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Unbound. The Abolitionist Autograph Collection of Elwood Evans (1828-1898), assembled in the 1840s, highlighted by what we believe to be one of only three surviving autographs of Cinqué, leader of the *Amistad* revolt, and the only example in private hands. The collection, assembled in Evans' youth, also contains a fine example of the rare John Sartain engraving of Cinqué, the Signature of another member of the *Amistad* revolt, Fuli (here Foole), as well as the Signatures of abolitionists Thomas Clarkson, Charles C. Burleigh, John Pierpont, Joseph Parrish, Joshua Giddings, and Isaac T. Hopper, considered the founder of the Underground Railroad.
Elwood Evans, who was born and raised in Philadelphia, traveled to the Pacific Coast at the age of 22 and became deputy clerk to the collector of Puget Sound. The collection also contains four State appointments, dating between 1851 and 1854, in each case appointing him Commissioner for the Territory of Oregon. These are Signed by William F. Johnston, George F. Fort, Horatio Seymour, and Emory Washburn (Governors of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts, respectively). Evans spent most of his adult life in the Pacific Northwest, as a private attorney, public official (he was Mayor of Olympia from 1859-1861), and local historian, culminating in the publication of his two-volume *History of the Pacific Northwest* (1889).
THE CINQUÉ AND FOOLE AUTOGRAPHS
The Signatures of Cinqué and Foole are in ink, on a small slip of paper (approximately 4" x 3½"), mounted on a larger contemporary sheet of paper. Below the signature is written in ink in a different hand: "at Lombard St School 5mo 27 1841." Below this in pencil is written "Cinque and F-foole [sic] visited the abo[ve] School with Chas Evans then a Director and then and there signed the above." Cinqué (also known as Cingue, Joseph Cinquéz, and Sengbe Pieh), was born in what is now Sierra Leone around 1813 and is believed to have died there circa 1879. The history of Cinqué's life from the time of his enslavement in 1839 to his return to Sierra Leone as a free man in 1841 is well-known, having been re-told numerous times and dramatized in the 1997 film *Amistad*, in which he was portrayed by actor Djimon Hounsou. Throughout the ordeal of the *Amistad* captives, Cinqué was the unquestioned leader of the group, apparently not only because of his own initiative (having picked the lock of his captors while aboard ship, released his fellow slaves, and planned their rebellion), but also through his commanding presence and abilities.
The entire group of *Amistad* captives was taught English, although not surprisingly it was the children among them who became most conversant in the language. After the Supreme Court ruled in their favor on March 9, 1841, they traveled to New York and Philadelphia as part of the effort to raise funds to provide for their transport home. On these occasions Cinqué gave speeches in Mende, while a youth named Kale would speak in English. Despite the language difference, contemporary reports relate that Cinqué's charisma was such that his speeches were often enthusiastically received even before they were translated to his audience.
It is difficult to determine how proficient in English Cinqué became while in the United States. Records indicate that he always spoke in Mende when giving court deposition and when making public appearances. However, the two other extant original documents signed by him, both institutionally held, may contain additional samples of his writing. The famous Mendi Bible, which the *Amistad* captives presented to John Quincy Adams in 1841 in appreciation of his forceful and effective arguments on their behalf, and now held at the Adams National Historical Park, contains a letter to Adams that is signed, "For the Mendi people. Cinqué, Kinna, Kale." Some scholars believe the letter, and not just the signature, to be in Cinqué's hand. The other signed letter is that held by the Amistad Research Center at Tulane University, dated February 9, 1841, from Cinqué to the prominent New York merchant and abolitionist Lewis Tappan, who was the leader of the Amistad Committee and the person most responsible for their legal defense and living conditions while they were in the United States. This letter too is believed by some scholars to be entirely in Cinqué's hand. Aside from his three years in the United States, very little is known about Cinqué, and there is no reason to believe that he had occasion to write his name after his return to Africa.
