CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE PENNSYLVANIA SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY, THE RELIEF OF FREE NEGROES UNLAWFULLY HELD IN BONDAGE: AND FOR IMPROVING THE CONDITION OF THE AFRICAN RACE.
Philadelphia: Grant, Faires & Rodgers, Printers, 1875 [front wrapper dated 1876]. 82pp + tipped in blue errata slip. Original printed wrappers present, but loose and chipped. A clean text. Good+.
The list of Officers included Passmore Williamson, who had been charged with treason for aiding runaway slaves, and William Still, the African American participant in the Underground Railroad. Vice President Henry Wilson chaired the gala event. Frederick Douglass, Robert Purvis, Lucretia Mott, C.C. Burleigh, and others are listed as speakers. Several of the orations are printed, along with the Society's Act of Incorporation, Constitution, and list of Members.
The Society persevered during a time when the anti-slavery cause appeared hopeless: the Compromise of 1850 had removed most judicial protections from Negroes who were claimed as fugitives from slavery; and pro-slavery advocates were increasingly emboldened to expand slavery into the Territories.
LCP 7601. Dumond 90. AAS has only an electronic reproduction. Item #41067
Price: $650.00