SlaveryABAA
81 résultats
1808WRCAM54959New York: Samuel Wood 1808. Broadside 16 1/2 x 13 inches with main text printed in two center columns flanked on both sides by seven woodcut illustrations with descriptive text. The entire broadside surrounded by an ornamental border. Old folds minor chipping to edges short repaired tears small smudge in right column. Backed on acid-free tissue. Very good. A rare and powerful illustrated broadside describing in text and images the cruelties suffered by Africans in the West Indies slave trade. The main text is largely adapted from a work published in London in 1793 REMARKS ON THE METHODS OF PROCURING SLAVES WITH A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THEIR TREATMENT IN THE WEST- INDIES in support of an abolitionist boycott of West Indian goods with information gleaned from Parliamentary reports. It describes slave auctions and the "scrambles" by which sickly Africans are sold and gives details of the treatment of field and house slaves. The illustrations are horrifying showing slave families being separated at auction and then branded floggings at the hands of black overseers and various restraints to keep the slaves from eating or escaping including head-frames and mouthpieces neck braces weights leg spurs and shackles and yokes. The printer of this broadside Samuel Wood was a noted Quaker- reformist and the illustrations are credited to pioneering New York wood engraver Alexander Anderson. <br> <br> OCLC locates eleven copies and gives a publication date of 1802 though Pomeroy the American Antiquarian Society and Princeton give a date of 1805 to 1808 based on Samuel Wood's address as noted in the imprint. The Gilder Lehrman Institute also holds a copy as does the Rosenbach Museum. Rare and very interesting and a powerful manifestation of the growing abolitionist sentiment in the United States in the early 19th century. POMEROY ALEXANDER ANDERSON 169. HAMILTON EARLY AMERICAN BOOK ILLUSTRATORS AND WOOD ENGRAVERS 252. OCLC 33989651 476101156 945084251. Samuel Wood unknown books
1869WRCAM56566Camagüey Cuba 1869. Pictorial letterpress broadside 18 1/2 x 13 inches. Numbered "54" in manuscript bearing the embossed red seal of the Republica Cubana and signed in ink by Salvador Cisneros y Betancourt Eduardo Agramonte Ignacio Agramonte Loyn áz Francisco Sánchez y Betancourt and Antonio Zambrana. Old horizontal folds minor creasing handful of small edge chips. Small hole in bottom margin just touching one ink signature. Very good condition. A rare and significant pictorial Cuban decree from the provisional rebel government abolishing slavery on the part of the island they controlled issued by the radical faction of the Cuban nationalists fighting against Spanish rule in the first months of the Ten Years' War. <br> <br> This proclamation is illustrated with a dramatic woodcut signed "LFR" depicting an ill-clad but exultant freed slave and a rebel celebrating in front of the Cuban flag. This decree stipulated freedom for all the enslaved people of Cuba in hopes that they would join the revolutionary struggle. The decree also provided for eventual compensation to slaveholders and ordered that freed individuals must serve the revolution either through military service or by continuing with their previous work. Among the important leaders who signed the present document were Salvador Cisneros y Betancourt as president just below the printed text and Ignacio Agramonte y Loynáz as secretary to the left of the engraving. <br> <br> The practical effect of this decree was modest as the rebels only controlled limited territory before their ultimate defeat and their territory was generally under the control of more conservative military commanders but such a proclamation joined a growing chorus of abolitionist sentiment in Cuba which finally realized the end of slavery in 1886. A powerful statement of anti-slavery policy in mid-19th century Cuba with a striking illustration of a jubilant slave celebrating his short-lived freedom. Rare with no copies recorded in OCLC. unknown books
184524737<p>Mary B. Selden was the grandmother of Eleanor Love Selden who married John Augustine Washington III in 1843. She regrets not being able to furnish Washington with the services of one of her slaves as a stacker for the upcoming wheat harvest.</p><p>Still a faithful employee West Ford worked for the Washington family well into the nineteenth century including delivering this letter.</p><p>The letter includes a list of two dozen slaves written in pencil by John Augustine Washington III.</p> <b>SLAVERY. MOUNT VERNON. WEST FORD. MARY BOWLES ARMISTEAD SELDEN.</b>Autograph Letter Signed to John Augustine Washington III hand delivered by West Ford; <b>JOHN AUGUSTINE WASHINGTON III</b>. Autograph List of Slaves. Single folio leaf with autograph address on verso. Alexandria Virginia 1845.