African American History: A Question of Law

African American history is also forged in the Constitution, the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, Supreme Court decisions, and the ongoing contest of state vs. federal sovereignty. Bauman Rare Books traces that often contentious history in these rare works that reflect who we have been as a nation, and who we want to be.

Click to View Full Book Details

ARTICLE IV, SECTION II OF THE CONSTITUTION FORMED "THE BASIS OF THE UNION" (ALEXANDER HAMILTON)

(SLAVERY) (BRADBURN, George) (KINNICUTT, Thomas). Report on… Citizens Liable to be Sold as Slaves. Boston, 1839.

First edition of the landmark 1839 Massachusetts Report firmly referencing the Constitution's privileges and immunities clause in presenting the state's "first formal protest against the laws of racial discrimination along the southern coast," uncut in original self-wrappers. $4000.

Read More
Click to View Full Book Details

HANDSOME LARGE CALLIGRAPHIC PORTRAIT LITHOGRAPH OF LINCOLN CREATED FROM THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION

LINCOLN, Abraham. Emancipation Proclamation. Iowa, 1865.

Original large calligraphic portrait lithograph of Abraham Lincoln created from the text of the Emancipation Proclamation, with portions of the text highlighted to create a portrait of Lincoln clearly visible within the text, designed by W.H. Pratt. $3800.

Read More
Click to View Full Book Details

"THE FIRST AMERICAN MARTYR TO THE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS, AND THE FREEDOM OF THE SLAVE" (JOHN QUINCY ADAMS): FIRST EDITION OF MEMOIR OF THE REV. ELIJAH P. LOVEJOY, 1838

(LOVEJOY, Elijah P.) LOVEJOY, Joseph C. and Owen. Memoir of the Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy. New York, 1838.

First edition of the publisher and editor's memoir, issued the year after his murder—killed by "five bullets in his heart, while defending his fourth press from an armed, arsonist mob"—only two years after he denounced the lynching by fire of a free black man, as an act of "savage barbarity," with introduction by John Quincy Adams, a seminal record of a key event in America's abolitionist battle and the history of the First Amendment. $3200.

Read More
Click to View Full Book Details

"YOU ARE IN A FREE STATE, AND HAVE ONLY TO GO ASHORE TO BE FREE"

(SLAVERY) WILLIAMSON, Passmore. Case of Passmore Williamson. Philadelphia, 1856.

First edition of "the most complete record available" of the controversial Pennsylvania case on fugitive slaves, establishing a "precedent set in federal and state courts… and important cause célèbre for the antislavery movement," crucial in asserting a clear path for the following year's Dred Scott decision, and provoking a "legal crisis… that led to the Civil War," elusive in original cloth. $2800.

Read More
Click to View Full Book Details

"A PROFOUND IMPACT ON THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES.… BROUGHT THE NATION CLOSER TO THE DAY OF RECKONING"

(BRANDED HAND) (WALKER, Jonathan). Trial and Imprisonment. Boston, 1845.

First edition of Walker's "rare first-account of slave life" in the white abolitionist's electrifying account of his struggle to help seven men escape slavery aboard his ship—"cause célèbre of the transatlantic abolitionist movement"—documenting their capture and imprisonment, the punishment of having "S.S." for Slave Stealer branded on his hand, featuring the engraved image of his branded hand on the title page, "one of the most recognizable icons" of the abolitionist movement, along with three full-page engravings, a handsome copy in original cloth. $2800.

Read More
Click to View Full Book Details

"THE HISTORY OF SPEECH AND ANTI-SLAVERY IS CRITICAL FOR OUR UNDERSTANDING OF HOW OPPOSITION TO FREE SPEECH WORKS"

(SLAVERY) (CONSTITUTION) (GILMAN, Winthrop S.) (SOLOMON, John) LINCOLN, William S. Alton Trials. New York, 1838.

First edition of the crucial record of the controversial 1838 trials of over 20 defendants, documenting the deadly mob attack on Reverend Lovejoy and his press, a work that swiftly provoked Northern fears that free speech required "not only protection against governmental suppression, but also protection against private violence aimed at silencing speakers," exceptional in original cloth. $2800.

Read More
Click to View Full Book Details

AMERICA’S "FAILURE TO SET ITS HOUSE IN ORDER, TO RANSOM ITS OWN PROMISE, BROUGHT OUT IN HIM… UNCOMPROMISING ANGER, A DOGGED REFUSAL TO BOW"

(ROBESON, Paul). United States Court of Appeals… Motion. New York, 1956.

First official edition of Robeson's 1956 amicus curiae brief for the long-denied restoration of his passport, a seminal document in the history of constitutionally protect freedom of speech and the right to travel, submitted by W.E.B. Du Bois and others, declaring "to silence Paul Robeson is to immobilize an eloquent, devoted, determined and respected fighter for the full emancipation of the Negro people," with accompanying facsimile of letter signed by Eslanda Good Robeson, one-page document and laid-in envelope with typed address. $2500.

Read More
Click to View Full Book Details

"ONE OF THE MOST DRAMATIC AND FAMOUS INCIDENTS IN THE ENFORCEMENT OF THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT"

(BURNS, Anthony) PARKER, Theodore. Trial of Theodore Parker. Boston, 1855.

First edition of the fiery abolitionist's attack on the trial and rendition of Anthony Burns, and the federal government’s attempt to prosecute Parker and other key abolitionists—"one of the most remarkable and flamboyant works of the 19th century… on the right of free speech, the wrong of slavery, and the nature of judicial tyranny," a handsome copy in original cloth. $2200.

