Mar 21, 2024 - Sale 2663

Sale 2663 - Lot 445

Price Realized: $ 531
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
(WOMEN'S HISTORY.) The petition of formerly enslaved woman Pamela Sparhawk to inherit her brother's modest estate, published in 3 issues of the Columbian Centinel. Each 4 pages, about 21 x 14 inches, on one folding sheet; second issue with moderate dampstaining, third issue crudely disbound. Boston, 22 and 29 October, and 5 November 1817
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Pamela Sparhawk was born circa 1761 in Africa, was captured as a young girl and brought to Boston in slavery, and was granted her freedom during the American Revolution. She had been separated from her brother by her original owner, but miraculously reconnected with him in Boston, where he owned property and was living under the name Samuel Bean. When Samuel died in 1816, Pamela petitioned the court to be recognized as his heir. Her petition ran three times in the Columbian Centinel newspaper, telling the story of her life: "Pamela Sparhawk of Boston . . . is a native of Africa, and was brought from thence to the West-Indies by a slave trader . . . and was a slave in the family of Rev. Mr. Merriam, of Newton, until the American Revolution. . . . Samuel Bean acknowledged her to be his sister and was satisfied of the fact, but it would be difficult if not impossible for her in a court of law to establish her claim . . . in consequence of the unhappy circumstance, which will be easily perceived." The notices were signed in type with her mark, a sideways capital "X." The statement was witnessed by Congressman Timothy Fuller (father of the important feminist author Margaret Fuller), but it apparently went unheeded by the General Court.

Pamela Sparhawk's life has recently been reconstructed and celebrated by the Historic Newton organization in an online exhibition, "Finding Pamela: Writing a New History," and was described in the Boston Globe on 30 June 2021.