5 April 1850

Atchison, David Rice, 1807-1886

Autograph letter signed

Title: to James William Denver

Reports the voting inclinations of several Missouri delegates to the Congressional Convention. Discusses the possible opposition of the Wilmot Proviso, but is confident that California will be admitted as a state. See collateral files for 1 November 1965 letter by Anne Atchinson concerning this letter. The Wilmot Proviso, named after Pennsylvania senator David Wilmot, was a congressional proposal in the 1840's to prohibit the extension of slavery into the territories. Imprint in upper left corner reads "Paris."

GLC05574

1945

Uris, Leon, fl. 1945

Typed quotation signed

Title: [This night is different...]

"This night is different because we celebrate the most important moment in the history of our people. On this night we celebrate their going forth in triumph from slavery to freedom."

GLC05508.248

12 March 1864

Whittier, John G., 1807-1892

Autograph manuscript signed

Title: [We wait beneath the furnace-blast...]

The first stanza of Whittier's poem, "Luther's Hymn." It describes God's transformation of the country by ending slavery. Whittier compares the transformation to a furnace-blast that will "mould anew the nation." One black and white bust engraving of Whittier included.

GLC05508.260

circa 1863-1864

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865

Broadside

Title: Emancipation Proclamation

Rufus Blanchard edition. Signed in print by Abraham Lincoln as the President and William H. Seward as Secretary of State. The printer, Rufus Blanchard, states the importance of the Emancipation Proclamation in a footnote: "This Proclamation is an incalculable element of strength to the Union cause. It makes an alliance between the Rebels and Foreign States as impossible as it is for millions of Bondsmen to love slavery better than Freedom..." Border surrounding text includes pink flowers surrounded by green and red-tinted leaves. Background of text is images of stars. Mounted.

GLC05508.272

1856

Fremont, John Charles, 1813-1890

Object

Title: Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Press. Fremont. [Fremont & Dayton election ribbon]

White printed ribbon depciting Fremont as the explorer, mounted on a horse and pointing? to the left.

GLC05510

February 12, 1861

Lincoln, Arch., fl. 1861

Broadside

Title: $100.00 reward!

Runaway slave broadside with stock wood cut of a runaway. For a slave named Lewis, "aged about 31 years, heavy set, about 5 feet 5 or 6 inches high, inclined to be bow legged, dark complexion, and will weigh 175 or 180 pounds..." Dated from Liberty, Missouri. Lincoln states, "I will give for the apprehension of said boy...$25 if taken in Clay county, Mo., $50 if taken out of Clay and in the State, and $100 if taken out of the State."

GLC05525

February 25, 1862

Grant, Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson), 1822-1885

Autograph document signed

Title: [General order regarding the presence of non-soldier African Americans in military camp]

Written from Fort Donelson, Tennessee. General Grant states that "orders ... prohibit negroes from coming into camp. When they are brought in by an officer or soldier they must be turned out ... owners are not to be permitted to search the camp on pretence of looking after their negroes. This would open the way to the most dangerous class of spies that we could have among us."

GLC05529

circa 1850s

Longfellow, Henry W., 1807-1882

Manuscript document

Title: [Allegorical verses on slavery]

Written in Harriet Beecher Stowe's hand. Her clipped signature ("H B Stowe") has been pasted to the end of the poem. Despite being in Stowe's hand and having the addition of Stowe's signature, both poems are actually 1842 works on slavery by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the first being a poem in five stanzas dedicated to William E. Channing. The second in three stanzas is titled "The Warning."

GLC05570

February 5, 1861

Clay, Cassius Marcellus, 1810-1903

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Frank W. Ballard

Clay, an abolitionist, informs his friend Ballard that he was misrepresented by the New York Tribune. Discusses the possibility of New Mexico entering the Union as a free or slave state, and the Compromise of 1850. Defends himself from Horace Greeley's criticism (Greeley was editor of the Tribune). Concludes by stating, "Things look awfully gloomy-- I feel a split on the slave [line]! God save the Republic."

