Between the Covers

Unbound. Broadside. Measuring 16" x 23". Includes an "Address to the Clergy of Massachusetts." Some modest offsetting and toning, narrow chip at one fold, slightly affecting four words in two lines at the margin, else a nice, crisp and near fine copy. According to the text, which is signed in type by both Hayden and Nell: "... the Friends of Freedom rallied at Belknap Street Church, on Friday evening, October 5th, 1850, a vast concourse, including fugitives and their friends were in attendance... ."

William C. Nell was a noted black author and abolitionist, and a fierce opponent of the Fugitive Slave Law. He wrote for *The Liberator*, later published *The North Star*, and created the Committee of Vigilance in Boston, whose members swore to aid escaped slaves against enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Bill. He was the first black man to hold a job in the Civil Service of the U.S., and wrote several important works of African-American history. Lewis Hayden was an escaped slave from Kentucky who became a lecturer, politician, and abolitionist who worked for the American Anti-Slavery Society and maintained a stop on the Underground Railroad. According to the *American National Biography*: "After the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, Hayden worked tirelessly to fight its enforcement... As a member of the executive board of the Boston Vigilance Committee, which was created to aid and protect fugitive slaves in the city, he often functioned as a liaison between white and black activists, including members of the Twelfth Baptist Church, to which he belonged. He personally fed and housed hundreds of runaways and used his clothing store to outfit many more."

A rare and striking broadside. *OCLC* appears to locate four copies - three of them in Massachusetts (and noting substantial damage to at least a couple of the copies).

Item #414553