155 résultats
1830List2931Mahébourg Mauritius 1830. Single unsigned fourteen-page letter measuring 8 x 12 ¾ inches. Folded with some stains and pencil marks. Overall near fine. In 1830 Mauritius was a British colony captured from the French in 1810 during the Napoleonic Wars. It was originally a Dutch colony and the Dutch had introduced enslaved labor to the islands. Enslaved people were imported from Madagascar India and Southeast Asia to harvest the valuable ebony trees and later to farm sugarcane. It became a French colony in 1715 and among other provisions the French government awarded upper-class colonists large land grants each with twenty enslaved people to work them. Slavery was abolished in 1835 under British rule after which the planters still farming sugarcane turned to indentured servant labor from India and China alongside illegal slavery.1<br /> <br /> Offered here is a lengthy single letter written by an unknown author to an unknown recipient from Mahébourg in 1830 shortly before this radical change. The letter describes the lives and economic circumstances of the planters and merchants and of the non-white population particularly Malabar people and free and enslaved Black people.<br /> <br /> Noting that “every inch of ground that will produce sugar cane is planted with it†including “the former fine gardens to some of the Habitations†the author reports on the situation for sugar planters:<br /> <br /> “The price of sugar here is not more than 20/per Cwt. for the best quality which does not now remunerate the Planter as his expenses are becoming every day more heavy in consequence of their slaves diminishing . The want of Slaves induced many of the Planters to send for Chinese Labourers and several hundreds were imported at a great expense but unfortunately they did not answer and were obliged to be reshipped for their native Country again at the charge of those who sent for them.â€<br /> <br /> The author later notes that “nearly everyone of the Planters have heavy mortgages on their Estates and are obliged to pay this immense Interest which keeps them poor and will I fear ultimately ruin themâ€. In fact the planters in British Mauritius had extra duties on their sugar exports compared with their Caribbean counterparts. The shopkeepers on the other hand “calculate on retiring with a fortune in five years– therefore you will fancy what must be their prices also their profits.â€<br /> <br /> Though writing from Mahébourg the author describes the capital city of Port Louis at length especially its Malabar Indian and free Black residents—the lives of the latter particularly the free Black women seem especially grim. They write:<br /> <br /> “The Centre of Port Louis is inhabited by all the respectable people and many most excellent houses buildings– the Catholic Chapel the English Church amongst the number. The Suburbs to the West is the part occupied by about 3000 Malabars called ‘Malabar Town.’ – They are dressed mostly in white with Turbans ear rings c c and the females with ornaments in their noses and on their Toes as they generally go bare foot. – Once a year they have what is called a ‘Yamsee’ or a festival in honor of Mehomet which lasts for about a fortnight during which time they seem to get no sleep a continual beating of tom toms – jingling of bells – carrying pagodas which are made of various coloured paper and most richly ornamented followed by all the population of their Caste with their faces daubed with red white c and which has a most ludicrous appearance. The Suburbs to the South is called ‘black Camp’ – the Houses being very small and poor and inhabited by all the free blacks as well as many Mulattoes. – Also a certain class of females of the population of colour – who are visited immediately on the Arrival of a Ship the Crews soon enquiring the way to the ‘Camp.’â€<br /> <br /> As regards relations between the races the author recounts an incident that followed the 1828 abolition of the color bar which would ostensibly give the free non-white population the same rights as the whites:<br /> <br /> “The Theatre is a very good one but has been closed for several months past the Actors Actresses gone to Bourbon in consequence of the promulgation of the act ‘causing all free people of the population of Colour’ to have the same laws – the same privileges as the Whites’ fearing they ought come to the Theatre which they had hitherto been forbidden thereby cause disturbances as the French Whites detest them wd. not sit in the same box it was considered best to shut the Theatre which is a great loss to the Place it being the chief public amusement and indeed the only one we have here.â€<br /> <br /> Overall a detailed letter giving insight into life in a slave colony at a time when significant changes were on the horizon. Of interest to scholars of the colonial history of Mauritius and the second wave of British colonialism.<br /> <br /> 1 Truth and Justice Commission Report of the Truth and Justice Commission Vol. 1 Mauritius: Government Printing 2011. unknown
185536035Memphis: n.p. 1855. Paper. Fair. Paper envelope. Approximately 6" x 3". No letter with the envelope. A stamped three cent envelope with postal mark dated May 8 location not clear. Paper is toned with small thin tear located under the address from use of the pen. <br /> <br /> Written on the front side is "From J. T. Swayne of Memphis Ten Rec'd 12 May 1855 on the subject of a Negro from Weaver." This was addressed to Mr. C. Burford of Dixon's Springs Tennessee. J. T. Swayne was a former Mayor of Memphis during the reconstruction. There are references to the Burford family in Dixon Springs Smith County Tennessee online. n.p. 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