GLC05692

February 25, 1909

Mosby, John S., 1833-1916

Typed letter signed

Title: to Alexander Spottswood Campbell

Spottswood was possibly Mosby's grandson (son of daughter May Virginia Campbell and Robert Campbell). Typed on Department of Justice stationery with the printed heading, "Carbon copy for the file". Transmits a clipping from the Times-Dispatch on an essay on Robert E. Lee by "a Northern girl." Declares that it is a fair assessment of Lee, and discusses the article at length: "...if there had been free schools in the south there would have been no war simply because an enlightened public opinion in that section would not have submitted to the rule of a slave holding oligarchy. A large…

GLC05738

1 January 1803

Jansen, Zacharias, fl. 1803

Manuscript document signed

Title: [Grants of money for children of slaves in Ulster County, New York]

Grants of money for the children of slaves in the town of Shawangunk, New York. Signed by Zacharias Jansen, several other members of the Jansen family, and various others. Refers to the eventual abolition of slavery in New York State. "...for the support and maintenance of the children of slaves duly registered and born after the fourth day of July, 1799 whose right of service has been abandoned by the respective proprietors of the mothers of such children in pursuance to the directions of the several acts of the Legislature for the gradual abolition of slavery ..." Lists the names and birth…

GLC05685

24 April 1834

Whittier, John G., 1807-1892

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Samuel J. May

Whittier writes to May, an ardent abolitionist: "Until connected with the Cause of Anti-Slavery I never knew what friendship was... engaged in this holy cause of Truth & Love, I have found high & pure hearts beating in perfect unison... No matter what may be our creed- whether we follow Socinius or Fox, or Calvin,- we are all brethren." Discusses the engagement of abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison to Helen Eliza Benson: "It will quiet the fears of some of our good Colonisationists that our friend G. might some day or other practice upon the thing of Amalgamation- and, smitten by…

GLC05720

22 July 1851

Clay, Henry, 1777-1852

Letter signed

Title: to Thomas Robinson Hazard

Clay writes from Ashland, his estate, to Hazard, the noted reformer. Declines an invitation to visit Hazard in Rhode Island, relating that he will not be able to leave home this summer due to ill health. Also due to his health, this letter is written by an amanuensis. Notes that though the climate and sea bathing of Rhode Island would aid his health, "the journey, the cities, the crowds, and the company which I should encounter would neutralize any advantage that I should derive from visiting Newport." Agrees with Hazard on African colonization, remarking, "Its success and prosperity are…

GLC05721

3 December 1870

Lee, Mary Custis, 1808-1873

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Colonel Marshall

Possibly to Colonel Charles Marshall, Lee's aide during the Civil War. Mary writes "to collect some incidents in the early life of my husband." States she is "too feeble and unwell to do the subject justice" and asks him to correct errors in dates. Asks that her name not be used. States he had included a sheet with extracts of letters Lee wrote to her (included). Says that when she is well again she can supply more letters and information. The handwritten sheet of dated extracts she includes deal with subjects such as Lee's good treatment of slaves, the death of Stonewall Jackson, the…

GLC05728

1865-1866

Dickson, William G., fl. 1861-1866

Header Record

Title: Letters to Dickson's grandfather [Decimalized .01-.06]

Among other topics, Dickson discusses reconstruction, turpentine and rosin production, post-slavery labor concerns, cholera in Georgia, and his bleak marriage prospects.

GLC05732

17 April 1865

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Mrs. Schoolcraft

Fears that President Johnson "will not feel as much kindness toward the South." Also, plans to meet to debate slavery. The letter was written three days after President Lincoln's assassination.

