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Description:
Thirty-six pages, 7 ½” x 4 ¾”, "The Fugitive Slave Bill its History and Unconstitutionality with an account of the Seizure and Enslavement of James Hamlet and his Subsequent Restoration to Liberty”, New York: William Harned, 61 John Street, 1850. Prepared by the Office of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society October 7, 1850. This is an absolutely incredible true story, almost lifted out of the pages of a famous novel of the time, and a prelude to the Civil War. Published as a campaign tool against The Fugitive Slave Bill, this tract is eloquently stated and beautifully executed.
In small part “…On the 26th day of September last, one Thomas J. Clare came to the city of New York from Baltimore, with a power of attorney to be executed by one Mary Brown—not by her signature, but by her mark—authorizing him to take and carry to Baltimore a man represented to be her slave. Bringing with him a copy of the Fugitive Slave Law, just passed by Congress, as one of the heralded measures of peace in which that body has been engaged for the last ten months…Clare appeared before Alexander Gardiner, Clerk of the Circuit Court…and Commissioner under the Fugitive Slave Law, and in virtue of the law, constituted slave-catcher, and made an affidavit that George Hamlet, a mulatto man, about 30 years of age, who has resided in the neighborhood of this city for the last two or three years, and who has a wife and children, was the slave of Mrs. Brown, and that he escaped from her in Baltimore…and asked for a warrant to arrest him.
“…Forthwith prepared the necessary papers, issued the demanded warrant, and placed it in the hands of the United States Marshal, who, through one of his deputies, arrested Hamlet while pursuing his ordinary business as a porter in the store of Tilton & Maloney, 58 Water Street, New York city…and the Commissioner, without any notice to any acquaintance of the prisoner, without assigning him any counsel or giving him a moment’s opportunity to send for assistance, proceeded with hot haste, ex-parte, to take the testimony of Clare, the son-in-law of the alleged claimant, and young Gustavus Brown, her son, in proof that the prisoner was her slave…Hamlet insisted that his mother was a free woman, and that he was a free man, and denied that he was a slave. But the law prohibited his testimony from being taken…Commissioner Gardiner…decided that the prisoner was the slave of the claimant, and doomed him to perpetual bondage by delivering him up to Clare as his property.
“…The prisoner…was then taken into custody…handcuffed, and with his limbs thus cramped in irons, forced into a carriage prepared and standing at the court-house door…He was hurried to the steamboat and taken to Baltimore, and lodged in the slave prison…a well known hell upon earth, there to remain till a favorable bargain can be made for his sale and shipment to the southern market…His wife and two children had no knowledge of his doom till he was gone…”
Some expected soiling on the cover. Trivial paper losses on the borders of several pages. Pages are very strong and overall in excellent condition. A wonderful example of a tumultuous period when America was beginning to sort through the slavery issue prior to the Civil War.
| Status: For Sale |
Reference#: 00241 |
| Condition:
Very good |
Year:
1850
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| Title:
1850 Anti-Slavery Society Argues Against Fugitive Slave Bill |
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