Significant Single Sheets from the William Reese Company

Item 62 is a broadside announcing the unanimous passage of an ordinance at 1:15 p.m. December 20, 1860. The broadside is headed Charleston Mercury Extra with the message being The Union Is Dissolved! It announces that the South Carolina's secessionist convention has just repealed its adoption of the U. S. Constitution in 1788. Lincoln would disagree. $80,000.

Item 54 announces an Administrator's Sale. The items to be sold are Land & Negroes. The real estate and humans had been the property of the late Brian Greer of Calhoun, Georgia. The timing is interesting, and one wonders how much of a price the estate was able to get for its slaves. It would have said something about people's confidence in the Confederate cause. The sale was set for December 1, 1862, which came after Lincoln's promulgation of the Emancipation Proclamation, meaning that in just one month, under U. S. law (but not Confederate law), those slaves would be free. $4,750.

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