1 926 résultats
1914réf. 1272741914. New Orleans: September 1 1814. Single sheet 242 x 197 mm printed and manuscript document age-toned with considerable edgewear and the loss of two corners affecting only two characters of the title and with no loss of sense. Good. § Municipal payment order issued by the New Orleans City Council to its treasurer to pay for the hire of two enslaved men Abel and Theodore to work on the drainage canal at Fort St. Ferdinand. The document is dated a few months before the Battle of New Orleans and likely concerns improvement to the city's defensive works. Nicholas Girod was mayor of New Orleans from 1812 to 1815. He was the first regularly elected mayor after Louisiana's admission to the Union and did much to prepare the city against the British invasion force. The text of the document reads: Conseil de Ville. Mandat de Payement Le Trésorier de la Ville payera à Madame Delisle la somme de Vingt huit Piastres pour 56 journées de ses deux nègres Abel & Théodore employés à la fouille du Canal d'égout derrière le Fort Saint Ferdinand pendant le mois d'août dernier. Nouvelle-Orléans le 1er Septembre 1814. signature N. Girod Maire Par le Maire struck through A marginal note adds "Nègres employés à la fouille du Canal d'égout à raison de $15 par mois. unknown books
1833réf. 84791Lexington KY: Abraham Skillman 1833. First Edition. First printing. 12mo 18.5cm; original brown cloth-covered boards; viii207pp. Respined to style with facsimile printed spine label; Bookplate of the Young Men's Christian Institute New Haven to front pastedown; bookseller's ticket Williams' Bookstore Under the Old South Meeting House Boston at base of front flyleaf; pencil signature faded and illegible to front endpaper. Complete sound and Good. One of a tiny number of pre-Civil War abolitionist texts to have been written by a Virginia author. Paxton 1784-1868 was a Presbyterian minister born in Rockbridge County Virginia and educated at Princeton Theological Seminary; it is likely his mentorship there under Charles Hodge helped develop Paxton's antislavery sentiments. In 1826 after publishing an essay asserting the institution of slavery to be incompatible with the teachings of the Bible Paxton was expelled from his pastorship of Cumberland Presbyterian Church near Farmville in south-central Virginia. The present text addressed to his former congregation recounts the events of his expulsion reprints the essay in question and adds a series of epistolary essays supporting his theological position in oppostion to slavery. The existence of any abolitionist sentiment during this period in Virginia's history is remarkable in itself. For a native-born minister to willfully preach the gospel of antislavery even the relatively conservative version of abolitionism professed by Paxton before a congregation whose sentiments on the subject would have been diametrically opposed - and which doubtless included a number of slaveholding families - must have amounted to apostasy in some congregants' eyes. By publishing the present work Paxton essentially doubled down on his unpopular beliefs making him in this cataloguer's eyes a rather remarkable figure. We find it surprising that so little biographical information exists regarding Paxton. His name barely appears in the scholarly literature on the period; perhaps because no mention of abolition is made in either the title nor the sub-title of his book the work is rarely discussed in articles on the antebellum southern antislavery movement. Though reasonably available institutionally Letters on Slavery is perenially scarce in commerce having appeared at auction only three times in the current century. This a quite decent copy in a discreetly restored binding. SABIN 59264. DUMOND Antislavery Bibliography p.89. LCP AFRO-AMERICANA 7501. Abraham Skillman unknown books
1836réf. 82919New York: American Anti-Slavery Society 1836. 12mo 19cm. Stitched self-wrappers; pp.1-12. Removed; first and final leaves detached but present; light soil scattered faint foxing; tear to bottom inch of bound edge away from text; complete and Good. Woodcut decoration at head of text a strikingly violent image depicting the murder of a Black man by his enslaver in Woolville Mississippi. Single issue of this monthly abolitionist periodical that ran from 1835 to 1837 published by the American Anti-Slavery Society under the direction of Elizur Wright. It was "a small magazine with excellent woodcuts containing principally extracts from other publications" that was "distributed freely without charge" and "found its way into the schools and colleges everywhere" Dumond p.267. Wright stated that in September 1835 the Society published 25000 copies of the Record p.267. BLOCKSON 9174. LCP AFRO-AMERICANA 622. American Anti-Slavery Society unknown books
