circa 1863

Pamphlet

Title: An Appeal to the Federal Soldiers

Written by "A New Englander, Now A Confederate Soldier." Dated from first line: "Two years of our sanguinary conflict..." Says he is going to lay aside "weapons of strife" and reason together on the lessons the war can teach. Says it was ill-will and sectional prejudice that led to the South's secession. Claims "Slavery was the apparent, though not the real cause of the war. That real cause lay in the diveristy of our interests." Claims the differences between urban commercialism and agrarian staple production caused the war. Says "Your politicians seized upon abolitionism as a convenient…

GLC08676

1 October 1863

Mason, E.E., fl. 1863

Document signed

Title: [Receipt regarding a slave named John]

Sheriff William H. Preas, from Bedford County, Virginia, sends a slave named John to work on fortifications near Lynchburg. By order of Colonel W. H. Stevens, Chief Engineer. Signed by Mason as First Lieutenant, Engineers.

GLC08678

30 August 1831

Woodward, Thomas Green, 1789-1850

Newspaper

Title: Connecticut herald. [Vol. 28, no. 41 (August 30, 1831)]

Includes excerpts of letters regarding Nat Turner's Rebellion, claiming that more than 58 whites have been killed, and that the uprising consists of between 150 and 300 participants armed with "fowling-pieces, clubs, &c." A list of white victims is included. A commentary opines that northern enouragement of such revolts can do no good and will only "render one portion of our country a vast aceldma of blood." Also: a lengthy statement by Vice President John C. Calhoun regarding "the Tariff" and its division of the United States into two separate sections, North and South.

GLC08681

January 17, 1774

Dunlap, John, 1747-1812

Newspaper

Title: Pennsylvania Packet or the general advertiser. [Vol. 3, no. 117 (January 17, 1774)]

Prints on page two an account on the manumission of slaves calculating what the estimated costs would be to pay for the manumission of all slaves in the Colony. Also includes news from New York, Boston, and Philadelphia and public postings.

GLC08689

1859

Douglas, Stephen Arnold, 1813-1861

Pamphlet

Title: Popular sovereignty in the territories. The dividing line between federal and local authority.

Published by Harper & Brothers. Douglas, a United States Senator from Illinois, concludes by stating: "...every distinct political Community, loyal to the Constitution and the Union, is entitled to all the rights, privileges, and immunities of self-government in respect to their local concerns and internal polity, subject only to the Constitution of the United States."

GLC08700

17 October 1835

W. L. Garrison and I. Knapp (publishers), 1831-1865

Newspaper

Title: The Liberator. [Vol. V, no. 42 (October 17, 1835)]

Article on the front page mentions Southern nullifiers and refers to the South's empty threats. Other articles are about abolition and other anti-slavery issues. On page 3 there is a mention of a lynching that occurred nearby.

GLC08711

12 September 1780

Dunlap, John, 1747-1812

Newspaper

Title: Pennsylvania Packet [Revolutionary war news, act on registering slaves]

GLC08718

1853

Drayton, Daniel, 1802-?

Book

Title: Personal memoir of Daniel Drayton, for four years and four months a prisoner (for charity's sake) in Washington jail. Including a narrative of the voyage and capture of the Schooner Pearl.

Published by Bela Marsh. Includes a frontispiece printed portrait of Drayton.

GLC08547

1860

United States. Congress

Book

Title: Invasion at Harper's Ferry

Congressional report on John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry. Report investigated the plans and motives of the raiders, and concluded no legislation should be made to try prevent similar occurrences in the future. Includes a "Journal" of the Committee's meetings on the subject, a dissenting opinion, numerous documents by or about John Brown and the raid, and testimony regarding the subject. Same as GLC00267.206.

GLC08581.04

15-16 May 1860

Douglas, Stephen Arnold, 1813-1861

Pamphlet

Title: Non-Interference by Congress with slavery in the territories

On front cover, contains the signature of John Cochrane from Toledo, Indiana. Pages are brittle and frayed along sides.

GLC08587

6 March 1862

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865

Pamphlet

Title: Message from the President in relation to co-operating with any State for the gradual abolishment of slavery.

House Executive Document no. 69 (37th Congress, 2d session). Lincoln recommends the adoption of a joint resolution: "That the United States ought to co-operate with any State which may adopt gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to such State pecuniary aid, to be used by such State in its discretion, to compensate for the inconvenience, public and private, produced by such change of system." Slightly frayed on right side and torn along creases.

GLC08588

2 January 1863

Fergus, Daniel, fl. 1863

Document signed

Title: [Receipt for purchase of slave]

Certifies receipt of $1900 from William R. and John Curtey[?] for a slave named Ward. Signed a day after the Emancipation Proclamation took effect.

GLC08544

9 December 1839

Branche, W., fl. 1839

Document signed

Title: [Tax form listing slaves, horses, etc.]

Tax form for Mr. Robert Shanks listing his property including at least two slaves. Lists the taxes that must be paid for each item. For Dinwiddie County, Virginia.