Read More
Click to View Full Book Details

"IT IS NOT IN THE POWER OF HUMAN LAW TO MAKE MEN ENTIRELY FORGET THAT THE SLAVE IS A MAN"

(SLAVERY) (AMERICAN & FOREIGN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY) (ANTI-SLAVERY EXAMINER). Five Anti-Slavery Pamphlets. New York, 1835-53.

Sammelband of antebellum anti-slavery pamphlets and periodicals, including two issues of the Anti-Slavery Examiner; a first edition of the 1853 annual report of the American & Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, which includes Frederick Douglass' powerful address arguing against the Liberia plan; a first edition of the proceedings of the 1835 New York Anti-Slavery Convention; and a 1836 first edition of the Third Annual Report of the Anti-Slavery Society. $1900.

Read More
Click to View Full Book Details

"THE GREAT PROBLEM POSED BY THE U.S. CONSTITUTION"

(CONSTITUTION) STEWART, Alvan. Legal Argument… for the Deliverance of 4,000 Slaves. New York, 1845.

First edition of Alvan Stewart's powerful Legal Argument testing slavery's persistent lawfulness in New Jersey nearly two decades before the Civil War, this very elusive work "an amazing combination of history, morality, law, politics, philosophy and constitutional analysis"—demonstrating "slavery must be understood… as a legal institution"—in original wrappers. $1800.

Read More
Click to View Full Book Details

"SIR: YOU ARE UNDOUBTEDLY APPRIZED OF THE FACT THAT THE MARSHAL OF THIS DISTRICT HAS IN CUSTODY THE SPANISH SCHOONER 'AMISTAD,' WITH HER CARGO AND 41 BLACKS, SUPPOSED TO BE SLAVES…"

(SLAVERY) (DEPARTMENT OF STATE). Africans Taken in the Amistad. Washington, 1840.

First edition of this Congressional document released pursuant to a Congressional resolution detailing government actions taken in the matter of the Amistad, consisting mainly of correspondence to and from Secretary of State John Forsyth. $1750.

Read More
Click to View Full Book Details

WILLIAM JAY'S 1839 VIEW OF THE ACTION…, WORK "ON WHICH ANTISLAVERY POLITICIANS AND LAWYERS COULD MAKE THEIR STAND"

JAY, William. View of the Action… in Behalf of Slavery. New-York, 1839.

First edition of the highly influential work by William Jay, son of Founding Father John Jay, documenting the "grim" legacy of the U.S. Constitution's "guilty compromise"—with Frederick Douglass honoring Jay at his death for his dedication to "the great cause of universal freedom… a tower of strength and his pen a two-edged, sword"—especially scarce in original cloth. $1600.

Read More
Click to View Full Book Details

"A COMMANDING PRESENCE IN THE HISTORY OF THE NATION'S STRUGGLES TO OVERCOME RACIAL AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE"

(PHILLIPS, Wendell). Can Abolitionists Vote. New York, 1845.

First edition of the provocative abolitionist's fierce attack on the Constitution—proclaiming it "an irredeemably proslavery document"—declaring its legacy implicates "all Americans in the crimes of slaveholding," and caused the American flag to be weighed "heavy with blood." $1500.

Read More
Click to View Full Book Details

"TO MAKE THIS WHOLE LAND THE SLAVEHOLDER'S HUNTING GROUND"

(SLAVERY) SMITH, Gerrit. Substance of the Speech Made… in the Capitol. Albany, 1850.

First edition of the bold abolitionist's Speech proclaiming the Constitution "does not allow the three million of our colored countrymen to be held in slavery," a close friend of Frederick Douglass, who "openly embraced Smith's version of an antislavery interpretation of the Constitution," delivered the same decade as John Brown's Harpers Ferry raid, substantially financed by Smith. $1500.

Read More
Click to View Full Book Details

"THE RIGHT OF PEACEABLE ASSEMBLY WAS CONSIDERED BY THE FRAMERS OF OUR CONSTITUTION TO LIE AT THE FOUNDATION OF A GOVERNMENT… DEDICATED TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF JUSTICE AND THE PRESERVATION OF LIBERTY"

(UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION) (BATES, Daisy) Supreme Court of the United States. No. 41.—October Term, 1959. Daisy Bates… v. City of Little Rock. Washington, D.C. 1960.

Official separate printing of Justice Potter Stewart’s February 23, 1960 opinion, with the concurrence of Justice Black and Justice Douglass, in the unanimous decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in “Daisy Bates et al., Petitioners v. City of Little Rock, et al,” noting the court’s decision rests on "the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment," in original wrappers. $1100.

Read More
Click to View Full Book Details

"'FAITH' IN THE FIGHT OF BLACK MEN FOR FREEDOM"

WRIGHT, Richard. Bright and Morning Star. New York, 1941.

First separate edition of one of Wright's earliest and most provocative looks at "racial injustice and violence in the American South," based on rumors he heard as a young boy about a Black woman who "avenged the murder of her husband" by shooting the white men responsible, a handsome copy in fragile original wrappers. $950.

Read More
Click to View Full Book Details

FIRST EDITION OF SENATOR CHARLES SUMNER'S "NO COMPROMISE OF HUMAN RIGHTS. NO ADMISSION IN THE CONSTITUTION OF INQUALITY OF RIGHTS, OR DISFRANCHISEMENT ON ACCOUNT OF COLOR" SPEECH OF MARCH 7, 1866

SUMNER, Charles. Speech of Hon. Charles Sumner, of Massachusetts, on the Proposed Amendment. Washington, 1866.

First edition of this important Reconstruction-era Senate speech attacking the proposed language of the 14th Amendment and demanding that its proposed provision of rights for Black Americans include true equality as well as the right to vote. $450.

Read More