239 résultats
185012963Charleston SC: Printed by Walker & Burke February 7 1850. Partially-printed document completed in manuscript 13 x 8 inches. Old folds minor toning and offsetting. Very good. A very rare pre-printed form from antebellum South Carolina designed specifically for documenting the sale of slaves in Charleston in the mid-19th century. The document emanates from the Court of Equity and directs the estate of Gilbert C. Geddes to sell five named slaves to James Hopkinson for $2075. The names of the slaves are Sam Nelly Daphne Simon and Jenny. The document is signed by James W. Gray Master in Equity in the case of "Bank of the State of South Carolina vs. the Executrix of Gilbert C. Geddes et al" and by William E. Seabrook as witness. Gray adds a particularly insidious note near the bottom of the document when he writes that Hopkinson is entitled to "have and hold" the aforementioned five slaves "together with the future issue and increase of the females." Geddes 1806-1848 a wealthy Charleston resident owned more than a hundred enslaved people when he died; his father John Geddes served as governor of South Carolina 1818-1820. This is the first example of this document we have seen and a unique record of the transference of five slaves and particularly interesting for granting the new slaveowner the rights to future slave children. Printed by Walker & Burke, February 7 unknown
1852100540<p>Letterpress braodsheet 10 3/4 x 6 1/4 text on both sides. Margins trimmed on both sides a little uneven on the left side close to words on reverse but not affecting text a few small stains in text. Indiana was for many years a site of refuge for escaping slaves. With this joint resolution the document declares that the only real way to do away with the injustice of slavery was to advocate emigration and colonialization of Africa.</p>
1819190417Albemarle County VA: 1819-1823. A revealing survival from early 19th-century Virginia: the last will and testament of Isaac Hardin a prominent citizen and first legal owner of the land now known as the Greenwood historic district in Albemarle County. The will transfers ownership of 13 enslaved persons. In his will written in June 1819 and notarized and effected in May 1823 the ailing Hardin leaves the vast majority of his possessions to his wife Elizabeth. This includes the mansion house and plantation along with a number of enslaved persons: Juber Milly Milly's children Willis and Mary Ann and two girls named Hannah and Pheby. The enslaved people are mentioned in the will after Hardin's property and before the listing of his livestock. Later in the will he also transfers legal ownership of a man named Anderson to his oldest son Berry M. Hardin and of six other enslaved people to his daughter Lucinda Scott. The will was signed by Hardin with his mark and witnessed by four individuals on June 26 1819 and was later notarized on May 31 1823. We can assume that Hardin's will was carried out upon his death in 1820 and advertisements for a trust sale in 1830 tell us that much of this same property was later auctioned off including all of the enslaved men and women left to Elizabeth except for Hannah and Pheby who were singled out as Elizabeth's "to have and to hold and to dispose of as she may think proper". Bifolium handwritten on three pages docketed and with remnants of wax seal on fourth page. Old folds some damage to second leaf from where seal was removed not touching text. Very good. unknown
1856218<b>First edition of "the most complete record available" of the controversial Pennsylvania case on fugitive slaves establishing a "precedent set in federal and state courts… and important cause célèbre for the antislavery movement" crucial in asserting a clear path for the following year's Dred Scott decision and provoking a "legal crisis… that led to the Civil War" elusive in original cloth. An overall clean text with soiling on top of pages 1-16 & pgs. 161-191 and contemporary ink marginalia by Strawbridge on a few pages. John Strawbridge is inscribed in old ink on page prior to title page. A book which has become difficult to find in the original cloth.</b> Uriah Hunt & Son hardcover
1807177680London: Richard Phillips 1807. First edition of this account of the British colonies within modern-day Guyana. Bolingbroke was a staunch supporter of the Transatlantic slave trade which he discusses in Chapter Five and dedicated this work to the colonial secretary William Windham. Henry Bolingbroke 1785-1855 was a Norfolk merchant who first visited Demerara in 1798. This region had been under the control of the French and Dutch until it was captured by the British in 1796. Bolingbroke remained in the colony until 1805; he then travelled to Surinam in Dutch Guiana to become Deputy Vendue Master in 1807 responsible for public sales and auctions including those of enslaved people. He was one of the 16 MPs who voted against the abolition of slavery in March 1807. In Chapter Five Bolingbroke writes about slavery and what he viewed as its economic importance. In his dedication to Windham 1750-1810 he praised him for relaxing monopoly restrictions and "resisting the abolition of a liberty essential at new settlements of importing additional labourers" p. iii. Quarto pp. xii 400. Folding engraved map. Original green paper-covered boards rebacked modern spine label edges untrimmed. Signature of one George Atkinson on front pastedown a few pencil notes internally. Spine head stabilized boards marked foxing and toning to map and contents two small closed tears to map repaired offsetting to title page: a very good copy. Sabin 6182. hardcover