1865réf. 81012New York: American News Company 1865. First Edition. First printing. Octavo. Sewn printed wrappers; 76pp. Brief closed tear to title page margin; bit of wear at upper fore-corner of text block well away from text else a clean fresh copy in the original printed wraps; Very Good or better. Includes text of letters written to various colleagues in the antislavery ranks including Elizabeth Cady Stanton Charles Sumner and others. The first volume taking in the year 1863 was printed a year earlier. SABIN 82664. American News Company unknown books
1860réf. 63532New York: Published and for sale at 5 Beekman Street 1860. First Edition. 12mo. 20th-c. binding of tan calf over paper-covered boards; marbled page edges; 951pp. About fine and complete; the pamphlet appears to have been offered without cover wrappers in any case not noted by Blanck. Uncommon first edition of this late tract by the important abolitionist and feminist Lydia Maria Child 1802-1880. Child's intention with this work was to make a direct case to southern slaveholders based not on any moral grounds but purely on business hoping that the Caribbean example would convince southerners that abolition could be achieved without wrecking their economy. "Child suggested to Samuel B. May the publisher .that the title page omit any mention of the American Anti-slavery Society giving only an address but no publisher. She even considered issuing the tract anyonymously but decided that her notoriety would probably help rather than hinder its circulation" see Karcher The First Woman in the Republic: a Cultural Biography of Lydia Maria Child. Durham 1994; p.428ff. Blanck notes two editions in 1860 as well as a reissue in 1862; this with verso of the final leaf unprinted is the first. Rarely encountered in commerce. BAL 3189. Published and for sale at 5 Beekman Street unknown books
1863réf. 46597Manchester: Union and Emancipation Society n.d. ca. 1863. First Edition. Original broadsheet handbill 22x13.5cm.; extremities chipped with shallow losses not approaching text the whole rather dust-soiled and unevenly toned else Good or better overall. Text reproduces an address delivered by the Rev. Enoch Mellor of Liverpool "in his INAUGURAL ADDRESS at the ANNUAL MEETING of the CONGREGATIONAL UNION held in London" in which he "declared his sentiments on the present American Conflict." Mellor 1823-1881 was the life-long minister of the non-conformist Square Congregational Church in Halifax West Yorkshire with the exception of a five-year period coinciding with this address when he succeeded the abolitionist Congregational minister Thomas Raffles 1788-1863. Mellor's argument begins with reference to the Lancashire Cotton Panic an economic depression caused by a dearth of baled cotton imports following the start of the American Civil War. Mellr goes on to say that "War /may/ be wrong slavery /is/ wrong" comparing its presence on the American continent with that of the propagation of polygamy "carefully and resolutely laid as a foundation-stone in the territory of Utah. Union and Emancipation Society unknown books
1836réf. 750641836. London: George Eyre and Andrew Spottiswoode 1836. London: George Eyre and Andrew Spottiswoode 1836. Payouts for Former British Enslavers Slavery. Great Britain. William IV 1765-1837 King of Great Britain. An Act for Carrying into Further Execution Two Acts of His Present Majesty Relating to the Compensation for Slaves Upon the Abolition of Slavery And for Facilitating the Distribution and Payment of Such Compensation. London: Printed by George Eyre and Andrew Spottiswoode 1836. 17-24 pp. Folio 11-3/4" x 7-1/2". With William IV King of Great Britain. An Act to Authorize His Majesty Until Six Months After the Commencement of the Next Session of Parliament To Carry into Immediate Execution By Orders in Council Any Treaties Conventions Or Stipulations Made with Any Foreign Power or State for the Suppression of the Slave Trade. London: Printed by George Eyre and Andrew Spottiswoode 1836. 873-876 pp. Folio 11-3/4" x 7-1/2". Disbound stab-stitched pamphlets. Light toning light foxing and soiling to a few leaves small holes to gutter of first two leaves of first act which are detached no loss to text. $950. Two acts dealing with the aftermath of the abolition of slavery in the United Kingdom. After the passage of the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833 all enslaved people in British colonies below the age of six were freed and others were redesignated as apprentices and gradually manumitted. One of the act's central provisions was a 20 million payout for "the persons hitherto entitled to the Services of such Slaves." The present act elaborates further on the logistics of the payout including the process by which former enslavers could claim "compensation" for their "great Inconvenience and Loss." The other act authorizes the king to negotiate treaties related to the end of the slave trade without Parliament when Parliament is not in session. unknown books
