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(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION.) VIRGINIA.
Proof of Freedom for William
Beatly, 19 years.
Single long folio leaf, written on one side only, docket number on
reverse; paper toned; short closed tear at one of the folds. Initialed at the bottom by what
appears to be three people.
Frederick Town, 1805
[600/900]
A VERY INTERESTING EARLY DOCUMENT OF FREEDOM
.
An official court document which attests
to the free status of one William Beatly, “the son of Edward Younger and Polly Beatly, free Negroes
residing in Frederick Town and County . . . age about 19 years. 5 foot three inches high, of middling
dark complexion, having a scar on his right [ ? ], produced by a burn.” The judgment reinforces an
earlier ruling from 1796. When there was an “affidavit of Abm. Levy who obtained a judgment for
his [William’s] freedom . . .” It seems that William might have been seized by a “certain P.H.B.”
One of the more intriguing documents we have seen.
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(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION.) GREGOIRE, ABBE H.
An Enquiry
Concerning the Intellectual and Moral Faculties and Literature of Negroes;
Followed with an Account of the Life an Works of Fifteen Negroes &
Mulattoes, Distinguished in Science, Literature and the Arts.
253, [iv], pages. Small
8vo, original 19th century full tree calf; spine with five gilt rules, red morocco label in one
of them; front joint repaired, and firm.
Brooklyn: Thomas Kirk, 1810
[800/1,200]
A VERY NICE COPY OF A CLASSIC EXAMINATION AND DEFENSE OF THE INTELLECTUAL
CAPACITY OF THE NEGRO
.
Gregoire and other abolitionists on both sides of the Atlantic sought to
establish the “capacity” of the Negro. Not every one would rise to the level of a Phillis Wheatley,
Ignacio Sancho, or Olaudah Equiano, but the “capacity” was there. Gregoire in France and Theodore
Dwight in America tried to prove that black Africa not only had the capacity but a written language,
which of course was Arabic.
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