(MUSIC) Slave Songs of the South by the Hampton Colored Stud

Sale 2562 - Lot 295

Price Realized: $ 1,188

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200

(MUSIC.) Slave Songs of the South, by the Hampton Colored Students. 4 printed pages, 9 1/2 x 6 inches, on one folding sheet; minor wear including 3 short closed tears, mailing folds. New York: E. Wells Sackett, 3 March 1875

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The Fisk Jubilee Singers were launched in 1871, and proved to be successful fundraisers for their cash-strapped university. Soon after, the Hampton Institute followed suit with their own touring group of singers. The first page is a program for the performance listing 14 songs. The center pages are headed by a note explaining that "The Hampton Students were nearly all born in slavery, and their music is a faithful rendering of the songs peculiar to slave life," over a facsimile manuscript endorsement of the group signed by 26 prominent clergymen. The rear page features a large engraving of the Hampton Institute's Virginia Hall.

This particular flier advertises a concert at Plymouth Church in Brooklyn Heights, which had been a focal point of the New York abolitionist movement under its founding pastor Henry Ward Beecher (brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe). Rev. Beecher was still on the scene when this concern was held in 1875, but was in the throes of a tabloid sex scandal. Not only does his facsimile signature grace the centerfold endorsement, his is the first name to appear.