1842313227Philadelphia: stereotyped by L. Johnson 1842. First edition. 140 pp. 1 vols. 8vo. Original brown ribbed cloth rebacked with original spine laid down titled in gilt. Marginal dampstaining throughout scattered foxing some wear to boards good. First edition. 140 pp. 1 vols. 8vo. First edition of this report of this monumental Supreme Court decision regarding escaped slaves preceding by 15 years and rivaling in importance the Dred Scott case of 1857. "In Prigg the Court identified slavery as a core constitutional commitment with which states could not interfere. In this case the Court struck down northern states' 'personal liberty laws' established to protect alleged fugitive slaves from recapture without due process of law. When the professional 'slave catcher' Edward Prigg tried to remove Margaret Moran an alleged runaway he was unable to meet the burden of proof set out by Pennsylvania's 1826 Personal Liberty Law and failed to obtain the legal certificate permitting him to remove her. When Prigg proceeded to ignore this and removed Moran illegally to Maryland Pennsylvania convicted him of kidnapping. The US Supreme Court however overwhelmingly overturned Prigg's conviction 8-1 and pronounced state laws interfering with the return of alleged runaways a violation of the Fugitive Slave Clause." Beaumont The Civic Constitution 2014 p. 128. Blockson 9905; Dummond p. 140; Sabin 61207 stereotyped by L. Johnson unknown
18224276Howard County Mo 1822. Good. Three documents totaling 3pp. folio the two earliest documents written on each side of the same leaf with an integral blank and attached to the third document with sealing wax each document docketed on verso. Some short separations along folds minor spotting two short tape repairs. A series of three documents recording a case of slave theft in Missouri. The plaintiff in the case George W. Hardin sues a man named Urial Bailey for stealing three slaves from the Hardin estate in Howard County Missouri. The first document is a sworn oath dated May 23 1822 by George Hardin stating that "He was lawfully possessed of the negroes.and that the same were unlawfully taken by Urial Bailey.from his properties and with out his consent within one year last past and that he is now lawfully entitled to the possession of the said negroes." The document is attested by the clerk and signed by Hardin.<br /> <br /> The second document is executed by Hardin's lawyers on the verso of his oath dated the same day and constitutes an order from the court to the Sheriff of Howard County informing him that "George W. Hardin hath come into the Circuit Court held in the town of Franklin and found sufficient sureties as well as his clamour to prosecute for a certain woman called Dolly about the age of twenty eight years also one negro boy of about the age of nine years named Nathan also one negro girl called Eliza about the age of three years all the property of the said Plaintiff.which a certain Uriel Bailey.hath taken and unjustly detains. You are hereby commanded that the said goods.be delivered to the said George W. Hardin and that.Uriel Bailey appear before the said Circuit Court to be held at the town of Franklin."<br /> <br /> The third document is executed by Hardin's lawyers on the verso of his oath dated September 1822 and lays out the facts of the case. It reads in part: "George W. Hardin by his Attorney Tompkins & French complains of Urial Bailey that he took the previously named slaves of great value. To wit of the value of fifteen hundred dollars.where fore the said Plaintiff saith that he is injured and hath sustained damages to the value of five hundred dollars and therefore he brings suit." Interestingly in this document Hardin's lawyers refer to the youngest slave Eliza as a "mulatto girl." Docketing on the integral blank attached to the oath and lawyer's document dated May 23 1822 indicate that Hardin was seeking "Replevin Damages" of $500 which the court seems to grant. <br /> <br /> The motive behind Urial or Uriel Bailey's thefts are not recorded here but the issue of slave stealing was not uncommon and had been going on in the American colonies and the fledgling United States for a long time. According to Timothy F. Reilly in "Slave Stealing in the Early Domestic Trade as Revealed by a Loyal Manservant" published in Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association Vol. 55 No. 1 Winter 2004 pp.5-39: "Slave stealing plagued domestic slaveholders as far back as the colonial period when those who would unlawfully deprive a property owner of human chattel were detested as 'Negro jockeys.' Whether operating in the northern or southern colonies a 'man-stealer' lurking about either as a piratical thief or as a high-minded abolitionist was guilty of one of the worst crimes against the sanctity of property. By the 1830s man stealing reached epidemic levels in parts of the South."