“For I will not suppose that the dealers in slaves are born worse than other man. No; it is the fatality of this mistaken avarice, that it corrupts the milk of human kindness and turns it to gall [...] Does not slavery itself depress the mind, and extinguish all its.....
[Abolition] [Slavery] HILDRETH, Richard. The Slave, or Memoirs of Archy Moore. Volume II. Boston: John H. Eastburn Printer, 1836. Duodecimo. Calf covers. 162 pages. Rag paper. The very first American abolitionist novel, published 15 years before Uncle Tom's Cabin, which some have argued it influenced. The anonymous author was an.....
SMITH, James L. Autobiography of James L. Smith, Including . . . Reminiscences of Slave Life. Norwich, CT: Press of the Bulletin Company, 1881. First edition. Octavo, publisher's original cloth. 150 pages. 3 illustrated plates. James Lindsay Smith (circa 1813-1890) describes his childhood under slavery in Virginia, his 1838 escape.....
Solomon Northup. Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of . . . a Citizen of New-York, Kidnapped in Washington. Auburn, NY: Derby & Miller, 1853. Large duodecimo, 336 pages including 2 publisher's ad leaves, 7 illustrated plates. Publisher's original cloth. First edition, first state from the first print run. The earliest.....
STILL, William. The Underground Rail Road. Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1872. First edition, first printing. Contemporary rebinding with black boards and attractive gold gilt title on spine. 9.25" x 6.5" in. 780 pages. A foundational text on freeing slaves in America written by one of the most active African American.....
[Slavery] [Abolition] Benezet, Anthony. Constitution of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and the Relief for Free Negroes unlawfully held in Bondage. Philadelphia: Francis Bailey For The Society, 1788. Enlarged from the first edition of 1787, it nearly doubled in page count. Octavo, 29 pages. When Anthony.....
[Colored Soldiers] General Washington and General Jackson on Negro Soldiers. Philadelphia: Henry Carey Baird, 1863. First edition. 8 pages, 5.75" x 9" inches. This pamphlet was issued to urge the enlistment of African American soldiers in the Union Army: " We are in the midst of a great war for.....
DOUGLASS, Frederick. First Edition Autographs for Freedom, containing first bound edition of Douglass’ only published piece of fiction, a 74-page novella “The Heroic Slave.” Edited by Julia Griffiths, Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society. John P. Jewett and Company, 1853. 263 pages. Original blue cloth with blind-stamped ruling on covers and gilt.....
Lincoln, Abraham. The Republican Party Vindicated--The Demands of the South Explained. Speech of Hon. Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, at the Cooper Institute New York City, February 27, 1860. 16 pages, caption title [as issued]. Lincoln's Historic Cooper Union discourse, which catapulted him to serious presidential consideration, and provided a cogent.....
WHEATLEY, Phyllis. "Some Account of a Learned Negro Girl" in The Gentleman's Magazine. London: Printed for D. Henry, May 1773. Measures approximately 5.5 x 9 inches, [207]-256 pages. First Edition. One of the earliest known print pieces on Phillis Wheatley: An introduction of the enslaved American poetess to the UK.....
[Abolition] [slavery] Deed of manumission for a Kentucky man named Peter. Gallatin County, KY, 10 July 1820. One page, 12 1/2 x 8 inches. Manuscript document signed by Percival Butler as county clerk, William O. Butler as witness, and others. The heirs of Henry Stafford hereby "have this day emancipated.....
BENEZET, Anthony. “A Summary of the History, Doctrine, and Discipline of Friends; Written at the Desire of the Meeting for Sufferings in London. The First American edition, with a note from Benezet’s account of the People called Quakers.” New York: Collins, Perkins, & Co., 1805. Measures 4” x 7” inches.....
Small archive of two pamphlets with transcripts of speeches concerning anti-lynching legislation. THURMOND, J. Strom. President Truman's So-Called Civil Rights Program. Columbia, SC: [Columbia Democratic Party], 1948. BYRNES, James F. Inaugural Address of the Honorable James F. Byrnes as Governor of South Carolina. Columbia, SC: N.p., 1951. OCLC shows 5.....
