December 28, 1870

Howard, Oliver Otis, 1830-1909

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Theodore Roosevelt, Sr.

Thanks him for an invitation to the celebration for the emancipation of Rome by Italian forces. In 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War, Napoleon III withdrew his troops from Rome. Italian troops moved into the city, and Rome voted for union with Italy in October 1870. Howard was commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau from 1865 until 1872. Signed as Brigadier General and Commissioner of Freedmen.

GLC01464

November 6, 1862

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Benjamin F. Butler

Seeking details about "free black labor" in Union-occupied Louisiana.

GLC01570

6 November 1863

Yeatman, James E., 1818-1901

Broadside

Title: [Appeal from the Western Sanitary Commission to President Abraham Lincoln regarding the condition of freedpeople]

The Western Sanitary Commission informs President Lincoln that many freed enslaved people in the Mississippi Valley have no provisions, clothing, or bedding, and little cooking supplies or knowledge as to using such. States that "To meet the present emergency and to prevent or lessen the sufferings of the coming winter and spring, we offer our humble but active services, asking no reward of any kind, but the opportunity and encouragement to work." Reports that the Commission's efforts would be a work of philanthropy and patriotism, "for it would remove an increasing reproach against the…

GLC01545.11

September 1865

Jumbo, Pluto, fl. 1865

Newspaper

Title: Black republican and office-holder's journal. [No. 4 (September 1865)]

Racist newssheet from New York, handwritten in dialect ridiculing republicanism, reconstruction and the freed slaves. Referring to President Andrew Johnson's reconstruction policies, states "De party must be up and stirring to head off Johnson's reconstruction. De highest price will be paid for new radical lies to be dewoted to dat loyal purpus."

GLC08463

19 February 1863-3 March 1863

Header Record

Title: Items pertaining to the 3rd Regiment, Louisiana Native Guards. [Decimalized .01-.04]

GLC08474

1864

Paxson, Charles, fl. 1864

Photograph

Title: Learning is wealth. Wilson, Charley, Rebecca, and Rosa

Subtitled "Wilson, Charles, Rebecca and Rosa. Slaves from New Orleans." Shows an older black man reading with three fair-skinned slave children. No. 6. Published by Charles Paxson, NY. Trimmed. (Other cartes in this series appear in the Brady album of cartes de visite, GLC04609.)

GLC08475

22 October 1865

Frederick MacCrellish & Co.

Newspaper

Title: Daily alta California. [Vol. 17, no. 5707 (October 22, 1865)]

Contains a report on warfare amongst Native American tribes of the Colorado Valley, Southern Utah, Southeastern California, and Western Arizona. Includes news from other states, such as the passage of bills concerning the rights of freedmen. Reports on the expected finalization of a peace treaty between the United States Government and Native Americans in Arkansas. Contains international reports, including a discussion of the continued tension between the United States and Mexico.

GLC08725.09

14 December 1775

Towne, Benjamin, ?-1793

Newspaper

Title: The Pennsylvania evening post. [Vol. 1, no. 14 (December 14, 1775)]

Includes several letters from mid-October 1775 by Brook Watson in Montreal. As a British officer who owned land in Nova Scotia, Watson pretended to support the American cause in 1774. Intercepted letters to General Thomas Gage proved he was a spy. The letters in this issue were published at the request of Charles Thomson, Secretary of the Continental Congress. The letters contain several embarrassing comments, including his prediction that Gage will have to leave Boston soon and that "the kingdom of Great-Britain cannot much longer be governed by such weak councils and feeble efforts." Watson…

GLC08748.06

1864

Pamphlet

Title: The Lincoln catechism wherein the eccentricities & beauties of despotism are fully set forth. A Guide to the Presidential Election of 1864.

A vitriolic racist attack on Lincoln in the form of a mock catechism. A list of sarcastic questions and answers which accuse Lincoln of tyranny and the Republicans of destroying the Constitution. Title page proclaims the pamphlet is "A guide to the presidential election of 1864." Questions and answers include "By Whom hath the Constitution been made obsolete? By Abraham Africanus the First." and "What is a President? A genral agent for negroes." States the first commandment of the Republicans is "Thou shalt have no other God but the negro." Includes comments about miscegenation and…

GLC08632

1863-1865

Header Record

Title: Collection related to the Freedmen's Department of Memphis [Decimalized .01-.12]

Pertains to a project to aid freed slaves by the army. Most documents in this collection are related to T. A. Walker, who served as Superintendent of Freedmen, District of West Tennessee. Consists mostly of financial records, and contains documentation related to President's Island.

GLC08649

1865-1870

Print

Title: Ho! For Salt River!

Undated woodcut cartoon attacking Freedmen's Bureau and freed blacks. Supposed tour boat "excursion" on the "Radical Demigog" up "Salt River." Contains an image of a black man rowing a boat full of others participating in the "excursion." Includes remarks printed underneath the image describing the facetious excursion in a racist and sarcastic way.