1875réf. 61084New York: Harper and Brothers 1875. First American Edition. Octavo 24cm. Green cloth stamped in gilt; brown coated endpapers; 542pp; steel-engraved frontispiece 2 wood-enraved frontispieces 2 color maps 1 folding and 48 wood-engraved plates all with tissue guards. Inscribed "Charles V. Payne from his friend M. R. E. Christmas 1874" on front free endpaper; the same inscription is repeated with the date 1875 on a front flyleaf. A sound copy externally rubbed with superficial silverfishing to both boards internally clean with two central gatherings pulled but not fully detached short tear to folding map at gutter: just Very Good. Samuel Baker 1821-1893 was a noted British explorer of Africa. In 1860 he was appointed "governor-general of the equatorial Nile basin" by the Khedive Ismail of Egypt with duties including "annexing the equatorial Nile basin establishing Egyptian authority over the region south of Gondokoro suppressing the slave trade" and more ODNB. His success was mixed: he successfully annexed Gondokoro and did suppress the slave trade but failed to establish secure control of the region ODNB. This account published after his return to England details how he "raised and trained a fighting force.to crush" the slave trade Czech. CZECH p.11. Harper and Brothers unknown books
1862réf. 61272New York: D. Appleton & Co 1862. Second Edition. Octavo 20.5cm. Green cloth titled in gilt on spine; yellow coated endpapers; 39018pp; 8 tinted lithographs. A firm copy rubbed at spine ends and bumped at corners mildly foxed: Very Good. Commander Andrew Hull Foote 1806-1963 served on the USS Perry from 1849 to 1851 suppressing the slave trade off the coast of Africa. In 1854 he published an abolitionist history of Africa describing African cultures American colonies and the slave trade. He was a noted commander for the Union Navy until his unexpected death of kidney disease in 1863. D. Appleton & Co unknown books
1858réf. 660371858. Dividing Prize Money After the Capture of a Slave Ship Slavery. United States. In the Senate of the United States. February 21 1858-Ordered to Be Printed. Mr. Polk Made the Following Adverse Report To Accompany Bill S. C. of C. 108.: The Committee of Claims To Whom was Referred the Opinion of the Court of Claims in the Case of O.H. Berryman and Others Report: The Claimants in this Case are the Officers and Crew of the United States Schooner "On-Ka-Hy-E" drop-head title. Washington DC: S.n. 1858. 13 pp. Octavo 9" x 5-1/2". Disbound light rubbing to extremities some toning and light foxing. $100. 35th Congress 1st Session Senate Rep. Com. No. 33. This speech disputes the distribution of prize money between the Federal government and the crew that captured the slave ship Laurens. unknown books
1766réf. 13353Newport RI: December 19 1766. Manuscript document 2.25 x 6 inches. Unevenly trimmed moderate toning and staining. About very good. Rare surviving evidence of a slaveowner hiring out a slave for manual labor in colonial Rhode Island. Here Captain Peter Darden bills E. Teke for "4 Days work of Cato" for eleven shillings five pence. The verso indicates the bill was paid on January 6 1767; the payment may have involved another slave as Teke seems to note that payment was made by an "agt" agent named Cicero. A rare surviving document pertaining to slavery in pre-revolutionary Rhode Island. December 19 unknown books
