Slavery & Abolition
From William Reese
Slavery and Abolition from William Reese
By Michael Stillman
The latest catalogue from the William Reese Company is a fascinating look at that peculiarly horrible institution, slavery. It is entitled “Slavery & Abolition,” and while the majority of the items pertain to slavery in the United States, others are connected with its existence in the Caribbean, South America, and the slave trade in Africa and even Europe.
While many Reese catalogues are collections of high-priced material outside the range of the average collector, the great majority of these items are moderately priced. Consequently, anyone who collects printed material related to slavery will want to look through the items offered in this, Reese’s 231st catalogue.
Some of the most interesting books are the ones you wouldn’t expect. Take, for instance, Poor Peter’s Call to His Children and to All Others Who Can Hear and Believe. This book includes an impassioned essay on “the Injustice of Slavery,” an uncommon though hardly unique position at the time it was published, 1812. Author Peter Clemmons states “all who buy negroes, to keep or to sell in slavery for gain…be as men who buy stolen goods of a thief…” What makes this book exceptional is that Clemmons was a southerner, his book was printed in North Carolina, and he had once been a slaveholder himself. “Freedom is the negro’s just right,” writes Clemmons. Reese explains that Clemmons, North Carolina, is named for this remarkable man. Item 50. Priced at $4,000.
Here’s another oddity. Europeans who visited America, even those who came away favorably inclined, almost always saw slavery as our dark side. So here is Englishman D.W. Mitchell expressing pro-slavery views in Ten Years in the United States: Being an Englishman’s Views of Men and Things in the North and South. Mitchell was likely influenced by spending most of those years in Richmond, and yet it is surprising to hear these views from an Englishman, especially at such a late date (1862). This copy contains many annotations, apparently in anticipation of a second edition which was never published. Perhaps Mitchell thought it better to bury these opinions once slavery was abolished. Item 149. $500.
John Stedman was sent to put down a slave revolt in Surinam (Dutch Guiana) in the 1770s. He too breaks the mold of expectations, for while he followed his orders, he clearly sympathized with the slaves. He describes the cruelties practiced against them and the moral debasement of the masters who performed these abuses. His book is called a Narrative, of a Five Years’ Expedition, Against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam…, and it is item 184. $9,000.
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Slavery & Abolition
From William Reese
Poster for an antebellum Southern Burlesque
And who would expect P.T. Barnum to be mixed up with the issue of slavery? It turns out that Barnum, at the age of 22, was editing an abolitionist newspaper in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He was sentenced to 60 days in jail for libel. On his release, a crowd of 1,500 rallied to his support. Even then he could draw a crowd. Item 70 is by Theophilus Fisk, who spoke on that occasion, and it is entitled The Nation’s Bulwark an Oration, on the Freedom of the Press…on the Liberation of P.T. Barnum… $375.
Phillis Wheatley was a most remarkable woman. Captured into slavery at the age of 7, she was sold to Bostonian John Wheatley to assist his wife, as the youth was too young to be of use to West Indies or Southern slaveholders. John Wheatley chose to educate her and quickly discovered the young woman was a brilliant person. Phillis Wheatley proved to be both a great scholar and a poet, publishing one (and only one) book of poetry in her brief (29-year) life. Despite the obstacles that forced the first edition of her poetry to be sent to London for printing, her work became very popular in America. Items 215 and 216 are editions of her Poems on Various Subjects, while 217 is a biography of her including her poems.
Slavery is the dark underbelly of Texas independence. While Americans like to recall the bravery and the aspirations for freedom of the Texans, it is less pleasant to remember that independence from Mexico also brought the reinstitution of this horrific practice, banned in Mexico, to Texas. Item 128 is an 1836 pamphlet by Benjamin Lundy entitled The Origin and True Causes of the Texas Insurrection, Commenced in the Year 1835. Lundy attributes the insurrection to a slaveholder conspiracy. $1,000. Item 186 is a British imprint by John Scoble called Texas: Its Claims to be Recognised as an Independent Power, by Great Britain… Scoble argues against recognition because immigrants may be forced to bear arms against Mexico to defend the practice of slavery. $5,000.
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Slavery & Abolition
From William Reese
Rare book about a precursor to the KKK
A foreboding of bad things to come can be found in An Authentic Exposition of the “K.G.C.” “Knights of the Golden Circle;” or a History of Secession from 1834 to 1861. This pro-Southern Civil War era piece came from Union Indiana. The Knights were something of a precursor to the Klan, which for a while in the next century would gain surprising strength in Indiana. Item 119. $600. Another Klan piece is Lem A. Dever’s 1924 Confessions of an Imperial Klansman. You’d think from the title it was an expose of this organization’s nefarious behavior, but Reese explains that it reflects Dever’s disenchantment with the Klan’s leadership, not its ideals. Item 59. $300.
Item 82 is a Georgia Theatre broadside announcing Bill Parrow’s and Sweeny’s Great Southern Burlesque Opera Troupe. Dick Sweeny was a blackface performer, “one of the most popular delineators of Negro Peculiarities” (one can only wonder about Sweeny’s peculiarities). Master Parrow was a cross-dressing gender-bender, “the youthful delineator of Female Character.” What a funny duo they must have been. Thankfully, film was not yet available to preserve their act for posterity. $1,250.
Item 111 is an 1835 anti-slavery piece by William Jay: An Inquiry into the Character and Tendency of the American Colonization, and American Anti-Slavery Societies. This is of added interest as Jay was the son of John Jay, Revolutionary patriot, first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, American diplomat, and New York Governor. This is a presentation copy, signed by the younger Jay, to P.G. Stuyvesant Esq. Reese doesn’t tell us who Stuyvesant is, but a good guess might be Peter G. Stuyvesant, a New York philanthropist whose namesake ancestor surrendered New Amsterdam to the British. $500.
These are just a few of the 221 interesting items you will find in William Reese’s latest catalogue. You may find Reese online at www.reeseco.com, or by phone at 203-789-8081.
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