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
1823423251London: Printed by Ellerton and Henderson Gough Square 1823. Near Fine. Folio 21.5 x 33 cm / 8½" x 13â€. pp. 1 2-3 4 blank. Light vertical and horizontal center folds three short tears at the horizontal fold near fine with a contemporary drawing of a few survey lines and diagrams very lightly sketched in ink and pencil on the final blank page. The Society states its case against slavery in the Colonies of Great Britain where "there are at this moment upwards of 800000 human beings in a state of degrading personal slavery." It provides a brief but detailed description of "the immoral inhuman and unjust" nature of the slave trade and of the absolute power of slave owners. Printed by Ellerton and Henderson, Gough Square unknown
184542820850<p><strong>A unique survival.</strong> This important collection of largely identified photographs documents the home and family of Dr. Sidney Smith and those he enslaved at Gravel Hill his South Carolina plantation. The collection includes an extraordinary daguerreotype depicting Dr. Smith his two daughters and his brother posed together with two enslaved African American men. This is <strong>one of the earliest known images—if not the very earliest photograph—of an identified plantation owner posing with enslaved African Americans. </strong></p><p><strong> The photographs :</strong></p><p>1. Quarter plate daguerreotype 4 x 3 1/8 in. of Gravel Hill Plantation near Robertville St. Peter's Parish Beaufort District South Carolina. Ca. mid-to-late 1840s. Manuscript notation on passe-partout mat "Grandfather Sidney Smith Gravel Hill S.C." The image shows the plantation house with various figures engaged in an unidentified activity with a horse tied to a picket fence. The two girls in white may be Sidney Smith's daughters Arabella b. 1832 and Julia b. 1837 and the others may be enslaved African American children. An enslaved African American subject stands on the steps in the background. In the foreground are two figures with an unknown object perhaps a dog cart or a bone-shaker bicycle. In front of the house is a heavily-vined grape arbor presumably connected with Smith's efforts in viniculture.</p><p>2. A quarter plate tintype copy of the above daguerreotype.</p><p>3. Sixth plate daguerreotype of Sidney Smith his daughters Arabella and Julia his brother James Laurens Smith and two unidentified African American men almost certainly enslaved men. Ca. mid-1840s-1850. One of the girls is blurred because she is hold a struggling dog. Accompanied by the envelope in which the daguerreotype was discovered with penciled notation about the subjects as well as a tentative date of "1850 or thereabout."</p><p>4. Sixth plate daguerreotype of Smith's daughters Arabella and Julia pointing to a book and an unidentified object. Ca. mid-1840s-1850.</p><p>5. Sixth plate daguerreotype of Sidney Smith. Ca. 1845. Smith appears to be wearing a mourning band on his coat suggesting that the image was made following the death of his first wife Eliza in March 1845.</p><p>6. Sixth plate tintype copy of the above portrait.</p><p>7. Sixth plate tintype portrait of Maria King Smith second wife of Sidney Smith with an infant possibly William King Smith. A period copy image.</p><p>8. Sixth plate ambrotype of William King Smith son of Sidney and Maria Smith possibly as a cadet. Ca 1850s.</p><p>9. Quarter plate ambrotype of Sarah Smith sister of Sidney and James Laurens Smith aunt to Arabella and Julia. Ca 1850s-1860s.</p><p>10. Sixth plate ambrotype of Rosa Nicholes sister of Maria Smith with "Eddie" Postell possibly the Edward Postell who was killed in action in 1863 at Fort Wagner. Ca 1850s.</p><p><strong> Dr. Sidney Smith</strong></p><p>Sidney Smith was born in 1805 in or near Beaufort SC the son of William Smith a man of moderate wealth and Elizabeth Wilson Smith of Philadelphia reportedly a Quaker. Sidney was sent to Yale College and subsequently studied medicine in Ohio. His younger brother James Laurens Smith b. 1809 studied law but he apparently never practiced devoting himself instead to agriculture. Sidney Smith married Eliza Lawton in 1829. The two had several children including daughters Arabella and Julia. Smith was apparently practicing medicine in the vicinity of Robertville South Carolina as well as trying his hand at being a planter. In 1831 he appears in the Lawton Family Papers as having been paid two dollars for "expirating a Fungus Tumor from the head of Little Negro Shiloh" Inabinett 1963. His name appears in several land transactions in the upper St. Peter's Parish in Beaufort District where he experimented with various crops.</p><p>Smith's experiments with wine received wide-ranging coverage in the press. A notice in the Boston Daily Atlas of 28 December 1844 printed a report from a Savannah newspaper: "This editor of the Savannah Republican has samples of eight kinds of wine made by Dr. Sidney Smith of Robertville Beaufort District S.C. They are pure juice of the grape without the addition of any spirits whatever. One of the specimens is from the vintage of 1833 another from that of '38 and the other six from that of the present year. They differ in flavor according to the species of grape from which they were expressed … Dr. S. has on hand some 800 gallons of those wines which he finds useful for all medicinal and culinary purposes."