<br /> <br /> Despite the seeming prevalence of slave theft for a long period of time in the United States primary source records of court cases are very scarce. unknown
1865231171865. Civil War Black Military Slavery Virginia Confederate government imprint documenting one of the clearest bureaucratic efforts to formalize the use of enslaved labor in direct support of the Confederate war effort at the very moment of institutional collapse. Issued in Richmond Virginia in January 1865 and printed by the Confederate House of Representatives. The document responds to a congressional inquiry into the impressment of enslaved people explicitly acknowledging state-directed seizure of enslaved men for military labor. Within the text the Confederate state attempts to regulate this extraction noting limits such as "no more than one out of five male slaves between the ages specified. from any one owner" while simultaneously confirming large-scale requisitions including "5000 slaves from the State of Virginia for service with the army of Northern Virginia." The language reveals both the administrative reach of the Confederate state and its dependence on enslaved labor as a logistical backbone in the war's final phase.<br /> <br /> Octavo pamphlet measuring 9.5" x 6" 5 pages printed in Richmond Virginia January 1865. The text includes titled sections "Message of the President" "Communication from Secretary of War" "Resolution of House of Representatives" and "Response of Superintendent of Conscription" along with dated correspondence from December 1864 through January 1865. The imprint corresponds to Parrish and Willingham 2298. As a primary source the pamphlet holds substantial institutional value for collections in African American history Civil War studies and the history of slavery particularly for research into the transition from plantation labor systems to militarized coercion and the administrative mechanisms of late Confederate governance.<br /> The pamphlet is especially significant for how it exposes internal contradictions within Confederate ideology. While the Confederacy had long resisted arming or formally incorporating enslaved people in ways that might destabilize slavery this document demonstrates a late-war shift toward coercive mobilization framed as "employment" to "increase the efficiency of the army." Additional correspondence from Brig. Gen. Jno. S. Preston and Major Gen. J. L. Kemper details the mechanics of requisition emphasizing proportional seizure across slaveholders and acknowledging prior errors in impressment including the improper inclusion of enslaved people outside prescribed categories. Condition shows light toning minor spotting and edge wear consistent with age; paper remains stable with clear legible text throughout; faint institutional stamp present on front. Overall very good condition. This document underscores how the Confederate war effort relied on systems of exploitation applied to enslaved African American men. unknown
1870231221870. Slavery Cuba Spanish colonial slave sale manuscript recording the transfer of four enslaved individuals in Cuba in 1870. Produced within the official bureaucratic framework of Spanish colonial governance the document reflects the legal normalization of slavery in Cuba even as abolitionist pressures mounted across the Atlantic world. The document records the sale of four enslaved people described as "criollos" and African-born individuals situating the transaction within a labor system that combined locally born and imported enslaved populations. Created at a time when Spain had formally restricted the transatlantic slave trade but continued to permit slavery itself the manuscript demonstrates the persistence of legalized human commodification and the integration of enslaved labor into the island's economic structure sixteen years prior to abolition in 1886.<br /> <br /> Official Cuban slave contract documenting the sale of four enslaved individuals to Don Pedro Catasús by Don Enfemia Ochoa for the sum of 1100 pesos on November 29 1870. Single manuscript leaf written in Spanish cursive in black ink measuring 8.25" x 12". A green "50 cs de escudo" revenue stamp is affixed at the top center with a blind embossed Spanish crest at the upper left and a circular black ink government seal impressed at the lower left. Large vertical docketing appears on the verso. A stylized watermark is visible within the paper. The text organizes the enslaved individuals within a standardized transactional structure while the signatures of Enfemia Ochoa Pedro Catasús and A. Díaz de Rada authenticate the exchange and identify participants within the slaveholding economy.