[African-Americana] Olmsted, Frederick Law Autograph Letter, signed

C(entral). Park, (New York), Feb(ruar)y 18, presumed ca. 1858-60 ("'63" in MS. in a different hand at right). One sheet folded to make four pages, 8 1/8 x 5 1/4 in. (206 x 133 mm). Autograph letter, signed by Frederick Law Olmsted, likely as Superintendent of Central Park, to German-American lawyer and journalist, Friedrich Kapp: "My dear Kapp,/I send you proofs/of my 'Back-Country' book,/regretting that it escaped/my mind to do so, as/you requested, sooner./I am afraid that it/will be of no use to the/purpose for which you/(illegible) it now./I shall be obliged to/you for comments & sug--/gestions, without wishing you/to read it especially for/this purpose, or to give you/any trouble about it--/The concluding chap-/ters will be upon topics/about as follows./Condition of Slave States;/Patriarchism as a Social Thing/The Cotton Supply Question/Character as affected by Having/Hospitality./Breeding/Remedies & Alleviations,/(illegible),/Comparative Military Strength/North & South./The new revolution./I should be glad before printing to discuss/some of these with you, if it would not bore you/too much./Yours very faithfully/Fred Law Olmsted". Creasing from original folds.

American landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903) writes to his friend, the German-born lawyer and journalist, Friedrich Kapp (1822-84), concerning proofs for Olmsted's book on the American South, A Journey in the Back Country (1860). Although more widely known for his landscape architecture, including his design of New York City's Central Park and Brooklyn's Prospect Park, Olmsted was also a prolific and influential journalist. In the early 1850s he was commissioned by The New York Daily Times (now The New York Times) to report on the condition of life and the institution of slavery in the American South. Back Country was the last of a trio of books written by Olmsted for this series, and was preceded by A Journey Through the Seaboard Slave States (1856) and A Journey Through Texas (1857).

For five years in preparation for the publication of these three works Olmsted traveled extensively throughout the American South, visiting farms, plantations, and cities, speaking with a diverse range of individuals, Black and white, free, enslaved, and slaveholding, to understand the forces at play in the South's economic landscape. Olmsted's work provided one of the most detailed pictures of the antebellum South by a contemporary observer, and helped illuminate the world of slavery to both Northern, and later, British readers. The works presented Olmsted's argument that slavery was both economically inefficient and unproductive, as well as being morally reprehensible. Back Country, although selling poorly, was critically acclaimed during the lead up to the Civil War, and influenced the abolitionist movement in the United States. In 1861, his three works were republished as a condensed two-volume edition under the title The Cotton Kingdom: A Traveller's Observations on Cotton and Slavery in the American Slave States. First published in London, this new edition proved incredibly influential in Great Britain's decision to not recognize the Confederacy, even though Britain's textile industries were heavily dependent on Southern cotton.

Kapp and Olmsted became acquainted in New York City likely sometime following Olmsted's return from the South in 1857. They shared mutual anti-slavery convictions and both supported and advocated for the Free Soil movement in Western Texas. During Olmsted's trip to Texas when researching what became his A Journey Through Texas, he was introduced to Kapp's uncle, the German-American philosopher and geographer Ernst Kapp, who was a farmer at Sisterdale, a small community founded by German intellectuals. The younger Kapp lived in New York City from 1850-70, and after emigrating from Germany, became a journalist and co-publisher of the German language New York daily newspaper, New-Yorker Abend-Zeitung. He also wrote two books on American slavery, The Slavery Question in the United States (1854), and The History of Slavery in the United States (1860). Kapp dedicated the latter volume to Olmsted, and freely admitted that he drew his conclusions in it directly from Olmsted's work on the South. During the late 1850s Kapp became actively involved with the new Republican Party, and helped unite the New York German population in support of Abraham Lincoln and the Union.