</p><p>Smith's first wife Eliza died in 1845 at the age of 37 possibly explaining her absence from the group portrait. In 1846 Smith married Maria Ann King with whom he would have two children who survived into adulthood William King Smith b. 1846 and Walter Watson Smith b. 1849.</p><p>By 1850 Smith and most of his family had left Gravel Hill and relocated to Marietta Georgia where he acquired another plantation Rockford near Marietta. By this time Smith had acquired 74 slaves according to the 1850 Slave Schedules of the United States Census. He continued to run Gravel Hill as an absentee owner from Georgia.<br />In 1853 Smith sold Gravel Hill then comprising 700 acres and his other plantation properties in the Robertville area to John Goldwire Lawton in 1853 according to genealogical records at the Heritage Library Foundation. Smith's Gravel Hill home appears to have been on the site of present-day Gravel Hill Plantation the ca. 1910 hunting preserve near Robertville on the National Register of Historic Places. The elaborately decorated center-hall plan home as well as the town of Robertville was burned by W.T. Sherman's troops in 1865.</p><p>After the war the land was sold to Northern buyers. Newer structures were apparently built on the foundations of the original Gravel Hill around 1910 when it was refashioned as a gentleman's hunting plantation. Dr. Smith and his wife Maria died in 1856. Their sons Walter and William became wards of Smith's brother James who himself apparently died in 1865. Walter Smith was a student at the Georgia Military Institute when it closed at the time of W. T. Sherman's approach in 1864. At the age of 14 he and the other cadets were sent to guard the river crossings in the approaches to Atlanta. With his brother William Walter served in Confederate units until the end of the Civil War. Sidney Smith's sister Sarah known as "Aunt Sarah" to Walter and William Smith wrote vivid letters describing the evacuation of Marietta and her flight to Atlanta.</p><p>While no documentary evidence of the Smith family's views on slavery has been found Susan E. Geoffrey claims in her academic paper "A Southern Family in Transition 1830-1865" that Sidney and his siblings were "reasonably humane to their slaves according to the standards of their society." Geoffrey adds that Sidney's sisters Sarah and Hannah developed an interest in educating their brothers' enslaved children. Dexter's biographical sketch of Smith notes that Smith "opposed strenuously the act of nullification in South Carolina and by his personal efforts retarded the action of that State." Smith's brother James provided in his 1853 will that every tenth! child born into slavery in the estate should at age eighteen be granted freedom to be facilitated by the Colonization Society.</p><p><strong>The photographers</strong></p><p>The photographers of these images are unidentified but it appears that Smith himself may have made two of the daguerreotypes. <em>Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College with Annals of the College History</em> vol. 7 1913 notes of Smith: "He was a man of unusual mental gifts an earnest student and devoted to the community and mankind. When the art of the daguerreotype was first introduced he was a pioneer in cultivating it in the South."</p><p>Based on his interest in the "art of the daguerreotype" it is possible that Smith created the daguerreotypes himself perhaps with the aid of an assistant so he could be included in certain images most notably the group portrait. The informal group portrait shows a relaxed family posing together. Smith appears to have moved into the frame at the last moment after setting up the shot. Likewise the subjects in the Gravel Hill daguerreotype are in casual poses as if they are in a Daguerreian snapshot of the family rather than formally arranged portraits.</p><p><strong>Dating</strong></p><p>The approximate dating of the featured images has been determined based on the estimated ages of Smith's daughters Arabella and Julia who are pictured in two or perhaps three of the daguerreotypes. Arabella b. 1832 and Julia b. 1837 appear to be around the ages of twelve/thirteen and eight/nine respectively. The girls appear together in a sixth plate daguerreotype portrait and in the sixth plate group portrait of Dr. Sidney Smith his brother and two unidentified African American men almost certainly enslaved subjects. The sisters may also be the two girls in white dresses on the steps of the house in the quarter plate daguerreotype.</p><p>This dates those daguerreotypes to the mid-1840s and no later than 1850 thus making them among the very earliest photographs of a slave-holding antebellum plantation.</p><p><strong> A rare opportunity</strong></p><p>It is evident that Dr. Sidney Smith wanted to use the new art of photography to create a visual record of his plantation home at Gravel Hill and of his family and the enslaved individuals who worked for him. The daguerreotypes offered here most notably the group portrait of Smith with his brother daughters and two Black men are unique in depicting enslaved subjects posed together with their owner especially in a relatively informal setting. We are not aware of comparable images dating from the mid-to-late 1840s.<br />This exceptional collection of photographs from an identified family in the antebellum South is worthy of further research.</p><p><strong>References </strong></p><p>Dexter Franklin Bowditch. <em>Biographical Notices of Graduates of Yale College</em> 1913</p><p>Geoffrey Susan E. "A Southern Family in Transition 1830-1865" 1982 Accessed online through the Heritage Library History and Research Center in Hilton Head SC September-October 2024. Background on the Smith family is derived from this academic paper although the research center's copy is incomplete lacking numerous footnotes and bibliography. Some but not all of Geoffrey's sources have been located in the William King Smith Papers Wilson Special Collections Library UNC Chapel Hill.</p><p>1845-1850 four daguerreotypes and ca. 1855-1860 three ambrotypes plus three early tintype copy images. 10 items.</p>
