Horton Howard Letter to Thomas Rotch

This letter, written by Horton Howard in 1818, is two pages and measures approximately 8" x 10" (20.32 cm x 25.4 cm). In the letter, Howard asks his friend Thomas Rotch to attend a meeting in order to draft a statement to Congress encouraging the abolition of the slave trade. Thomas Rotch (1767-1823) a Quaker and early settler of Kendall, Ohio (now Massillon), was active in the abolition movement and conducted slaves to freedom on the Underground Railroad. The Rotch-Wales Collection includes several thousand items, including Quaker and abolitionist materials, household remedies and recipes, weather reports and machinery plans, and personal letters of Thomas and Charity Rotch and their family. It contains personal and business correspondence, diaries, documents, accounts, ledgers, and daybooks. A large portion of the collection consists of the personal and business correspondence, documents, and business papers of Arvine Wales I (1785-1854), who accompanied Rotch from Hartford to Ohio in 1811, worked for him, and carried on Rotch's business interests after his death. The papers of his son, Arvine C. Wales (1827-1882), a lawyer and civic leader in Massillon, are also part of the collection