GLC08714

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

30 November 1803

Compton, Harry, fl. 1803

Document signed

Title: [Purchase of slave Kate and her three children by manumitted slave]

Legal document for the purchase of the slave Kate and her three children Ben, Caleb, and Nancy. The purchaser was "a free African" named Harry Compton, of New Brunswick, New Jersey, and he left an "X" as his mark. It appears that Kate was Compton's wife and the three children belonged to them. The slaves were sold by their owner Anne Acker, of Amwell Township, New Jersey, for 100 dollars due in one year from the date of the document. Compton declared himself "a manumit & free from bondage to man or set of Men." Witnessed by John Johnson (who signed with an "X" as his mark), William Marts…

GLC08440

1830

Mercer, Charles Fenton, 1778-1858

Pamphlet

Title: Slave trade.

Mercer reports for "the committee to whom were referred the memorial of the American Society for colonizing the free people of color of the United States; also, sundry memorials from the inhabitants of the State of Kentucky, and a memorial from certain free people of color of the State of Ohio..." The bulk of the report consists of appendices on the American Colonization Society, Liberia and material from earlier Congresses relating to the slave trade and colonization. 21st Congress, 1st session, House Doc. 348. Removed from previous binding; cover is missing.

GLC00267.035

18 May 1832

King, William R., 1786-1853

Pamphlet

Title: In the Senate of the United States. May 18, 1832. Mr. King made the following report:

22d Congress, 1st Session, document no. 145. Unfavorable report on the proposal to use proceeds from sales of public lands for education, internal improvements, and "the colonization of free negroes upon the western coast of Africa."

GLC00267.048

January 20, 1843

Winthrop, Grenville Temple, 1807-1852

Pamphlet

Title: Free colored seamen - Majority and minority reports.

27th Congress, 3d session, House of Representatives document no. 80. Concerns South Carolina law jailing all free blacks in Charleston. Winthrop as senator from Massachusetts, protests on behalf of the citizens of Boston, against the jailing of free blacks working on ships arriving in Charleston, Savannah, Mobile, and New Orleans.

GLC00267.062

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

1832

Converse, John Kendrick, 1801-1880

Pamphlet

Title: A Discourse, on the moral, legal and domestic condition of our colored population, preached before the Vermont Colonization Society, at Montpelier, October 17, 1832.

Converse preaches that Blacks, "though they might be freemen in name, can never be raised to the rank and privileges of freemen in this country." He blames white American racism for this situation and proposes colonization as the solution. First edition. Printed by the University Press. Converse was pastor of the First Congregational Church in Burlington, Vermont.

GLC00267.050

1827

North Carolina, General Assembly

Book

Title: Acts passed at the general assembly of the state of North Carolina, at its session, commencing on the 25th of December, 1826.

Signed by [Danl S. Paterson?]. Printed by Lawrence & Lemay. Includes an act prohibiting trading with enslaved people, an act regulating the survey and sale of lands recently acquired from the Cherokee, and "An act to prevent free persons of colour from migrating into this State, for the good government of such persons resident in the States, and for other purposes." Contains many other laws.

GLC00267.063

1850

United States. Congress

Pamphlet

Title: Proceedings of the United States Senate on the Fugitive Slave Bill,- the abolition of the slavetrade in the District of Columbia, - and the imprisonment of free colored seamen in the Southern ports ...

Includes speeches of Senators John Davis, Grenville Winthrop, and others. Printed by T. R. Marvin.

GLC00267.066

1844

Allen, George, 1792-1883

Pamphlet

Title: An appeal to the people of Massachusetts, on the Texas question

Appeals to the people to oppose the annexation, arguing that adding Texas to the Union will further entrench and empower the institution of slavery. Suggests holding a convention. Attributed to "A Massachusetts Freeman." Printed by Charles C. Little & James Brown.

GLC00267.104

April 27, 1820

Jackson, Andrew, 1767-1845

Letter signed

Title: to John C. Calhoun

One letter from by Major General Andrew Jackson to John C. Calhoun, Secretary of War dated April 27, 1820. Jackson notes that he is sending documents (not included) from General Gaines related to the illegal enslavement of Black people and freed people in Georgia. Also sending along a letter (not included) from Major James Bankhead, commander at Fernandina, Florida on the same subject. Says he will take any measures Calhoun directs him to.

GLC00639.13

January 14, 1863

Wise, Henry A., 1806-1876

Letter signed

Title: to Arnold Elzey

Retained copy of a letter to Elzey on which a pencil signature of Wise has been added by a secretary. General Wise (Confederate) describes a recent Union raid near White House, Virginia. He informs Major General Elzey, commander of the Department of Richmond, that during the raid, Union troops stole thirty cattle from William P. Taylor's farm. He discusses coordination with Colonel Tabb (possibly William B. Tabb) and Captain Wynn at locations such as Bush's Mill, N. Kent Court House, and the wharves at West Point in order to prevent further raids. He states "all the slaves of abandoned…

GLC00662