EPHEMERA: Silk Purse.
Hand-made light blue silk collection pouch, lined with cream silk, with silk drawstrings at top for closing, 9" x 9". Rounded at the bottom. Front transfer-printed in black with famous slavery icon of male slave in front of slave shack with young child on one knee and another child in his arms, background of church steeple and another male slave ploughing field. Verso contains the words of well-known abolitionist, George Thompson: "The Slaves Address to British Ladies". Slight evidence of removal of small sticker on upper right side. A fine piece of American textile and early example of political advertising of the greatest rarity. Housed in black clamshell box with blue label, lined in black velvet. Matted double-sided for ease of viewing.
We know of only four other such silk bags. Two are in Daughters of the American Revolution Museum in Washington, DC. They are both ivory silk with an image on the front and verse on the back. Although the images are different than this bag (and this offered bag is in lovely blue silk), they are still images of the horrors of slavery and the verses are abolotionist. One of the DAR's bags is pictured in Labors of Love, citing a date of ca. 1820-30. The text notes that because "of its high cost and relative scarcity, silk was used sparingly in eighteenth-century America." The DAR is able to date the bags as theirs were owned by the Quaker preacher, abolitionist, and poet, Elizabeth Margaret Chandler (1807-1834). The fourth bag is in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. It, too, is of ivory silk, with an anti-slavery image and verse.
The Ladies' New York City Anti-Slavery Society, (1834-1840), the Boston Female Anti Slavery Society, and The Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society, organized their "fairs" beginning in 1834 up until 1850's . What began as a three hundred dollars "sale of useful articles" in private homes and attended by a small circle of progressive individuals, crystallized as a desideratum of the social seasons and a lucrative moneymaker that raised money for the abolitionist cause. The fairs were scheduled to coincide with the end-of-year gift-giving season and advertised accordingly. Lists of items were advertised to whet the appetite and bring in a spending crowd. Goods were promoted as being in the latest mode, rare or unavailable at the local stores, and included fine stationary and fancy paper goods, statuary, paintings and drawings, crystal and fine china; jewelry, embroidery and embroidered goods. Art works and historic documents were exhibited to spark interest. Many fairs were also well supported by European friends whose contributions of fancy goods increasingly shaped the social tone of the event: Parisian note paper stamped with initials, embroidered and perfumed composition bags from Constantinople, purses from Florence; and a great variety of exquisite hand made niceties from England. This vast variety of beautiful things made these annual events very attractive. The above silk purse could have been used to collect contributions or to innocently keep the slavery question before the public and to promote perpetual discussion. For the owner of such a purse, the fair offered a way to deepen their antislavery understanding and to reverse the popular indifference to the evils of slavery. A rare and unique survivor of a cause that would eventually lead the country to Civil War and impact the nation.
George Thompson (1804-1878), abolitionist and reformer, spoke in his native England as well as Boston where he caused a riot. The poem was first read by George Thompson to the ladies of Glasgow, Scotland in 1833, in Mr. Anderson's Chapel, John Street, Glasgow, on Tuesday, March 5th 1833.
Not located in Threads of History. America Recorded on Cloth 1775 to the Present. Weissman and Lavitt, Labors of Love America's Textiles and Needlework, 1650-1930, p. 18. Museum of the Daughters of the American Revolution. The Slaves' Address to British Ladies.
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