<p><b>Complete Transcript</b></p><p><i>My dear Augustine</i></p><p><i> I am very sorry to be unable to render you the service you require. I have a very fine stacker but he is hired by the year to M<u>r</u> Young as I did not expect to have employment enough for him at M<u>t</u>Ida. Another year if you wish it you can have him I receive very small wages for him and as a stacker I have never known any one equal to him.</i></p><p><i>I am very sorry to hear that Nelly is sick. I hope she will be well enough to come up and meet the bridal party on thursday.</i><i> I received a letter from Eliza to day in which she says they will be at M<u>t</u> Ida that day but will bring no company with them. It will give great pleasure to them and to me if M<u>rs</u> Washington</i><i> Nelly and yourself will come up on that day. M<u>rs</u> Lippitt</i><i> will have a room ready for any of the party that will favour her with their company she must by no means be left behind.</i></p><p><i> Most truly and affectionately / yrs</i></p><p><i>M. B. Selden</i></p><p><2></p><p>Address: <i>John A. Washington Esq. / M<u>t</u> Vernon / By West Ford</i></p><p>Docketing by John Augustine Washington III: <i>Mrs. M. B. Selden</i></p><p>List of slaves in pencil by John Augustine Washington III:</p><p><i>Phil</i> b. 1790</p><p><i>Hannah</i> b. 1826</p><p><i>Gabe</i> b. 1820 <i>Eliza</i> b. 1811</p><p><i>Ned</i> b. 1827 <i>Jim</i>Michum b. 1795</p><p><i>Edmund</i> b. 1827 <i>John</i> b. 1833</p><p><i>Betty</i> b. 1833 <i>Mary</i> b. 1819</p><p><i>West</i> <i>Fanny</i> "Belongs to my wife"</p><p><i>Sarah </i> b. 1809 <i>Dennis</i> b. 1838</p><p><i>Hannah</i> <i>Nelly</i> b. 1836</p><p><i>William</i> b. 1830 <i>Jim</i>Starks b. 1805</p><p><i>Joe</i> b. 1832 <i>Sally</i> b. 1827</p><p><i>Ephraim</i> b. 1834 <i>Tom</i> b. 1835 "bound to me till Oct 1856"</p><p><i>West</i> b. 1838</p><p><i>Jesse</i> b. 1785</p><p><b>Historical Background</b></p><p>Farmers in mid-nineteenth-century Virginia typically planted winter wheat in September and October and harvested it in the following June. After wheat had been cut a stacker tied the wheat into bundles and piled the bundles in shocks to dry in the field. After the shocks dried they would be stored in a barn or carefully built stack capped with grass to shed the rain until threshing time. Even after Cyrus McCormick developed his mechanical grain reaper in the 1830s men needed to follow the machine to bundle and stack the wheat. Building a good stack was an important skill and those workers free or enslaved who knew how to do so were very valuable at harvest time.</p><p><b>Mary Bowles Armistead Alexander Selden</b> 1783-1846 was born in Hanover Virginia. She married Charles Alexander Jr. 1772-1812 with whom she had five children including Louisa Elizabeth Fontaine Alexander 1802-1827. After her first husband's death she married Dr. Wilson Cary Selden 1761-1835. She was his third wife and they had three children. By his first wife Dr. Selden was the father of Wilson Cary Selden Jr. 1796-1843. In 1822 Wilson Cary Selden Jr. married Louisa Elizabeth Fontaine Alexander and they became the parents of Eleanor Love Selden 1824-1860 who married John A. Washington III. Thus Mary Bowles Selden was both the grandmother and step-grandmother of Eleanor Nelly Washington. At the time she wrote this letter she was living at Mount Ida a 6000-acre plantation that stretched along two miles of the Potomac River north of Alexandria Virginia and fewer than ten miles from Mount Vernon. Her first husband built the neoclassical mansion of Mount Ida in 1808.</p><p><b>John Augustine Washington III</b> 1821-1861 was born in Blakeley West Virginia the son of John Augustine Washington II and Jane Charlotte Blackburn Washington and graduated from the University of Virginia in 1840. His father inherited George Washington's Mount Vernon estate in 1829 but it passed to his wife at his death in 1832. In 1841 Augustine Washington proposed to manage Mount Vernon for his mother. When she died in 1855 the plantation passed to him. In 1858 after offering the property to both the federal government and to the State of Virginia he sold 200 acres of the Mount Vernon estate including the mansion outbuildings and family tomb to the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association for $200000. Washington married Eleanor Nelly Love Selden 1824-1860 in 1843 and they had seven children. In 1860 he owned 22 slaves. In 1861 Washington joined the Confederate Army as a lieutenant colonel and served as an aide-de-camp to General Robert E. Lee. He was killed while conducting reconnaissance at the Battle of Cheat Mountain in September 1861.