Souvenir of Educational and Benevolent Work Among the Negroes of the South. 1865-1898.
Boston: [ca. 1898]. [4]pp. on a single folded sheet. Minor wear, creasing, and staining. Small abrasion at spine fold. [with:] Calling card, 3 x 5 inches. Small paperclip stain at top left. [and:] Blank donation form, 5.25 x 5.25 inches. Small area of staining, minor edge wear. Very good. Item #5174
A scarce brochure "compiled in the interest of Negro Education" by Rev. William Henry Scott, an African American Baptist minister and racial activist who spent the last eighteen years of his life in Boston. Here, Scott and Rev. J.M. Waldron provide a comparison of the position of African American socio-economic status, education, population, and more. For example: "In '65, 4,000,000 Negroes. In '65 the Negro had nothing. In '98, 10,000,000 Negroes. In '98 between $400,000,000 and $500,000,000." The last page of this ephemeral leaflet seeks donations and supplies for the Bethel Industrial and Bible Training School for African Americans that was located (or to be located) somewhere in Jacksonville or Duval County, Florida. The latter three pages are each illustrated with a single image, including portraits of Scott and Waldron, and a drawing of the aforementioned Bethel Industrial and Bible Training School.
The brochure is accompanied by two notable pieces of ephemera. The first is Reverend Scott's business or calling card, identifying him as "Financial Agent of Bethel Industrial and Bible Training School" described at the top of the card as "An Institution for the Industrial and Moral Training of Negroes." The verso of the card is filled with text (about 200 words) describing the "Object" and "Needs" of the new school. The second ephemeron included here is a broadsheet handbill with the same description of Bethel printed on the business card, with a partially-printed donation form on the verso, headed, "Promise of Aid to the Bethel Industrial and Bible Training School in Jacksonville, Florida."
Scott's papers are held at Emory University, whose biographical note reads: "William H. Scott (1848-1910), was born a slave in Virginia on June 15, 1848. In April of 1862, he escaped and joined the 12th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. Following the Civil War, Scott studied at Howard University Law School. He taught newly freed slaves in Virginia until he was forced to flee the state as a result of racist intimidation. He then enrolled at Wayland Seminary and was ordained a Baptist minister in 1880. He served churches in Washington, D.C., Virginia, and Massachusetts. He established ‘Scott's Boston Cheap Bookstore’ in the 1880s, selling it in 1892 when he moved to Boston to serve as pastor of Calvary Baptist Church. Scott was an advocate for African American rights. He founded the Massachusetts Racial Protective Association in March 1896; he was one of 29 original members of the Niagara Movement; and he helped organize the National Independent Political League in 1908. Scott died in Woburn, Massachusetts, on June 27, 1910."
A wonderful trio of ephemeral items relating to a notable 19th-century African-American industrial school in Florida.
Price: $550