[African-Americana] Wright, Elizur, Jr., and Arthur Tappan. Abolitionist Rev. Samuel J. May's Partially-Printed American Anti-Slavery Society Executive Committee Commission

New York, July 24, 1834. Tall bifolium, 13 1/4 x 8 1/8 in. (336 x 206 mm). Partially-printed American Anti-Slavery Society Executive Committee commission for Rev. Samuel J. May, signed and accomplished by Society secretary Elizur Wright, Jr., and signed by Chairman of the Executive Committee Arthur Tappan. With a two-page autograph letter, signed by Wright, dated July 30, 1834, to Rev. May, informing him of his commission to serve on the Executive Committee and his salary, thanking him for his service, informing him of the Society's need for financial assistance, notifying him of an impending delivery of copies of the Society's annual report, and of the upcoming publication of an essay by Kentucky abolitionist James G. Birney. With "Particular Instructions" printed on the third page. Addressed by Wright on verso of integral leaf, red wax seal on same. Docketed on verso. Creasing from old folds.

Founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society Rev. Samuel J. May (1797-1871) is appointed to serve on its Executive Committee.

Formed in Philadelphia in 1833 by 60 prominent abolitionists, the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS) was a nationwide organization committed to the immediate emancipation of all enslaved people. The group employed a wide range of tactics, including the publication of pamphlets, broadsides, and circulars, the sponsoring of lectures, the encouragement of acts of civil disobedience, and the boycotting of goods produced by enslaved labor, to compel a national moral reckoning with slavery. Among the society's founding figures was the Rev. Samuel J. May. Though initially drawn to colonization as a young man, May underwent a shift in conviction around 1830 when William Lloyd Garrison persuaded him to embrace immediate abolitionism. From that point forward, May dedicated himself to the cause, even in the face of mob violence. Together with Garrison, he helped establish both the New-England Anti-Slavery Society (NEASS) and the AASS itself, where he sat on the executive committee alongside Lewis Tappan and worked as a paid agent.

May's activism extended beyond the organization's leadership. He publicly supported Prudence Crandall's efforts to operate a school for Black girls in Canterbury, Connecticut, and he published The Unionist, an abolitionist newspaper, beginning in 1833. He also lent his assistance to the formation of the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society in 1834. Deeply committed to racial equality, May consistently advocated for racial and gender-integrated meetings at a time when many reformers favored segregation based on race and sex. He actively aided people escaping from bondage and was an acquaintance with Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and Frederick Douglass. He served as president of the Syracuse Fugitive Aid Society, and on behalf of the AASS, he traveled to Canada to visit communities of formerly enslaved people who had settled there. With the outbreak of the Civil War, he founded one of the earliest Freedmen's Relief Associations, in 1862. During the postwar period he became a vocal proponent of Radical Reconstruction, and championed voting rights, education, and land redistribution for the newly freed population.

From the personal papers of American minister and abolitionist, Rev. Samuel J. May (1797-1871), thence by descent in the family

[African-Americana] Wright, Elizur, Jr., and Arthur Tappan. Abolitionist Rev. Samuel J. May's Partially-Printed American Anti-Slavery Society Executive Committee Commission