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

26 September 1862

Knowlton, Henry C., 1828-1926

Autograph letter signed

Title: to [Harlow Higinbotham]

Addressed only to "Dear Friend." Discusses mutual acquaintances and personal matters. His friend is in Clarksburg, West Virginia and he asks him "What sort of a place is Clarksburg?...Have you seen any guerillas yet!" Discusses the Emancipation Proclamation, "What do you think of Lincoln's 'emancipation proclamation?' To use Artemas Ward's elegant phraseology I think that it is 'hunky' every way." Mentions Stephen Douglas and states "I wish Douglas had lived, but he would rather be dead, than living, to see the degeneracy of some of his professed disciples." On letterhead of the…

GLC05244

December 21, 1785

Randolph, Edmund, 1753-1813

Autograph document signed

Title: [Manumission of mulatto slave Robert Cowley from the estate of Peter Randolph]

Signed and sealed in the presence of Beverly Randolph, Martha Randolph, and James Rim. Randolph purchases the slave, Robert Cowley, from Peter Randolph, deceased, with the intention of freeing the slave. Cowley purchased his freedom from Randolph for fifty pounds. Notes that Cowley is older than forty-five years. Document is a court copy.

GLC05490

January 26, 1860

Virginia General Assembly

Pamphlet

Title: Report of the Joint Committee of the General Assembly of Virginia on the Harpers Ferry Outrages

Discusses Brown's attack at Harpers Ferry and the Abolitionist activity and legislation in northern states which encouraged him. The report quickly reviews the facts regarding Brown and then turns to larger issues. It reviews the history of legislated emancipation after the Revolution, the conflicts in Congress and then reviews northern legislation. It finds that the North's "statute books are filled with enactments conceived in a spirit of hostility to the institutions of the South, at war with the true intent and meaning of the federal compact, and adopted for the avowed purpose of…

GLC05644

circa May 1, 1805

Lafayette, Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert Du Motier, marquis de, 1757-1834

Autograph letter signed

Title: to unknown [in French]

Letter possibly written to Armand Duplantier on May 1, 1805. No date indicated on document. Lafayette discusses lands he was granted in the Louisiana territory and the building of a brick factory. In reference to the factory, he mentions thirty enslaved individuals. The letter is a fragment.

GLC05315

24 November 1846

Lowrie, Walter, 1784-1868

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Hugh Auld

Lowrie, a former United States Senator from Pennsylvania, informs Auld that Henry Richardson of England has sent him 150 pounds sterling for the purchase of Frederick Douglass. Asks that the legal transfer papers of Douglass from Thomas Auld to Hugh be included with Douglass's freedom papers, and that the freedom papers be examined and confirmed by a lawyer (Meredith) in Baltimore. Lowrie does not wish to be connected to the transaction, noting that his involvement has been unpleasant from the beginning.

GLC07484.03

6 October 1846

Auld, Hugh, 1799-1861

Autograph letter

Title: to Amy [Anna] Richardson

Draft or retained copy of a letter to Anna Richardson, wife of Henry (refer to GLC07484.03). Accepts 150 pounds sterling for the manumission of Frederick Bailey (Frederick Douglass). Will present Richardson's agent with the papers as soon as the agent delivers the Richardsons' money.

GLC07484.04

12 December 1846

Meredith, J., fl. 1846

Autograph note signed

Title: [Receipt for $25 related to the manumission of Frederick Douglass]

Meredith received $25 from Hugh Auld, Frederick Douglass's former owner, for "professional service in relation to the manumission of his negro slave Frederick Baily [Douglass]." Written on a quarter sheet of paper.

GLC07484.05

1871

Moses, Franklin Israel, 1838-1906

Pamphlet

Title: Opinion of Chief Justice Moses... Negro Bond Case

Retroactive use of 13th Amendment to cancel sale of slaves.

GLC07627

1857

Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895

Pamphlet

Title: Two Speeches by Frederick Douglass re: West India emancipation; Dred Scott

Full title: "Two speeches by Frederick Douglass; One on West India Emancipation, delivered at Canandaigua, August 4th and the other on the Dred Scott Decision, delivered in New York... May 1857."

