Slavery and Emancipation
Throughout the British Empire, millions of people of African descent were enslaved on plantations, on small farms, in urban households. For Enlightenment thinkers concerned with the rights of the individual and personal liberty, slavery was an obvious target of criticism.
Although the abolition movement was not successful until 1834 in British colonies and 1863 in the United States, many of the arguments against slavery that eventually prevailed had their first airings during the Age of Reason.
Most of the works collected by Lapidus on this topic were donated to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, part of the New York Public Library. There, they can be studied alongside other works related to slavery, abolition, and self-empowerment of African-descended people around the world.
Unless otherwise indicated (§), all items on exhibit are from the Sid Lapidus '59 Collection on Liberty and the American Revolution, Princeton University Library. All items on loan from other libraries are gifts of Sid Lapidus.
An Essay on Slavery, Proving from Scripture Its Inconsistency with Humanity and Religion, 1773
Granville Sharp (1735–1813)
Burlington, N.J.: Printed and sold by Isaac Collins
Granville Sharp was an English writer who supported self-government for the colonies but was more famous as an abolitionist. It is believed that he wrote the first major abolitionist book in England, and advocated for James Somerset in his 1772 lawsuit seeking freedom under English law (which is shown in another book in this case). Sharp’s arguments against slavery in other works rely upon natural rights, but in his Essay on Slavery, seen here, he finds in Christian scripture condemnation for the enslavement of people.
On loan from the Rare Book Collection, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano: or, Gustavus Vassa, the African, 1793
Olaudah Equiano (1745–1797)
London: Printed for, and sold by, the author
Equiano was kidnapped from Igboland (in modern Nigeria) as a child and enslaved. After a perilous life filled with abuse as a seaman, he bought his freedom in 1766. As the abolitionist movement grew, he contributed by writing his autobiography (seen in this case), one of the first slave narratives published in England. It proved a financial success, being reprinted several times, and attracted support for the 1807 law banning the slave trade.
On loan from the Rare Book Collection, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations
A Caution to Great Britain and Her Colonies: In a Short Representation of the Calamitous State of the Enslaved Negroes in the British Dominions, 1793
Anthony Benezet (1713–1784)
London: Reprinted and sold by James Phillips
A Quaker schoolteacher motivated by a desire for moral reform, Benezet founded an early school for free Blacks in America. He wrote many books attacking slavery for violations of the natural rights of the enslaved. After the American Revolution, the hypocrisy of governments founded in liberty condoning enslavement was manifestly apparent, as he notes in this work. It was first published in 1766, but was revised in 1784. A later reprint (from 1793) of the revised edition is seen in this case.
On loan from the Rare Book Collection, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations
An Argument in the Case of James Sommersett A Negro, Lately Determined by the Court of King's Bench: Wherein It Is Attempted to Demonstrate the Present Unlawfulness of Domestic Slavery in England: To Which Is Prefixed a State of the Case, 1772
Francis Hargrave (about 1741–1821)
London: Printed for the author
This item is a lawyer’s brief in a famous court case about slavery. James Somerset was kidnapped from Africa and kept in bondage in Virginia until 1768. His enslaver took him to England. Somerset sued for his freedom, on the grounds that English law (as opposed to colonial laws) had no provision allowing chattel slavery. In 1772, the courts found for Somerset, freeing him and highlighting the tension between the English constitution’s respect for individual rights and the slavery practiced in England’s colonies. Exhibited in this case is a printed version of the argument presented to the court by Somerset’s lawyer, Francis Hargrave.
On loan from the Rare Book Collection, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations
Minutes of the Proceedings of the Third Convention of Delegates from the Abolition Societies Established in Different Parts of the United States, 1796
Philadelphia: Printed by Zachariah Poulson, Jr.