Extensive archive from Methodist minister and revivalist preacher Irving R. Lovejoy from 1880-1888. This archive of 334 handwritten pages by the Reverend includes 20 handwritten and handbound sermons totaling 219 pages. Also includes an additional 115 pages of handwritten notes (mostly related to sermons and religions), letters and personal documents.....
DOUGLASS, Frederick. My Bondage and My Freedom. New York and Auburn, NY: Miller, Orton & Mulligan, 1855. First Edition, First Printing. Octavo in publisher's original cloth with gilt-stamped spine and blind stamped covers. 464 pages. Engraved portrait frontispiece of Douglass with engraved signature. The second, and perhaps scarcest, of the.....
EMERSON, Ralph Waldo. Tributes to Theodore Parker, Comprising the Exercises at the Music Hall on Sunday, June 17, 1860. With the Proceedings of The New England Anti-Slavery Convention at the Melodeon, May 31. First Edition. Boston: Published by the Fraternity, 1860. With an original carte-de-visite of Emerson. Emerson’s comments begin.....
Political Equality Series. Vol. V., No. 4. Published by the National American Woman Suffrage Association, New York: July 1900. 4 pages. 5 ¾ x 3 ¼ in. Paperback with original wrapper, Essay by William Lloyd Garrison, “The Nature of a Republic Form of Government.” No other copies in Any institutional.....
Sherman, John. Speech by Hon. John Sherman of Ohio on Emancipation as a Compensation for Military Service Rendered by Slaves, Delivered in the Senate of the United States. McGill and Witherow: Washington D.C, February 2, 1864. 16 pages. 5.5" x 9.5" inches. John Sherman was an antislavery senator, Secretary of.....
[African-American] [Education] Pair of photographs depicting Catholic elementary school for girls of color both free and enslaved, located at the oldest black parish in the United States, St. Augustine’s Catholic Church, New Orleans, Louisiana. Circa 19th century, Albumen photographs, 7” x 5” inches, one mounted on board and the other.....
[Colored Troops] Order of the Executive Directory concerning the formation of a company of black and colored soldiers of colonial troops (no. 203), in Bulletin des Lois, 2nd series, Year VI (1798). Octavo. Half-Sheepskin. Multiple pagination. All edges red. The Executive Board indicates its intention "to bring together in the.....
Friends of Freedom. The Liberty Bell. Boston: Prentiss and Sawyer, 1852. 4.75" x 7.5" inches. 303 pages. First edition Signed and gifted by co-author William I. Bowditch. A very scarce collection of anti-slavery writings. Original brown boards with gilt illustration of Liberty Bell on front cover, decorative gilt spine. Illustrated.....
[African Americana] [Slavery] [Abolition] MELBOURN, Julius. Life and Opinions of Julius Melbourn. Syracuse: Hall & Dickson, 1847. Octavo, contemporary cloth, 239 pages. Frontispiece of Thomas Jefferson. "Life and Opinions of Julius Melbourn" purports to be a memoir of a formerly enslaved man from North Carolina who escapes to a new.....
CRUIKSHANK, George; Greenwich Hospital, A Series of Naval Sketches. Descriptive of A Man-of-War's Man. By An Old Sailor. With Illustrations by George Cruikshank. London: James Robins and Co and Joseph Robins, Dublin, MDCCXXVI [1826]. First edition of this wonderfully illustrated color plate book on the navy, among Cruikshank's "most brilliantly.....
William Lloyd Garrison’s. Thompson’s Lectures and Debates on Slavery, With a Full Report of the Discussion Between Mr. Thompson and Mr. Borthwick,the Pro-Slavery Agent, Also A Brief History of His Connection With the Anti-Slavery Cause in England.Isaac Knapp, Boston: 1836., 1836. Hardcover. Book Condition: Very Good. 190 pages. Bound in.....
Emancipation. Hand-colored albumen CDV photographGeorge by Gardner Fish, artist. Allegorical carte-de-visite of Emancipation. Hand-colored albumen photograph, 3 1/2 x 2 1/4 inches, on photographer's mount; minimal wear. Boston, MA: John Sowle [Soule], 1863. Lady Liberty brandishes the Emancipation Proclamation, while two scantily clad enslaved people wrap her in the American.....