GLC07591

1864

Stebbins, Lucius, fl. 1864

Print

Title: Reading the Emancipation Proclamation

One lithograph dated 1864. Depicts black family gathered around a black soldier reading a newspaper. The family all look to the soldier in varying stated of shock and hope as he reads the emancipation proclamation. Present are eleven people including a mother and two children who is kneeling and praying in the center of the image.

GLC07595

June 12, 1785

Lafayette, Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert Du Motier, marquis de, 1757-1834

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Henry Knox

Previously thought Knox's brother William had returned to America, but he recently received news that he had been confined in a house in London since January because he was "disordered in His Head." Reports William is better and "in a few weeks will be able to go out, which he very much desires." Says he wanted to go to London upon hearing the news, but thought better of it as his travels would no doubt be noticed by many and might cause unseemly news about William to get in the newspapers. He sent a trusted family member instead, who has made sure William received proper care. He hopes that…

GLC02437.03155

2 January 1863

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865

Pamphlet

Title: [Adjutant General's Office general orders no. 1: Emancipation Proclamation]

Includes obliterated property stamp on page one. Possibly the first army printing of the final proclamation. Binding is extremely fragile.

GLC08852

1833

Garrison, William Lloyd, 1805-1879

Magazine

Title: The Abolitionist

Volume 1, numbers 1 - 11 of a monthly magazine advocating the abolition of slavery. The eleven issues are bound together in one book. Includes articles from numerous sources on emancipation, colonization and many other evangelical and slavery related subjects. Also includes excerpts from John Quincy Adams' speeches. Garrison was the principal editor of the magazine. Published by the New England Anti-Slavery Society.

GLC08844

3 January 1863

Greeley, Horace, 1811-1872

Newspaper

Title: New-York Daily Tribune. [Vol. 22, no. 6786 (January 3, 1863)]

One newspaper issue of New-York Daily Tribune, dated January 3, 1863. Prints the Emancipation Proclamation on page four. This is among the early printings of the Proclamation in a newspaper. Other news includes the Battle of Murfreesboro with map, attack on Vicksburg, and other Civil War news. Includes article on U.S. relations with Mexico.

GLC08862

January 1, 1863

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865

Printed document signed

Title: Emancipation Proclamation

Wide margined copy of the Leland-Boker "authorized" edition, produced for raising money at the Philadelphia Great Central Sanitary Fair in June 1864. The Sanitary Commission engaged in hospital and other charitable work during the Civil War; it was a forerunner of the Red Cross. Countersigned by Secretary of State William H. Seward and Lincoln's personal secretary John G. Nicolay. Charles Eberstadt lists this as no. 32 (Leland-Boker autographed edition) in his bibliography of the Emancipation Proclamation. 48 copies were printed, but only half are known to survive. Mounted dimensions: 55.8 x…

GLC00004

30 April 1781

Huntington, Benjamin, 1736-1800

Document signed

Title: [Oath certifying Cuffee Saunders's purchase to freedom]

One document certifying Cuffee Saunders's emanicipation dated April 30, 1781. States that Saunders, who mustered with the enslaved name, Cuffee Wells, enlisted to the Continental Army in May 1777. The document is composed of two oaths attesting to Saunders's freedom. The first stated by John Nutter and Richard Lamb that the bounty owed to Saunders was paid to his enslaver as payment for his freedom. The second statement by Captain Jedediah Hyde of Norwich, whom was Saunders's former commander confirms that it was "always understood that the money that was given to Wells at his Enlistment…

GLC00318

13 April 1813

Rhea, Jonathan, 1758-1815

Manuscript document signed

Title: [Manumission of a mulatto slave named Benjamin Harkimon (or Harkinson)]

Sends John B. Timberlake, bursar of the frigate United States commanded by Commodore Decatur, an official document freeing thirty-three-year-old Harkimon (or Harkinson), who was aboard the United States, with the stipulation that Harkimon pay $200. Notarized by James Linn, "one of the Masters of the Court of Chancery of the State of New Jersey." Written on the same paper as a letter to Timberlake introducing the document. Contains a red wax seal.