1861réf. Cat338Lafayette Ohio 1861. Autograph letter signed 2 pp. Addressed to D. T. Chapin of Enfield Connecticut. Good condition with normal folds and light wear. A concise but revealing early Civil War letter combining financial anxiety agricultural reporting and clear-eyed political commentary on slavery and the future course of the conflict. Writing amid the first months of the American Civil War Chapin opens with the immediate purpose of the letter—forwarding “a draft of $240 for int. on the note”—before situating the payment within a deteriorating economic landscape: “It is very difficult to get money now even of the best men.” He describes a local economy under strain noting “no market for wool to bring in money” compounded by regional instability “on account of the bank failing and many of the merchants in Medina closing” concluding bluntly: “Terrible bursting times with them.” Even the act of sending funds carries uncertainty as he cautions that “in these times I consider there is a risk in the best of banks.” Alongside these concerns Chapin provides a snapshot of agricultural conditions: “Corn is very backward and short wheat nearly middling grass rather below middling” summing up the situation as “rather tight times as well as troubled times.” The most significant portion of the letter however turns to the war itself and the unresolved question of slavery. He writes: “We hope the end will be well but our nation will have to be humbled. It is well to put down rebellion but it is rather queer that the cause of the trouble must be let entirely alone. The nation will get their eyes open after a while. The President possesses the war power to abolish slavery and Congress possess the power also in my humble opinion and the time will come when they will have to do it unless the south run their heads so hard against the rock as to do it themselves.” The letter closes with a brief note on a failed business transaction—“our trade for the sale of the mill fell through”—underscoring the economic uncertainty of the moment before returning to family matters. Overall an evocative early Civil War letter by a merchant expressing fears and anxiety for the pending conflict. unknown books
1858réf. 217001858. Slavery & Abolition Gidding Joshua R. The Exiles of Florida or The Crimes Committed by our Government Against the Maroons who fled from South Carolina and other Slave States Seeking Protection Under Spanish Laws. Columbus Ohio: Follett Foster and Co. First Edition 1858. Original brown cloth binding with gilt text to spine. Engraved frontispiece titled "Death of Waxe-hadjo." 8vo. 338 pages. This book addresses a little-acknowledged chapter in American history: the U.S. government's military persecution of the Black Seminoles-enslaved people who escaped bondage in the American South and found refuge in Spanish Florida where they established communities alongside the Seminole Nation. These fugitives often referred to as "Maroons" forged a unique Afro-Indigenous alliance that posed a direct threat to the system of slavery especially as their population grew and as they resisted U.S. efforts to capture and re-enslave them. The author Joshua Giddings was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio a leading abolitionist of the era and one of the few white politicians to openly and consistently condemn these policies. Giddings frames the U.S. government's actions as not only morally indefensible but a betrayal of national ideals arguing that the Maroons had every legal and ethical right to seek asylum in Spanish Florida which did not recognize slavery in the same way as the American South. He draws on government records military correspondence and personal testimony to present a damning case of state violence and racial injustice. The volume includes a dramatic engraved frontispiece and remains a landmark of antislavery literature notable for centering African-descended resistance and for critiquing American imperialism and pro-slavery policy. Some wear to covers and foxing throughout binding and text remain tight and clean with some minor looseness to front cover. Overall very good condition. Sabin 27327; Field 606. unknown books
1863réf. 30221New York: Wm. Bryant & Co. Printers 41 Nassau Street Corner of Liberty 1863. Very Good. New York: Wm. Bryant & Co. Printers 41 Nassau Street Corner of Liberty 1863. First Edition. Octavo. 19 pp. Printed wraps. Housed in more recent marbled paper wraps with brown backstrip staples noticeable beneath. Abrasions and glue remnants to front wraps with loss to text; light creasing to edges; a few smudges. Binding sound and interior unmarked; Very Good. Includes excerpts from Presidents Washington to Jackson as well as quotations from Benjamin Franklin John Jay and Alexander Hamilton. Sabin 57406. Wm. Bryant & Co., Printers, 41 Nassau Street, Corner of Liberty unknown books