Abolitionist societies were established in many states after 1775, and representatives met often between 1794 and 1836. The whites-only conventions had some early successes, pushing for restrictions on the slave trade, and sharing intelligence to thwart kidnappings of free Black people. They tended to favor gradual rather than immediate emancipation. In the 1796 meeting in Philadelphia, the convention prepared recommendations to free Black people “dictated by the purest regard for your welfare.”
On loan from the Rare Book Collection, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations
Minutes of the Proceedings of the Ninth American Convention for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and Improving the Condition of the African Race, 1804
Philadelphia: Printed by Solomon W. Conrad
At their ninth meeting in 1804, the American Convention for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery learned the New Jersey society had introduced into the state legislature a bill for gradual emancipation. When the bill passed that year, persons born to enslaved parents after 1804 were to be freed at the age of 21 (if women) or 25 (if men). Enslaved people born before 1804 would remain in bondage for life.
On loan from the Rare Book Collection, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations
Serious Remonstrances, Addressed to the Citizens of the Northern States, and Their Representatives: Being an Appeal to Their Natural Feelings & Common Sense: Consisting of Speculations and Animadversions, on the Recent Revival of the Slave Trade, in the American Republic, 1805
Thomas Branagan (1774–1843)
Philadelphia: Printed and published by Thomas T. Stiles
The at-least partial abolition of slavery throughout the northern states by 1804 led some to believe that slavery was waning. However, the cotton gin and the expulsion of Native Americans from the “Old Southwest” revived economic prospects for enslavers. Thomas Branagan, a prolific abolitionist author, warned that the burgeoning “internal slave trade” threatened not only the natural rights of Black people, but all Americans through increased political power of slave-holding states.
On loan from the Rare Book Collection, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations
Avenia, or, A Tragical Poem, on the Oppression of the Human Species, and Infringement on the Rights of Man, 1805
Thomas Branagan (1774–1843)
Philadelphia: Printed for Silas Engles
Branagan’s most ambitious work, modeled on the classical Greek epic The Iliad, was an epic poem called Avenia, which tells of an African princess, captured in battle and enslaved in the West Indies. While the poem contains passages decrying the injustice of slavery as a violation of natural rights, it also includes many tragic scenes of pathos, as seen on the displayed pages, showing children being taken from their mother, who has no means to resist their kidnapping.
On loan from the Rare Book Collection, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations
A Discourse, Delivered at the African Meeting-House, in Boston, July 14, 1808, in Grateful Celebration of the Abolition of the African Slave-Trade, by the Governments of the United States, Great Britain and Denmark, 1808
Jedidiah Morse (1761–1826)
Boston: Printed by Lincoln & Edmands
The horrors of the Middle Passage were prominent in indictments of slavery. The ban on Danish participation in the slave trade (1792), and later British and American laws (1807), were early victories for abolitionists. Jedidiah Morse, a Congregationalist clergyman, celebrated the new laws in this sermon at Boston’s first Black Baptist church. While vindicating the rights of Africans to liberty and safety, he admonished parishioners to “be contented in [your] humble station.”
On loan from the Rare Book Collection, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations
Considerations on Keeping Negroes: Recommended to the Professors of Christianity, of Every Denomination. Part Second, 1762
John Woolman (1720–1772)
Philadelphia: Printed by B. Franklin and D. Hall
John Woolman, a Quaker jack-of-all-trades, spent three months visiting the southern states in 1746, and in response wrote this work, the first part of which was published in 1754. His observations about the humanity, and natural rights, of the enslaved people he encountered were persuasive, and in 1758 the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Quakers officially encouraged members of the church to emancipate any people they held in captivity.
A Dissertation on Slavery: With a Proposal for the Gradual Abolition of It, in the State of Virginia, 1796
St. George Tucker (1752–1827)
Philadelphia: Printed for Matthew Carey
St. George Tucker was a Virginia lawyer who found in the institution of slavery an affront to the dignity of individuals. He also saw slavery as a danger to domestic tranquility and democratic governance. The tyrannical methods used to control the enslaved provoked violent resistance. That resistance necessitated the expense of armed militias, which could be turned on white citizens as well as enslaved people. His proposed solution, described in the book in this case, was gradual emancipation. It did not find a receptive audience in his home state.
