Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - September - 2020 Issue

African Americana from the William Reese Company

African Americana from the William Reese Co.

The William Reese Company's latest catalogue offers a selection of African Americana. It covers all sorts of material, books, documents, broadsides, pamphlets, photographs, personal archives. Dates range from early 18th century to the 20th. Much deals with slavery and abolitionism, and also Reconstruction and Jim Crow. Writers and creators are both black and white, and among the latter, both sympathetic and hostile. Some have little to do with race, such as family photo albums, posters for shows and musical performances, guides for African-American owned businesses, photographs of black celebrities. Nevertheless, race always comes to the forefront when it comes to African-Americans like with no other people, and one wonders when this obsession by others will finally be replaced with a focus on shared humanity. These are a few samples of what will be found in this catalogue.

 

We begin with the image on the catalogue's cover. It is from a commercially produced photo album of workers on a potato farm in Hastings, Florida in the 1920s. There are 18 photographs, ten of which feature African-American workers, in the fields, on tractors, and loading freight trains. Others were taken of poor white laborers on the farm. In the 1920s, Hastings, in the northeastern part of the state, was producing many train car loads of potatoes. A local cooperative packed and shipped them under the name “Superior Brand New Potatoes.” Hastings was known as the “Potato Capital of Florida.” I admit I didn't know they even grew potatoes in Florida, let alone had a capital. Do they grow oranges in Idaho? Item 46. Priced at $1,750.

 

Item 12 is Resolutions, at the Late Mass Convention, Holden at Concord, October 15, 1846. This was a Democratic party convention in New Hampshire, and the resolutions came from George Barstow. Barstow wasn't a typical Democrat in that he was strongly anti-slavery. His resolutions supported the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia and its spread to any territories captured during the then active Mexican War. According to John Greenleaf Whittier, who supported Barstow, his resolutions were “clamored down and refused consideration.” This action was attributed to party leaders, notably Franklin Pierce. Barstow's friends had his resolutions printed in this pamphlet, saying, “the whip of the negro driver surely cannot have any terrors for the Democrats of New Hampshire, even if it be snapped at them by Frank Pierce, the dictator.” Six years later, Pierce would be elected President, the quintessential “Northern man with Southern principles.” Item 12. $400.

 

In the late 19th century, most of what Americans heard as African American music came from minstrel shows, white people covered in blackface presenting racist stereotypes of black people. On the other hand, there was occasionally the real thing, and such was the Fisk Jubilee Singers. They were formed in 1871 at Fisk University, a college created by missionaries in Nashville after the Civil War to educate the freedmen and their families. Fisk had financial issues and so their music director formed the Jubilee Singers to go on the road and earn some money on behalf of the college. Instead of being caricatures, they were dignified, talented singers singing mostly traditional songs carried over from the days of slavery. On March 24, 1875, they performed in Lynn, Massachusetts. Item 45 is a promotional broadsheet, printed on both sides, carrying two notable recommendations. On one side, it says Read This Carefully. A Song from Frederick Douglass. It explains that recently the singers had been invited to spend an evening at Douglass' home at which time he taught them a song he knew from his slave days, Run to Jesus. He said that while singing that song, the idea came to him to escape from slavery. On the other side, the heading reads, Read This Carefully. Mark Twain and the Jubilee Singers. It prints a letter from Twain of March 8 saying he was going to hear the Fisk Jubilee Singers for the fifth time and requested they sing John Brown's Body. That was an interesting choice, a song honoring the anti-slavery martyr sung by Union soldiers early in the war, whose tune was co-opted for the better known Battle Hymn of the Republic a short time later. $750.

