Abolition in the Archives #6
“An Address to the Citizens of the United States of America on the Subject of Slavery.” 1837
This anti-slavery tract was issued by the New York Friends’ (Quaker) Meeting under the signature of Samuel Parsons, Sr. in his capacity as Clerk of the Meeting. Several thousand copies were distributed in the South, where it was evidently seen as threatening enough that some of the people distributing it were arrested. Within a couple years of its publication, Samuel Parsons inherited his wife Mary Bowne Parsons’ share of the Bowne House, which soon thereafter passed to their children upon his death in 1841. His sons Samuel, Robert, and William Bowne Parsons all lived at Bowne House prior to their marriages. In addition to the family property, the brothers also inherited their parents’ abolitionist sentiments, all serving as Underground Railroad operatives in the run-up to the Civil War.
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Digital download from Library of Congress.