Human Rights
Boston Public Library Rare Books May 2011
Human Rights (Wm Garrison’s copy)
vol 1 pub for the American anti-slavery society by RG Williams, 144 Nassau St NY, 25 cents per year
3 Sept 1835, Our object is Liberty for All; gained by Moral Power, and Regulated by Impartial Laws
p.2 cites the NY Commercial Advertiser ed. who raised money to purchase freedom of Dudley’s wife, criticizes immediate abolitionists for not helping, response is this does not overthrow slaver
-says published 50,000 of their first edition, increase now to 55,000
poem by a woman on flogging females
No, 4 October 1835
front page excerpts the Evening Post on effects of immed emancip as positive
-also quotes in both issues Duff Green’s pro slavery stuff in order to refute it
skips to Dec 1835, then to No 9 March 1836,
front page has an illustration of the escape of a slave from a third story window
then May 1836, p. 2 excerpts NY American on Texans actually fighting for slavery; fr NY Evening Post on trail of Dr Crandall for possession of anti slavery papers
-notes Anti Slavery office is moving to corner of Nassau and Spruce streets, opposite City Hall
-notes for sale prints at their office of the Slave Market of America in DC, accurate views from drwgs taken b an artist on the spot, 14 cents for a broadsheet; also The Emancipated family, fine steel plate engrav 12 x 9 copied from a picture by an English artist, Mr Rippingville, representing emancipation in British West Indies, $1 singles; Southern Ideas of Liberty, a litho of Judge Lynch seated on a cotton bag bolstered by boxes of sugar and tobacco, trampling the constitution, presiding over a court or mob of slaveholders, executing Nothern Fanatics on the spot; also on same sheet a litho of new method of sorting the mails as practiced by the slaveholders, 12 ½ cents single; Views of slavery, litho, six scenes: sugar plantation, mode of punishment, auction, wresting from a colored woman her free papers, tearing a child from its mother’s arms, shipping slaves for N Orleans, 12 ½ cents single
Oct 1836, Human Rights, Our Object is Liberty for all: gained by moral power, and regulated by impartial laws. Vol 2 no 3, Sept 1836. Abolitionist.
Nov 1836
-cites Journal of Commerce for printing a letter critical of the abolitionists, as supporting inadvertently the internal slave trade
p4 where their poems go is one from Thomas Moore, copied from the 1830 NY Observer and from them by the NY Evangelist--Observer ought to subscribe to these ideals themselves. Poem set in Persia, a fable, impossible to extinguish fires of freedom.
-also prints ad fr Cinti Gazette for runaway slaves
Dec 1836
p.3 contempt for editor of NY Courier & Enquirer, hypocrites, defends rights of slaveholder
Feb 1837, then April 1837, May 1837
1 of May has cit fr NY American re a Quaker in Savannah who got in trouble. on p. 2 comments on NY Observer, a religious paper critical of abolitionists, employs a mode of warfare against us of the morse and Tracy school, who quote with pious horror some of our harsh comments (as examples of our fanaticism) but never the facts that led to them
July 1837
gives instructions and a form on how to petition congress correctly, anti Texas, asks women to participate
Nov 1837, Dec 1837 has black borders for Elijah Lovejoy. NY American and Eve Post also condemn it.
Jan 1838
those who say Lovejoy was killed not for liberty of the press but because of licentiousness of the press which excuses mob violence
Mar 1838, Aug 1838
Jan 1839 (SW Benedict is by 1838 the publishing agent, no editor’s name is given). Praise JQ Adams. Horrified by Atherton’s gag resolution. p.4 poem fr Evening Post, parable of The Rats and Mice on free press