Report on the progress of schools established for freedmen as part of Reconstruction following the Civil War. The report summarizes enrollment, costs and funding sources, and provides insights into the successes and difficulties faced in educating the newly freed population.
Washington: Government Printing Office, 1869. 89 pp. Stab-bound self-wrappers. 89 pp.
Pamphlet by one of the leaders of the Colonization movement which aimed to return people of African origin to Africa. Though Breckinridge advocated for the end of slavery, he favored a gradual approach and was a slaveowner himself, and in 1833 had sent eleven of his own former slaves to the colony of Liberia – it was his belief that gradual return of Black people to Africa would be the only long-term societal solution to the problem of slavery.
Frankfort, Kentucky: A.G. Hodges & Co., Printers, 1851. Sewn self-wrappers.
Two pamphlets representing the pre-Civil War debate over slavery. The first is an article reprinted from Harper's in which Stephen Douglas suggests that the question of slavery be determined by the people of each territory and state, rather than by Congress. Curtis critiques the weak view of Congressional authority that Douglas takes; notably, he served as a U.S. Commissioner enforcing the Fugitive Slave Law, remanding Thomas Sims into slavery in 1852.
New York/Boston: 1859. 2 pamphlets: Stephen A. Douglas. The Dividing Line Between Federal and Local Authority. Popular Sovereignty in the Territories. New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1859.....