In addition to the three known autographs (the two institutionally held and the one offered here), there are two known facsimiles of his autograph as well. The first is the contemporary facsimile executed by engraver John Sartain for his 1840 mezzotint of Cinqué (included in this collection, see below for further details). It is likely Sartain employed a certain amount of artistic license in more neatly rendering Cinqué's signature. The second facsimile is found in a 1906 book *Farmington, Connecticut: The Village of Beautiful Homes*, in which local historian Julius Gay allowed his own "Autographs of the ‘Mendi Negroes,"" obtained in his youth when the *Amistad* captives were housed in Farmington, to be reprinted (p.177). The whereabouts of the original documents from which these facsimiles were made are unknown, and it is likely that one or both have long perished.
The *Amistad* case and the *Amistad* captives became a national sensation, and their time in Philadelphia (May 24 to May 28, 1841) is well documented in contemporary issues of the *Pennsylvania Freemen*. The June 16, 1841 issue reports that they visited four churches, at which $482.30 was raised for their return to Africa. While not as fiscally impressive, the paper also reports that $2.01 was collected by the "pupils of the colored Public School." At the time Philadelphia had two public schools for African-American children (sometimes referred to as four schools because boys and girls were educated separately), one at Charlotte and Brown Streets, the other at Sixth and Lombard Streets. The Lombard Street School was built in 1819 as a school for white pupils. In 1828, when white students were transferred to a new building on Locust Street, it became a public school for African-American children. The school was later called the James Forten School, after the prominent African-American businessman who fought successfully to keep the school open when the school board wished to close it the year before the *Amistad* captives visited.
While a certain amount of contemporary attention was paid to Cinqué as the leader of the *Amistad* rebellion, comparatively little primary material exists about the other captives individually. Foole, also known as Fuli, Fu-Li-Wa, and Fuleh, like Cinqué gave deposition against their Spanish captors. In addition, it was technically he who brought suit against them (done to forestall their removal to Spanish territory in case the *Amistad* case itself was lost). Foole, with Cinqué and thirty-three other survivors of their ordeal, departed for their return to Africa in November 24, 1841. A facsimile of Foole's signature exists on the Julius Gay reprint, and the Amistad Research Center holds three letters signed by Foole; we could locate no other surviving documents signed by Foole.
THE SARTAIN ENGRAVING
Included with the autograph collection is a handsome example of John Sartain's engraved mezzotint print of "Cinqué: The Chief of the Amistad Captives" (approximately 9¼" x 7½", very lightly rubbed in one spot else fine, mounted on a stiff backing sheet). This well-known image, commissioned by the African-American abolitionist Robert Purvis, is after a painted portrait by the abolitionist Nathaniel Jocelyn (brother of Amistad Committee member the Reverend Simeon S. Jocelyn). In March, 1841, Sartain, possibly at his own expense, sent 200 copies of the mezzotint to Lewis Tappan to be sold to help raise funds for the *Amistad* captives. Despite the strong pro-abolition mood of much of Philadelphia in the 1840s, the image was not universally acclaimed there. The city also had strong currents of anti-abolition sentiment from both white workers who felt threatened by the large free black workforce, and from elements of the city's elite who had strong financial ties to the South. Thus the Sartain portrait was officially rejected by the Philadelphia Academy for their second annual Artists" Fund Society exhibition because, "under the excitement of the times, it might prove injurious both to the proprietors and the institution" (Martinez, *Life and Career of John Sartain*, p. 76). This Cinqué portrait is the most famous image by John Sartain (1808-1897), the London-born artist and publisher who settled in Philadelphia. Sartain was a committed abolitionist who also engraved portraits of William Lloyd Garrison, William H. Furness, and Lucretia Mott. He also published several notable works by his friend Edgar Allan Poe including "The Bells" and "Annabel Lee." Although we could find no direct connection between Sartain and Evans, an 1843 letter from Poe to the 14 year-old Elwood Evans, sending "Mr. Dana's" Boston address, was in the Doheny collection and sold at Christie's in 1988. In addition to writing *Two Years Before the Mast*, Richard Henry Dana was also an active abolitionist.
