Goldberg Coins and Collectibles

Sale 92

Manuscript, Sports, Collectibles, Space and Philatelic Auction

Black History

Lot	Photo	Description	Realized
Lot 88		Rare Full Plate Tintype of Sergeant William H. Carney, the First African-American Soldier Awarded the Medal of Honor. Here we offer an extremely rare full plate, hand-tinted tintype of Sergeant William H. Carney (1840-1908) of the esteemed 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the unit led by Captain Robert Shaw (1837-1863) that was immortalized by the Academy Award winning film, Glory in 1989. The dignified Carney, photographed circa 1900 standing alongside his wife, Susannah, proudly dons the medal he was awarded on May 23, 1900, more than 35 years after the conclusion of his military service. As is common for such full plate images, portions have been painted over so that it resembles a portrait. The verso of the portrait bears a scratched inscription, "Sgt. Wm. Carney, 54th Mass. Vols." along with a date of 1900 or 1901 -- the year appears to have been scratched or altered at least once. By the turn of the century, tintypes were out of fashion, so it is possible that this was an earlier portrait of the couple modified to honor Sergeant Carney's receipt of the long-awaited medal. In any event, the size and content of the portrait make it probable that this piece is not just rare, but in fact unique. The piece measures 10 x 7¼", with the upper and lower corners of the left side slightly clipped. There is some flaking of small chips to the emulsion, most notably around portions of Carney's right leg, and craquelure to the surface throughout. Except for the aforementioned faults, this important and historical image is in very good condition. Estimated Value $2,000 - 3,000 View details and enlarged photo	Realized $3,600
Lot 89		Early American Publications on Slavery. This three-piece lot includes: 1) The Injustice and Impolicy of the Slave Trade and of the Slavery of Africans by Jonathan Edwards, D.D. First edition, 8vo, 36 pp., printed by Thomas and Samuel Green, 1791. Unbound, stapled twice at the left margin, with some wear along the edges, particularly the upper right corner, and some age toning. Extremely rare and influential antislavery sermon printed the same year it was first delivered before the Connecticut Society for the Promotion of Freedom in New Haven by abolitionist Jonathan Edwards. 2) Life of James Mars, A Slave Born and Sold in Connecticut, by James Mars. Fifth edition, 8vo, 38 pp., Press of Case, Lockwood & Company, Hartford, Connecticut, 1867 (first edition in 1864). An important and well-known slave narrative. In good condition. 3) Report of Special Committee of the Senate of South Carolina, on So Much of Gov. Adams' Message as Relates to the Slave Trade by Alexander Mazyck, Chairman, and John Townsend. 8vo, 16 pp., Steam Power Press of Walker, Evans & Co., Charleston, South Carolina, 1858. Except for a trio neat hole punches in the left margin, this pamphlet is very good condition. Charleston was the chief point of entry for slaves arriving in America from Africa prior to the Constitutional ban on the slave trade in 1807, and with this publication, legislators argue for its resumption. Estimated Value $300 - 600 View details and enlarged photo	Realized $180
Lot 90		A Stop on the Underground Railroad Shelters Contraband Guests During the Civil War. Autograph letter signed ("Nancy"), 6 pages, recto & verso, 8 x 5" (pages 1-4) and 4¾ x 4" (pages 5-6), n.p. (probably Illinois), July 31, n.y. (ca 1862). Folded to fit an envelope, but otherwise fine. Our writer found time for an act of uncommon charity during the Civil War: "A Contraband friend of the man & wife we had live with us came out last year to recruit her health, and now she has come again to spend two weeks I expect at least.so I got dinner for four darkeys while Ezekiel & Emma had gone to a Meeting." The term "Contraband" was commonly used in the North after 1861 to describe escaped southern slaves who worked for the Union Army. Our writer's references to a "Meeting" and sheltering these "Contrabands" suggest that Nancy and her family served as a stop on the Underground Railroad. Estimated Value $300 - 400 View details and enlarged photo	Unsold
Lot 91		A Pro-Union Plantation Owner and Former Slave Each Appeal to the Authorities for Assistance. This lot includes two letters, one from a plantation owner and one from a former slave. The first, an autograph letter signed by one Bill Quiglen (sp?), 1 page, 10 x 8", Joes Bayou, Louisiana, September 7, 1864, asks the authorities for restitution follow a raid on his property by a group of negro troops, despite his possession of "protecton papers" and a "certificate of loyalty". The second, a letter written by an agent on behalf of one Jacob Robinson, 1 page, 10 x 8", Beaufort, South Carolina, September 17, 1865, is a formal complaint against his late master, William Robinson; the authorities are advised to investigate the circumstances at the former slave owner's property and report back. Both letters are fine. Estimated Value $300 - 400 View details and enlarged photo	Unsold
Lot 92		In 1849, A Concerned Constituent Writes His State Representative on Radical Pro-Slavery Legislation in Georgia. John L. Bird. Autograph letter signed, 4 pages, recto & verso, 10 x 8", Crawfordville, Georgia, November 15, 1849. To Colonel Linton Stephens of Milledgville, Georgia. Final page of text doubles as address leaf. Folded for mailing, with some perforations at the intersection of horizontal and vertical folds, still very good. A constituent writes his state legislator, brother of the future Confederate Vice President, Alexander Stephens, concerning Georgia and the "Peculiar Institution" of slavery. He mentions Lucius Gartrell, a radical pro-slavery leader, and Robert Toombs, a slaveholding plantation owner with a more moderate stance. Twelve years later, both men were ardent segregationists, with Gartrell serving during the Civil War as a Confederate General who made a futile attempt to halt Sherman's march through Georgia, and Toombs vacating his seat in the U.S. Senate in Washington to become Jefferson Davis' first Confederate Secretary of State. Estimated Value $250 - 500 View details and enlarged photo	Unsold
