Seth Kaller, Inc.

Inspired by History

African American

This catalog of original documents relating to Black History features pieces of the highest rarity and merit for collection, research, and exhibition. They illustrate some of the most opressive as well as inspiring facets of American History. You will see Phillis Wheatley’s poetry, records of slave sales and slave uprisings, and documents related to the Underground Railroad, the abolitionist movement, and Civil Rights publications. 

You will also find Charles Langston, recently imprisoned after a slave rescue, declaring “Liberty and humanity to me have no particular location, no Color, no Country.” John Brown plans “a mighty conquest.” Frederick Douglass writing that “the right to personal freedoom” is the most basic of all rights.  Presidential opinions on slavery, Revolutionary and Civil War documents.  Nearly a century later, Jackie Robinson discusses the “Negro vote,” and Alex Haley’s research archive and manuscript drafts for Roots and an as yet unpublished book help to inspire our nation.
# Article Title
1 1762 Massachusetts Estate Inventory Valuing “1 Negro named Bristo” at £60, Amongst Chattel and Land To Be Given to Minor Heirs
2 54th and 55th Massachusetts Relics of Glory
3 82nd U.S. Colored Infantry Muster Roll
4 A Plea to the Military Governor of Arkansas and Mississippi, to Help a Freedman
5 A Runaway Slave Captured in New York, Set Free, and Re-captured
6 Abel Brewster’s Will: Publisher of the Free Man’s Companion Bequeaths Estate to the American Colonization Society
7 Abolition Pamphlet
8 African-American Union Sailor
9 African-American Union Solider Holding Rifle
10 Alex Haley's "Roots" Primary Research Material and Working Drafts
11 Beating the Wrong Slave by Mistake
12 Bill of Sale for a Mulatto Slave
13 Black Veteran Loses Property to a Corrupt Claim Agent
14 Boston Congregational Society Sermons
15 Candidate W. H. Harrison Spells Out Position on “The Vexed Question” of Slavery’s Expansion
16 Charles Sumner Writes to a Fellow Abolitionist
17 Clarence Mitchell Lobbies Against An Anti- Civil Rights Act
18 Col. Isaac Shepard Authorizes Recruitment of 1st Mississippi Regt. African Descent (Former Slaves)
19 Colonel Haldiman Sumner Putnam , Three Months Before his Death Charging with the 54th Mass. at Fort Wagner, Writes of the Naval Bombardment of Charleston, the Burning of Jacksonville, and Black Troops
20 Connecticut Representative on J.Q. Adams’ Abolition Petition
21 Cuff Liberty- Revolutionary War Black Soldier
22 Declaration of Independence ca. 1833 Scarce Exact Facsimile
23 Democratic Broadside Shows the Limitations of Reconstruction
24 Douglass Encourages Writing on John Brown
25 Dred Scott Supreme Court Ruling
26 During Anti-Slave Trade Patrol, U.S. Navy Torches a Village in West Africa
27 Fighting the Expansion of Slavery, Lincoln Proposes His Best Man for Congress
28 Frederick Douglass Longs to Return to America as a Free Man
29 Frederick Douglass Stands His Ground, Discouraging the "Exodus" Movement
30 Frederick Douglass: “The Right to Personal Freedom” is the Foundation of all other Rights
31 Frederick Douglass’ 1st Autobiography, Narrative of the Life, F. Gertrude Page’s Copy
32 Frederick Douglass’ Appraisal of John Brown
33 Freed South Carolina Slaves Arrested as Runaways in Illinois, Sold Back into Slavery, But Eventually Freed
34 George Washington Carver on Economic Hardship for African Americans During the Great Depression
35 George Washington Contracts to Train his Slaves in Carpentry
36 George Washington Crossing the Delaware
37 George Washington's August 19, 1789 letter to the Philadelphia Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church
38 Haitian Slave Uprising in 1791
39 Helping Haiti: Frederick Douglass Signed Deed
40 Hiring of a "boy, Jim"
41 Horace Greeley on Publication of a Letter by Abolitionist Cassius Clay
42 Iconic - and Disturbing - Slave Ship Illustration
43 Jackie Robinson Reflects on the Importance of “the Negro Vote” in Nixon’s Loss to Kennedy
44 Jackie Robinson Signed Check
45 James Madison Signed Membership Form as President of American Colonization Society
46 John Brown Plans his “Mighty Conquest"
47 John F. Kennedy Invites College President to White House Meeting on: “those Aspects of the Nation’s Civil Rights Problem that Relate to our Schools”
48 Looking into the Welfare of “the contrabands [slaves] in this district…”
49 Lyndon B. Johnson Pen from Signing of the Voting Rights Act
50 Martin Luther King, Jr.: Broadsides and Handbills from the 1960s
51 Philadelphia Slavery - Reynold Keen Letter
52 Phillis Wheatley’s Strongest Published Statement on Slavery
53 Racist Lyrics about the Enlistment of African-American Soldiers
54 Richard Hildreth’s Despotism in America Inscribed by Wendell Phillips To a Famous Union Colonel
55 Sale of Slave Girl Rachel in Washington D.C. 1830
56 Ship’s Manifest Listing A Slave, Mentioning Constitutional Ban On Importation After 1808
57 Slave Signed Freedom Bond
58 Stephen Hopkins of Rhode Island Declares His Slave’s Independence, Four Years Prior to Signing the Declaration
59 The African-American Paul Revere
60 The Congress that Passed the Thirteenth Amendment
61 The First Book by an African-American Woman
62 The Northwest Ordinance – Rare 1787 Printing
63 The Tracking, Capture and Escape of a Runaway South Carolina Slave in Kentucky
64 The Underground Railroad: Moravian leader helps a “Negroe family” travel to Ohio
65 Uncle Tom’s Cabin - Inscribed William Lloyd Garrison to Ann Phillips
66 Vibrant Print of the Fifteenth Amendment
67 Virginia Governor Lee Guarantees Equal Rights to Black Citizens after Reconstruction
68 Warning about a Runaway Slave Girl Who May Create Trouble
69 Washington’s Emancipation of His Slaves – His Will as Described by John Butcher
70 William Seward Discusses Phony Emigration Scheme for Freedmen
71 William Still, Underground Railroad Conductor, Recommends a Black Oberlin Graduate
72 ‘Father of the Underground Railroad’ Challenges Slander
73 “A FAIR will be held in connection with the Anti-Slavery meetings of this place…”
74 “Black bellied Yankees” at The Battle of Fort Blakely
75 “Fort Pillow Massacre”
76 “My strongest hope of ultimate success arises from the belief that by this war slavery is to be forever crushed & put away”
77 “Our Colored Brother” Comes Up to Bat with the 15th Amendment
78 “The death of Patience, a Negro woman”
79 “[I]t was my good fortune to be born and brought up … where negro slavery never existed, except in theory.”