1923-1940

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

Header Record

Title: Documents related to the NAACP [Decimalized .01-.08.02]

Created in New York, New York and Chicago, Illinois.

GLC06135

1748-1750

Manuscript document signed

Title: [Act of a French society concerning the slave trade] [In French]

"Acte de Societe concernant l'Etablissement d'un commerce suivi de la Traite des Negres a la Cote D'Angole" (pertains to Senegal). Organization of French slave trade company. Has numerous addenda for 1748, 1749 and 1750, all dated and signed at Paris.

GLC06136

1835

Battey, Joel, 1790-?

Pamphlet signed

Title: Address of the Starksborough and Lincoln anti-slavery society to the public.

First edition, presented to Kimball 8 November 1834. Printed by Knapp and Jewett. In faded orange wrappers as issued. With printed constitution of the Society inside rear wrapper. Kimball signed outer cover. A note written on title page indicates this pamphlet was presented to Kimball by Joel Battey, secretary of the society.

GLC06137

1841

Baldwin, Roger Sherman, 1793-1863

Pamphlet

Title: The argument of Roger S. Baldwin, of New Haven, before the Supreme Court of the United States,...

(title continues)... in the case of the United States, Appellants, vs. Cinque, and others, Africans of the Amistad. Printed by Seth Williston Benedict. Includes stitched binding.

GLC06139

1857

J.O.E., fl. 1857

Painting

Title: Attention South!! Abolish slavery.

Abolitionist folk art depicting a Black man as weeping and chained and shackled, surrounded by green curtains with yellow tassels. At top left are the words "Attention South!!" with the word "Abolish" at left and "Slavery" at right, signed in block letters at bottom "J.O.E. 1857 N.Y." All lettering is in red. Painted on laid paper that has been mounted to a sheet of marbled paper.

GLC06140

1836

Barrows, Elijah Porter, 1807-1888

Book

Title: A view of the American slavery question. By E. P. Barrows, Jr., pastor of the first free Presbyterian Church, N. Y.

Barrows remarks, "It is the duty of the churches to testify the truth respecting the system of slavery. It is true that it is a heinously guilty system, not to be in any way countenanced or abetted; and they ought unequivocally to say so." First edition. Printed by John S. Taylor. 114 pages of text, 15 pages of advertisements for other books published by Taylor, Theological and Sunday School bookseller, Brick Church Chapel, New York. Miniature book with printed paper boards. Fragile.

GLC06141

November 1863

Child, Lydia Maria Francis, 1802-1880

Autograph manuscript signed

Title: [Statement of belief].

Condemns those who defend the perpetuation of slavery on the grounds that it was not proscribed by the Constitution and who wish for a return to the Union as it was. Includes poem lamenting the failure of the Founders to address slavery.

GLC06142

1844-1858

Harmon, David P., 1800-1869

Header Record

Title: Collection of abolitionist materials including letters, documents and printed [Decimalized .01- .29]

Includes 15 ALS's by notable figures in abolitionist movement, large printed broadside (printing map at top) for election of 1856 (Fremont). Many of the letters discuss arrangements for lectures by abolitionists such as Lucy Stone, the Crafts, William Lloyd Garrison and others. Includes later notes and descriptions by a descendent of Harmon.

GLC06143

1894

Johnson, Homer Uri, fl. 1896

Book

Title: From Dixie to Canada: romance and realities of the underground railroad

Second edition. Printed by H.U. Johnson. Includes a printed frontispiece photograph of Johnson. Johnson gathered the stories within this book from "personal observation, extensive reading, visitations along many of the old lines, and numerous interviews and extensive correspondence with those heroic men and women who dared their fortunes and their personal liberty in the cause of humanity and right..."

GLC06145

1837

Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society

Book

Title: Proceedings of the Pennsylvania convention, assembled to organize a state anti-slavery society, at Harrisburg, on the 31st of January and 1st, 2d and 3d of February 1837.

Printed by Merrihew and Gunn. Cites participants, including Lewis Tappan from the Executive Committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society, and John Greenleaf Whittier from Massachusetts.