1836175381836. This pamphlet is a return to an Address of the House of Commons from March 25 1836 whereby the Agent of Jamaica William Burge protests against the unilateral abolition of slavery in the British Empire. Ordered to be printed by the House of Commons in London April 1836. 13 pages. 13" x 8.25" inches. Included within is a copy of three letters from the Agent to Lord Glenelg the British colonial secretary as well Burge's protest to Glenelg. Burge states: He is desirous that His Majesty's Government should understand that this Protest is made not as the performance of a formal act of official duty but from his conviction that the proposed legislation for Jamaica is a direct violation of the constitutional rights of that Colony rights coeval with its establishment and which have hitherto been respected." The Agent was a colonial official who was the official representative of a British colony who was based in London and acted as lobbyists and trade negotiators for the affairs of the colony. While Burge had at other times claimed to "hate" slavery he employs the British analogue of the "states rights'" argument that many moderate politicians in the United States used to signal personal distaste for slavery but to nonetheless protect the institution's existence on the basis of constitutionality. When the institution of slavery died out in the British Empire after 1836 the abolitionist movement in the US gained tremendous momentum despite the protests of our own William Burge's. This piece is overall in very good condition. unknown
185036089Hamburg South Carolina: Printed at the Republican Office 1850. Wraps. Fair. Wraps. 48 pages. Covers are detached and stitching mostly removed leaving several loose pages. Small edge tears to a few pages. Toning to the contents. Pages 47 and 48 has an old tape repair with slight loss of print. This is pro Slavery and religious defense of the institution from a Southern Minister. Fair only. From the North Carolina Encyclopedia ncpedia dot org:<br /> <br /> "Iveson Lewis Brookes Baptist clergyman planter and Southern sectionalist was the eldest of five sons of Jonathan and Annie Lewis Brookes and was born in Rockingham County. His father was a veteran of the Revolution. His parents had only recently moved to North Carolina from Spotsylvania County Va. where many of his relatives continued to live; soon after his birth his parents moved permanently to Caswell County. Educated in a local academy during his early years in 1812 Brookes enlisted in the American army. After seeing only limited action during the War of 1812 he entered The University of North Carolina. He was graduated in 1819 after developing what proved to be a lifelong acquaintance with both James K. Polk and Thomas Hart Benton. In his commencement address entitled "Is the State of the World Better in the Present Age Than at Any Former Period" Brookes expressed an optimism and an enmity to slavery that were totally antithetical to his later positions. Undecided about his future he spent a year as a teacher in Greensboro"."Although he had opposed slavery as a student at The University of North Carolina Brookes became a staunch defender of slavery and a rabid southern sectionalist. During the Nullification controversy he was made a minuteman by Governor James Hamilton of South Carolina. In 1861 at the age of sixty-eight he offered himself for service in the Confederate Army. From the first appearance of abolitionism he feared for the future of southern society. From 1835 he wrote dozens of defenses of slavery most of them in the form of letters to northern antislavery periodicals. His most famous defenses were two pamphlets written during the crisis of 1850: A Defence of the South against the Reproaches and Incroachments of the North 1850 and A Defence of Southern Slavery against the Attacks of Henry Clay and Alexander Campbell 1851 the latter written at the behest of Governor James Henry Hammond of South Carolina. The productions of an enraged slaveholder revealing little of the optimistic and balanced thinking of his youthful years those two documents stood as the most characteristic statements of a die-hard southern sectionalist who had learned to love the life of a slaveholding planter. Printed at the Republican Office unknown
188452888Boston: Printed by the Order of the City Council 1884. First Edition. Small quarto 26.5cm; marbled paper over navy blue calf spine in seven compartments with six raised bands leather labels titling and decorative elements stamped in gilt on spine; marbled endpapers; engraved portrait frontispiece1011-70 with an additional 31 leaves bound in. Armorial bookplate of Walter Merriam Pratt on front pastedown. Re-backed with the original spine laid down; light wear to upper and lower board edges with some touch-up to leather at crown and heel; Very Good. A grangerized copy containing 22 ANS and ALS ca.1-4pp one autograph sentiment a 4.25" x 6.5" cabinet card signed by Phillips and several clipped portraits of various sizes depicting Phillips his wife and his son in uniform. Most prominent among the letters are those written to G.W. Putnam 6 H.G. Denny 2 R.L. Winthrop 2 John Boyle O'Reilly 