GLC08545

circa 1838

Object

Title: [Pair of abolitionist slave tokens]

One token, dated 1838, depicts a kneeling, shackled female slave, accompanied by the words: "Am I not a woman & a sister." Verso depicts a laurel wreath surrounding "Liberty 1838." Other token depicts a male figure with inscription "Am I not a man and a brother." Verso portrays two hands clasped as if shaking, with the inscription "May slavery and oppression cease throughout the world." Appears identical to abolitionist token originally created circa 1792.

GLC08551

1837-1858

Header Record

Title: Six manumission documents for slaves [Decimalized .01-.06]

All from St. Louis County, Missouri.

GLC08564

1860

Redpath, James, 1833-1891

Book

Title: Public life of Capt. John Brown, by James Redpath, with an auto-biography of his childhood and youth.

Tells John Brown's life in heroic terms, praising him as a hero and a martyr. Signed by Alfred Chesebrough. Same book as GLC00267.212.

GLC08581.05

1864

Farrar, C.C.S., fl. 1864

Book

Title: The War, Its Causes and Consequences

First edition published by Blelock & Company. Discusses the causes of the Civil War.

GLC08581.09

1917

Norwood, T.M., 1830-1913

Book

Title: A true vindication of the South

GLC08581.10

17 June 1864

Garrison, William Lloyd, 1805-1879

Newspaper

Title: The Liberator. [Vol. XXXIV, no. 25 (June 17, 1864)]

Prints articles on the British and Foreign anti-slavery society and a letter of Gerritt Smith to Elizabeth Cady Stanton about 1864 presidential election. Brief article praises the equalization of pay for African American [colored] soldiers. Covers the Baltimore, Maryland convention, the re-nomination of President Abraham Lincoln, and the other presidential nominations. Also includes articles on the emancipation of the serfs in Russia, the repeal of the fugitive slave law, the Methodist Church and slavery, and Negro suffrage in Montana.

GLC08608

circa 15 December 1864

Confederate States of America. Congress

Printed document

Title: Amendment to senate bill (s. 129) to provide for the employment of free negroes and slaves to work upon fortifications, and to perform other labor connected with the defences of the country.

Provides corrections for Confederate Senate Bill 129. Establishes guidelines for the number of slaves that can be impressed from one owner. States that the Secretary of War is authorized to exempt certain areas from the act if "the labor of the slaves therein is indispensable to the production of grain" or if the slaves are "necessarily employed on works of internal improvement of importance to the common defence." Includes a Rebel Archives stamp. Possibly created in Richmond, Virginia.

GLC08418

15 December 1864

Confederate States of America. Congress

Printed document

Title: A bill to provide for the employment of free negroes and slaves to work upon fortifications and perform other labor connected with the defences of the country.

Senate Bill 129, passed by the Confederate Senate 13 December 1864. Ordered to be printed by the House of Representatives 15 December 1864. States that "The Congress of the Confederate States of American do enact, That all free male negroes, between the ages of eighteen and fifty years, shall be held liable to perform any labor or discharge any duties with the army ... such as working upon fortifications, producing and preparing materials of war, building and preparing roads and bridges ... " Includes guidelines for the impressment of slaves, placing the Secretary of War and the general…

GLC08419

6 May 1864

Confederate States of America. Congress

Printed document

Title: A bill (No. 49) to be entitled an act to amend an act entitled an act to increase the efficiency of the army, by the employment of free negroes and slaves in certain capacities, approved February 17th, 1864, and to repeal an act for the enlistment of cooks in the army, approved April 21st, 1862.

States "it shall be the duty of the Secretary of War to have employed one hundred thousand slaves, as provided in said act, if so many should be necessary, to work upon fortifications, or government works, for the production or preparation of material of war ... " Reports that slaves shall receive rations and clothing while employed, and that their owners will be compensated six dollars per month for each slave. States that cooks employed should not exceed one for every ten privates. Repeals an act approved 21 April 1862 for the enlistment of cooks in the army. States "By Mr. Orr" (…

GLC08420

1864

Wilson, Henry, 1812-1875

Book signed

Title: History of the antislavery measures of the thirty-seventh and thirty-eighth United-States congresses, 1861-1864.

Inscribed and signed by Wilson on front flyleaf to Hannibal Hamlin, Vice President of the United States under President Abraham Lincoln. Published by Walker, Wise, and Company. In the preface, Wilson writes, "I have sought, in this volume, to narrate, with brevity, fairness, and impartiality, the history of the antislavery legislation of Congress during the past three years of civil war." Wilson expresses anti-slavery sentiments.

GLC08423

19 April 1861

Garrison, William Lloyd, 1805-1879

Newspaper

Title: Liberator. [Vol. XXXL, no. 16 (April 19, 1861)]

Announces "Civil War Begun. Fort Sumter Captured. The Federal Capital in Danger. Thousands of Troops Mustering. The North United At Last." Includes proclamations by the President, official correspondence regarding the surrender of Fort Sumter, details on the fighting, articles on the coming conflict, and opinion pieces attacking the South and calling for abolition.

GLC08429.02

15 August 1862

Newspaper

Title: New-York tribune. [Vol. 22, no. 6666 (August 15, 1862)]

Contains speech of Lincoln on the colonization of blacks plus news of General Pope's army.

GLC08429.03