</p><p><b>West Ford</b> ca. 1784-1863 was born on the Bushfield Plantation in Westmoreland County Virginia to an enslaved woman owned by George Washington's brother John Augustine Washington. When George Washington visited West Ford was his personal attendant. When John Augustine Washington's widow Hannah died in 1802 she granted Ford his freedom at age 21. Bushrod Washington George Washington's nephew and heir to Mount Vernon freed Ford in 1806 and Ford continued working for the Washington family. According to family oral history Ford's mother Venus told her mistress Hannah Washington that he was George Washington's son. Nearly all historians doubt the claim though one of Washington's nephews certainly could have been the father.</p><p>In 1812 West Ford married Priscella Bell a free woman. Their four children—William Daniel Jane and Julia—were educated on the Mount Vernon Plantation despite laws which restricted the instruction of African Americans. When Bushrod Washington died in 1829 he willed 160 acres of land adjacent to Mount Vernon to West Ford who continued to live on the Mount Vernon estate.</p><p>Over the next several years West Ford was frequently highlighted in the media making his private life a matter of public record. In 1850 two Virginia newspapers—the <i>Alexandria Gazette</i> and the <i>Virginia Advertiser</i>—carried articles describing his prestigious position and authority at Mount Vernon. In 1857 an entry in the Fairfax County Deed Books noted that Ford divided his land among his four children. In 1858 Ford was sketched a second time this time by historian and artist Benson Lossing. In March 1859 <i>Harper's New Monthly Magazine</i> published Lossing's feature on Mount Vernon and included his sketch of Ford. Ford told the reporter of his property on Little Hunting Creek where he planned to retire after the Washington estate was no longer in the Washington family.</p><p>In June 1863 an ailing West Ford was brought back to the Mount Vernon estate by the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association. The association cared for West Ford until his death on July 20 1863.</p><p><b>Condition</b></p><p>Foxing and show through particularly near the signature.</p> books
1864WRCAM53096Richmond 1864. Broadside 18 x 12 inches. Printed in three columns. Previously folded with a couple small separations along old fold lines. Light toning and foxing. About very good. A very scarce and quite interesting broadside circular printing of the act which allowed slaves and free blacks to be used in certain tasks by the Confederate Army during the Civil War as well as instructions for the conscription and induction of those men into the armed forces. The Confederacy was loath to arm any of its slave population but by 1864 could not spare any further manpower from their infantry to perform menial tasks and the government therefore passed a law allowing slaves to be used "in certain capacities" such as the construction of fortification the production of arms and the transport of materiel. The first column of this broadside comprises a full printing of that law while the remainder sets forth the rules for the impressment of slaves into military service for their care while in service and for the compensation of their owners. <br> <br> A fascinating piece that lays bare the desperation of the Confederacy for labor and supplies in early 1864. Not in Parrish & Willingham. unknown books
1865974Santiago de Cuba 1865. Very good. 10 leaves. Removed from a larger volume and restitched. Minor wear and one small area of worming at edges. Light tanning and foxing. Accomplished in several legible hands. A fantastic set of manuscript records for a slave auction house the General Slave Depository in Santiago de Cuba dating to January 1865. Santiago along with Havana and Cienfuegos was one of three major sites for slave sales on the island during the 19th century. The first leaf of the document provides a statement that the documents were assembled in accordance with the rules established for slave auctions which had been updated and approved at the end of the previous year. The second two documents lay out mortgage agreements and financial obligations between the slave house and the Real Sociedad Economica de Amigos de Pais of the city in which the auction owners acknowledge debts and forthcoming payments on the order of several thousand pesos. Following these are two leaves containing a "Relacion de los esclavos ecsistentes en el deposito de esta Ciudad en el dia de la fecha" that is a list of slaves at the depository on the day of the auction and their owners and renters which perhaps were a part of the collateral for securing the loan. A total of twenty-nine slaves are listed and the leaf that follows certifies that the list is correct according the to the director and the auctioneer of the depository. The final two leaves provide official recognition of the loan from two distinct government offices. All documents are signed by the relevant parties and government officials involved in the agreement. In all the present group of documents provides a detailed assessment of debts and human assets of the slave auction house in Santiago de Cuba in the mid-1860s and is a fascinating and valuable document of the bureaucracy and regulation surrounding the financial realities of selling slaves in Cuba during this period. unknown books