<br /> <br /> By 1870 Cuba remained a central node in the late Atlantic slave system with plantation agriculture especially sugar dependent on enslaved labor despite mounting abolitionist pressure. Although Spain had curtailed official slave imports earlier in the century illegal trafficking persisted into the 1860s and other coerced labor systems including the importation of Chinese indentured workers overlapped with slavery into the 1870s. The presence of both Creole and African individuals in this document reflects the layered composition of the enslaved population during this period. Light toning scattered foxing and edge wear visible. A closed wormhole extends from the upper right margin approximately five inches into the sheet resulting in partial loss of text. Evidence of prior tape reinforcement visible on the verso along with offsetting from previously adjacent material. Overall in very good condition. This document provides named transactional evidence of late-period slavery in Cuba offering concrete material for examining race labor and legal practice within Spanish colonial society. unknown
1870231191870. Slavery Cuba Spanish colonial manuscript documenting the late persistence of slavery in Cuba recording the sale of five enslaved Creole individuals including women and children 1870. Produced within the official bureaucratic framework of Spanish colonial governance the document reflects the legal normalization of slavery in Cuba even as abolitionist pressures mounted across the Atlantic world. The presence of multiple children within the transaction underscores the hereditary nature of enslavement and the commodification of family units offering direct material evidence of how slavery functioned socially and economically in its final decades on the island. Although Spain had formally ended the transatlantic slave trade earlier in the century illegal trafficking and internal slave markets persisted and slavery itself would not be abolished in Cuba until 1886 placing this document within a crucial transitional period marked by reform debates gradual emancipation laws and continued exploitation.<br /> <br /> Official Cuban slave contract recording the sale of five enslaved individuals identified as "criollos" including one adult woman and four children from Santiago Simón Fambi to Don Pedro Catasús for the sum of 1200 pesos on November 21 1870. Single page manuscript leaf measuring 8.25" x 12". The manuscript is written in Spanish cursive hand in black ink. The upper left bears a blind embossed crest of Spain while a circular black ink government seal is impressed at the lower left partially overlapping the text. The text enumerates the enslaved individuals with ages and names embedding human lives within the formulaic language of sale and valuation while the bold signatures of both seller Santiago Simón Fambi and buyer Pedro Catasús anchor the transaction in identifiable actors within the colonial economy.<br /> <br /> By 1870 slavery in Spanish Cuba remained central to the island's plantation economy particularly in sugar production which had expanded rapidly in the mid-19th century with industrialized mills and global demand. Enslaved people were primarily forced into agricultural labor under highly regimented and brutal conditions though others were used in urban domestic service skilled trades or as hired laborers generating income for their owners. This document exhibits light toning edge wear and scattered foxing throughout. A closed wormhole extends approximately two inches from the upper right margin inward not affecting legibility of the text. Minor losses and small tears along the edges. Overall in very good condition. Given that this document records a woman and four children the family was likely intended for a combination of field labor and domestic or auxiliary work with the children gradually incorporated into plantation labor as they aged reflecting the system's reliance on both immediate exploitation and the reproduction of enslaved labor over time. unknown