1 and an October 8 1853 ALS to abolitionist and social reformer Gerrit Smith in which he claims to have mislaid his letter but is available to come to Brooklyn either on 15 December or 5 January 1854 and that his fee would be fifty dollars. Handsome volume memorializing American abolitionist and orator Wendell Phillips 1811-1884 commissioned by the City of Boston in an edition of 5000 copies. Nearly half the text is comprised of the eulogy by George William Curtis and includes extensive remarks by city council members and aldermen a prayer by Rev. Minot J. Savage an address by the Mayor and a poem by Mrs. Mary E. Blake. A proud son of Boston Phillips abandoned a career in law after being converted to the cause of abolitionism by William Lloyd Garrison in 1836. He was a frequent speaker at meetings of the American Anti-Slavery Society active in the free-produce movement a member of the Boston Vigilance Committee and an early advocate of women's rights. Later in life he turned considerable effort towards gaining equal rights for Native Americans and together with Helen Hunt Jackson and Massachusetts Governor William Claflin helped found the Massachusetts Indian Commission. cf.BAL 4347. Printed by the Order of the City Council unknown
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
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
1837101441Pamphlet small 8vo removed dbd 11 pp. Removed some minor foxing normal aging and browning; otherwise very good. This pamphlet was prepared for the New York chapter of the Religious Society of Friends Quakers for their annual meeting to oppose slavery. Not surprisingly this tract encourages people to help end "this stain upon our national character." While there are religious sentiments in this work much of the discussion relates to social injustice and morality. Mahlon Day (and New York Quakers),
186261272New York: D. Appleton & Co 1862. Second Edition. Octavo 20.5cm. Green cloth titled in gilt on spine; yellow coated endpapers; 39018pp; 8 tinted lithographs. A firm copy rubbed at spine ends and bumped at corners mildly foxed: Very Good.<br /> <br /> Commander Andrew Hull Foote 1806-1963 served on the USS Perry from 1849 to 1851 suppressing the slave trade off the coast of Africa. In 1854 he published an abolitionist history of Africa describing African cultures American colonies and the slave trade. He was a noted commander for the Union Navy until his unexpected death of kidney disease in 1863. D. Appleton & Co 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
18401132391840. First Edition. SLAVERY BUXTON Thomas Fowell. The African Slave Trade and its Remedy. London: John Murray 1840. Octavooriginal brown clothuncut and partially unopened; pp.14 viii 3 6-273 274-276 i ii-vi 277 278-582. $2800.First expanded and revised edition of British abolitionist Buxton's powerful call for an end to the slave trade the first to include his extensive and influential Remedy two major works that followed the lead of Wilberforce in calling for treaties and commerce to end the slave trade and outlined a way to ""secure the regeneration of Africa through agricultural development"" with large folding map a handsome copy in original cloth.Quaker Thomas Buxton was in Parliament when in 1824 Wilberforce asked him to become his successor. ""In 1789 Wilberforce had begged Parliament to 'make reparation to Africa by establishing a trade upon true commercial principles Fifty years later Buxton redeveloped this appeal in The African Slave Trade To support his vision Buxton formed the African Civilization Society July 1839."" In this first expanded edition of African Slave Trade 1839the first to include his RemedyBuxton argues for the ""agricultural colonization of West Africa and the development of a broad-based commerce that could undercut the economic dominance of the illicit slave trade"" Hopkins Peter Thonning 615. He documents the horrors of the Middle Passage to show that despite all efforts to end the slave trade ""twice as many human beings are now its victims as when Wilberforce and Clarkson entered upon their noble task."" And in Remedy he further develops his argument: showing how ""legitimate commerce would put down the Slave Trade by demonstrating the superior value of man as a laborer on the soil to man as an object of merchandise.""With African Slave Trade and its Remedy Buxton powerfully ""synthesized contemporary currents of thought developed the arguments about the relationship between abolition and African improvement more systematically than before and then catapulted them to national prominence His views prevailed. The belief that the only way to suppress the African slave trade was to promote 'legitimate commerce' and that this new trade would launch Africa on the road to moral and material progress became the conventional wisdom in mid-19th-century Britain."" Among those he convinced was David Livingstone who as ""an unknown medical student attended the 1840 meeting of the African Civilization Society where Buxton first announced his remedy for the slave trade. What Livingstone heard on that occasion helped inspire a lifetime of work and travel on the continent"" Mann Slavery and the Birth of an African City 88-90. First expanded and revised edition: first to include Buxton's Remedy which was issued separately in 1839. Precedes the first American edition. With folding map of ""Central Africa."" Paginated as issued without loss of text. With 14-page ""Prospectus of the Society for the Extinction of the Slave Trade and for the Civilization of Africa"" preceding title page. Sabin 9685. Goldsmith's 31743. Kress C5121 See Goldsmith's 31181; Kress C4818; Blockson 9121. Interior fresh with light foxing to folding map as often front inner paper hinge starting but very sound mild rubbing and toning to bright original cloth. A desirable near-fine copy. hardcover