183331599England 1833. 3pp. Scarce letter on the Liberian colonization movement by one of its founders.<br/> <br/>The letter begins with the 2-page text of a resolution to establish the British African Colonization Society: " . that Colonies composed of fare settlers of African race established on judicious principles on the Coast of Africa appear calculated beyond any other plan to put an effectual stop to the slave trade . Resolved that a Society be formed to be called the British African Colonization Society and that is objects be to cooperate with the American Colonization Society and with the several missionaries and other religious and charitable societies in Great Britain and the United States of America in such measures as may promote the total abolition of the slave trade and the establishment of Christianity and Civilization among the Natives of Africa chiefly by the employment of Free Persons of African birth or descent." The proposed Society was to be established under the patronage of the Duke of Sussex. In the letter which follows Cresson writes of William Lloyd Garrison's opposition to the colonization movement: " . I send the list of officers as far as accepted several others have not yet answered but I trust we shall present a bold front. I have just heard thro his Chaplain from the Duke. Garrison has written to poison his mind and probably will annoy our meeting. I trust that as the notice has been so short our friends will bring many with them . My letter to the Times in answer to Garrison they have not yet noticed so that it will be put in the Globe whose Editor has offered it a place in his columns." Cresson a noted Philadelphia businessman and philanthropist was among the most ardent supports of colonization the movement to relocate former slaves and free African Americans to colonies in Liberia. In 1832 he travelled to England to promote international support for the movement. The following year Cresson and the Philadelphia Young Men's Colonization Society a branch of the American Colonization Society founded Port Cresson in Liberia. However the colony was attacked in 1835 by Bassa tribesmen incited by Spanish slave traders and destroyed. Although initially in favor of colonization William Lloyd Garrison would change his mind decrying the efforts of the American Colonization Society as a perpetuation of slavery. For Garrison's 28 June 1833 letter to the Duke of Sussex referenced above see The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison I:107. unknown books
18842025Matanzas 1884. Still very good. 3 leaves plus 4pp. pamphlet in original plain wrappers string tied. Light wear at edges. A few very small worm holes. Contemporary ink stamps. Light tanning and foxing. The Spanish Cortes approved a gradual manumission law in 1880 for slaves in Cuba that provided for an eight-year period of patronato tutelage for all slaves liberated according to the law which essentially amounted to indentured servitude. The transition to the patronato system was overseen by a provincial network of government agencies called Juntas de Patronato. Most of the workings of the slave system were preserved but patrocinados as former slaves came to be known received a minimal set of legal rights and were to be paid a token wage. <br/><br/>This fascinating set of Cuban manumission documents from the Junta de Patronato of Matanzas records this process and contains a rare cedula de patrocinado an identification booklet stating a slave is now a freedman with a supporting sponsor. The cedula completed in manuscript states that "Moreno Luis Morejon Natural de Africa.Vecino del Potrero Miraflores.Patrocinado de Da Josefa Morejon de Rodriguez" is "Gratis Sin Enmienda" as of September 15 1881. The second leaf of the pamphlet prints the rights of the freedman and the responsibilities of the sponsor such as the provision of food clothing and nominal salary. <br/><br/>The second document present here is a contemporaneous manuscript letter from Josefa Morejon de Rodriguez confirming that she will act as sponsor for the freedman and the final document dated January 28 1884 and signed by Rodriguez and the relevant local magistrates states that the sponsorship has been completed and is now legally concluded. With the ink stamp of the Matanzas Junta Provincial on first page and the contemporary stamps of several other relevant authorities. An outstanding record of the process of gradual manumission in Cuba during the last years of legal slavery on the island with a rare surviving freedman's identification book. unknown books
