1865

Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895

Pamphlet

Title: The equality of men before the law, claimed and defended in speeches...

Title continued: "by Hon. William D. Kelley, Wendell Phillips and Frederick Douglass." Lacks original wrappers, stab-stitched. Douglass' speech was made to the annual Anti-Slavery Convention. Blockson Collection 2779. Schomburg 324.15-K. USE WITH CARE.

GLC06831

1842

Channing, William Ellery, 1780-1842

Pamphlet

Title: The duty of the Free States, or remarks suggested by the case of the Creole

In original wrappers. Channing argues in favor of the slaves who had taken over the Creole, a slave ship. Steering towards the British West Indies, they won freedom under British law, even though the U.S. attempted to reclaim them. Blockson Collection 9370, Dumon p. 36.

GLC06835

1788

Pamphlet

Title: The Constitution of the Pennsylvania Society for ... the Abolition of Slavery

Rest of title: "and the relief of free Negroes, unlawfully held in bondage, begun in the year 1774 and enlarged... To which are added the Acts of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania for the gradual abolition of slavery." First edition, printed by Francis Bailey. The Second year's Constitution of the Society. Disbound. Evans 21831.

GLC06836

1843

Lattimer, George, fl. 1843

Pamphlet

Title: Massachusetts Congress "House No. 41" [slave case]

Account of slave case of George Lattimer. First and only edition. Original wrappers. Lattimer, a free black Boston resident, had been arrested on application of James Gray of Norfolk, Va., as his escaped slave. Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story, acting as Circuit Judge, had Lattimer detained. Many Bostonians were outraged, and a meeting at Fanueil Hall voted that disunion was preferable to returning slaves. With the threat of massive civil disobedience, Gray sold Lattimer to a group of Bostonians for $400. A result of this incident (included in this pamphlet) was the passage of "An Act to…

GLC06838

1879

Pettit, Eber, fl. 1879

Book

Title: Sketches in the history of the Underground Railroad...

Title continued: "Comprising many thrilling incidents of the escape of fugitives from slavery and the perils to those who aided them." First edition, with mounted albumen photograph frontispiece of Pettit. Original publishers brown cloth. Pettit was one of the chief conductors of the Underground Railroad. Not in Blockson Collection. Schomburg 326.973F-P, Work p.338.

GLC06839

1869

Tubman, Harriet, 1822-1913

Book

Title: Scenes in the life of Harriet Tubman / by Sarah H. Bradford

First edition printed by Moses. The story of Tubman, an escaped slave who became a "conductor" on the Underground Railroad. She made more than nineteen trips into the south, rescuing 300 people. During the Civil War, she served as a nurse and spy. Royalties from this book paid off the mortgage on her home when she married Nelson Davis, an African American Civil War veteran. Exlibris stamp of the Phillis Wheatley Library. Blockson Collection 3950, Schomburg 326.93-B. Including engraving of Tubman.

GLC06840

1836

Stuart, Charles, fl. 1836

Book

Title: A memoir of Granville Sharp

First edition; early publisher's cloth. Includes Patrick Reason's first published portrait engraving. Reason was an black artist. Collateral to Lincoln manuscript GLC 5302, referring to Granville Sharp.

GLC06841

1849

Mott, Lucretia, fl. 1849-1860

Pamphlet

Title: A Sermon to the medical students

First edition. 12mo. Printed gray wrappers. An important speech on anti-slavery and women's rights. Described on the cover as a "revised Phonographic Report." Mott rejects the doctrine of original human depravity, credits the birth of reform movements to "people... thinking and acting for themselves." Other topics include abolition (which caused some people to leave the meeting), capital punishment, and peace. DAB notes that Mott was acknowledged as a minister among the Quakers. The Feminist Companion pp. 766-777 notes this sermon as especially noteworthy.

GLC06857

1837

Chapman, Maria Weston, 1806-1885

Book

Title: Right and Wrong in Boston. Annual report of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Soc.

Subtitle: "Annual report of the Boston Female Anti-slavery Society, with a sketch of obstacles thrown in the way of emancipation by certain clerical abolitionists and advocates for the subjection of women." Printed by Isaac Knapp. 16mo. Rebound. Women formed their own anti-slavery societies in Philadelphia, Boston, Andover and elsewhere. The report chides clergy for hobbling anti-slavery efforts and digresses from anti-slavery to address "the sphere of women," a major issue in that year. In 1837, the societies held a national convention in New York and were widely ridiculed in the press.…

GLC06860

24 March 1848

Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895

Newspaper

Title: North star. [Vol. 1, no. 13 (March 24, 1848)]

Douglass' Abolitionist newspaper; re: Theodore Parker's John Quincy Adams eulogy, anti-slavery meetings, etc. Waterstained across top.

GLC06865

1833

Child, Lydia Maria Francis, 1802-1880

Book signed

Title: An Appeal in the Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans

First book of American abolitionist movement; inscribed in pencil with respects of "the author" to J. J. Dixwell. Exlibris stamp of Meadville Theological School on top, with duplicate sold stamp. Includes engravings.