1815201561815. Manuscript fiscal records from antebellum Virginia demonstrate how enslaved people were formally incorporated into legal and economic systems as taxable property. These documents record enslaved individuals not as citizens but as items of assessed value within the personal property systems that structured the slave economy. Such records provide direct evidence of the bureaucratic mechanisms through which slavery functioned in the United States revealing how local governments and property holders catalogued enslaved African Americans alongside land livestock and other assets. The present group of Virginia documents dating from 1815 to 1854 records the ownership and taxation of enslaved people in Washington County during the decades preceding the Civil War.<br /> <br /> Archive of three manuscript fiscal documents from Washington County Virginia dated between 1815 and 1854. The earliest document dated 1 April 1815 records "A list of land & slaves owned by Jacob Campbell the first day of April 1815. The first district of Virginia Washington City." A second associated receipt enumerates eight enslaved persons identified by gender and age categories with assigned monetary values totaling 2170 dollars. A later tax receipt dated 1848 documents revenue obligations for Robert L. Berry and John Berry and includes "Slaves" among taxable property categories alongside horses clocks and land. The third document a tax receipt issued to Miss Francis Jane Irby in 1854 records taxable categories including "Black" titheables in addition to land salary and road levies reflecting the legal classification of enslaved African Americans within Virginia's tax system. Together the documents demonstrate the routine administrative recording of enslaved people as financial assets within county taxation and property accounting.<br /> <br /> Virginia occupied a central role in the history of American slavery. The first documented Africans arrived in the English colony of Virginia in 1619 and by the mid nineteenth century enslaved African Americans constituted a substantial portion of the state's population. By the 1860 census more than one third of Virginia's inhabitants were enslaved people whose labor sustained the agricultural economy of the region. Manuscript tax records such as these provide stark evidence of the legal and economic framework that reduced human beings to taxable property within local government systems. Three manuscript documents measuring approximately 6.75 x 2 inches to standard letter size. Original folds present with minor foxing and a small chip to the lower left corner of one document; docketing on versos; text clear and legible. Overall condition very good. unknown
18445887Washington DC: June 7 1844. Very good. Broadside 12.25 x 7.75 inches. Light tanning shallow marginal chips and some fraying to left and right edges. An unrecorded slip-bill printing of a House Resolution with a phenomenal back story involving an erudite elusive and resourceful Florida slave. The slip bill authored by Howell Cobb U.S. Representative from Georgia stipulates that the Secretary of the Treasury pay the sum of five hundred dollars to the heirs and representatives of Antonio Pacheco a former resident of Florida the sum "being the price of a slave named Lewis which was sent out by the United States with the Seminole Indians and lost to his owners." That's where the plot thickens. The slave is now known to history as Luis Fatio Pacheco born in 1800 to enslaved parents on the "New Switzerland" plantation in Florida which was surrounded by a mix of Europeans Africans and Native Americans. As such Luis became fluent in several languages including Seminole which later made him a valuable asset.<br /> <br /> After a conflict with his owner Luis attempted to escape slavery in 1824 by fleeing to Spanish fisheries on Florida's Gulf Coast but he was captured by U.S. military authorities the following year. Skilled as he was in languages and literacy by the military Luis was sold in 1832 to Antonio Pacheco a Cuban merchant. After Antonio's death Luis became the property of Pacheco's widow. When tensions began to ratchet up again between American military forces and the Seminole tribe a U.S. Army officer made a deal to rent Luis from the Pacheco estate at the rate of $25 a month to take advantage of his services as an interpreter. In December 1835 Luis was accompanying a troop detachment led by Major Frances L. Dade in a march to reinforce Fort King near the present-day city of Ocala Florida. Evidently that day Luis was assigned as a scout; he has said to have attempted to warn Dade of a possible ambush by the Seminoles which went unheeded by the commander. The result is today known as the Dade Massacre in which Dade and most of his men were killed.<br /> <br /> According to the narrative provided by Luis who spoke Seminole he explained to the warriors that he was a slave and successfully pleaded for his life. Luis lived with the Seminoles as a captive for nearly two years before again managing to escape. In September 1837 Luis surrendered to the U.S. Army at Fort Peyton near St. Augustine. Soon after he was accused of collaborating with the Seminoles in the Dade Massacre. In 1841 negotiations between the US government and Seminole leader Coacoochee the Native American leader claimed Luis as his property captured in war. Coacoochee was permitted to take Luis together with other Black Seminoles to Oklahoma for resettlement. This event led to the claim by Anthony Pacheco‘s heirs for restitution of a lost slave. The Joint Committee on Claims approved the claim. Luis's story eventually became a focal point in the abolitionist argument against slavery and in 1858 Ohio representative Joshua R. Giddings published a book portraying Luis as a hero against the system. In any case the question of whether or not Luis betrayed Dade has never been completely resolved. June 7 unknown