183431598Philadelphia 1834. 3pp. Later annotation at head of first page. Scarce letter on the Liberian colonization movement by one of its founders.<br/> <br/>Writing to Hawes a member of Parliament and a committee member of the Society for the Extinction of the Slave Trade Cresson wishes for success in the British anti-slavery action off the coast of Sierra Leone writing "I hope that you may yet enjoy the satisfaction of crushing one of the worst & most unacceptable of the slave markets in existence that at Gallinas." After mentioning the travels of the colonial governor of Liberia he writes: ". I have been gratified to learn from several highly respectable sources that such a Colony as you propose located either at the mouth of the Cape Mount River or even a little more to the Northward say at Sugaree & provided with a good supply of trade goods to exchange with the natives would have a powerful tendency to break up the monopoly now enjoyed by the Spanish Slavers. My letters from Africa state that the demand is so great in Cuba from the ravages of Cholera among their ill-fed human cattle as to have rendered the shipments from the Gallinas during the past year almost unprecedented. It appears that the benevolent efforts of your Govt. are not likely to extirpate the evil until commercial & agricultural colonies shall be substituted for cruisers." The letter continues with news from their consul at Liberia before turning to American politics: ". political affairs engrossing the entire energies of the nation. The excitement is painfully great . Our military chieftan Jackson by his acts of unauthorized assumption has called forth a burst of indignation which cannot subside until we get rid of the offender." The letter concludes with an introduction for Gerard Ralston. Cresson a noted Philadelphia businessman and philanthropist was among the most ardent supports of colonization the movement to relocate former slaves and free African Americans to colonies in Liberia. In 1833 Cresson and the Philadelphia Young Men's Colonization Society a branch of the American Colonization Society founded Port Cresson in Liberia. However the colony was attacked in 1835 by Bassa tribesmen incited by Spanish slave traders and destroyed. unknown books
182122479<p>A Mississippi inquest holds a slave overseer accountable for killing a slave.</p> <b>SLAVERY.</b>Manuscript Document Signed by George Newman Edward T. Smith Sheppard Taylor Elijah Norman Hezekiah Kibbee David Collins and Daniel Greenleaf. Adams County Mississippi December 16 1821 1p. 8 5/8 x 12 3/8 in.<p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Partial Transcript:</b></p><p><i>"the sd negro Frank came to his death by inhuman treatment and severe punishment in stocks starvation and lashes by the order and by the hand of William Wall.and so the sd Wm. Wall did then and there feloniously cause the death of the sd Negro Frank against the peace and dignity of the state and so we say all."</i></p> books
1863101890Letterpress broadside 18 7/8" x 11 3/4" bold black type for highlighted words. Paper evenly toned some wrinkling considerable archival conservation and restoration with archival paper repair; despite the imperfections it is still a decent copy with a nice impression. This appears to fall into the political dirty tricks department in an election between John Brodhead and Henry Bumm for city treasurer in Philadelphia. The broadside is supposed to highlight a letter from John Brodhead to Jefferson Davis in 1860. It has strong racist overtones as Brodhead supposedly requests a position in Nicaragua so he can "help open it up to civilization and Niggers." He goes on to state he is "tired of being a white slave at the North and long for a home in the sunny South." These kinds of political tricks were not uncommon during the Civil War period perhaps that's still true today and the racist overtones would certainly not help one's chances in a Northern election. books