GLC06146

1 December 1786

Champion, Richard, 1743-1791

Manuscript document signed

Title: Certificate of freedom for Peter a free Negro

Written by Champion for the Court of Common Pleas in Camden County held on 27 November 1786. Document certifies the freedom "of the Negro Peter lately claimed by William Massey." It states that Peter "hath been adjudged a free Man and ... he shall be deemed held and taken as a free Man during his Life." Document was witnessed, but not signed by, Henry Pendleton, an associate justice of the state. Red wax seal is extant on bottom of recto.

GLC06147

4 April 1787

Yard, Benjamin, 1757-1787

Document signed

Title: [Affadavit of sales agreement for a slave named Hannibal in St. Croix]

Marked "Copy." Certifies that he purchased Hannibal in October 1780 from Captain John Earl. He was informed that Thomas Wright, a sailor on board Earl's ship, owned one half of Hannibal. Payment was twenty half "Joes" - ten to the captain and ten to Wright in Havana. Payment also included a certain amount of rum. The rum was worth £50.17.7 1/4 Philadelphia currency and was shipped to Earl on Captain Harr's vessel on 31 October 1781. Says "I do not recollect any other circumstances attending the Sale of this Negro."

GLC06148

1857

Steward, Austin, 1794-1860

Book

Title: Twenty-two years a slave, and forty years a free man; embracing a correspondence of several years, while president of Wilberforce Colony, London, Canada West.

First edition. Published by William Alling. Includes engraving of Steward. Contains a printed portrait of Steward opposite title page. Signed on inner front cover by Mrs. John Garrett.

GLC06149

1861

Wilkerson, James, fl. 1861

Pamphlet

Title: Wilkerson's History of his travels & labors, in the United States, as a missionary, in particular, that of Union Seminary, in Franklin Co. Ohio. Since he purchased his liberty in New Orleans, La., &c.

First edition. No printer cited. In original yellow wrappers. Signed on back cover by Samuel Allen.

GLC06150

circa 1800

Object

Title: [Slave shackles intended for a child]

Circa date previously estimated. Consists of two loops held together by a metal pin. Shackles were intended for a child.

GLC06151

1884

Truth, Sojourner, 1797-1883

Book

Title: A narrative of Sojourner Truth; a bondswoman of olden time, emancipated by the New York Legislature in the early part of the present century...

(title continues)... with a history of her labors and correspondence drawn from her 'Book of Life;' also, a memorial chapter, giving the particulars of her last sickness and death." Published by the Review and Herald Office in 1884, Battle Creek, Michigan. Signed in 1885 on inner front cover by noted abolitionist Amy Post and close friend of Frederick Douglass, presenting this book to her son Willet E. Post. Olive Gilbert collaborated with Truth for the "Narrative." 320 pages, plus 32 page memorial chapter. Contains several engravings of Truth.

GLC06153

1773

Wheatley, Phillis, 1753-1784

Book

Title: Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral

Poems written by the "Negro Servant" of John Wheatley of Boston. Printed at London by A. Bell and sold in Boston by Cox and Berry. First edition copy. The first book of poetry by an African American. Bound in nineteenth century vellum, with heraldic bookplate with the name "Stainforth." With frontispiece engraved portrait of Wheatley writing. Dedication to Countess of Huntington on 12 June 1773. Phillis Wheatley was brought from Africa at the age of seven or eight, taught to read and write (in the family), and eventually began to write poetry, as her master describes in the prefatory…

GLC06154

27 March 1868

Little, Henry S., 1823-1904

Document signed

Title: Senate Joint Resolutions, No. 1. State of New Jersey.

Signed by Little, President of the New Jersey Senate. Countersigned by A. O. Evans, Speaker of General Assembly. Joint resolutions withdrawing the consent of New Jersey to the proposed Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution. Tied at top with blue ribbon, with purple paper border at top.