18271184001827. First Edition. SLAVERY STROUD George M. A Sketch of the Laws Relating to Slavery in the Several States of the United States of America. Philadelphia: Kimber and Sharpless 1827. Octavo original half tan and light brown paper boards uncut. $1350.First edition of Judge Stroud's groundbreaking 1827 work documenting state slave laws and relevant Constitutional provisions held as a key resource for Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin a cornerstone volume considered by many the best of the ante-bellum studies"" on slavery uncut in original boards.""The ink was hardly dry on the Constitution when the powers of Congress relative to slavery were called into question"" Dumond 153. The Fugitive Slave Act was passed in 1793 and in 1819 Congress began a bitter debate over slavery in the territories that culminated in the 1820 Missouri Act. At this time Philadelphia Judge George Stroud began work on Sketch of the Laws. ""This work the first substantial legal treatise on American slavery is considered by many the best of the ante-bellum studies"" Cohen 9877. His coverage of state slave codes and Constitutional provisions is a cornerstone of the legal literature. Published well before ""the Dred Scott decision Stroud's book had extensive influence upon national legal thinking on the issue of slavery. For example it is believed by some scholars that Harriet Beecher Stowe gained her knowledge of slave laws from Stroud's work"" Johnson Stroud's Slave Laws vi. In legal literature of antislavery one key group is on ""slave codes and their administration. The purpose of these works was to use slave law as data credible data as to the realities of slavery. The first and in many ways the best of these works was George Stroud A Sketch of the Laws"" Cover Justice Accused 149n. Blockson 9965. Sabin 93097. Work 343. Harvard Law Catalogue II:680. Text generally fresh with scattered foxing mild embrowning mild edge-wear rubbing to spine label. A very good copy of a major early work on slavery. hardcover
1805369285London 1805. 309; 4 46pp. Uncut. 2 vols. Folio. Disbound. 309; 4 46pp. Uncut. 2 vols. Folio. Two British Parliamentary papers on the slave trade issued in the midst of the debates for its abolition. The first paper organized by West Indian island includes the correspondence between the British government and their West India colonies regarding slavery from the period 1797 to 1800 and includes the text of the Leeward Island Amelioration Act of 1798. The paper includes a wealth of statistical information on the enslaved populations of each island as well as the names of plantation owners and their holdings. The second paper continues the correspondence from 1804-1805 with updated statistics. unknown
1823List3302London England: Ellerton and Henderson 1823. Three page document measuring 8 ½ x 13 ¼ inches. Folded with some small wrinkles at edges else Near Fine. A document produced by the Society for Mitigating and Gradually Abolishing the State of Slavery throughout the British Dominions better known as the Anti-Slavery Society. The group was founded in London in 1823 by a group of politicians philanthropists and businessmen including William Wilberforce Joseph Sturge and Zachary Macaulay. The document discusses the horrors of enslavement—even unfavorably comparing the British colonies’ conditions with those in the US—and decries the fact that after the 1807 Slave Trade Act essentially nothing more had been done to put “an end to a condition of society which so grievously outrages every feeling of humanityâ€. We find a single copy of the Ellerton and Henderson edition in physical format listed in OCLC as accession number 83930673. Ellerton and Henderson unknown
18451216681845. First Edition. PHILLIPS Wendell. Can Abolitionists Vote or Take Office under the United States Constitution New York: American Anti-Slavery Society 1845. Octavo half calf-gilt marbled boards; pp. 1-3 4-39 1. $1500.First edition of the provocative abolitionist's fierce attack on the Constitutionproclaiming it ""an irredeemably proslavery document""declaring its legacy implicates ""all Americans in the crimes of slaveholding"" and caused the American flag to be weighed ""heavy with blood.""An eloquent writer and orator abolitionist Wendell Phillips was the ""most important ally"" of William Lloyd Garrison who famously contended the Constitution was a ""covenant with death"" and ""an agreement with Hell."" As Garrison's ""deepest source of inspiration"" Phillips saw the ""abolitionist as the catalyst for revolution."" In