 

No event during the time of slavery struck fear into the hearts of white Southerners like this one, and yet they still could not bring themselves to deal with the cause, slavery. Item 137 is Authentic and Impartial Narrative of the Tragical Scene which was Witnessed in Southampton County (Virginia) on Monday the 22nd of August Last, when Fifty-five of its Inhabitants (Mostly Women and Children) Were Inhumanly Massacred by the Blacks! This is an account of the Nat Turner Rebellion, a pamphlet by Samuel Warner published in 1831. Nat Turner was a slave who had for years believed he would be called upon to lead his people to freedom. He took an eclipse of the sun as a message that the time had come. They attacked whites in the area as mercilessly as they had been treated for centuries. The rebellion was short lived and whites killed twice as many blacks, many without regard to whether they were participants, but even with the revenge, the message was in – so long as there was slavery, there was always a risk of rebellion, especially considering the number of slaves in an area was often greater than the number of whites. It led to attempts by some whites, notably the grandson of Thomas Jefferson, to bring about a gradual end to slavery, as had earlier been done in the North, but ultimately the South chose to live with the fear and act brutally in order to preserve slavery. Item 137. $13,500.

 

Eventually, the South's intransigence on the issue of slavery led to the civil war. By March 11, 1864, when this broadside was issued, there was already an air of desperation for their cause. Like Nat Turner, they inflicted much damage on their foe, but their foe had superior manpower and the imbalance was taking its toll. The South could not find more recruits while the North still could. There was one more source of healthy strong men in the south, but their interests were in a Northern victory, not a Southern one. They had little reason to be loyal to the Confederacy. The South was desperate, thereby opening military service to blacks, free and enslaved. Those who were slaves would be “volunteered” or conscripted through their owners, not their own choice. The owners, not the slaves, would be compensated for their labor. The slaves had no choice. Naturally, the Confederates feared that if armed, the slaves would turn their guns on them, so they were limited to “certain capacities,” providing support, building forts and such, as opposed to fighting. In 1865, the war almost lost, Jefferson Davis even recommended allowing slaves to fight in return for getting their freedom, but that freedom had already been granted by the Union so there remained a risk that they would turn on the South. That plan was never adopted. Item 32 is Circular. Adjutant and Inspector General's Office, General Orders, No. 32...An Act to Increase the Efficiency of the Army by the Employment of Free Negroes and Slaves in Certain Capacities. $5,000.

 

