Accession Number: HC 3
Anti-Slavery Collection
Records Dates: 1769-1881; 1916
.5 linear feet, 1 manuscript box
Online Catalog Record (BANC)

Overview
Series Description
Series I - Publications
Series II - Bills of Sale
Series III - Correspondence
Series IV - Miscellaneous Documents
Series V - Speeches

Access and Use

Provenance: Collected by Berea College librarians through donation and purchase.

Access: There are no restrictions on the collection other than federal copyright regulations.

Preferred Citation: The Anti-Slavery Collection, Berea College Special Collections & Archives, Berea, Ky.

Related Archives

• HC 04 - William Goodell Family Collection, 1780 - 1892
• RG 1 - Founders & Founding, BCA
• RG 3.01 - E.H. Fairchild Papers

Overview

The Anti-Slavery Collection consists primarily of publications, letters, bills of sale and reports; they date from 1769- 1865, although one retrospective account was recorded in 1916. Most of the materials in the collection relate to slavery and support Berea College’s open opposition to the institution of slavery.

Of particular note in the collection is a letter and separate autograph of Levi Coffin, President of the Underground Railroad in Cincinnati, and letters from James Birney and Thomas Garrett. Also in the collection is an anti-slavery publication of 1856 written by William Goodell, a compatriot of Berea founder John G. Fee. The slave deeds in the collection remain a testament to the stark reality of slavery.

Series Description
(Box list available by clicking series links below)

Broadsides, polemics, organizational statements, and periodicals all denouncing the institution of slavery.

Deeds or bills of sale which served as legal documents in slave trade. Some bills from the Lexington, Kentucky area. One manumission.

The letters of various correspondents involved in abolitionist work and some family letters, including one from a Union prison camp.

Clippings (John Brown’s execution), a 19th c. bibliography, three articles by Matilda Fee, and minutes transcribed from the New York Manumission Society records.

Several published speeches, from 1854 through 1866, regarding slavery in the territories, emancipation, union, the Civil Rights Bill, and Congressional representation in the states formerly in rebellion immediately following the war.

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