this seminal work he contends ""that the U.S. Constitution was an irredeemably proslavery document and abolitionists must withdraw support from the political system because it implicated all Americans in the crimes of slaveholding"" ANB. He notes herein that since the ratification of the Constitution Americans witnessed ""slaves trebling in numbersslaveholders monopolizing the offices and dictating the policy of the Government making the courts of the country their tools.""A citizen's vote Phillips declares is ""an oath to support the Constitutionthe whole of it a contract with the whole nation"" emphasis in original. He cites key clauses quotes statements made by James Madison and others during its ratification and counters a series of 16 objections to the Garrisonian/Phillips position. In answering ""the question of slavery"" he states: ""we are not dealing with extreme cases every sixth man is a slave the national banner clings to the flag-staff heavy with blood If the Constitution is not what history unbroken practice and the courts prove that our fathers intended to make it and what too their descendants say they did make it and agree to upholdwho shall decide what the Constitution is"" Scholar Paul Finkelman points out that while there now seems certain failure in the Garrisonian/Phillips position that the Constitution ""logically led to the conclusion that the free states should secede from the union in the 1830s and 40s the idea of a northern secession as a way of destroying slavery made some sense what would happen if the Garrisonians accomplished their goal and the North left the Union to form a nation based on freedom instead of slavery It would be like moving the Canadian border to the Mason-Dixon line. Suddenly slavery would be threatened in Kentucky and Virginia because slaves could now escape to a free country just by crossing the Ohio River"" Making a Covenant. Phillips is widely esteemed as ""a commanding presence in the history of the nation's struggles to overcome racial and economic injustice"" ANB. First edition first printing: No. 13 The Anti-Slavery Examiner. '""Introduction"" signed in print ""Wendell Phillips. Boston Jan. 15 1845."" With ""Extracts from J.Q. Adams"" at rear. Sabin 81919. Text very fresh tiny gutter-edge-pinholes from original stitching handsomely bound. hardcover
18831255001883. First Edition. Signed. PILLSBURY Parker. Acts of the Anti-Slavery Apostles. Concord N.H.: Clague Wegman Schlicht 1883. Octavo original gilt-lettered brown cloth floral endpapers; pp. 503. $1500.First edition of the fearless abolitionist's memoir a distinctive presentation copy inscribed by Pillsbury to ""To Mr. & Mrs. F. M. C With sincere regards and best wishes of their friend Parker Pillsbury. Concord New Hampshire 1894."" Hailed as a ""fighting book"" it documents the bold tactics of this notorious radical who early warned America was ""hastening to a baptism of blood"" and was praised by Emerson as a ""tough oak stock of a man not to be silenced or insulted or intimidated"" a splendid copy in original cloth.Born in Massachusetts in 1809 the son of a blacksmith Pillsbury became a Congregational minister but was soon famed as one of the era's most radical abolitionists. Having once witnessed a slave auction he recorded its advertisement of: ""'two mules a horse and 27 Negroes' Does any mortal man or woman"" he asked ""comprehend all the tremendous meaning of those words"" Infamous for his apocalyptic style and confrontational tactics Pillsbury early declared the nation was ""hastening to its baptism. It is a baptism of blood."" He was resolute in denying any possible ""union with slave-holders""and also insisted ""women must be given their due rights."" Emerson admired him as a ""tough oak stock of a man not to be silenced or insulted or intimidated by a mob because he is more mob than they. He mobs the mob."" He was ""in Susan B. Anthony's eyes the Jeremiah of the anti-slavery movement"" Filler Parker Pillsbury 315 328-37.Fiercely anticlerical in his writings and in action Pillsbury would dramatically interrupt ""religious services calling on audiences to 'come out' from their proslavery churches."" He linked most clergy to timid politicians and cautious abolitionists proclaiming them a ""brotherhood of thieves"" Robertson Hard Cold Stern Life 189. Pillsbury's 1883 memoir Acts of the Anti-Slavery Apostles was above all ""a fighting book."" In it he writes of his esteem for his fellow white radical Stephen S. Foster and leading Black abolitionists such as David Ruggles as well as his disdain for Lincoln; Pillsbury ""never forgot that the idolized Lincoln meant to save the Union and not necessarily to free the slaves"" Filler 336. First edition first printing: issued in brown cloth this copy and in green cloth no priority determined. Blockson 9099. See Work 304 1884 edition. This copy is inscribed to ""To Mr. & Mrs. F. M. Crosby."" It is notable that while there was a Crosby family of abolitionists in New Hampshire the identity of this copy's recipients could not be confirmed.Text pristine; tiniest bit of soiling to cloth. An especially handsome copy in fine condition. hardcover
