Feb 26, 2004 - Sale 1998

Sale 1998 - Lot 40

Unsold
Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600
A Southern Slave Auction, a Ballad. Composed by Polly M. Rowe, blind from the age of three. Poetry broadside, 20 quatrains in two columns of ten, divided by a rule, the entire within an elaborate border, 11x3/4 inches; two creases where folded. Np, circa 1840
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Additional Details



An unusual poem on the sale of a young woman who had obviously been passing, or rather "passed" by her adoptive father, "young and fair, with Northern girls she'd well compare. Her features small, her lips were thin . . ." The poem intimates that this young, light-skinned woman was sold by her father, a merchant, to settle his debts. While in all likelihood the work of Northern abolitionists, the theme is rather unusual. The poem purports to be written in the South by a blind girl.