prominent British abolitionists greeted them, and several became enduring friends. Richard Webb, a Dubliner, was a leader in British abolitionism and friendly toward Garrison. Sprightly Elizabeth Pease, a wealthy woman who came from Quaker stock, helped underwrite the American Anti-Slavery Society, and Ann and Wendell judged her a "very intelligent and interesting woman." She took charge of the young Americans' social calendar, one high point of which was a visit to George Thompson's house.4 i. Phillips to Sarah Walley Phillips, June 14, 1839, and see other letters of Phillips to his mother, 1839-41, all in Blagden Papers. 3. Phillips to SarahW. Phillips, June 30, 1839, ibid. 4. Douglas C. Riach, "Richard Davis Webb and Antislavery in Ireland,"in Lewis Perry and Michael Fellmanjeds.), Antislavery Reconsidered: New Perspectives on the Abolitionists (Baton Rouge, 1979), 149-67; Louis Ruchames(ed.), A House Dividing Against Itself, 18)6-1840 (Cambridge,Mass., 1971), 326-17, Vol.II of The Lettersof /8 WENDELL PHILLIPS Here they met the great abolitionist-orator whose tour of New England had inspired the Boston mob witnessed by the Phillipses in 1835. American abolitionists counted Thompson a hero, and...