Sep 17, 2015 - Sale 2391

Sale 2391 - Lot 39

Price Realized: $ 4,250
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
RECRUITMENT BROADSIDE (AMERICAN REVOLUTION--1777.) An Abstract from Resolves Containing the Encouragement Offered by the Continental Congress, and by the State of Massachusetts-Bay, to Such as Shall Inlist into the Continental Army. Letterpress broadside, 13 3/4 x 8 1/2 inches, signed in type by Samuel Freeman and John Avery; browned along left edge and along horizontal folds; uncut, contemporary docketing on verso. (MRS) [Boston: Benjamin Edes], 28 January 1777

Additional Details

Describes the inducements offered by Continental Congress to volunteers, including 20 dollars in bounty, 100 acres of land, a new suit of clothes each year, and a half-pay disability pension if "disabled in the Service of the United States of America as to render him incapable afterwards of getting a Livelihood." The state offers an additional 20 pounds if the new recruit arrives with "a good effective Fire-Arm, and also a Bayonet, or in Lieu thereof, a Sword, Hatchet or Tomahawk, a Cartridge Box and Knapsack," and also offers to throw in a free blanket. Evans 15418; Ford, Massachusetts Broadside 2076; six copies in ESTC and none known at auction. Provenance: Sold from M & S Books to the consignor circa 1984.