RARE 1850s Harriet Beecher Stowe Negro Slave Documents Bills of Sale Alabama NR

Offered for your consideration is a small but wonderfully rare group of Alabama slavery documents dating from the 1850s and 1860s. The highlight is an original bill of sale for a "negro slave" named Cornelia.

Brown, dealer in slaves, and general commission agent. Brown was among a handful of infamous slavers who were singled out by Harriet Beecher Stowe in her Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin. It's sort of like giving the devil a name, a face, and a home address!

The lot also includes another bill of sale from the State of Alabama to Edward S. To these three Stewart family documents someone has added an original, first-edition (1853) copy of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin. Stowe published this book as proof that Uncle Tom's Cabin, a work of fiction, was in fact based on real life situations.

Brown of Alabama was well enough known in the slave-trading community of the 1850s to be mentioned by name in Stowe's Key. One such entry is photographed above for your convenience. The only downside to this lot is the condition. As you can see, all three Stewart documents have some seam separation and edge loss.

The Key, a rare and collectible book in its own right, is complete but has damage to the front cover and no back cover. Overall the items are very worthy of framing and/or restoration (a relatively simple process in the hands of a trained paper conservator).

The item "RARE 1850s Harriet Beecher Stowe Negro Slave Documents Bills of Sale Alabama NR" is in sale since Wednesday, April 06, 2016. This item is in the category "Collectibles\Cultures & Ethnicities\Black Americana\Paper". The seller is "mr_americana" and is located in Redlands, California. This item can be shipped to United States.