April 14 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Charles Webster, asking him to “stir up” the American Publishing Co., which had not sent Sam his April statement [MTP].

Prudence Crandall Philleo (1803-1890) in Elk Falls, Kansas, wrote to Sam to thank him for his past kindness to her:

It is only lately that I ascertained that you were the person that offered to reinstate me in my home that I bought in the long ago in the town of Canterbury, Conn. It is a matter of great surprise that any one could be so kind to an old woman like me…. Would it be too much for me to ask you to give me a volume of the same [Innocents Abroad] that I may be able to finish the book and loan it to others who are not able to purchase it [MTP]. Sam wrote on the envelope, “Prudence Crandall, who made the great fight for the Negro 50 years ago.”

Note: Prudence Crandall was an educator, emancipator, and human rights advocate who established a school for black females at Canterbury, Conn. in 1833. She was arrested for violating the “Black Law,” and though cleared, was forced to close the school in the face of harassment and mob action. She then moved to Illinois with her husband, who died in 1874. In 1886 the Conn. legislature, supported by Samuel Clemens and others, granted her an annual annuity of $400. She bought a home in Elk Falls where she passed in 1890. A 1987 letter from biographer Susan Strane in the MTP file states that the widow Prudence Crandall Philleo was “living in greatly reduced circumstances in Kansas in 1885,” and that her brother, with whom she’d lived for a decade had also recently died. Stephen Hubbard of the Hartford Courant came to the cause of her support and alerted Sam among others. She was granted a pension of $400 a year until her death in January, 1890.

James Redpath wrote from N.Y to Sam, refusing what he saw as charity. Pond had written Redpath that Sam was “troubled about an entirely unintentional error” and so left Pond the money for Redpath to draw on. Redpath would consider the money as a loan, however, if Sam agreed [MTP].