18562026Remedios 1856. About very good. 4pp. on a large bifolium. Printed form completed in manuscript. Separated at fold repaired with tissue. Light wear at edges. Light tanning and foxing. Rare Cuban population census form listing the number of residents in and around the town of Remedios located on the northern central coast of Cuba in 1856. The present document completed in manuscript lists the population according to various categories such as ethnicity and race age range occupations marital status location of residence and several others. The census includes slaves of African origin newly arrived Chinese indentured servants "colonos Asiaticos" immigrant laborers from Yucatan freedmen and free white residents "Blancos". In all there are just over 2000 people living in and around Remedios at this time comprising just over 1300 free whites over 300 free people of color 460 slaves and 19 Chinese laborers. One of the most interesting sections records the population by place of residence which shows that the great majority people in the area lived on estancias with a good part of the remaining population living on livestock farms and sugar plantations. On the final page are two additional sections which enumerate the types of property farms and other enterprises in the regions and provide statistics on agricultural and industrial production and land usage along with some manuscript notes with the signatures of the census takers or local magistrates. An interesting document of slavery agriculture and population in rural Cuba during the mid-19th century. unknown books
1834100531<p>Single small folio leaf printed on both sides. Faint creases whee originally folded probably removed modest aging and browning a couple of very small spots or stains; overall very good. Over forty years after William Wilberforce presnted evidence of the brutality of slavery to Parliament and following Thomas Clarkson's tireless efforts the crown finanlly put an end to salvery in the West Indies and her colonies. The act included a provision that all slaves above the age of six were to present themselves for apprenticeship. The crown also set aside 20 million pounds to compensate the slave owners who could retain their workforce for a modest sum.</p> Ordered by the House of Commons, books
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 books
1858WRCAM53597Charleston 1858. 16pp. Original printed wrappers. Spine perished held together with brass tacks; light chipping and soiling. Paper lightly and evenly toned. Good. Report submitted to the South Carolina Senate which concludes that slavery is essential to the agricultural production of the South. Additionally the committee felt that the slave trade helped relieve Africa from "the pressure of a redundant population as might be afforded by emigration in the only form in which its benefits can be extended to them." unknown books
184537320Havana 1845. Each document 8-1/2" x 12-1/2" entirely in ink manuscript with decorative official printed ornamentation at head of each and signature "O'Donnell" in the left margins. Some toning and a few holes not affecting text. Good. <br/><br/> Leopoldo O'Donnell y Jorris 1st Duke of Tetuán 1809-1867 was a Spaniard of Irish ancestry from Tenerife. He went to Cuba as Captain General in 1843 and later served three separate stints as prime minister of Spain. He approved each of these requests for travel. The named Cuban Slaves are of "Lucumi" ancestry originally from the Yoruba tribes of Benin and Nigeria. The documents all dated in October 1845 refer to the slaves Joaquin Garcia de Angarica and Florentino Armenteroy Regidor.<br/> These requests were made to transfer the slave from one hacienda to another for work purposes the terms of work engagement frequently stated here. unknown books
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> books
186062260Atlanta: Printed at the Daily Locomotive Job Office 1860. 47 pp. 1 vols. 8vo. Original blue printed wrappers. Wrapper a bit chipped else Fine. 47 pp. 1 vols. 8vo. Printed at the Daily Locomotive Job Office unknown books
1843WRCAM55715Guayama Puerto Rico 1843. 1p. Quarto. Old folds a few short closed tears minor wrinkling. About very good. A record of a slave sale in Puerto Rico during the late Spanish colonial period. The document records various expenditures for "Senora Dna Yrma de Gott" for the spring and summer of 1843. Along with other expenditures from April to July 1843 the present manuscript document includes a line item from March 30 reading "recibido de Antonini por el negro Alfred." Apparently the señora received 200 Spanish dollars or pesos for Alfred the slave. The Spanish brought slavery to the island of Puerto Rico during the early colonial period. Slave labor fueled sugar production on the island reaching its peak in the early to mid-19th century. Slavery was finally abolished in Puerto Rico 1873 after years of slave revolts against Spanish colonial rule which began in 1868. Despite its long history of slavery records of slave sales from Puerto Rico are rarely encountered in the market. unknown books