GLC06157.04

22 July 1864

Broadside

Title: Smith's Expedition Battle of Tupelo

Letter written by "F.H." (possibly Frederick Humphrey, chaplain of the 12th Iowa Regiment who was mustered into the regiment on 23 June 1864). "Letter from an Eye-Witness" details the victory of Union General Andrew Smith over Confederate Cavalry General Nathan Bedford Forrest from the point of view of the 12th Iowa. Narrative climaxes when "the tide of battle ebbs and flows beneath the hot rays of a July sun. Once more the rebel leaders urge their men to charge, but their men knew by bitter experience the men with whom they were fighting. Soon they break and escape to the woods." Goes on to…

GLC06157.07

1862

Richardson, George W., 1819-1891

Pamphlet

Title: Speech of George W. Richardson, of Hanover, in Committee of the Whole, on the report of the Committee on federal relations, in the convention of Virginia, April 4, 1861.

Virginia secession pamphlet listing reasons why the state should leave the union. A passionate defense of the southern way of life, calling on Virginians to lend their complete support to the Confederacy. Blames the North for having imposed the institution of slavery on the South. Contains detailed listing by county of all slaves in Virginia on page 27. Printed at the Whig Book and Job Office. In original dark blue wrappers.

GLC06158.06

1861

Smith, William Russell, 1815-1896

Book

Title: The History and Debates of the Convention of the People of Alabama, Begun and held in the City of Montgomery, on the seventh Day of January, 1861; ....

Title continues, " ... in which is preserved the speeches of the secret sessions, and many valuable state papers." Includes Alabama's secession and ordinance of secession, its proposal reopening the African slave trade, sending troops to Florida, ratification of the Confederate Constitution, and the provisional and permanent government of the Confederate States. Compiled by William R. Smith, one of the delegates from Tuscaloosa. Printed in Montgomery by White, Pfister & Co., Tuscaloosa by D. Woodruff, and Atlanta by Wood, Hanleiter, Rice & Co.

GLC06158.07

1861

Thornwell, James Henley, 1812-1862

Pamphlet

Title: The state of the country

Authored by Thornwell, D.D., as a professor of theology at the Columbia, South Carolina Theological Seminary. Concerns the secession of South Carolina and other states that might follow; defends slavery in the South. Addressed on back cover to Rev. R. L. Stanton in Chillicothe, Ohio, on March 28, 1861, with canceled stamp. Yellow wrappers.

GLC06158.08

12 October 1864

Lockhart, H.C., fl. 1864

Broadside

Title: [Instructions for enrolling and impressing slaves]

Circular issued by Lieutenant Colonel Lockhart, Commandant for Alabama. These orders are intended for County Enrolling Officers and Impressing Agents. Instructions are provided regarding the impressment of enslaved people. "Assistants... will listen with respect to the complaints of slave owners, touching the action of their duties, and investigate and decide upon the same before the slaves of such owners are sent to Selma or Montgomery. But, while exercising great care to distribute this burden with equity and justice, they will also exercise due firmness and vigilance that their…

GLC06158.11

1860

De Bow, James Dunwoody Brownson, 1820-1867

Pamphlet

Title: The interest in slavery of the Southern non-slaveholder. The right of peaceful secession. The character and influence of abolitionism.

Printed by Evans & Cogswell. Stab-stitched. Debow, a publisher and statistician, issues a pro-slavery and pro-secession polemic. Tries to convince non-slaveholders to uphold the institution of their "section," the South. Uses several arguments to present his case, including: "The non-slaveholder knows that as soon as his savings will admit, he can relieve his wife from the necessities of the kitchen and the laundry, and his children from the labors of the field."

GLC06158.12

1849

Thompson, George, ?-1893

Book

Title: Prison life and reflections; or, a narrative of the arrest, trial, conviction, imprisonment, treatment, observations, reflections, and deliverance of Work, Burr, and Thompson...

(title continued)... who suffered an unjust and cruel imprisonment in Missouri Penitentiary for attempting to aid some slaves to liberty. Published by A. (possibly Alanson) Work.

GLC06169