1852réf. 198241852. Law Howard Benjamin C. Reports of Cases Argued and Adjudged in The Supreme Court of the United States December Term 1852. Boston: Little Brown and Company 1853. First Edition Hardcover rebound. 650 pages. Measures 5.75" x 8.75". Includes various Supreme Court decisions from the year 1852 during the December session. Cases cover a wide range of topics including issues over ownership and patents land disputes with Native Americans railroad injuries and slavery among other issues. Cases include THOMAS MOORE EXECUTOR OF RICHARD EELS PLAINTIFF IN ERROR v. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS WHICH FOUND that the power of legislating upon the subject of fugitive slaves ought to be vested in Congress. also INCLUDED IS tHE Philadelphia AND rEADING rAILROAD cOMPANY V. eLIAS h. dERBY. Title page has stamp stating "Library of Congress Serial Record Jan. 3 1980." New boards and pastedown but all original pages are together with textblock tight and only minor foxing on title page. oFFERS A UNIQUE GLIMPSE INTO THE sUPREME cOURT DECISIONS OF 1851 during December session. Overall in very good condition. unknown books
1872réf. 3066Havana 1872. Very good. Manuscript form approximately 8.5 x 6.25 inches. Minor wear at edges; a few small worm holes. Contemporary ink stamp. Light tanning and offsetting. This 1872 manuscript form from a Havana jail the Celaduria de la Punta notes the death there of an "Asiatico" a Chinese indentured servant with the given name of Juan Macao and orders the transfer of the body to the mortuary for cremation. Indentured servants found themselves jailed for several reasons including suspicion of theft and other crimes recapture following runaway or mere suspicion of abandoning a contract. unknown books
1854réf. 176351854. Abolition African Americana SUMNER Charles. Defence of Massachusetts. Speeches of Hon. Charles Sumner on the Boston Memorial for the Repeal of the Fugitive Slave Bill and in Reply To Messrs. Jones of Tennessee Butler of South Carolina And Mason of Virginia in the Senate of the United States June 26 and 28 1854. Washington D.C.: Buell & Blanchard Printers 1854. At the time that this description is being written just three copies are recorded in American institutions. OCLC search results are at best an estimate and can vary over time. The Memorial referred to in the title was a request by 2900 undersigners chiefly men of Boston Mass. to repeal the Fugitive Slave Bill of 1850. What follows is a transcription of Massachusetts Senator and famous abolitionist Charles Sumner's speeches in the ensuing debate: "Mr Jones. asks 'Can anyone suppose that if the Fugitive Slave Act be repealed this Union can exist' To which I reply at once that if the Union in any way be dependent on an Act-- I cannot call it a law-- so revolting in every regard as to that which he refers then it ought not to exist." Sumner goes on to argue amongst other things that the Fugitive Slave Act is parallel to the hated Stamp Act that sparked the Revolutionary War as well as to make spirited rebukes against the pro-slavery Senators Butler Mason and Jones: "The veteran Senator from Virginia Mr. Mason complained that I had characterized one of his "constituents" a person who went all the way from Virginia to Boston in pursuit of a slave as a Slave-Hunter. Sire I choose to call things by their right names. White I call white and black I call black. And where a person degrades himself to the work of chasing a fellow man who under the guidance of the north star has saught a freeman's home far away from the cofle and the chain that person whomsoever he may be I call a Slave-Hunter." Eight sheets folded to make one sixteen-page signature which is stitched along the left edge. Foxing throguhout pages chipped along margins. Dampstaining along two page edges. Delicate but in good condition. Charles Sumner January 6 1811 - March 11 1874 was an American statesman and United States Senator from Massachusetts. As an academic lawyer and a powerful orator Sumner was the leader of the anti-slavery forces in the state and a leader of the Radical Republicans in the U.S. Senate during the American Civil War. During Reconstruction he fought to minimize the power of the ex-Confederates and guarantee equal rights to the freedmen. During the war he was a leader of the Radical Republican faction that criticized President Lincoln for being too moderate on the South. Sumner specialized in foreign affairs and worked closely with Lincoln to ensure the British and the French refrained from intervening on the side of the Confederacy during the Civil War. As the chief Radical leader in the Senate during Reconstruction Sumner fought hard to provide equal civil and voting rights for the freedmen on the grounds that "consent of the governed" was a basic principle of American republicanism and to block ex-Confederates from power so they would not reverse the gains made from the Union's victory in the Civil War. unknown books
