Quaker witness recognised by memorial plaque
Newcastle City Council has mounted a memorial plaque to commemorate visits by a leading American abolitionist
Newcastle City Council has mounted a memorial plaque to commemorate visits by a leading American abolitionist to the home of the influential Quaker Richardson family.
Anti-slave activists Henry, Anna and Ellen Richardson raised £150 in the 1840s to free Frederick Douglass, who was a prominent campaigner for black emancipation and racial justice, from slavery.
The plaque, at 5 Summerhill Grove, reads: ‘Frederick Douglass 1818-1895. An African American abolitionist, author and social reformer. One of many fugitive slaves who stayed here with the Richardson family. Henry Richardson, his wife Anna and sister Ellen were Quakers and anti slavery activists who helped raise funds for Douglass to formally buy his freedom in 1846.’
Michael Richardson of Stocksfield Friends, and a descendant of the Richardson family, told the Friend: ‘I feel very proud that they raised so much money to free this man, who sounds like he was a wonderful person. After the unveiling we went to the Discover Museum in Newcastle where there was a discussion about the abolitionist movement. We were told that £150 was worth £2 million in 1846. It’s a tremendous story.’
The unveiling, on 26 February, was arranged to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of Martin Luther King receiving an honorary degree from Newcastle University.