18361691Boston: Isaac Knapp 1836. About very good. xvi13-238pp. 12mo. Original publisher's blue boards with black sheep spine gilt. Boards rubbed corners and spine moderately worn. Text lightly foxed. Scarce work addressing the anti-slavery work of George Thompson following his visit to America. Thompson 1804-1878 was British lecturer and reformer who worked as a commercial clerk.<br/><br/>"Thompson first came to prominence in 1831 when he was recruited by the London Anti-Slavery Society's Agency Committee as an itinerant lecturer. In the run up to the Emancipation Act of 1833 he became the most effective British anti-slavery lecturer since Thomas Clarkson. With the struggle against British slavery apparently won Thompson was instrumental in reorienting anti-slavery effort towards the Americas and particularly the United States. . In 1834 he encountered the charismatic American abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. Recognizing Thompson's talent Garrison invited him to travel to the United States with his growing family to labour there on behalf of the enslaved people of America" - DNB. Thompson employed sarcasm and vitriol in his orations attacking anti-abolitionist sentiment across the northern states. In the process he failed to make very many friends or converts and alienated those with more moderate views.<br/><br/>"Opponents attacked him as a foreign interloper and an anti-American agitator. They also discovered a scandal in Thompson's past alleging that in 1829 he had absconded with £80 embezzled from his employer. His supporters angrily rejected this charge though Thompson later privately admitted it was true he eventually repaid the sum in full. Hostility increasingly turned violent and in fear of his life he was smuggled out of the country in October 1835 returning to a hero's welcome in Britain" - DNB.<br/><br/>This work is a rebuttal made by Thompson's American supporters aggregating information from British sources to defend his good name and abolitionist efforts after fleeing America for his homeland. It includes some of Thompson's speeches on slavery in America given before audiences in Scotland and England and discusses his work with the American Anti-Slavery Society. Though there are a handful of institutional copies the work is scarce on the market and does not appear in auction records over the pasty forty years.<br/> Sabin 9324. American Imprints 36449. Isaac Knapp unknown books
184137610Boston: J.A. Collins 1841. Original printed and illustrated green wrappers ink stain along half the front wrapper's blank inner margin with engraving of Lady Liberty surrounded by slaves and freedom-loving white people. Stitched. 36pp. Title page and text illustrations. Lightly foxed. Very Good. <br/><br/> A scarce Almanac also appearing with a publication date of 1840. The Almanac is noteworthy for its excellent content on the Amistad incident including portraits of Cinque and others. <br/> "Things for Abolitionists to Do" recommends working to establish schools for free children of color. Also included are "Hints to Anti-Slavery Debaters;" an "Ecclesiastical Roll of Infamy" listing northern clergy of the Methodist Episcopal Church who voted for a resolution prohibiting "colored persons to give testimony against white persons;" and a "Congressional Roll of Infamy" of Northern congressmen who voted for the Gag Rule prohibiting Congress from entertaining petitions to abolish slavery in Washington D.C. As to the presidential campaign the authors say "President Van Buren and General Harrison have both publicly taken the side of the oppressor against the oppressed and the God of the oppressed. Both of them glory in it." <br/>Dumond 83 this imprint. Drake 4222. J.A. Collins unknown books
1877CAT0113J.A. Brush: Minnesota 1877. 2 ¼ x 4 inch image on slightly larger mount. Fine. Chambers a seven-year-old boy at the time of the Civil War followed the soldiers Jasper Dickey and David Scofield from Georgia back to their homes in Minnesota. The two soldiers raised him. He died in 1936 at the age of seventy-eight. Inscription on album page from which photograph was removed reads "Samuel Chambers / Zumbrota Minnesota. / Born a slave but followed northern troops to Minnesota at close of war." Verso identifies the photographer as J.A. Brush of 223 Nicollet Av. Minneapolis. A fine example. Minnesota unknown books
1848262219Carroll County Maryland 1848. 2 pp. pen and ink on signle sheet. 4to. Light creasing from prior folding. 2 pp. pen and ink on signle sheet. 4to. Reading in part: "Having lost one of my negro men by death a big valuable one and having sold three more of them and having also sold one of my negro women - the above negros were sold to Mr. Joseph S. Donovan to be sent to the New Orleans market as he is a negro dealer living in Baltimore - the above negroes sold brought the sum of $2800 all of which money has been invested in property in the city of Baltimore . My object in writing to you is to request that you will lay this letter before the Commissioner of Tax of Carroll County and have all of the above negroes taken at once from my assets .". unknown books