1845réf. 54623New York: Lewis Colby 1845. First Edition. Wrappered Issue. 18mo. 15cm; original peach wrappers with titles printed in black on front cover; viii2541pp. Modest wear front wrapper split along lower half of front joint with shallow loss to right corners of same; old faint tide-mark along lower edge of textblock with creasing to upper and lower corners of first and last few pages; terminal blank present though lacking rear wrapper; Good. Uncommon wrappered issue of this significant debate between two 19th century Baptist leaders over the Bible's teachings on slavery which went through at least four subsequent editions between 1847-1860. "The chapters were originally letters published in a Baptist newspaper in Boston Massachusetts. Southern pastor Richard Fuller and Northern educator Francis Wayland were each able defenders of their respective positions. These men were also good friends who believed that a difference of opinion about slavery should not necessiatate a breaking of Christian fellowship. Unfortunately these two Baptist leaders proved naive in this regard. Just weeks after the publication of the correspondence in book form Fuller's Southern Baptist Convention broke away from the larger Baptist denomination and formed a new ecclesiastical body. A number of issues factored into the division though the slavery debate was what ultimately led to the creation of a separate Baptist denomination in the South" from the Mercer University Press edition 2008. SABIN 26170; LCP AFRO-AMERICANA 3944. Lewis Colby unknown books
1862réf. 23579"It is a fact that the enslavement of human beings has so far infused its insidious poison into the very hearts of the Southern people that they have come to believe and declare the evil of slavery to be a good and to require the power of Government to be exerted to maintain extend and perpetuate an institution that enables thousands to sell their own children to be enslaved with all their posterity into hopeless bondage." The founder of New York City's Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art echoes the language and logic of the Emancipation Proclamation as well as citing some Southern pro-slavery arguments to demonstrate their ridiculousness in this open letter to President Lincoln. Cooper and the Cooper Union had long been advocates of abolition and both Lincoln and Frederick Douglass had famously lectured at the institution. PETER COOPER. SLAVERY.Pamphlet. Letter of Peter Cooper on Slave Emancipation Loyal Publication Society New York 1862 8pp. disbound. Excerpts: "It is a fact that the enslavement of human beings has so far infused its insidious poison into the very hearts of the Southern people that they have come to believe and declare the evil of slavery to be a good and to require the power of Government to be exerted to maintain extend and perpetuate an institution that enables thousands to sell their own children to be enslaved with all their posterity into hopeless bondage." "In the original formation of that Constitution it became absolutely necessary to make a compromise with that great and all pervading interest which had then already entered into the very life-blood of the nation rendering the formation of an union of States hopeless without such a compromise." "The constitutional requirement to return fugitive slaves on their being demanded by Southern men having been acknowledged and performed by the States has been reaffirmed by an almost unanimous vote in Congress.These honest efforts on the part of the North to maintain peace and friendship were met by a relentless war waged for the destruction of the Constitution and the dissolution of the Union." "The time has now come when Southern men must know that the Union must be preserved and it is for them to determine whether they will persevere in their rebellion until the North shall be compelled in the most reluctant self defence to render contraband of war the slaves and property of all persons found in arms against the laws and Government of the country." Condition Fine. Disbound and lacking front wrap. books
