Black History
c. 1840 Ship AMISTAD SLAVE REVOLT Historic Letter
c. 1840, Autograph Letter Signed, by "Erasmus D. Drury," of Newburgh, NY, mentioning the Rebellion of Enslaved Africans aboard the Ship Amistad, and how they killed the Captain, etc., Fine.
Autographed Letter with Integral Mailing Leaf with the red stamp NEWBURGH, NY, Undated circa 1840, measuring 9.75" x 8", three pages plus integral mailing panel, with some trivial small holes due to insects and wax seal being opened. The dark brown handwriting is very legible. Written to Mr. & Mrs. James Davis of Limestone Springs, South Carolina. Drury writes of a museum exhibit in New York that had the wax casts of the African Rebels' Heads who killed a captain on a ship - here directly refering to the famous Amistad Revolt of 1839! This historic Slavery related letter reads, in part:
"Dear Cousins - ... I can assure you that we both seen all we could, we went into the museum and there we spent an hour very busy looking at every thing semely (seemly). I wish you could have been with us at that time they had the wax (torn by seal) of the slaves that killed the captain of the ship that they were in, and some of the rest of the crew and made the rest manage the vessel so as to get back to Africa, but at night and stormy weather they took the advantage, and went the other way until they got to this country. I suppose you read an account of it before you left home. And from the museum we went to one of my cousins in New York..."
While the Africans were held in New Haven awaiting trial, a New Haven wax museum owner made wax life masks of the captive's heads and experts were called in to examine them. The wax figures then toured the East Coast during the trials. The case reached the Supreme Court in 1841 and with the assistance of John Quincy Adams, the Africans proved in court that they were not slaves and had been illegally captured and transported to America after the slave trade had been banned"they were eventually set free.
This letter also underscores the author's curiosity about the differences between the North and South, both in climate and fashion. "...Uncle Joseph has bought a plantation in Henderson Kentucky and wishes Emily to come there and live with him but she is troubled with the dropsy. She has had 6 quarts of water taken form her and she is filled up again but she does not seem to want it opened again....."
"... there have been two great thaws this winter...which raised the streams so much that it washed away bridges and dams and affected a considerable of damage to the several railroads in the northern parts, but I suppose you have not had a slay ride this winter which must make it seem as though winter had got to come yet to the south....I should like to be where you live awhile and see the fashions of the people there which must be very splendid as the people are pretty much all very forehanded as regards wealth. But perhaps not so much taste is displayed as some of our more northern people have as regards such matters. But I expect you have got tired of such enjoyments and gone to housekeeping, and I hope take much comfort and social happiness in your new home and climate."
Anything regarding the historic "Amistad" case, and other related contemporary content items are rare and rarely encountered!