Lot 93		Slavery Abolished in British Guiana. Peter M. Watson. Autograph letter signed, 4 pages, recto & verso, 9¾ x 8", for McInroy Sandbach & Co. "Demerary", British Guiana, June 20, 1838. To Sandbach Tinne & Company [Liverpool, England]. Folded to fit an envelope, else very good to fine. This detailed newsletter reads in part: "…We refer you particularly to a notice of a motion made yesterday by Dr. McTurk for the abolition of the apprenticeship on the 1st August." Slavery was formally abolished in most of the British Empire in 1834, but slaves, renamed "apprentices," were not to be completely free for four more years. When this letter was written, the expectations of apprenticed ex-slaves for complete and immediate freedom was boosted by support of Dr. Michael McTurk, the colony's principal medical officer. These events were watched with keen interest by American anti-slavery crusaders who believed that emancipation in the British Caribbean colonies gave impetus to their moral cause. Estimated Value $200 - 300 View details and enlarged photo	Realized $360
Lot 94		A Notorious Abolitionist Speculates on the Future at the Close of the Civil War. Hinton Helper (1829-1909). American writer who published "The Impending Crisis of the South, and How to Meet It" (1857), criticizing slaveholding on economic grounds. Autograph letter signed ("H.R. Helper"), as U.S. Consul, 4 pages, recto & verso, 8 x 5", Buenos Aires, Argentina, March 4, 1865. To Edward M. Davis (1811-1887) in Philadelphia, an American merchant who was deeply interested in the anti-slavery movement and served on the staff of General John C. Fremont during the Civil War. With only some minor creasing through the lower third of the last two pages and a few chips to the lower edge, this letter is very good. Helper writes in part: "If I mistake not, you have always… practiced the virture of antagonism to the fiendish fraternity of Kidnappers and Slaveholders….We who are friendly toward the government of the United States… have not, as yet, been able to see but one solution to the problem, and that is the complete reestablishment of the Union over the irreproachable downfall of Slavery and the Slaveholders." Estimated Value $200 - 300 View details and enlarged photo	Realized $102
Lot 95		Four Years After the End of the Civil War, a Broker Reports on the Market for Freed Men and Women. John H. Easton. Autograph letter signed ("John H. Easton"), 1 page, 10 x 7½", Jonas Mills, Georgia, May 7, 1869. To Colonel John Park of Grenville, Georgia. Folded to fit the envelope, which is included here, but otherwise fine. With this letter, Easton discusses the price that Freed labor, apparently an openly traded commodity, fetches at market. In part, "At the time we entered into the contract ten Bu. [bushels] of wheat would have been sufficient to pay off both notes for twelve months service." The value of a year's wages for a Freed man and woman of color was equated to 10 bushels of wheat. Estimated Value $200 - 400 View details and enlarged photo	Unsold
Lot 96		A Presbyterian Minister in Kentucky Writes on Slavery. Benjamin Mills, Jr. (1820 - ?). Presbyterian minister and scion to a prominent Kentucky family. Autograph letter signed ("B. Mills"), 3 pages, recto & verso, Frankfort, Kentucky, July 6, 1853. Address leaf is the verso of page 3. To Reverend David B. Coe, Corresponding Secretary of the American Home Missionary Society, New York. There is some separation along the central vertical fold and a 1" tear to the right margin of the third page that impacts just one word. In very good to fine condition. The National Assembly of the Presbyterian Church had directed its parishes to oppose slavery, and Reverend Mills, sought to present the church's views in language that would be palatable to his Southern flock. Apparently, he succeeded: "My people have no objection to the action of the Assembly on the Subject of Slavery.and. most of the leading politicians in the region.endorse the position I took upon the subject in the Assembly.They all believe it a great evil and a great sin, and think we ought, as soon as possible with safety to both ourselves and the slave, remove it." Estimated Value $200 - 400 View details and enlarged photo	Realized $360
Lot 97		Unitarian Ministers Take a Stand on Slavery in the United States. A fine pair of letters in which two Unitarian ministers write another minister, Reverend Samuel Northrup, concerning the position of the Unitarian Church on slavery. The first, an autograph letter signed ("C. Stanton") by Rev. Caleb Stanton, 1 page, 10 x 8", n.p., n.d. (ca. 1845), concerns a petition that Unitarian ministers had been asked to sign that protested slavery. The second is an autograph letter signed ("N.L. Frothingham") by Nathaniel Frothingham of Boston, 2 pages, recto & verso, n.p., February 13, 1844. Stanton expresses his unwillingness to address "the whole black subject" in his church. In 1844 and 1845, Unitarian ministers in the U.S. were urged by their British counterparts to take a stronger position against slavery. These measures were met with a mixed reception by the Unitarian ministers. Estimated Value $200 - 400 View details and enlarged photo	Unsold
Lot 98		Numbered Copy of a Pivotal Broadside from the Haitian Revolution. The original proclamation of June 20, 1793 was issued by Étienne Polverel & Léger-Félicité Sonthonax, the French revolutionary commissioners who ended slavery in Saint-Domingue during the Haitian revolution. It called for the peaceful surrender of French soldiers who had, under the generalship of François-Thomas Galbaud, leveled Cap Français, the most important city in the French Caribbean. The events of those few days would hasten the abolition of slavery in Haiti, marking the first successful slave revolt and the genesis of the first independent state ruled by non-whites in the Americas. One page, in French, 18 x 13½", with manuscript notations at the upper left and lower right to indicate this is a copy of the 1793 original. Rough around the left and lower margins, with some minor discoloration at the left, this is a fine souvenir of an important historical event. Estimated Value $200 - 300 View details and enlarged photo	Realized $125