1833713Winchester Va. 1833. Broadside 4to. 290 x 160 mm. 11 ¼ x 6 ¼ inches.  Printed in two columns signed in type by Charles J. Faulkner at Winchester dated March 8 1833 at conclusion. Lightly dust-soiled pale stain affecting perhaps one-third of the left-hand margin and column of text. Neatly silked on verso. Withal about very good. Following the August 1831 Nat Turner rebellion in Southampton County a last effort was made by moderate Virginians to gradually abolish slavery. Faulkner a 26-year-old lawyer and assemblyman along with Thomas Jefferson Randolph sponsored legislation to free all children born of slave parents after July 4 1840. His speech emphasized the evil of slavery for Southern white labor noting that slavery "converts the energy of the community into indolence--its power into imbecility--its efficiency into weakness.Shall society suffer that the slave-holder may continue to gather his crop of human flesh" As the Assembly was malapportioned in favor of the Tidewater slaveocracy the proposal lost rather narrowly and nearly thirty years later the Confederacy was assured of Virginia's succession. It is perhaps not surprising that Faulkner "comparatively a stranger" to the county but a member of the Virginia House of Delegates at this time 1831-34 was not successful in his campaign to represent Virginia in the U.S. Senate. However Faulkner was elected to three terms in Congress from Virginia in the 1850s. He was elected to Congress from West Virginia after the Civil War. In the interim he served as Minister to France during the Buchanan administration and on the staff of Stonewall Jackson. Dictionary of American Biography.  Not in Hummel. Not found in American Imprints for 1833 and not in the 1830-1839 title index. OCLC records four copies at The Library of Virginia University of Virginia Virginia Historical Society and American Antiquarian Society. unknown books
183612488New York September 1836. Used; Like New/Used; Like New. Folio. 4 pp printed in four columns per page. Tears around edges creased and with significant toning to the upper front half and extensive foxing throughout. <br><br><br />This rare monthly an organ of the American Anti-Slavery Society began in July 1835 and ended with the February 1839 issue. Among other interesting features the present issue prints a "Form of a Petition for the Abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia. To The Congress of the United States." Not in Lomazow Mott Sabin. OCLC records copies from all the other years but no copies of this issue. <br><br><br />While there was opposition to slavery in the nation's capital the greater forces against slavery came from the outside through newspapers and petitions. Many petitioned Congress to end slavery in the nation's capital and the organizing efforts in the District included the Washington Abolition Society which was organized in 1827. But the opposition to ending slavery and the slave trade in the District was such a contested issue that a gag rule instituted in 1836 prohibited a discussion of slavery on the floor of Congress. Though Abolitionists including John Quincy Adams vehemently opposed the gag rule standard-bearers of slavery in the District fought tirelessly for it. Eventually in 1848 the House of Representative passed a resolution to prohibit the slave trade in the District of Columbia. Although the resolution did not gain enough traction to end the slave trade in the District it played an influential role in the congressional debates over slavery and the slave trade. The Compromise of 1850 admitted California in the Union as a free state; the former Mexican territories were admitted as part slaveholding states and part free soilers states; and the slave trade in the District of Columbia was abolished. The 1850 Compromise provided the necessary momentum for the enactment of the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act of April 16 1862 that abolished slavery in the Nation's Capital. unknown books
18772027Havana 1877. Very good. 1p. on a bifolium. Removed from a a bound volume with unobtrusive stabholes at gutter margin. Light wear at edges; light dust soiling and damp staining. Remarkable bidsheet submitted by a Cuban business in response to a newspaper advertisement for an auction of slaves for hire held in Havana during November 1877. The firm Jado Sarasúa y Compañia writes that "Enterada del anuncio publicado en la Gaceta fecha 9 del corriente para el arrendamineto en publica subasta de los esclavos existentes en el Asilo de San Jose pertenecientesa Bienes Embargados y sujentadose en un todo al pliego de Condiciones inserto en la misma Gaceta hace la siguente proposicion." Below is a list of fourteen slaves mostly women and the prices that the company is willing to offer for the slaves being rented ranging from ten to seventeen pesos per month. Signed and dated at the bottom "Habana Noviembre 14 de 1877. unknown books
