Black Abolitionist Archive

Title: George B. Vashon

Speaker or author: Vashon, George Boyer, 1824-1878

Newspaper or publication: Oberlin Evangelist

Verbose speech on character and quality of life given at the "Monthly Rhetorical Exercises of the College Department" when Vashon was a member of the senior class at Oberlin College.

Description of file(s): PDF 5 page, 1,272 word document (text and images)

Title: N. Smith

Speaker or author: Smith, N.

Newspaper or publication: Palladium of Liberty (1843 - 1844)

Temperance speech comparing the addiction to alcohol with slavery. Emphasis is place on the idea that slavery is just as much an enemy to human health as alcohol is. (Last page of speech is missing in original and therefore in this version.)

Description of file(s): PDF 5 page, 1,119 word document (text and images)

Title: Charles L. Reason

Speaker or author: Reason, Charles Lewis, 1818-1893

Newspaper or publication: Pennsylvania Freeman

Speech dedicating a library for the Institute for Colored Youth stressing the benefits of education to the elevation of the race.

Description of file(s): PDF 13 page, 3,096 word document (text and images)

Title: James McCune Smith

Speaker or author: Smith, James McCune, 1813-1865

Newspaper or publication: Presscopy -- Boston Public Library -- Anti-Slavery Pamphlets

Speech given on the basic idea that slavery is irrational, immoral, and in opposition to the core beliefs of the founding fathers. Emphasis is placed on the destiny and potential future of the Negro race in the U.S.

Description of file(s): PDF 17 page, 6,176 word document (text and images)

Title: James McCune Smith

Speaker or author: Smith, James McCune, 1813-1865

Newspaper or publication: Presscopy -- Congregational Library -- Boston, Massachusetts -- Anti-Slavery Pamphlets

A lecture on the history of the Haytian Revolutions with a "character sketch" of Toussaint L'Ouverture given to benefit the Colored Orphan Asylum. The lecture outlines the class structure in Hayti and the timeline leading up to the revolutions from 1791 through 1803. (Speeches 06086, 06136, 06196, 06220, 06242, 06269, and 06309 are duplicates of this speech.)

Description of file(s): PDF 26 page, 9,292 word document (text and images)

Title: James McCune Smith

Speaker or author: Smith, James McCune, 1813-1865

Newspaper or publication: Presscopy -- Fifth Annual Report of the Executive Committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society, pp. 24-30

Speech in response to a resolution put forward for the American Anti-Slavery Society to support similar societies in Britain and France in their efforts to abolish slavery.

Description of file(s): PDF 7 page, 3,443 word document (text and images)

Title: George Boyer Vashon

Speaker or author: Vashon, George Boyer, 1824-1878

Newspaper or publication: Presscopy -- Foner and Walker, Eds. -- Proceedings of the Black State Conventions 1840-1865, (1979) Vol. 1, pp. 139-166

Brief overview of speech in which the speaker expressed his view that a country that is not administered by a just and impartial government was not secure or permanent.

Description of file(s): PDF 1 page, 377 word document (text and image)

Title: James McCune Smith

Speaker or author: Smith, James McCune, 1813-1865

Newspaper or publication: Presscopy -- Mitchell Library -- Glasgow, Scotland

Speech given when seconding a motion put forward by the Glasgow Emancipation Society to continue "peaceful agitation and moral interference" until slavery is completely abolished.

Description of file(s): PDF 2 page, 828 word document (text and images)

Title: Lewis Clarke

Speaker or author: Clarke, Lewis Garrard, 1812-1897

Newspaper or publication: Signal of Liberty

Narrative about one man's experience as a slave in Kentucky.

Description of file(s): PDF 5 page, 1,511 word document (text and images)

Title: Lewis Smith

Speaker or author: Smith, Lewis, b. ca. 1824

Newspaper or publication: Watchman and Weslayan Advertiser

Brief overview of speech given before an English audience in which the speaker expressed his goal to purchase the release of his four children from slavery.

Description of file(s): PDF 1 page, 160 word document (text and image)

Title: John B. Smith

Speaker or author: Smith, J. B. (John B.), Rev., fl. 1852-1863

Newspaper or publication: Weekly Anglo-African (1859 - 1862)

The speaker gave a brief overview of the Boston Convention including a "controversy" between Henry Highland Garnet and George T. Downing. He said that the convention participants had agreed that they would remain in the U.S., their birth place. He also stressed the importance of cotton in continuing the system of slavery.

Description of file(s): PDF 3 page, 532 word document (text and images)

Title: John B. Smith

Speaker or author: Smith, J. B. (John B.), Rev., fl. 1852-1863

Newspaper or publication: Weekly Anglo-African (1859 - 1862)

Commentary on a speech given to encourage African Americans to immigrate to Africa or Hayti. The commentator believes the speaker made deliberate exaggerations in order to make money off the plight of the slaves.

Description of file(s): PDF 3 page, 566 word document (text and images)

Title: James McCune Smith

Speaker or author: Smith, James McCune, 1813-1865

Newspaper or publication: Weekly Anglo-African (1859 - 1862)

Speech denouncing the words and political actions of Charles O'Conor in his opposition of emancipation. The speaker noted that O'Conor had said that "...slavery is 'ordained by nature' and is 'an institution created by nature itself,' which 'carries with it duties for the black man and duties for the white, which duties cannot be performed except by the preservation and perpetuation of the system;' ..."

Description of file(s): PDF 3 page, 782 word document (text and images)

Subtitle: Mr. Garnet's Reply to Dr. James M'Cune Smith.

Title: Weekly Anglo-African - January 19, 1861

Speaker or author: Smith, James McCune, 1813-1865

Newspaper or publication: Weekly Anglo-African (1859 - 1862)

The writer sternly responds to a letter previously published in the newspaper. He defends his affiliation with the African Civilization Society and insists that it is not associated with Colonization in any fashion.

Description of file(s): two scanned, two columned, newspaper pages