Bible View of Slavery: A Discourse, Delivered at the Jewish Synagogue, “Bnai Jeshurum,” New York, on the Day of the National Fast, Jan. 4, 1861
Morris J. Raphall (1798–1868)
New York: Rudd & Carleton
A frequently used rationalization for American slavery was the fact that the Hebrew Bible provides guidance for, and implicit sanction of, slaveholding. Morris Raphall was a prominent Orthodox Jewish rabbi of New York City. In the pamphlet shown in this case, he offered an analysis of the ways in which American chattel slavery differed from the slavery depicted in the Torah.
Lectures on American Slavery, 1851
Frederick Douglass (1818–1895)
Buffalo: George Reese & Co.
On loan from the Rare Book Collection, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations
As the abolitionist movement in the United States gained support and influence throughout the 1840s and 1850s, Frederick Douglass became one of its most visible proponents. Douglass, who had been enslaved before escaping to Rochester, New York, was a tireless traveling orator. His persuasive techniques relied on unflinching descriptions of the conditions of slavery and an appeal to the principles of natural rights that underlay the founding documents of the nation. In the lecture on display in this case, which he gave in 1850, Douglass lists all the ways in which enslaved people were deprived of their human rights.
Anti-slavery medal, between 1787–1807 §
White metal, probably an alloy of tin and other metals
London: Society for the Suppression of the African Slave Trade
An 18th-century method of promoting causes was the striking of medallions. Anti-slave trade activists used this image of a kneeling man in chains, with the slogan “Am I Not a Man and a Brother?” to emphasize the humanity of the enslaved captives. The reverse reads “Whatsoever Ye Would That Men Should Do to You, Do Ye Even So to Them”—the “Golden Rule” of Jesus found in Matthew 7:12.
Conder token, between 1787–1807 §
Thomas Spence (1750-1814), artist;
C. James (flourished 1790s), engraver
Bronze
A shortage of small coins led to private companies issuing “tokens” of nominal value to facilitate commerce (named “Conder tokens” after the numismatist James Conder). This token was used for trade in London and Dublin. The reverse shows a pair of clasped hands with the slogan “May Slavery & Opression Cease Throughout the World.”
British Humanity or African Felicity in the West Indies, 1788 §
Henry Smeathman (1742–1786)
Etching. London: G. Graham
Henry Smeathman, the “Father of Termitology” (which is the study of termites), traveled to Africa and the West Indies for entomological research, and witnessed the brutalities of the slave trade and the treatment of enslaved workers. He advocated the establishment of a colony in Sierra Leone to be populated by freed people, doing the work of plantations without the need for slavery. Among his notes was this etching of a public whipping in Grenada.
The Dying Negro, A Poem, third edition, 1775
Francis Eginton (1737–1805), illustrator; Isaac Taylor (1730–1807), engraver
Engraving. London : Printed for W. Flexney
In 1773, the authors Thomas Day (1748–1789) and John Bicknell (1746–1787) were inspired by the true story of an enslaved man who escaped his bondage in England, but was captured and imprisoned on a ship bound for the Americas. Preferring death to more years of bondage, the man killed himself. Day and Bicknell turned the story into the epic poem The Dying Negro, which proved popular in both England and the United States. The title page reproduced here illustrates the climactic moment in the poem and the protagonist’s dying words.
Description of a Slave Ship, 1789
London Committee of the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade in England
Woodcut
London: Printed by James Phillips
British abolitionists published this cross-section of a slave ship in 1789, drawing attention to the miseries inflicted upon enslaved people by the unimaginably tight spaces and foul air in which the captives were imprisoned for up to two months of the Middle Passage. The ship Brookes ostensibly had a capacity of 482 confinees but it is known that more than 600 had been packed in during one of its voyages.
