Volume II Part 74 (1/2)

SIR: Indisposition has prevented an earlier reply to your favor of the 12th December. A few days before the receipt of it, the _pamphlet_ had been put into my hands by one of the Board of Aldermen of this city, who received it from an individual, it not having been circulated here. I perused it carefully, in order to ascertain whether the writer had made himself amenable to our laws; but notwithstanding the extremely bad and inflammatory tendency of the publication, he does not seem to have violated any of these laws. It is written by a free black man, whose true name it bears. He is a shopkeeper and dealer in old clothes, and in a conversation which I authorized a young friend of mine to hold with him, he openly avows the sentiments of the book and authors.h.i.+p. I also hear that he declares his intention to be, to circulate his pamphlets by mail, at his own expense, if he cannot otherwise effect his object.

You may be a.s.sured, sir, that a disposition would not be wanting on the part of the city authorities here, to avail themselves of any lawful means for preventing this attempt to throw firebrands into your country. We regard it with deep disapprobation and abhorrence. But, we have no power to control the purpose of the author, and without it we think that any public notice of him or his book, would make matters worse.

We have been determined, however, to publish a general caution to Captains and others, against exposing themselves to the consequences of transporting incendiary writings into your and the other Southern States.

I have the honor to be your obedient servant, H. G. OTIS.

Part 6.

_THE PERIOD OF PREPARATION._

CHAPTER XI.

LIST OF WORKS BY NEGRO AUTHORS.

”Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Va.s.sa.” Autobiography. Boston, 1837.

”Light and Truth.” Lewis (R. B.). Boston, 1844.

”Volume of Poems.” Whitfield, (James M.). 1846.

”Volume of Poems.” Payne, (Daniel A., D.D.). 1850.

”The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States, Politically Considered.” Delaney (Martin R.). Philadelphia, 1852.

”Principia of Ethnology: The Origin of Races and Color.” Delaney (Martin R.).

”Narrative of the Life of an American Slave.” London, 1847. ”My Bondage and My Freedom.” New York, 1855. ”Life and Times.” Hartford, Conn., 1882. Dougla.s.s (Frederick).

”Autobiography of a Fugitive Negro,” etc. Ward (Rev. Samuel Ringgold).

London, 1855.

”The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution.” Nell (Wm. C).

Boston, 1855.

”Narrative of Solomon Northup.” New York, 1859. ”Twenty-two Years a Slave, and Forty Years a Freeman.” Rochester, 1861. Stewart (Rev.

Austin).

”The Black Man.” Boston, Ma.s.s., 1863. ”The Negro in the Rebellion.”

Boston, 1867. ”Clotelle.” Boston, 1867. ”The Rising Sun.” Boston, 1874. ”Sketches of Places and People Abroad.” 1854. Brown (Wm. Wells, M.D.).

”An Apology for African Methodism.” Tanner (Benj. T.). Baltimore, 1867.

”The Underground Railroad.” Still (William). Philadelphia, 1872.

”The Colored Cadet at West Point.” Flipper (H. O.), U. S. A. New York, 1877.

”Music and Some Highly Musical People.” Trotter (James M.). Boston, 1878.