August 1857

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed document

Title: Compensated emancipation

[Title continued] a speech by Gerrit Smith, in the National Compensation Convention, held in Cleveland, Ohio, August 25, 26 and 27, 1857. First edition. Smith, a former United States Representative from New York, writes: "The sin of extending the area of slavery, and of encouraging the slaveholders to multiply their investments in human flesh, lies at the door of the North as well as at the door of the South. Northern commerce has connived at, and openly upheld, Slavery." Location of printing is not cited.

GLC00267.012

1821

Clay, Henry, 1777-1852

Pamphlet

Title: Henry Clay's letter on emancipation.

While opposed to slavery, Clay argues that emancipation is a greater evil. His solution combined gradual emancipation with colonization. He says that the "Social, moral and political degradation would be the inevitable lot of the colored races" and points to the severity of Northern penal legislation against Black freedpeople. First edition.

GLC00267.043

1889

Stroyer, Jacob, 1849-1908

Pamphlet

Title: My life in the south.

Biography of Stroyer, an freedman raised on a plantation in South Carolina and freed in 1864 by the Emancipation Proclamation. Stroyer was minister of the African Methodist Episcopal church in Salem. The introduction contains letters of support for Stroyer, who wrote this biography to raise money to further his education. Third edition. Printed by Salem Observer Book and Job Print, Salem, Massachusetts.

GLC00267.083

August 28, 1823

Clay, Henry, 1777-1852

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Thomas I. Wharton

Henry Clay discusses his position in favoring emancipation 25 years earlier and how his continuing feelings defeated him at the polls several times due to the interest and demand of continuing to enslave people. He writes, "My opinion is unchanged...the African portion of the community is not so large as to make any hazard to the purity & safety of Society by a gradual and prepared emancipation of the offspring." Also discusses the political situation especially as it was affecting his first candidacy for president in the 1824 presidential election. He assesses the support he might have…

GLC00509

August 18, 1865

Van Valkenburgh, Gerrit S., 1835-1885

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Mary B. Van Valkenburgh

Written by Gerrit to his mother Mary. Says he loves his relatives in the North and often thinks of them. Mentions that his brother, Frank, has already written about his release from the prison. Says the charges against him were false. Since he has been in Pine Bluff, he has been sick with chills and fever - he thinks typhoid. Reports that he is feeling better though. Says he boards with his employer, who is originally from Connecticut. Mentions an uncle who lives in Warren, Arkansas and says "their slaves - or former slaves - [are] still with them." The uncle bought a flour mill and his sons…

GLC00686.24

1858-1909

Powell, George May, 1835-1905

Header Record

Title: Papers of George May Powell [decimalized]

The George May Powell collection contains personal and family correspondence. Also included are business papers relating to his Thirteenth Amendment anti-slavery photograph, his inventions, and his publications; a diary, letters, and essays regarding his post-war travel, and religious and pacifist correspondence and essays. The collection is divided into the following series: 1) correspondence with Emma C. Small, 1860-1868; 2) George May Powell Company business records (13th Amendment photo); 3) Post-war expedition to Egypt and Palestine diary, records, and maps; 4) American Christian…

GLC00687

17 September 1807

Harrison, William Henry, 1773-1841

Manuscript

Title: An Act concerning the introduction of Negroes & Mulattoes into this Territory

One clerical copy of a document entitled, "An Act concerning the introduction of negroes and Mulattoes into this Territory," dated September 17, 1807. Pertains to Black enslaved people over the age of 15, in the Indiana Territory which the government had split into 14 sections. Relays the territories mandates for fees and requirements to enslave Black people in Indiana. Notes that if a person is enslaved under the age of 15, it is lawful for a Black man to remain enslaved until the age of 35 and a Black woman to remain enslaved until the age of 32. Black children born from the aforementioned…