1854réf. 26154Washington: Printed at the Congressional Glove Office 1854. First edition. pp. 22. 1 vols. 8vo. Self wrappers unsewn as issued. Some browning and spotting wear along spine and edges but a very good copy. First edition. pp. 22. 1 vols. 8vo. Primarily concerning the issue of slavery in the territories this speech was part of the debates for the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The act initiated by Douglas ultimately repealed the Missouri Compromise allowed the local residents to determine whether the area was free or slave territory allowed for "the doctrine of popular sovereignty of the two territories" and laid the way for a transcontental railroad. The Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed in the Senate on the 3rd of March. Clayton was a lawyer noted agriculturist and long-time member of Congress who was Secretary of State under President Taylor. As Secretary of State he is best remembered for having negotiated the Clayton-Bulwer treaty with Great Britain which provided for a neutral international canal across Central America and "contained pledges which ultimately forced Great Britain to withdraw from large tracts of territory which.it had been occupying on the Isthmus." DAB. Sabin 13576n Printed at the Congressional Glove Office unknown books
1817réf. 9350Washington City 1817. First Edition. 5 pp. 1 vols. 8vo. Disbound. Some foxing. First Edition. 5 pp. 1 vols. 8vo. First edition of the government's reply to the request of a group of Virginia planters for a "colony" to essentially rid them of the problem of "free coloured people." In December of 1816 a group of Virginia planters approached the government with a request asking for a location where freed blacks might be sent. In January this "memorial" was presented and in February it was answered with this "Report." This reply discusses location etc. In the end the government officially refused to have anything to do with the plan - thus the American Colonization Society was born. For a detailed account of these events see Dumond Anti-Slavery pp. 126-127. S&S 42738 2 copies unknown books
1873réf. 12720Cuba 1873. Twelve manuscript documents on folio sheets approximately 8.5 x 12.5 inches all with official rubber-stamped seal. Small pinholes along left margin light wear occasional chipping to edges some ink bleed and light damp staining. Overall very good. A collection of documents recording the liberation or attempted liberation of numerous men women teenagers and a child from enslavement. The child is but seven years old while the remaining slaves range from fifteen to fifty-seven years old. The slave trade ended in Cuba around 1867 but the practice of owning slaves remained legal until 1880 and then was abolished completely by Spanish decree in 1886. Cuba was the penultimate country to outlaw slavery in the western hemisphere beating Brazil to formal abolishment by two years. Even before the official abolition of slavery in Cuba African or criollo slaves were manumitted by a variety of owners and at various costs as evidenced here especially after the practice of importing Chinese indentured servants began. Each of the present documents names the slaveholder and the slave granted "libertad" along with the cost in escudos or pesetas of that liberty. The slaves liberated here are as follows: 1 Luis criollo 7 years old for the sum of 28 pesos 2 Maria Antonia part criolla 20 years old for the sum of 2500 pesetas 3 Catalina morena de Africa 41 years old for c.200 pesetas 4 Lorenzo moreno criollo 21 years old for 2500 pesetas 5 Lucia morena criolla 15 years old for 320 pesos or 1600 pesetas 6 Frigidae "negro.de Africae" 56 years old 7 Augusto criollo 19 years old for 1750 pesetas 8 Marta criolla 16 years old for 1621 pesetas 9 Gil moreno de Africa 57 years old for 1500 pesos 10 Carmita morena criolla 20 years old for 1750 pesetas 11 Augustina Prieto morena criolla 30 years old for 1750 pesetas 12 Edwigio 39 criolla; Lazara 36 criolla; and Maria Leoncia 15 criolla for 2000 pesetas. These Cuban slave manumissions are offered with one 1844 manumission document liberating a slave in Spain totaling two pages and measuring about 8.5 x 13.5 inches. The document also has three rubber-stamped official seals at the head noting Isabella II. This document appears to free slave Nicolas 25 years old for the sum of 400 pesos and is signed November 5 1844. unknown books