The William Reese Company may be reached at 203-789-8081 or amorder@reeseco.com. Their website is www.williamreesecompany.com.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [RUTH, George Herman “Babe” (1895-1948)]. Signed photograph. Circa 1930s. 191 x 248 mm. $1,500 to $2,500.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HARRISON, Benjamin. Document signed (“Benj Harrison”) as governor of Virginia, certifying the service of Daniel Cumbo, a Black Revolutionary soldier. $6,000 to $9,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: ONE OF THE FIRST PRINTED ANNOUNCEMENTS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: FIRST PRINTING OF LINCOLN’S IMMORTAL GETTYSBURG ADDRESS. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HIGHLY IMPORTANT MORMON ARCHIVE. ALLEY, George. Archive of 23 Autograph Letters Signed by Mormon Convert George Alley to His Brother Joseph Alley. $10,000 to $20,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [AVIATION]. [ARMSTRONG, Neil A.] Aviation Hall of Fame Gold Medal MS64 NGC, Awarded to Neil Armstrong in 1979. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: NEWLY DISCOVERED FIRST PRINTING OF "WITH MALICE TOWARDS NONE... " FROM THE ONLY NEWSPAPER ACTUALLY ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE IN LINCOLN’S SECOND INAUGURAL PROCESSION. $4,000 to $8,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: THE MOST IMPORTANT GEORGE WASHINGTON DOCUMENT IN PRIVATE HANDS; GEORGE WASHINGTON’S COMMISSION AS COMMANDER IN CHIEF, 1775, ONE OF ONLY TWO ORIGINALS. $150,000 to $250,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: A VERY RARE ACCOUNT OF BLACKBEARD’S DEATH AND ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PIRATE ITEMS EXTANT. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: EDISON, Thomas. Patent for Edison’s Improvements on the Electric-Light, No. 219,628. [Washington, D.C.: U.S. Patent Office], 16 September 1879. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [VIETNAM WAR]. The original pen used by Secretary of State William P. Rogers to sign the Vietnam Peace Agreement, Paris, 27 January 1973. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: SONS OF LIBERTY FOUNDER COLONEL BARRÉ ANNOTATED TITLE-PAGE, “WHICH OUGHT TO ROUSE UP BRITISH ATTENTION”. $4,000 to $6,000.
  • Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: [Langland (William)]. The vision of Pierce Plowman, nowe the seconde time imprinted..., Roberte Crowley, 1550. £8,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: [Shakespeare (William)]. [Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies], second folio edition, [by Tho.Cotes, for Robert Allot], [1632]. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Bible, Czech Biblia Bohemica, first complete Bible printed in the Czech vernacular, Prague, August 1488. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: Shabthai Tzvi.- Collection of four printed and illustrated broadsides detailing the appearance, rise and fall of the false messiah, Shabthai Tzvi, Augsburg, 1666-67. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Leaf from the Beauvais Missal, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment, [Northern France (perhaps Beauvais or Amiens)], [fourteenth century (c.1310)]. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Aubrey (John). [Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme], manuscript in English, Latin and Greek, [c. 1693]. £30,000 to £50,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Poems on Various Occasions, first edition, Harriet Maltby's copy, Newark, Printed by S. & J. Ridge, 1807. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Tolkien (J.R.R.) The Hobbit, first edition, second impression with dust-jacket, 1937 [but 1938]. £7,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Blake (William).- Thornton (Robert John). The Pastorals of Virgil, 2 vol., engraved plates by William Blake, 1821. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: America.- Mount (William J.) & Thomas Page. The English Pilot…, [bound with] The Fourth Book, describing The West Indies Navigation from Hudson's-Bay to the River Amazones, 1721. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Oldfield (Henry Ambrose), Rajman Singh Chitrakar & others. An album of 160 photographs and 13 original artworks, (1833-1919), [c. 1850s-1880s]. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Audubon (John James) [and William MacGillivray]. Ornithological Biography…, 5 vol., first edition, presentation copy inscribed by Audubon, Edinburgh, 1831-49 [i.e. 1831-39]. £10,000 to £15,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Winston Churchill. The Second World War. Set of First-Edition Volumes. 6,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: A.A. Milne, Ernest H. Shepard. A Collection of The Pooh Books. Set of First-Editions. 18,600 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Salvador Dalí, Lewis Carroll. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Finely Bound and Signed Limited Edition. 15,000 USD
    Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ian Fleming. Live and Let Die. First Edition. 9,500 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter Series. Finely Bound First Printing Set of Complete Series. 5,650 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ernest Hemingway. A Farewell to Arms. First Edition, First Printing. 4,200 USD
  • Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A RUTH BADER GINSBURG BEADED JUDICIAL COLLAR. $80,000 - $120,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: ONLY KNOWN COPY OF THE ONLY BOOK BY THE REMARKABLE EVE ADAMS. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A COMPLETE RUN OF VISIONAIRE MAGAZINE THROUGH 2010. $6,000 - $9,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: LAW REVIEW OFFPRINT SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY RUTH BADER GINSBURG. $3,000 - $5,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: META REBNER'S WORKING SCRIPT OF THE LOVED ONE. $1,500 - $2,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A KATHY GROVE PORTRAIT OF CYNDI LAUPER FOR THE FEBRUARY 1989 DETAILS COVER. $800 - $1,200
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A PLASTIC COAT BY MILLIE DAVID FEATURED IN SOHO NEWS STYLE SECTION, FROM THE COLLECTION OF ANNIE FLANDERS. $500 - $700
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A RUTH BADER GINSBURG JEWELRY BOX. $600 - $900
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A SET OF JONI MITCHELL LYRICS FOR "IF I HAD A HEART." $2,000 - $3,000
  • 19th Century Shop
    Catalogue 198 just published
    19th Century Shop. Darwin and Wallace, first printing of the first paper on natural selection
    19th Century Shop. Shakespeare’s Poems, first collected edition
    19th Century Shop. Walt Whitman portrait inscribed with a Leaves of Grass poem
    19th Century Shop. Major Elizabeth Barrett Browning manuscript notebook
    19th Century Shop. Spock's Baby Book, original MS
    19th Century Shop. Cellarius, Harmonia Macrocosmica, the great celestial atlas

Review Search

Archived Reviews

Ask Questions