1822215261822. Manuscript debt bonds created in Mecklenburg County North Carolina during the early 1820s document the use of enslaved people as collateral within the financial system of the antebellum South. These legal instruments record obligations owed between creditors and debtors while identifying enslaved individuals as property subject to seizure in the event of nonpayment. Such documents illustrate the legal framework through which slavery operated as both a labor system and an economic structure where enslaved men women and children were routinely mortgaged pledged and sold to satisfy financial claims. Surviving manuscript bonds naming enslaved individuals provide direct evidence of the mechanisms through which courts and creditors enforced debt within slaveholding societies.<br /> <br /> Archive of three partially printed manuscript bonds completed in ink each measuring approximately 12 x 8 inches and bearing signatures of the involved parties. 1 Blanks John; Tillotson Edward; and Turney James. Debt bond to Stephen P. Pool and Robert O. Courby. Mecklenburg County North Carolina: 27 June 1822. The document binds the debtors for "ninety five dollars and seventy four cents" secured against property including "one land horse" with a notation on the reverse indicating the obligation was later settled by payment. 2 Carter Charles and Bullock John P. Bond to Thomas Howerton and John F. Howerton. Mecklenburg County North Carolina: 21 March 1823. The bond records a debt of $2214.67 associated with a writ of fieri facias issued against the estate of Charles Carter and identifies "one Negro man named Manuel Jack" as collateral subject to seizure if the debt remained unpaid. 3 Lenton Charles. Bond to James and John H. Irwin for the benefit of Michael Newton. Mecklenburg County North Carolina: 23 April 1823. This document binds Lenton for $337.42 and identifies "one Negro boy by the name of Peter" as property pledged to secure the obligation specifying that the enslaved child must be produced for sale if required under the terms of the writ.<br /> <br /> During the nineteenth century enslaved people were legally classified as chattel property under the laws of slaveholding states allowing them to be mortgaged seized by courts and transferred between owners as part of debt enforcement procedures. Legal instruments such as bonds and writs of fieri facias formed part of the judicial process through which creditors pursued unpaid obligations and frequently resulted in the forced sale of enslaved individuals. Documents naming individuals such as Manuel Jack and Peter provide stark evidence of how the legal and financial systems of the American South treated human lives as collateral within commercial transactions. Three manuscript bonds written on partially printed forms with handwritten text and signatures. Light creasing toning and handling wear consistent with age; text remains clear and legible. Overall very good condition. The archive preserves primary documentary evidence of the legal and economic structures sustaining slavery in the early nineteenth century United States. unknown
1807182125London: printed by George Eyre and Andrew Strahan 1807. The African Slave Trade. is hereby utterly abolished prohibited and declared to be unlawful First edition of one of the most consequential acts of legislation in world history abolishing the slave trade within the British Empire. The Act the culmination of many years of campaigning by British abolitionists ended two centuries in which Britain took the pre-eminent role in the transatlantic slave traffic. The act paved the way for other European empires to abolish the trade and for Britain to use its navy to intercept slave ships which effectively ended the transatlantic slave trade by the latter half of the century. However the act did not end slavery in the British Empire which did not follow until 1833. Parliamentary acts were issued individually and in collected format printed from the same type. This copy includes the full acts for 1807 comprising the only session of the Third Parliament with the first session of the Fourth the second session was held in 1808 together with the separately published report on vaccination. It was bound for use by the civic authorities of the town of Elgin in Scotland. 3 parts in 1 vol. folio 289 x 181 mm pp. 16 466 1; 14 578 2 blank; 16. Contemporary sprinkled calf twin red and green morocco labels "Town of Elgin Acts of Parliament / 1807" edges speckled blue. Pencilled notation at head of title page. Neatly restored at extremities very minor foxing and finger-soiling to contents. A very good copy. unknown
1807184142London: Printed by George Eyre and Andrew Strahan 1807. The African Slave Trade. is hereby utterly abolished prohibited and declared to be unlawful First edition of one of the most consequential acts of legislation in world history abolishing the slave trade within the British Empire. This copy is a well-preserved example of the separate folio printing. From 1807 enslaved persons could no longer be bought or sold within the British Empire while the Royal Navy was empowered to target vessels engaged in slave transportation a task it took up with vigour. Parliamentary acts were issued in collected annual volumes and as individual pamphlets all printed from the same type. As King's Printers Eyre & Strahan held the exclusive rights to publish and sell parliamentary statutes and this pamphlet would have been among those sold at their offices near Fleet Street. Folio 319 x 197 mm pp. 317-326 2. Woodcut headpiece. Stab-sewn as issued edges uncut. Minor offsetting else a near-fine copy. unknown
