Mar 28, 2019 - Sale 2503

Sale 2503 - Lot 377

Price Realized: $ 1,188
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
(RECONSTRUCTION.) The infamous "Danville Circular" and a broadside in its support. Various sizes, minor wear. Np, [1883]
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Additional Details

"Coalition Rule in Danville." 4 printed pages, 9 x 5 1/2 inches, on one folding sheet; folds, minor wear and dampstaining. This printed circular letter, sometimes known as "The Danville Circular," is addressed to "the Citizens of the Southwest and Valley of Virginia," and is signed in type by 28 businessmen of Danville. It was written in reaction to the local success of the Readjuster Party, which included numerous African-Americans in its ruling coalition. It complains of "the injustice and humiliation to which our white people have been subjected and are daily undergoing by the domination and misrule of the radical or negro party." Among these outrages: "Out of nine policemen--four negroes were chosen--something before that time unknown to the history of the town. . . . Of the 24 stalls and stands at the market place, 20 are rented out by the council to the negroes. . . . It is a very common practice for the negroes who are employed about our houses to allude to white ladies and gentlemen as men and women." Soon Reconstruction--and these "indignities"--came to an end. 4 copies of this printing in OCLC, and none traced at auction.
"Read the Proof: The Danville Circular as True as Gospel . . . Read, White Men, and Act!" Letterpress broadside, 18 x 5 3/4 inches; folds, minor wear. This additional circular prints two letters and a petition in support of the Danville Circular, both dated 30 October 1883, begging "our white brethren of the Valley" to "save us from the black wave of ignorance and vice which threatens to overwhelm us." None traced in OCLC or at auction, but one was read into the Congressional Record in a 28 March 1884 hearing on the Virginia outrages.