(ABOLITION) The Fugitive Slaves Appeal To the Clergy of Mass

Sale 2663 - Lot 12

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Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500

(ABOLITION.) The Fugitive Slaves' Appeal!! To the Clergy of Massachusetts. Letterpress broadside, 23¼ x 12¾ inches; minor wear at folds, uncut. Boston, 5 October 1850

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This appeal was "adopted at a meeting of Fugitive Slaves held in Boston, Oct. 5 1850," and begins "We, the trembling, prescribed and hunted fugitives from chattle slavery, now scattered through the various towns and villages of Massachusetts . . . implore you at this distressing crisis, to 'lift up your voices like a trumpet' against the Fugitive Slave Bill, recently adopted by Congress, and designed for our sure and immediate re-enslavement. . . . We implore you, from your pulpits, to denounce that iniquitous law!"

The broadside also includes the entire text of the recently enacted Fugitive Slave Act, adding that "it is a Bill to be resisted, disobeyed, and trampled under foot, at all hazards," and pointing out some of the specific "villainies that will be perpetrated under this unchristian law."

Later published in The Liberator, 11 October 1850; and in "William Cooper Nell, Nineteenth-Century African American Abolitionist, Historian, Integrationist: Selected Writings," pages 275-276. 2 in OCLC, and none traced at auction.