1827163198London: Printed for the London Society for the Mitigation and Abolition of Slavery in the British Dominions 1827-32. A new age of abolitionist agitation First collected editions being the full run under its original title of Zachary Macaulay's abolitionist magazine the leading organ of British abolitionist thought and campaigning. It was afterwards renamed the Anti-Slavery Reporter and has lasted under changing titles to this day. The journal "systematically collected information on the abuses of slavery" ODNB. "Highlighting the rise of abolitionist petition drives antislavery discussions in church and government venues and debates over unfree labor throughout the empire the paper celebrated a new age of abolitionist agitation" Newman pp. 44-45. The volumes collect the monthly issues from June 1825 to December 1831 with collective title pages and contents tables. 4 vols. octavo 216 x 129 mm. Contemporary half calf rebacked black morocco labels marbled sides edges speckled brown. Wear at extremities inner hinges reinforced a little browned and spotted: still very good copies. Richard S. Newman Abolitionism: A Very Short Introduction 2018. unknown
1827213910London: John Hatchard and Son 1827. Illustrated by 9 etchings. viii 464 pp. 1 vols. 8vo. Full calf spine gilt. Upper board missing 8 leaves damp-stained else Near Fine. Illustrated by 9 etchings. viii 464 pp. 1 vols. 8vo. John Hatchard and Son unknown
1861Cat338Lafayette Ohio 1861. Autograph letter signed 2 pp. Addressed to D. T. Chapin of Enfield Connecticut. Good condition with normal folds and light wear. A concise but revealing early Civil War letter combining financial anxiety agricultural reporting and clear-eyed political commentary on slavery and the future course of the conflict. Writing amid the first months of the American Civil War Chapin opens with the immediate purpose of the letter—forwarding “a draft of $240 for int. on the noteâ€â€”before situating the payment within a deteriorating economic landscape: “It is very difficult to get money now even of the best men.†He describes a local economy under strain noting “no market for wool to bring in money†compounded by regional instability “on account of the bank failing and many of the merchants in Medina closing†concluding bluntly: “Terrible bursting times with them.†Even the act of sending funds carries uncertainty as he cautions that “in these times I consider there is a risk in the best of banks.†Alongside these concerns Chapin provides a snapshot of agricultural conditions: “Corn is very backward and short wheat nearly middling grass rather below middling†summing up the situation as “rather tight times as well as troubled times.â€<br /> <br /> The most significant portion of the letter however turns to the war itself and the unresolved question of slavery. He writes:<br /> <br /> “We hope the end will be well but our nation will have to be humbled. It is well to put down rebellion but it is rather queer that the cause of the trouble must be let entirely alone. The nation will get their eyes open after a while. The President possesses the war power to abolish slavery and Congress possess the power also in my humble opinion and the time will come when they will have to do it unless the south run their heads so hard against the rock as to do it themselves.â€<br /> <br /> The letter closes with a brief note on a failed business transaction—“our trade for the sale of the mill fell throughâ€â€”underscoring the economic uncertainty of the moment before returning to family matters. Overall an evocative early Civil War letter by a merchant expressing fears and anxiety for the pending conflict. unknown
183331599England: Elliott Cresson 1833. Bi-folded folio. 3 pp. 12 1/3 x 7 1/2 inches. Important autograph letter from Elliott Cresson one of the foremost proponents of the American Colonization Society and its colony in Liberia to Member of Parliament Benjamin Hawes presenting a resolution to found the British African Colonization Society. Discusses the famed abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison's opposition to the colonization movement.<br/> <br/> The letter begins with the two-page text of a resolution to establish the British African Colonization Society under the patronage of the Duke of Sussex: "That Colonies composed of fair 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 its 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 . . ." 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 thru 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 supporters of colonization the movement to relocate formerly enslaved people and free black Americans to colonies in Liberia. In 1832 he traveled 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 changed his mind and decried 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. Elliott Cresson unknown