1862réf. 13270Moulton AL: June 7 1862. 4pp. on a single folded sheet. Old folds moderate staining rubbing and toning edges worn and a bit chipped a few small holes in the body of the text. A well-worn newspaper in good condition. A notable issue of a very rare newspaper from Confederate Alabama with many interesting historical aspects. Most noteworthy is the runaway slave advertisement printed on the last page relating the story of "a black boy who calls himself John" currently held at the jail in Lawrence County Alabama. John claims that his owner Jack Mason of Limestone County "was killed at Corinth on the day of the battle there and that he was endeavoring to return home when arrested." A physical description of John follows and concludes with a notice that "The owner will please come forward pay charges and take him away or he will be disposed of according to law." Other advertisements document various sheriff sales and the dissolution of a local law partnership. The paper also includes informative content on the Civil War including a substantial proclamation by Alabama Governor John Gill Shorter encouraging Alabama men to take the war seriously gather arms to the front and participate as part of the "State Guard." The paper also prints part of a notice from the Charleston Courier arguing that if Confederate currency is not worth real value "then the whole cotton crop of the South will be seized by the invader then Lincoln's recommendation to his Congress will be adopted and enforced and all the lands of the Southern people will be parcelled out among Northern soldiers." There is also a dispatch from Corinth encouraging southerners to identify and send back soldiers absent from duty and other wartime content. The only physical issue we could locate dated April 17 1863 is held at Samford; the remainder of the OCLC records we consulted reported microfilm or digital forms. June 7 unknown books
1814réf. 13354N.p.: June 28 1814. 1p. addressed on verso. Old mailing folds remnants of wax seal minor staining and toning. Very good. An interesting letter involving the sale of slaves in early-19th-century New Jersey. The letter comes from a slaveowner named John Neagie writing to Garrabrandt Van Houten Esquire in Patterson New Jersey in 1814. The text of the letter reads in full: "Dear Sir I am willing to part with my three blacks lately in Jersey for three hundred and seventy five dollars for a term of years in such way as not to interfere with the laws concerning selling slaves from one state into the other provided you can get notes which you would be willing to take on. Same on Van Houten's mortgage. Dated June 20th 1814. Yours with respect John Neagie." Neagie's concerns about "selling slaves from one state into the other" seems to indicate that he is based somewhere outside New Jersey where his slaves have been "lately." In fact he has crossed out the word "now" and replaced it with "lately. June 28 unknown books
1790réf. 13400Washington County MD 1790. 2pp. on a single folio sheet. Moderate toning and dust-soiling old folds one fold separation repaired on verso with archival tape. Overall good plus condition. A striking document from early national Maryland detailing the sale of numerous types of property by Norman Bruce a Maryland militia man and land speculator. Norman Bruce was a Scottish immigrant who came to the American colonies as a young man served in the Maryland militia and acquired large tracts of land mostly in modern-day Carroll County. He also served as the Sheriff of Frederick County and as a judge and was known to own numerous slaves. Interestingly his wife Susanna Gardiner Key Bruce was great aunt to Francis Scott Key. The present documents first memorializes Bruce's sale of a dozen parcels of land to his son Andrew Bruce. The document notes the location date of sale and the number of acres for each parcel. Most impactfully though the document records Bruce's sale of his slaves. In a bill of sale in the present document Bruce sells two dozen named enslaved persons to his great-nephew Upton Scott along with various other property such as "Stock Farming Utensils or Implements Household Furniture and other articles." The transaction for the enslaved men women and children lists them by name and mostly age and reads in part: "Bill of sale 9th July 1790.For Negro Slaves.That is to say Negro Nicholas Aged 48 years. Frank 47. Harvey 46. Ned 44. Jonathan 44. Brutus 37. Little Harry 32. Betsey 50. Her daughter Hannah 11 years. Phillis 37 & her four children Milly Molly Phillis & Hannibal. Nance 24. Her two children Clem and Terry - Patty Pricilla Jeanie and Sam the four children of Beck. Charity and Stephen & Cassey the children of Nell." These enslaved persons apparently worked Bruce's "Farm on Great Pipe Creek." An unusual 18th-century Maryland slave document providing critical named connections within multiple slave families known to be living and working at a specific Maryland farm in 1790. unknown books
