THE PENNSYLVANIA FREEMAN by Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society - 1849

Philadelphia: Merrihew & Thompson, Printers, No. 7 Carter's Alley, 1849. Seven 1849 issues of this abolitionist newspaper. Each issue of 4pp is an elephant folio, 21" x 13-3/4", printed in five columns per page: April 12, April 26, July 12, August 23, October 4, October 18, October 25. Occasional foxing, a few crimps and short tears with slight effect on text, occasional browning, one piece of paper adheres to an issue, obscuring only a couple of words. Light wear. Good+. "The Pennsylvania Freeman was one of the most successful antislavery newspapers in America during the early nineteenth century. Published in Philadelphia as the official organ of the Pennsylvania Antislavery Society, the weekly publication appeared for nearly eighteen years, from August 1836 to June 1854... The newspaper provided a vital service as a kind of antislavery conscience regarding national political events" [Rodriguez, Encyclopedia of Emancipation and Abolition in the Transatlantic World 422 (2015)]. These issues of the Freeman treat antislavery debates and political developments in Border States Missouri and Kentucky; present legal arguments that slavery may constitutionally be abolished without impairing the obligation of contracts; report various antislavery meetings; print speeches and arguments opposing the spread of slavery into the territories ceded by Mexico; demonstrate the harsh treatment of Free Negroes in the States of the Old Northwest; expose the Slave Power's assault on free speech by arresting and attacking antislavery orators and publishers; assail the major political parties for their alliance with the Slave Power; describe the day-to-day traffic in slaves within the United States; oppose the Colonization Movement; and print poems and a variety of advertisements.