A woman who had been enslaved in the State of New York and had lectured for the last twenty-three years, whose characteristics Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe vividly portrayed as the African Sybil, was to deliver a lecture on the present issues of the day at the Steuben County Court house on June 2nd 1861. She was also to give her experience as a slave mother and religious woman. She was highly recommended as a public speaker, with the approval of many thousands who had heard her earnest appeals, including Wendell Phillips, Wm. Lloyd Garrison, and other distinguished men of the nation. At the close of her discourse she would offer for sale her photograph and a few of her choice songs.