Alfred H. Stone Collection
Volume: 61

5. Henry Laurens, A South Carolina Protest against Slavery: Being a Letter from Henry Laurens, Second President of the Continental Congress, to His Son, Colonel John Laurens; Dated Charleston, S. C., August 14th, 1776 9New York: G. P. Putnam for the Zenger Club, 1861). (34 p.)

Letter expressing anti-slavery sentiments by the patriarch of a prominent South Carolina family. Senator Edward Everett is quoted in a preface by way of explanation on the reason for printing the letter. “At the time of the adoption of the Constitution, and long afterwards, there was, generally speaking, no sectional difference of opinion, between North and South, on the subject of Slavery. It was in both parts of the country regarded, as ‘a social, political, and moral evil.’ The general feeling in favor of universal liberty and the rights of man, wrought into fervor in the progress of the Revolution, naturally strengthened the anti-slavery sentiment throughout the Union. IT IS THE SOUTH WHICH HAS SINCE CHANGED, NOT THE NORTH” (emphasis in original).