18604105Missouri: April 1 1860. Very good. 4pp. on a single folded sheet. Original mailing folds minor toning. An informative letter written by Charles H. Cram in Missouri to a friend in New England dated "April Fools Day 1860" in red pencil at the top of the first page. Cram mentions hoop skirts Pike's Peak and slavery while trying to decide whether to continue westward during the latter years of the California Gold Rush. Cram's letter reads in part: "Everybody is going to Pikes Peak but me. I think some of them will wish they were back again but they have got the gold fever and nothing else will cure them. I have learned better than to follow the biggest nois and the great rush. The emigrants to Pikes Peake will most of them will have to sleep on the ground and depend on the rifle for something to eat. I may start for Santa Fe about the first of June. I can git 15 dollars a month to drive a teem to Santa Fe. If I do cross the plains I shall go to California but if I have good health I shall stay here though I do not like to live in a slave state."<br /> <br /> In another portion of his letter Cram addresses his correspondent's question of whether slaves and freedpersons wore hoop skirts in Missouri. Cram writes: "You wanted to know if niggers wore hoops. Some do and some don't some slaves in broadcloth and silk and some go nearly naked. Slaves have there stent to do so much & if they do more they are payed for it. Most of them have a piece of ground that they call their own. What time they get they work on it. That is how they git their fine cloths. There is not a nigger in Missouri that works as hard as I do but I have consolation that I can work only when I am a mind to. You tell Albert not to start out among strangers as I did for he will find the people different in the country from them in New England."<br /> <br /> Cram then speaks to the emigrant populations he encounters out west as well as the agricultural bounty and animal life of Missouri: "The greatest difficulty I had was to learn the French and German language. I have been for weeks where I could not understand a word but now I can understand anything that comes along. But now for something else. The peach trees are in flower and the woods look green. Cattle and horses pick their living here the year round. I have not seen a barn in the country. The way to feed a horse is to tie him up to a tree and throw him a few ears of corn on the ground. I cannot rite to day much for there is half a dozen in the room talking about pikes peak or some young lady and how many negroes her father owns etc."<br /> <br /> Cram ends his letter with some advice for his friends back east: "Tell Mr. Bosworth that if he can rais $500 that he had better go to Cansas Kansas and go to farming. If you can persuade Andrew Marshall to go west it will be a good lesson for him."<br /> <br /> A mid-19th century manuscript letter with informative observations on the clothing of slaves and with notable observations of western life in Missouri. April 1 unknown
184740201Stewartsboro TN 1847. Folio 15" x 12-3/4" sheet folded to 7-1/2" x 12-3/4". 4 pp. Completely in ink manuscript integral address leave bearing Stewartsboro Tennessee April 3 1847 manuscript postal marking. mailing address on last page. The initials of the writer's name are difficult to decipher; this is our best guess. Old folds two short fold splits and a few tiny holes at fold corners. Wax seal remnant with tear at edge loss of a few letters some toning. Good to Very Good. <br /> <br /> The writer is concerned that Thomas had not responded to his letter "relating to the negro girl Tabitha given by Uncle R. to his daughter- nothing has been done in that suit as yet. I think she is collecting evidence from her mother & other sources to make it appear that the consideration viz the girl Tabitha which was given her in lieu of the piano was a failure & then to base her claim for the amount of the piano between 4 and 500 dollars princp. & int. against me as executor of my brother Edmond who was security for the faithful administrationship of John Nash Barksdale but he having failed to collect sd. debt while R. Barksdale was solvent. Levi Wade & her lawyer are persuading her. . . " He gives Thomas permission to "calculate on receiving a portion of the money for which Paulina sold. . . Negroes have advanced within 3 or 4 months but I fear one diseased as your boy Phil will command but a small price."<br /> Dr. Thomas Hill Read 1798-1874 of Tennessee settled in Macon County Illinois in 1831. He was the brother-in-law of Capt. David L. Allen one of the most prominent early citizens having married his sister. Dr. Read became known for his success in the treatment of children's ailments and was considered an expert in cholera infantum. He had a reputation for honesty and was said to have acted as administrator of more estates than anyone else in Macon County. Dr. Read was a member of the Decatur Board of Trustees in 1839 1841 1846 and 1847; County Treasurer from 1845-1846 and County Probate Judge from 1846-1849.<br /> John Nash Barksdale 1818-1844 Thomas Read's maternal cousin was born in Tennessee graduated from the University of North Carolina and became a lawyer. He practiced law in Tennessee for a few years and then moved to Columbus Mississippi and entered the law firm of his cousin Gen. William Barksdale. The Columbus bar announced that its members would wear the badge of mourning for thirty days following his death. "Death of John N. Barksdale" Republican Banner Nashville TN Dec. 6 1844 Page 2.<br /> Uncle R was likely Randolph Barksdale 1795-1844 Thomas H. Read's maternal uncle and John Nash Barksdale's father. Randolph settled in Tennessee with his father in 1808 and later established his own plantation. He was married three times and became the owner of a large estate and several slaves in Rutherford County Tennessee thanks to the wealth of his first wife. He also owned an estate near Chulahoma in Marshall County Mississippi. unknown
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