While the Jocelyn/Sartain image has been reprinted countless times (mostly from the damaged example of the mezzotint in the National Portrait Gallery), original examples of the Sartain mezzotint are genuinely rare.
THE CLARKSON, HOPPER, BURLEIGH, PIERPONT, PARRISH and GIDDINGS AUTOGRAPHS
The Thomas Clarkson autograph is also on a small (approximately 4¼" x 2¼") slip of paper, a little soiled else fine, and mounted to a contemporary sheet. It reads in full: "Thomas Clarkson / Playford Hall – Sept. 1, 1846, aged 87 / 'Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them' Hebrews 12.3." On a separate sheet Evans has written out a biography of Clarkson and ends with, "The above Autograph was purchased at the ‘Liberty Bazaar" held in this city [i.e. Philadelphia] in January 1847 and is known to be original." Clarkson (1760-1846), one of England's most famous abolitionists, first became interested in the subject on purely academic grounds when, as a student at Cambridge, he entered a Latin essay contest on the subject of the morality of slavery. Shortly after winning the contest, for which he undertook considerable research, Clarkson experienced a spiritual epiphany and decided to devote his life to abolition. With Granville Sharp he formed the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, and later persuaded William Wilberforce to join their cause. The group was directly responsible for the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire in 1807, and the abolition of slavery itself throughout most of the British Empire in 1833. Clarkson's publications include *A Summary View of the Slave Trade and of the Probable Consequences of Its Abolition* (1787) and *History of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade* (1808). While Clarkson autographs are not rare, this is certainly one of the last he ever provided, and comes with a quaint provenance.
Isaac Tatem Hopper (1771-1852) was a New Jersey-born Quaker bookseller who, with Lydia Maria Child, edited the *National Anti-Slavery Standard*. More importantly, as a teenager he began to organize the system for aiding fugitive slaves that is now known as the Underground Railroad, and some consider him the founder or father of the Railroad. Hopper remained active in both the Railroad and abolition throughout his life, as well as other causes including prison reform. Hopper's note is on a single quarto leaf, folded from mailing with a few very minor chips and tears along the left side (probably from having been tipped into a larger book) and a moderate dampstain along the right side, very good. It reads: "My dear young friend, In compliance with thy request I cheerfully furnish thee with my autograph accompanied with an ‘original sentiment. / 'He who conscientiously discharges all his social and relative duties, without regard to circumstances or the opinions of others, may some times incur the displeasure of his friends; yet he will find in the end a comfort and confidence that will very far surpass all the favor and applause that can be awarded by his fellow man – Thy affectionate friend / Isaac T. Hopper / New York 9 mo 13th 1842 / To Elwood Evans."
Charles Calistus Burleigh (1810-1878), a noted editor of abolitionist publications and widely considered among the best orators for the anti-slavery cause, sent Evans a short note: "To hold a slave without transgressing the Christian law, ‘love the Lord they God with all they heart, & love they neighbor as thyself," is just as impossible as to do injustice under the influence of a supreme regard for right, to act selfishly from pure good will to all mankind, & to support the falsehood from an unbounded reverence for truth. Philad. 10/25/42. C.C. Burleigh." On the reverse he has noted, "For Elwood Evans. Care of Edwin Satter." Burleigh's note is also on a single quarto leaf, near fine, folded from mailing and with a little wear along the left side from where it was likely tipped into a larger book.