GLC05743

10 May 1878

Garrison, William Lloyd, 1805-1879

Autograph letter signed

Title: to John Greenleaf Whittier

Garrison replies to a letter from Whittier, the Quaker poet and abolitionist. Discusses the deaths of other abolitionists. Whittier had informed Garrison of the death of Captain Jonathan Walker, a fellow abolitionist. Laments Walker's death, describing him as "a kind-hearted, honest, unsophisticated man, who, for attempting to aid certain slaves to escape from their taskmasters, bore with martyr-like fortitude and serenity the penalty burnt into his living flesh by the decree of a court acting in accordance with the provisions of the Slave Code." Notes that the "SS" which was burnt on…

GLC05748

circa 1869-1872

Hall, Newman, fl. 1869-1872

Autograph letter signed

Title: to W.R. Cremer

Hall considers the Civil War the only justifiable war, apparently because it brought the abolition of slavery. War between England and the U.S. "would be Fratricidal & a hideous crime." He believes arbitration and a treaty can settle any conflict between the two nations, possibly referring to the Alabama Claims.

GLC05508.122

19 March 1912

Johnson, D.C., fl. 1912

Autograph letter signed

Title: to J. E. Boos, Esq.

Johnson discusses being raised in Illinois and enlisting in the army. On Lincoln, slavery and the Civil War, he writes: "No man has a higher opinion of Lincoln than I. He was the Good Lords [sic] instrument in destroying the greatest sin of this nation and his death was the last atonement for this National sin." Johnson was a member of the 25th Illinois Volunteer infantry, Company H.

GLC05508.149

24 September 1895

Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 1811-1896

Autograph quotation signed

Title: [Not one throb of anguish...]

A quote from chapter 12 of Uncle Tom's Cabin: "Not one throb of anguish/ Not one tear of the opposed/ is forgiven by the Man of Sorrows/ the Lord of Glory/ In his patient generous bosom/ He bears the anguish of a world."

GLC05508.238

1835

Pamphlet

Title: Proceedings of the Colonization Society of the city of New York... [Liberia]

Full title: "Proceedings of the Colonization Society of the City of New York, at their third annual meeting, held on the 13th and 14th of May, 1835, including the annual report of the Board of Managers, to the Society." Concerning the colony of freed slaves established in Liberia. An appendix publishes newspaper accounts of speeches from the meeting. The last page has a poem of L.H. Sigourney entitled "Liberia." Published by Wm. A. Mercein and Son, Pearl Street.

GLC05215

1857

Pettigrew, James Johnston, 1828-1863

Pamphlet

Title: Report of the minority of the special committee of seven, to whom was referred so much of his late excellency's message no. 1, as relates to slavery and the slave trade

Reprinting of the minority House report, led by J. Johnston Pettigrew of South Carolina, opposing the re-opening of the slave trade on economic and social grounds. Printed by the Carolina Times Steam Power Press. Front page is stamped with the name David Kohn.

GLC05216

1864

Buttre, John Chester, 1821-1893

Print

Title: Abraham Lincoln President of the United States

Done after a Mathew Brady photograph. Shows Lincoln surrounded by an emblematic border done by New York illustrator William Momberger. The images in the borders portray the defeat of the dragon "Secession," freed slaves, western emigration, rural prosperity, and eventual peace between North and South.

GLC05239

3 March 1841

Van Buren, Martin, 1782-1862

Book

Title: Message from the President of the United States, transmitting a report from the Secretary of State, in relation to seizures or search of American vessels, & c.

House doc. no. 115. Pertains to "Search or seizure of American vessels on coast of Africa, & c."

GLC05163

1817

Washington, Bushrod, 1762-1829

Pamphlet

Title: A view of exertions lately made for the purposes of colonizing the free people of colour, in the United States, in Africa, or elsewhere

A pamphlet containing Bushrod's memorial as president of the American Society for Colonizing the Free People of Color of the United States, along with other writings on the subject of colonization. Includes speeches by Henry Clay and many others, resolutions, and a "brief sketch of Sierra Leone." Printed by Jonathan Elliot. Disbound pamphlet.

GLC05181