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75
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(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION.) KENTUCKY.
Christmas Eve emancipation
for David Hickman, the slave of Henry Lee, who posted five hundred dollars for
his freedom . . . to be revoked if he could not support himself.
Single long folio
leaf, written in a bold, cursive hand, Signed with an “X” by Hickman.
Kentucky, 24 December 1859
[600/900]
An unusually cynical and cruel document, the wording of which virtually guarantees the revoking of
the slave’s Christmas Eve emancipation. The slave David Hickman, unless he had money put aside,
would almost certainly wind up homeless and thus a slave once again. While not explicit, it is implicit
that Hickman bought his freedom from Lee for $500, probably earned doing odd jobs over a long
period of time on his free time.
75
76
76
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(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION.) RAPHALL, REV. M. J.
Bible View of
Slavery, a Discourse delivered at the Jewish Synagogue Bnai Jeshurum, New
York.
1-41, [2] pages. Small 8vo, original flexible black cloth, stamped in gilt; damp-stain
going through the entire text, still quite readable, the binding quite sound.
New York: Carleton, 1861
[800/1,200]
A VERY SCARCE PRO
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SLAVERY TRACT BY AN IMPORTANT RABBI AND HEBREW SCHOLAR
.
Morris Jacob Raphall (1798-1868), rabbi, scholar, and author was born in Sweden to the banker for
the King of Sweden. The young Raphall showed exceptional abilities and was educated in the best
schools in Europe. He excelled in languages and was for a time chief assistant to the head Rabbi of
Great Britain. This tract, a proslavery argument based on Biblical teachings was strongly refuted by
David Einhorn, and Michael Heilprin, two important American rabbis who felt that Raphall’s work
might stimulate American anti-Semitism.