Sale 2471 - Printed & Manuscript African Americana, March 29, 2018

9 c   (SLAVERY AND ABOLITION.) Hall, Prince. Petition against the kidnapping of African-American seamen, as published in the newspaper The Independent Gazetteer. 4 pages, 11 1 / 4 x 9 1 / 4 inches, on one folding sheet; disbound, minor foxing. Philadelphia, 12 April 1788 [400/600] Prince Hall, a free African-American of Boston, wrote this petition to protest “the inhuman and cruel treat- ment that three of our brethren, free citizens of the town of Boston, lately received.” A ship captain “put them in irons, and carried them off from their wives and children, to be sold for slaves. . . . Hence it is, that many of us, who are good seamen, are obliged to stay at home through fear.” He also protests the slave-trading ships operating out of Boston, “cleared out from this harbour for Africa, and there they either steal, or cause others to steal, our brothers and sisters, and fill their holds full of unhappy men and women, crouded together . . . and then return here like honest men after having sported with the lives and liberty of their fellow men.” “I TOLD HIM THAT HE COULD NOT WHIP ME” 10 c   (SLAVERY AND ABOLITION.) Letters concerning Gabriel Johnson, an enslaved man at Mount Vernon—including his letter from Bruin’s Slave Jail. 4 Autograph Letters Signed by various authors, all to or from John AugustineWashington, each 1 to 3 pages in length, two with integral address panels and postal markings; mailing folds but otherwise minimal wear. With complete transcripts of all 4 letters. Vp, 1842 and 1845 [12,000/18,000] Gabriel Johnson (1820-after 1900) was born into slavery at the Blakeley Plantation in Jefferson County (nowWestVirginia), owned by theWashington family. In 1841, he was transferred along with his mother to Mount Vernon, the home of the late president George Washington. Mount Vernon had just been leased by the widow Jane Charlotte BlackburnWashington (1786-1855) to her son John AugustineWashington III (1821-1861)—the great-grand-nephew of PresidentWashington. The first letter in this collection is from John AugustineWashington to his mother, Mount Vernon, 7 March 1842. Just months after he had assumed control of MountVernon, he wrote:“A day or two since I wrote very hastily to inform you that Gabriel had gone off. . . . He seems to have taken away none of his clothes but those he had on & from what I can learn, he could not have had money. . . .The road to Jefferson being the only one he knew, I think it most probable that he has directed his course there & it will be all-important to try & prevent his crossing the river & I have no doubt that his views are towards Pennsylvania.”Washington then pondered the reason for the escape:“He has always professed (so I have understood) the greatest affection for me, & no servant could have been treated with more kindness. . . . Negroes will not bear in their present condition as lenient treatment as Gabriel met with from me, & as a matter of necessity, I shall be obliged to alter my ideas concerning their management & to observe a stricter discipline.” His mother replied with a much shorter note four days later from the Blakeley plantation in Jefferson County, where she still resided:“I am happy to inform you Gabriel is here. Please come up without delay.” Gabriel had returned to the place he had been born and raised, apparently to see his parents and siblings. Gabriel was brought back to Mount Vernon, where he was likely subjected to the “stricter discipline” which young John Augustine Washington had promised.Three years later, he once again rebelled against his con- dition.The next letter in this collection is fromWashington’s overseer Joseph McFarland, Mount Vernon, 3 August 1845:“I have had a great deal of difficulty with Gabriel & had to put him in jail. Saturday I started him out of town with the corn & bran,” and came across him hours later having not made the delivery:“He sayd he had been about his business, spoke very mad. . . . He got on his horses, curseing & fighting them. I told him to stop & he would not, still curseing & swareing. I takes the whip from him, he then jumped of his horse horses & ran. I rode around him & stoped him. He then turned to abuseing me to all purposes. He allowed he would not stay here any longer & a great deal of stuff.The people told me I had better put him in jail. I put him with Mr. Bruen at 25 cts a day. Mr. Bruen thinks he would be mighty apt to run away. I did not flog him as Mr. Bruen persuaded me not, for it would injured the sale of him.” Gabriel had been placed in the infamous Bruin’s Slave Jail in Alexandria,VA, where Joseph Bruin and Henry P. Hill held large numbers of slaves awaiting sale or discipline. Harriet Beecher Stowe discusses the jail at length in her Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin.