[African-Americana] [Douglass, Frederick] May, Rev. Samuel J. Group of 3 Receipts for the Purchase of Subscriptions to "Frederick Douglass' Paper"

No place, 1860-61. Three oblong sheets, 3 x 8 in. (76 x 203 mm). Group of three partially-printed receipts for Samuel J. May for his yearly subscription for Frederick Douglass' Paper, between August 1860-August 1862; accomplished in pencil and in ink. Docketing on verso of each; creasing from old folds; light soiling.

Lot includes a partial copy of the January 21, 1853 issue of Frederick Douglass' Paper (Vol. VI, No. 5, Whole No. 265); lacking the second sheet (pp. 3-4). Creasing from when folded, worming along same affecting text.

Frederick Douglass and Rev. Samuel J. May were close allies and regular correspondents. In 1841, Douglass joined the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), of which May was a founder and paid agent. On its behalf, Douglass traveled extensively, delivering speeches, distributing pamphlets, and recruiting subscribers for William Lloyd Garrison's TheLiberator. In 1843, Douglass participated in the AASS's ambitious "Hundred Conventions" project, a six-month speaking tour across the eastern and midwestern United States, where he recounted his experiences as a slave. Along the way, pro-slavery mobs repeatedly harassed and assaulted him; with one attack in Pendleton, Indiana, that left him with a hand broken. Upon his return to the United States in 1847, after touring England and Ireland, Douglass began to distance himself from the AASS and established his first newspaper, The North Star, in Rochester, New York. At the urging of abolitionist Gerrit Smith, Douglass merged The North Star with Syracuse's Liberty Party Paper in June 1851 to create Frederick Douglass' Paper. The paper appeared weekly until 1858 and then monthly until 1863, focusing on anti-slavery advocacy and broader social reform. The three present documents show Rev. May subscribing to the monthly iteration of Douglass's newspaper.

Rev. Samuel J. May (1797-1871) was a Unitarian minister, and an ardent supporter of abolition, women's rights, and educational reform. Born into a prominent Boston family, May was a descendant of two renowned colonial families, the Quincys and the Hancocks. His sister, Abby May Alcott was the mother of author Louisa May Alcott. May was a founding member of the New England Anti-Slavery society, and a close supporter of William Lloyd Garrison, often traveling throughout the northeast area to local chapters as a lecturer and agent. He was a prolific author and orator, writing a multitude of essays and speeches on reforming political and religious society, until his death in 1871.

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