(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION) Thompson the Abolitionist

Sale 2253 - Lot 287

Price Realized: $ 4,080

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

Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500

URGES THAT AN ABOLITIONIST "BE BROUGHT TO THE TAR KETTLE " (SLAVERY AND ABOLITION.) Thompson, the Abolitionist. Letterpress handbill, 9 x 12 1/4 inches; mounted on early stiff board, corners a bit rounded, date added in manuscript; auction catalogue description mounted on verso. Boston: [Commercial Gazette?], 21 October 1835

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George Thompson (1804-1878) was a leading British abolitionist who toured the United States in 1834. Rumors circulated that he was to speak at a meeting of the Boston Female Antislavery Society in October 1835. The Boston Commercial Gazette was outraged and suggested that he and his American counterpart William Lloyd Garrison be "thrown overboard." This chilling handbill was printed, possibly by the Commercial Gazette's press, calling Thompson "an infamous foreign scoundrel" and offering a bounty so he could be tarred and feathered: "A purse of $100 has been raised by a number of patriotic citizens to reward the individual who shall first lay violent hands on Thompson, so that he may be brought to the tar kettle before dark." Thompson's appearance was only a false rumor, but the mob descended on the antislavery meeting, and the American abolitionist Garrison was nearly lynched. See Winsor, Memorial History of Boston, pages 381-2.
This infamous handbill is often discussed in histories of the abolitionist movement, but only the Library of Congress copy is listed in WorldCat, and no other examples have been seen at auction since 1963. Provenance: Parke-Bernet sale, 27 October 1959, lot 1.