Esclavage

Esclavage — marelibri

Manuscript Letter Written by a Mississippi Man Discussing the Panic Surrounding the Texas Slave Insurrection of 1860

1860réf. 6445Tallula Ms: November 28 1860. Very good. 4pp. on a bifolium. Minor soiling and wear along old folds. Otherwise clean. Written in the immediate aftermath of the Election of 1860 this letter presents a ground-level account of Southern uncertainty at the onset of the secession crisis with a very notable section on the Texas slave insurrection panic of 1860. The writer Isaac E. Nicholson lived in a region of the Mississippi Delta with a large population of enslaved people and he attempts to balance a lingering attachment to the Union with mounting fears of insurrection political collapse and economic instability. The letter moves between national politics local anxieties reports of violence in Texas and personal family concerns. He begins by describing the intensity of the moment: "The whole country is in a blaze of political excitement. Secession is the watchword." Despite this Nicholson positions himself at least provisionally against immediate disunion advocating delay and negotiation: "To wait at least two yrs.and in the mean time make certain demands upon the Northern States. This will make it a test question.whether there is any spirit of compromise left." He adds that "With the present Congress & the Supreme Court favorable to the South it is impossible for her to suffer materially" though he concedes that he may be "Left alone to support it." That moderation is undercut by a stark expression of racialized fear: "We who live in a country with about 30 blacks to one white man slumbering over a volcano.cannot long remain silent." He continues "It is no trivial matter.to retire at night with a probability of being murdered before morning. This thing has a reality here." He concludes that "The fine alternative of Revolution.will become necessary unless their aggressions.cease." The most dramatic section concerns events in Texas where Nicholson reports that his brother suffered heavy losses during unrest in Dallas: "His office & furniture & his whole library were destroyed by fire" and "His dwelling house was set on fire at three different times." He attributes the destruction to "Abolition Preachers.forced to leave for tampering with slaves" who "Endeavored to avenge themselves" adding that "The whole town of Dallas West was laid in ruins. They were both hung by a mob." Financial losses are detailed as well: "About $2000" destroyed followed by news that a New Orleans firm holding "$4000 deposited. had failed." This account corresponds to the unrest surrounding the Texas slave insurrection panic of 1860 during which fires in Dallas were widely blamed on enslaved people and Northern abolitionists and suspected agitators including Methodist ministers were expelled or killed by vigilante groups. Three men -- Patrick Jennings Sam Smith and Cato -- were killed in a public execution near Dealey Plaza now renamed Martyrs' Park in their honor. Although Nicholson presents the destruction as organized retaliation historians have generally concluded that the fires were likely accidental with the conspiracy narrative emerging from rumor and fear. His description reflects how these events circulated in Southern correspondence at the time combining real violence with exaggerated or misinterpreted causes and the passages are notable for the blending of what was presumably fact -- his brother's house catching on fire -- with the fiction of abolitionists arsonists. We find no records of correspondence or any material relating to these events in auction records or on the market at the time of writing. Overall a scarce account overall of a tragic episode in Texas history and the rumor mill that fueled it. November 28 unknown books

McBride Rare Books · États-Unis1 500,00 $US≈ 1 340,12 €

[Slavery]: [Maryland]ABAA

Manuscript Copy of an Extract of Deed and Bills of Sale for Property Owned by Norman Bruce in Federal-Era Maryland Including Two Dozen Named Enslaved Men Women and Children

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