GLC00340

1861

Conway, Moncure Daniel, 1832-1907

Book

Title: The Rejected stone: or insurrection vs. resurrection in America. By a native of Virginia

Conway's authorship marked as "By a Native of Virginia." Published by Walker, Wise, and Company at 245 Washington Street. Printed by Welch, Bigelow, & Co. First edition. A plea for emancipation divided into 19 chapters. Original red printed wrappers, which are fragile (front cover is barely attached).

GLC00267.248

1862

Conway, Moncure Daniel, 1832-1907

Book

Title: The Golden Hour.

Signed by Julia Piatt, 29 July 1862, Washington, D.C. Conway was an American author and preacher, and ardent abolitionist. He lectured in England during the Civil War in the interests of the North. The Golden Hour is a plea for the emancipation of enslaved people in the form of a novel. Published by Ticknor and Fields, Boston. Printed by the University Press, Welch, Bigelow, and Company, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

GLC00267.249

1839

Clay, Henry, 1777-1852

Pamphlet

Title: Speech of Mr. Clay, of Kentucky, on the subject of abolition petitions. Delivered in the Senate of the United States, February 7, 1839.

Printed by Gales and Seaton. Stab-stitched. Clay argues, "The liberty of the descendants of Africa in the United States is incompatible with the safety and liberty of the European descendants. Their slavery forms an exception... to the general liberty in the United States. We did not originate, nor are we responsible for, this necessity. Their liberty, if it were possible, could only be established by violating the incontestable powers of the States, and subverting the Union..."

GLC00267.370

2 January 1863

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865

Printed document

Title: Emancipation Proclamation General Orders No.1

Fifth printing of the Emancipation Proclamation, first Army printing. General Orders No. 1. Disbound.

GLC00460

4 May 1865

Steele, Frederick, 1819-1868

Broadside

Title: General Orders no. 3

Signed official at bottom by Lieutenant Joseph Lyman, A.D.C. Orders that Federal troops are not to pillage homes and plantations since the hostilities of the Civil War have ended. Advises newly freed blacks to stay on their plantations with their former masters as the United States Government cannot feed them. "...they are advised to remain on the plantations, and to assist to raise crops, to keep themselves and their children from starving. The fact of their remaining with their former masters, does not deprive them of their freedom." Signed in print by order of Major General F. Steele…

GLC01908

1863

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865

Pamphlet

Title: The letters of President Lincoln on questions of national policy.

Reprint of six letters by Lincoln: June 13, 1863, to an Albany, New York Committee, discussing his interpretation of the writ of habeas corpus in the Vallandigham case; February 3, 1862 and October 13, 1862, to General George McClellan on the management of the war; August 22, 1862, to Horace Greeley concerning amnesty for southerners; August 7, 1863, to New York mayor Horatio Seymour regarding the New York City draft riots and the constitutionality of the Conscription Act; August 26, 1863, to the Springfield, Illinois and Syracuse Conventions, defending the Emancipation Proclamation.…

GLC01969

1862-1863

Bartlett, George O., fl. 1862-1865

Header Record

Title: [Collection of George O. Bartlett, B battery, 1st regiment, Rhode Island, light artillery] [Decimalized .01-.21]

Bartlett came from Rice City, Rhode Island, and saw action at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. His spelling is poor but his writing is descriptive. The George O. Bartlett collection of Civil War correspondence contains letters and envelopes addressed primarily to his friend, Mr. Ira Andrews of Rice City, Rhode Island. Bartlett wrote most of his letters from Falmouth, Virginia and discusses fighting in the Fredericksburg Campaign (1862-1863) (.03, .04, .07, .13, .14). Of particular interest is the letter dated December 18, 1862 which vividly portrays his first foray into…

GLC02158