18501210761850. First Edition. SLAVERY SMITH Gerrit. Substance of the Speech Made by Gerrit Smith in the Capitol of the State of New York March 11th and 12th 1850. Albany: Jacob T. Hazen 1850. Octavo period-style half calf gilt marbled boards; pp. 1-3 4-25 26-27 28-30. $1500.First edition of the bold abolitionist's Speech proclaiming the Constitution ""does not allow the three million of our colored countrymen to be held in slavery"" a close friend of Frederick Douglass who ""openly embraced Smith's version of an antislavery interpretation of the Constitution"" delivered the same decade as John Brown's Harpers Ferry raid substantially financed by Smith.Smith a wealthy philanthropist was ""among the most outspoken"" of white abolitionists Jackson Force and Freedom 65. Once linked to William Lloyd Garrison's view of the Constitution as a ""covenant with death"" Smith split from Garrison and became a founder of both the Liberty Party and its successor the Radical Abolitionist Party. He was as well key in forging a close interracial alliance between Frederick Douglass Black abolitionist and physician James McCune Smith and John Brown. The four men shared the goal of achieving ""a 'radical change' in government."" By the early 1850s Douglass ""openly embraced Smith's version of an antislavery interpretation of the Constitution"" Blight 213. To Smith Douglass and figures as Alvan Stewart and Lysander Spooner ""the Constitution empoweredeven requiredCongress to abolish slavery in the southern states by direct legislation As an editor Douglass had always engaged with national politics. Now the federal authority at the base of slavery's stranglehold on America became his intensive focus"" Blight 214; emphasis in original.This very scarce first edition captures the force of Smith's groundbreaking 1850 Speech and clearly demonstrates the breadth of his constitutional argument. Declaring ""law is for the protection of rightsnot for the destruction of rights"" emphasis in original he cites passages in the Declaration and Bill of Rights and addresses the pivotal ""three-fifths"" clause. Smith proclaims the Founding Fathers did not intend ""to make this whole land the slaveholder's hunting ground"" and asserts the Constitution ""does not allow the three million of our colored countrymen to be held in slavery."" He would use his wealth to help establish a Black settlement at North Elba N.Y. which was ""John Brown's permanent residence from 1854 until his death"" Stauffer Black Hearts 3. After Harpers Ferry and Brown's execution Smith faced demands that he be tried as an ""accessory after the fact."" While he ""publicly denied it Smith gave warm encouragement and financial assistance"" to Brown and the Harpers Ferry insurrection. Yet ""guilt over the failure of Brown's raid and fear of possible arrest as a co-conspirator caused Smith to commit himself to the Utica State Lunatic Asylum"" ANB. In time he publicly retreated from his Radical Abolitionist stance and died in 1874. Sabin 82670. A fine copy. hardcover
182541192London: Printed by Ellerton and Henderson Gough Square for the Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery Throughout the British Dominions; and Sold by J. Hatchard and Son Piccadilly; and J. and A. Arch Cornhill 1825. iv 164 pp. Some foxing to first and last few leaves; title and last page toned. Bound in modern dark boards with gilt-lettered title stamped on front cover. Good plus. <br /> <br /> A second edition issued in 1826. The book reviews developments concerning slavery in each of the British West India colonies: laws for free people of color and for slaves manumissions proposed reforms and objections to reforms trials of alleged rebels and insurgents including the destruction of the Methodist chapel in Barbados and revolts and trials in Jamaica changes in the law punishments inflicted manumissions the slave trade slave unrest.<br /> "The reports were called for in order to learn what had been done in the way of effecting amelioration in the colonies. This work brought out by the Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery Throughout the British Dominions. . . showing that nothing substantial has been done" Ragatz. It "presents cases of extreme cruelty" id. to slaves in Berbice. <br /> Authorship and editorship are attributed to Zachary Macaulay founder and organizer of several antislavery societies and a major force in accomplishing the British Emancipation. He focused on providing a picture of Negro Slavery based on reports of "the colonists themselves."<br /> FIRST EDITION. Ragatz 458. Sabin 82063. Not in LCP. Printed by Ellerton and Henderson, Gough Square, for the Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery Throughout unknown
