December 15 Wednesday – Sam lectured (“Savages”) in Armory Hall, Pawtucket, R.I. [MTL 3: 415].
He wrote a short note from Boston to his mother and family about his lecturing, Livy’s trousseau, which Jervis Langdon called her “trowsers,” and his contracting a cold; he was feeling too low to answer Pamela’s letter [MTL 3: 425].
Sam began a letter from Pawtucket to Livy that he finished Dec. 16. He mentioned having a talk with Frederick Douglass:
He told the history of his child’s expulsion from Miss Tracy’s school, & his simple language was very effective. Miss Tracy said the pupils did not want a colored child among them—which he did not believe, & challenged the proof. She put it at once to a vote of the school, and asked “How many of you are willing to have this colored child be with you?” And they all held up their hands! Douglass added: “The children’s hearts were right.” There was pathos in the way he said it. I would like to hear him make a speech. He has a grand face [MTL 3: 426-29].
"This is the first meeting between Douglass and Twain which is confirmed by the historical record, but it isn’t clear from Twain’s description whether it is, in fact, their first meeting. To the contrary, his perception that they were “glad to see” each other seems to suggest some kind of preexisting relationship, whether personal acquaintance or merely mutual admiration from afar. This is a common characteristic of the record of the Douglass-Twain relationship. While the surviving evidence of their interactions is not insignificant, it is sometimes frustrating because it often suggests of a more extensive, though undocumented friendship."