GLC00697

August 4, 1863

Geary, John White, 1819-1873

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Edgar Cowan

Geary writes to Cowan, a United States Senator from Pennsylvania, in attempt to obtain a recommendation for his promotion to Major General. He cites his qualifications and the achievements of his brigades. He declares "I have received four honorable wounds, and have never left my command for a single hour (Except once when my left arm was badly shattered) to devote even one moment to my own private affairs, or like many that you and I could name, parade ... around Washington to make political capital and ensure promotion." Discussing his opinions on current policy, he states that "Patriotism…

GLC00673

23 June 1865

Newspaper

Title: Liberator. [Vol. 35, no. 25 (June 23, 1865)]

GLC00680.03

January 1, 1863

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865

Document signed

Title: Emancipation Proclamation [California printing, Cheesman copy]

One of three color lithographic broadsides. Printed by L. Nagel and copyright by "F.S. Butler, 1864." Presented to Lincoln for signing by David Williams Cheesman. Signed on back: "Property of Mrs. Maria Cheesman/ Phoenix/ Oregon." See Eberstadt, "Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation," New Colophon (2d Series, 1950) no. 19. The broadside, according to Eberstadt, was "executed by a fourteen-year-old boy. Benjamin F. Butler, who was a California pioneer of 1849 and established the first lithographing plant on the West Coast, may have been the boy's father." (p. 337)

GLC00742

24 September 1862

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865

Printed document

Title: General orders no. 139.

Preliminary version of the Emancipation Proclamation published for the Army War Department printing, removed from a compilation of general orders. Noted on pages 117-120 are the orders that all people enslaved in the south will be freed. Beginning on Page 120 but not complete is General Orders No. 140, order respecting Special Provost Marshals and defining their duties. Printed circa 1863.

GLC01024

23 - 28 September 1776

Pemberton, James, 1723-1809

Manuscript signed

Title: Extracts from minutes of our yearly meeting of Pennsylvania & New Jersey, held in Philadelphia by adjournments from the 23rd day of the ninth month.

One copy of a meeting minutes dated September 23-28, 1776. States that Quakers should not participate in governments active in war, or contribute to the promotion of war through business or other activity. Condemns all forms of slavery and indentured servitude, and requires all Quakers to free anyone so held. All need to support religious education for children. Clerical copy certified by James Moon. Extracted and prepared by James Pemberton, clerk to the yearly meeting.

GLC01021

1 January 1863

Broadside

Title: Chronicle-extra.

News-sheet printing the Emancipation Proclamation with news from New Orleans, New York and Louisville. Heading states, "Slavery Forever ABOLISHED in the United States of America!!"

GLC00902

16 October 1862

White, Jonathon C., fl. 1862-1863

Newspaper

Title: The Weekly junior register. [Vol. 1, no. 43 (October 16, 1862)]

Several articles and ads are in both English and French. Content includes "Late News" on the Battle of Corinth, Butler's order from occupied New Orleans, requiring all adults who have not taken the oath of allegiance to report to the nearest Provost Marshal with a descriptive list of all property for taxation and for a certificate citing them as an enemy of the United States, news of a telegraph line connecting Washington and California, report of planned protest in New York against Lincoln's [preliminary] Emancipation Proclamation. An editorial examines Northern motivations. Printed on outer…

GLC00846

25 June 1792

Tousard, Louis de, 1749-1817

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Henry Knox

Tousard signs in text. Sends Knox a picture of the late Colonel Duplessis (not present) which had been commissioned by the Spanish ambassador to France, le Comte de Fernand Nuñez. Writes, "I hope that the picture of an unfortunate and brave gentleman will be favourably accepted by General Knox, as he professed for him the highest esteem and gratefulness."

GLC02437.05516

27 August 1857

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed document

Title: Compensated emancipation: a speech by Gerrit Smith, in the National Compensation Convention, held in Cleveland, Ohio, August 25, 26 and 27, 1857.

Smith declares, "We are here for the purpose of making a public and formal, and, as we hope, an impressive confession, that the North ought to share with the South in the temporary losses that will result from the abolition of Slavery. Indeed, such are our relations to the South in the matter of Slavery, that, on the score of simple honesty, we are bound to share in these losses."

