Broadsides from the William Reese Company

Item 30 is one of the ugliest types of broadsides you come across – a slave sale. It is headed Executor's Sale of Land, Negroes, and Perishable Property. It was the sale of the estate of one Jane Anderson, of Greensboro, Alabama, who obviously chose not to set her slaves free when she died. There were 24 slaves in all, many of them young children. Sarah, Chaney, and Henry were only 3 years old. Edmond was 4, Mark 5, Jim 6, and Easter 8. Who were there parents, or whether they stayed together, is unknown. At the other end of the age spectrum was Wallis, who at 74 would not have brought much cash. About the only positive was the date. The sale was scheduled for December 21 and 22, 1859. Whoever bought these slaves did not get nearly the years of free labor they expected, and the youngest children would have only been able to supply minimal amounts of work before they were emancipated. Hopefully, Wallis lived long enough to see freedom. Along with the humans, mules, cows, hogs, and personal and real property were auctioned. $6,000.

These people would not have approved of the slave sale. Item 28 is a broadside from the Westerns Anti-Slavery Society, an Ohio-based abolition group. It announces Anti-Slavery Meetings! though the blank space for the time and place on this poster has not been filled in. The Society implores people to “Turn Out!,” while stating, “Three million of your fellow beings are in chains -- the Church and Government sustains the horrible system of oppression.” At the bottom, it adds one more very interesting demand, one that would be adopted by the South rather than the North - “Emancipation or Dissolution, and a Free Northern Republic!” $4,000.

Item 25 is a very rare broadside from London in 1844, headed, Ojibway Indians...Illustrate Catlin's North-American Indian Collection... George Catlin was the American illustrator whose drawings of Indians were published in book form in the 1840s. Catlin then took his gallery of paintings on tours of Europe. The behavior and appearance of indigenous people's of far off lands was long fascinating to Europeans. While Catlin was touring London in 1844, the Canadian showman, later mining executive and eccentric politician, Arthur Rankin showed up with a tour of nine Ojibway Indians from the north side of Lake Huron. Catlin saw an opportunity to combine forces for a bigger draw. This was the first time he used live Indians to promote his gallery, but it would not be the last. He would later work with American showman P.T. Barnum to bring live Indians to his gallery. The broadside explains, “This Extraordinary Group of Nine Wild Indians from the Forests of America...acting out, in their own way, so many of their rude and exciting modes in the heart of the civilized world...” $6,000.

The William Reese Company may be reached at 203-789-8081 or amorder@reeseco.com. Their website is www.reeseco.com.