The letter from John Pierpont (1785-1866), dated 30 Nov. 1847, folded from mailing else about fine, notes that Pierpont does not have an extra autograph from Dr. [William E.] Channing to provide to Evans for his collection. However, Pierpont was flattered by the "kind things that you are pleased to say of myself and my past cause[s] and wishing you may succeed in your autographic enterprise..." Pierpont was a Connecticut-born educator, poet, and Congregationalist minister. While pastor at Boston's Hollis Street Church he published two of the better-known early school readers in the United States. His social activism for temperance and abolition angered his parishioners and after more than two decades he left that congregation and became pastor of a Unitarian church in Troy, New York, where this letter was written. Pierpont's *Anti-Slavery Poems* was published in 1843, and his poems were often recited at public anti-slavery meetings. Curiously, while the aged Pierpont was a Union military chaplain and then worked in the Treasury Department during the Civil War, his songwriting son James Lord Pierpont, most famous for the holiday classic "Jingle Bells," served for the Confederacy. John Pierpont was also the maternal grandfather of financier J. Pierpont Morgan.
The letter from Joseph Parrish (1779-1840), addressed to the noted Philadelphia attorney Eli K. Price and dated January 25, 1836, discusses family and business matters. It is one quarto sheet, folded in half and written on two sides, fine. Parrish was a well-known Philadelphia physician and President of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society. Parrish attended the eccentric Virginia statesman John Randolph of Roanoke at his death in 1833 and executed the latter's dying wish to have his slaves manumitted. Tipped to the letter is a biographical paragraph by Evans who concludes: "Though quite young at the time [of Parrish's death] I well remember the impression it produced in the community."
The short note from Joshua Reed Giddings to Evans is undated, on a single quarto leaf, folded as a self-mailing letter, and torn ¾ through the primary fold, possibly when initially opened by Evans, not affecting any writing, overall about very good. In it Giddings suggests an address for another person Evans was evidently trying to contact. Giddings (1795-1864) was a long-time Ohio Congressman, one of the most outspoken and radical anti-slavery statesmen of his time. Privately he was active in the Underground Railroad, and in public he endorsed insurrection and violent resistance to slavery. He was censured by Congress for attempting to put on record that the House of Representatives was opposed to federal measures to defend the coastwise slave-trade. Abraham Lincoln was his messmate in Washington in 1847-1848, and a careful student of Gidding's speeches in Congress. Perhaps Gidding's most enduring contribution to history was the notion he developed in the 1850s that, in the event of war, the President could use his war powers to emancipate the slaves of the Southern states (Julian. *The Life of Joshua R. Giddings*, p. 405). Giddings left Congress after twenty years of continuous service, primarily due to ill health, and in 1861 Lincoln appointed him consul-general to Canada, a post which he held until his death.
THE STATE APPOINTMENTS
Of the four State appointments of Evans as Commissioner to the Territory of Oregon, the earliest is from Pennsylvania, dated May 6, 1851 and Signed by Governor William F. Johnston (1808-1872). The next is from New Jersey, dated January 28, 1852 and Signed by Governor George F. Fort (1809-1872). The third is from New York, dated February 15, 1854 and Signed by Governor Horatio Seymour (1810-1886). The last is from Massachusetts, dated March 28, 1854 and Signed by Governor Emory Washburn (1800-1877). All four documents are about fine with slight wear.
The Elwood Evans Abolitionist Autograph Collection was fortuitously assembled by the young Philadelphian. Although the letters and notes themselves demonstrate that he was actively acquiring autographs related to abolition, it was mostly luck that he was in the right place at the right time to obtain the collection’s most scarce and most important autograph, that of Cinqué, and that the autograph was valued and preserved by him throughout his life. Because of the small window of time during which Cinqué could have written his autograph, and because there would have been little reason for him to sign any documents at all, few signatures of important figures in African-American history, or American history in general, could be more elusive. A letter written by Phillis Wheatley, one of about two dozen known, recently sold for over $200,000, and relatively common signed copies of her volume of poems usually sell in the mid five figures.
A rare, museum quality signature with extensive documentation, and an important survival of African-American and indeed all of American history.
Item #277835