GLC04717.28

4 July 1873

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed document

Title: Let crushed Cuba arise! Substance of the speech of Gerrit Smith, in Syracuse, July 4th 1873.

Smith writes, "In our Fourth of July celebrations there are two events, which, far above all other events, we come together to celebrate. One of these is the deliverance of our country, nearly a century ago, from political despotism, and the other is the practical recognition by our nation, a few years since, of the grand doctrine that 'all men are created equal.'"

GLC04717.63

24 November 1862

Churchill, Byron, 1846-?

Autograph letter signed

Title: to: Drazilla Churchill.

Churchill complains of the sheer number of African Americans in the South, and shows reservations about allowing them to become free: "[I]f the nigers are free…then you will see how them Black Devils will flock for the north and I am sure we don't want them round us in the north….I believe the Union would be far better off if they would kill off every niger there is in the south."

GLC03859.11

3 October 1862

Jones, John, fl. 1862-1864

Autograph letter signed

Title: to his wife

Mentions serving the army for a year. Writes about the Emancipation Proclamation and Abraham Lincoln: "The name of Abraham Lincoln will be handed down to prosperity as one of the greatest benefactors of his country, not surpassed by the immortal Washington himself." Predicts the Union will be victorious. There are many sick soldiers. Writes about the mail he received. He is waiting to get paid before visits home. Finishes the letter with a discussion of religion.

GLC05981.09

24 September 1862

Jones, John, fl. 1862-1864

Autograph letter signed

Title: to his wife

He heard that the western army is in combat. Talks about the Negro Companies in the Civil War. Discusses the Emancipation Proclamation. Writes about a train accident. He hopes to be home by spring.

GLC05981.08

December 22, 1862

Shifflet, Hillary, 1823-1863

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Jemima Shifflet

Shifflet was unhappy to hear that his wife is "striping tobacco for I donte want you to hav to work for noboddy but your self." He has "but one oald shirt and hit [it] is full of holes and no socks a tall." He asks for descriptions of the children and about how things are going at home. He tried to get home for Christmas but he "will hav to take sowbelly and hav a crackers for my Chrismas dinner." He reports that "our men had a mity hard fight in virginia" and claims that "the war wood bin over if oald lincoln had let the negro question alone." He continues "if he [Lincoln] were "in hell…

GLC02174.06

February 13, 1863

Shifflet, Hillary, 1823-1863

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Jemima Shifflet

Shifflet went out with a forage team today and they are "as tired as I am of the war." He declares that "this onholy war wood a bin over if oald Lincoln wood a let the negros alone I wish he had forty the blackest negroes in the South tide to him." He describes his shock at how the soldiers steal from local farmers and was especially upset when it happened to a "poor widow woman with fore little children…she beg[ged] them to not take her things for her little children wood starve if tha took her provishion but tha went ahead and took."

GLC02174.08

2 November 1863

Brunt, William, fl. 1863-1865

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Robert Weir

Gives details of his movements over the past few days. Brunt has been ordered to "take charge of the Contraband Barracks," where he found and fed freed slaves. He describes the process of enlisting them as soldiers, "how theire eys brighten when they make theire mark to their signatures...No masters whip will ever legally gash theire backs again." Describes his joy at recruiting former slaves as "the privelige of taking one part of the south to whip the rest with yes to take the cause of the Rebellion to crush it with." Mentions the attempts of slave owners to buy back freed black…

GLC07006.04

November 15, 1866

Knight, O., fl. 1866

Autograph letter signed

Title: to George May Powell

He compares Lincoln's picture with Brady's loss of the negative. He and his wife are grateful for the pictures. Letter is written on Office of the Scientific American Patent Agency letterhead.

GLC00687.072

1867

Powell, George May, 1835-1905

Printed document

Title: George May Powell and co., publisher of the Great National Picture

GLC00687.075