GLC06867

4 and 7 December 1776

Whipple, William, 1730-1785

Autograph letter signed

Title: to John Langdon

Written by Whipple, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, as a New Hampshire Congressman to Langdon as agent for Continental prizes in New Hampshire. First two pages are a letter from 4 December 1776 and is signed "W Whipple" and the third page is a letter from 7 December 1776 initialed "WW." 4 December: previously wrote that the navy will add another ship of 74 guns to be built in New Hampshire. Says he will send the dimensions in a few days and the builders are to make their own drafts. Says the carpenters who built the "Raleigh" will do a good a job as any. Langdon is to…

GLC06519

29 December 1806

Thompson, Thomas W., 1766-1821

Autograph letter signed

Title: to John Langdon

Written by New Hampshire Congressman Thompson to Langdon as Governor of New Hampshire. Says nothing of interest has occurred since the suspension of the non-importation law. Claims domestic issues take up most of their time. Has hope that negotiations with Britain and France are going well. Says that Aaron Burr's presence in Louisiana gave the Jefferson Administration great anxiety. But the capture of part of his flotilla and the probable capture of the rest, has relieved Jefferson. Jefferson considers Burr's insurrection suppressed. That being said, he reports that General James Wilkinson is…

GLC06545

circa 1830-1840

Broadside

Title: Views of slavery

Abolitionist broadside with six images depicting kidnapping, torture, auction, and labor of enslaved people. With Channing quotation, "Our laws know no higher crime than that of reducing a man to slavery. To steal or to buy an African on his own shores is a piracy." Lithograph drawings.

GLC06477

12 April 1781

Phillips, William, 1731-1781

Letter signed

Title: to George Weedon

Phillips, a British Lieutenant-General, discusses flags of truce and prisoner exchanges with American General Weedon. Writes "the usual and necessary forms must be preserved especially respecting Flags of Truce which are objects of a chaste nature and the rules belonging to them ought never to be violated..." Refers to Moss Armstead, an American soldier sent to negotiate prisoner exchange. Discusses penalties for Americans venturing within British lines. States that all flag vessels must stop at British commodores' ships stationed at Hampton Roads, Virginia, to gain authorization to…

GLC06493

1896

Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt, 1868-1963

Book

Title: The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the USA 1638-1870

8vo. Printed by Longsman, Green & Co. First edition of Du Bois's first book. Howes D522.

GLC06983

12 March 1789

Rutledge, Edward, 1749-1800

Autograph letter signed

Title: to unknown

Written by Rutledge, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, as a member of the South Carolina legislature to an unknown recipient. References previous and more detailed letters he wrote to the recipient within the last two days. Says in case the letters have not arrived that Mr. Parker, the husband of a sister of Mrs. Rutledge, has offered him "a Proposition to give £85 a Head, for one half of the Gang - that is 24 or 25 - payable in good Bonds." Says the first installment is due in June. Says he thinks the price is a bargain if "the Negroes will come with him," hinting that they would…

GLC06687

1862-1864

Header Record

Title: Archive relating to the Freedman's Bureau, in Beaufort, SC [decimalized. 01-.11]

GLC06727

1863

Document

Title: Blank form for plantation purchases

Regarding Negro wages etc.

GLC06727.08

1805

Alexander, Ann Tuke, 1767-1849

Pamphlet

Title: An address to the inhabitants of South Carolina [anti-slavery]

In original blue wrappers. Anti-Slavery pamphlet. Printed by Kimber, Conrad & Co.

GLC06992

4 January 1790

Williams, J., fl. 1790

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Henry Knox

Mentions moving his family to settle in America and discusses the revolution in France. Encloses (not included) letters to [Samuel] Shaw that he has left open for Knox to also read. Writes about the French Revolution, it "supports itself to admiration. What a few years since would have been called the enthusiastic Fables of political madmen is now supported by stubborn Fact. France is perhaps the nearest to a democracy of any Government in the Universe, preserving only a monarch at the head of it pro forma, with no more to do with this composition than the diamond Button has with his…

GLC02437.04463

22 October 1781

Teissedre de Fleury, Francois Louis, 1749-?

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Henry Knox

Has heard Knox has replaced ordnance lost or damaged during the siege of Yorktown by the Regiment of Bourbons and inquires if the same can be done for the Régiment de Saintonge. Also requests flags for marching. A note on the back requests information about whether or not a black man who was given to Major Fleury by a British officer has a master. "If he truly he has no master," Fleury writes, "send him back to his new one." The Régiment de Saintonge was selected in 1780 by the Count de Rochambeau to participate in the French expeditionary force to America.

GLC02437.01256

4 November 1786

Flucker, Presence, fl. 1786

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Henry Knox

Docket reads, "from [sic, about] a negro woman formerly belonging to Mr Flucker." Writes that she heard from a Miss Cummings that Knox offered to receive her into his home as a cook or some other kind of servant upon the death of the Fluckers "as an Assylum in my old Age." Would be lacking in a sense of duty and gratitude if she did not "acknowledge the great kindness of such an offer; especially from one of a Family with whom I have spent the greatest and happiest part of my life." However, she is obliged to decline the offer, as she has been married and settled in this place, and also…

GLC02437.03325

26 June 1798

Knox, Henry, 1750-1806

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Mr. White

Letterpress copy. Discusses his concerns about the navy, and mentions a "few ships of War, and the french [sic] have a few, would in a few days convey an army of ten thousand blacks and people of color in Vessels seized from our own citizens." Continues with expressing his concern about the defense of the coast. Noted as private.

GLC02437.07154

January 17, 1863

Sumner, Charles, 1811-1874

Autograph quotation signed

Title: [They are men by the grace of God and this is enough.]

Sentiment by Sumner written in the Senate Chamber.

GLC05508.241