#huttner collection

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Frederick Douglass’s 200th Birthday

“Nations no more than men, can live by bread alone. In the absence of justice, liberty and truth, the soul of the nation dies.” Frederick Douglass, 1885

While the precise date of birth for Frederick Douglass is unknown, he chose to celebrate it on February 14th. Today marks the 200th birthday of this well-known escaped slave who went on to become one of the most prominent national abolitionists and African-American leaders of the 19th century. 

The Huttner Abolition and Anti-Slavery Collection at the Hennepin County Library Special Collections contains hundreds of books, speeches, pamphlets, and manuscripts related to the abolitionist movement and the figures involved, including Frederick Douglass. The books in the collection can be searched and browsed in the library’s online catalog. Manuscript material, including the handwritten quote and signature above, can be viewed by request.

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The Peace We Celebrate - The Huttner Abolition and Anti-Slavery Collection

Juneteenth is a day in which we commemorate the end of slavery in the United States. It was on June 19th, 1865 (two years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, and over a month after the American Civil War was declared over) that Union soldiers landed in Galveston, Texas with the delayed news that the war was over and the enslaved were free.

The Huttner Collection at Hennepin County Library Special Collections is a substantial collection of books, pamphlets, speeches, documents, and manuscripts on abolition and anti-slavery. The above selection includes material published around 1865.

“The amended Constitution of the United States declares that slavery is forever prohibited under its jurisdiction; and, today, no human being in this nation wears the legal fetters of a slave. Over this great victory of our cause, we would rejoice with fit anthems of praise; but language fails to portray the magnitude of the triumph, or to reach the heights and depths of our glad thanksgiving.”

- From the 32nd Annual Report of the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society, February, 1866

View Hennepin County Library Juneteenth booklists and join in on the Twin Cities Juneteenth Celebration on Saturday, June 20.

[hclib]

Slave Sale Receipt

This appalling document, which records the sale of a human being in 1792, was recently acquired by the Library for Special Collection's Robert Huttner Abolition and Anti-Slavery Collection. The collection contains hundreds of books, tracts, speeches, testimonials, and original manuscripts related to the abolitionist movement and the era of slavery in the United States.