[African Americana]. [Redpath, James, editor]

The Pine and Palm. Year Number, 8. Whole Number, 136 [caption title]

Boston: February 20, 1862. 4pp. on a single sheet of newsprint. Folded, split along top central vertical fold lines of both leaves with minimal loss, bottom portion of spine fold also split, some edge darkening and minor chipping. Good. Item #3563

A rare surviving issue of The Pine and Palm, an abolitionist newspaper published in Boston and edited by noted firebrand James Redpath. The Pine and Palm was the second of four newspapers edited by James Redpath, and the first newspaper he edited after touring Haiti and then settling in Boston in 1860. James Redpath (1833-1891) was a close friend and ultimately the biographer of John Brown, ran an abolitionist press in Bleeding Kansas, and wrote or published some of the great 19th century works devoted to abolition and improving the stature of African Americans in the United States. Redpath is perhaps best remembered now as the standard bearer for the emigration of African Americans to the island nation of Haiti, which he officially worked for as a diplomatic and bureau agent. The present issue reflects Redpath's mission in Haiti, and his use of The Pine and Palm as a mouthpiece for his Haitian emigration project, with numerous columns dedicated to the island's news, politics, culture, desirability as a destination for emigrants, and more, including an excerpt of Saint-Amand's History of the Revolutions of Hayti, written originally in French but here "translated expressly for the Pine and Palm." This issue emanates from the final year of the publication of The Pine and Palm, which ceased publication in the Fall of 1862 after Redpath finally realized that African Americans were more interested in staking a claim and making a home in the United States than in Haiti.

There is also an editorial on the Civil War and its central issue – slavery, and the seemingly impossible position of African Americans within the American system. The editorial reads, in part: “Great Expectations. This is an expectant era – The North expects to vanquish the rebels, maintain the Constitution, and enforce the laws, and to restore the Union in status quo bellum ante. The South expects foreign powers to interfere and aid it in sustaining its assumed independence, and to continence its attempt to make slavery perpetual on this continent.... We, Afric-Americans, too, have our expectations, which, ignoring facts and relying mainly on fancy, assume magnificent proportions, and from the changes which they imply, both in opinions as well as the conduct of our fellow-countrymen, are entitled to the appellation great.... This is the condition of the colored people of these United States, whose great expectation of succeeding some time or other, as con-heirs, to the heritage of freedom and political equality bequeathed to every American citizen, is the bane of their social existence. The intermixture of the two races, in this country, characterized by unmitigated cruelty, and the basest fraud, on the one side, and by the most revolting humiliation and extreme suffering, on the other, was abhorrent to every sentiment of justice in its inception, and remains stamped with the marks of its unnatural origin through every stage of its continuance." In addition to the news of the war and Redpath’s Haitian efforts, the newspaper carries stories about Washington family relics left at Arlington by the Lees when they left; a translation of Balzac, business news, and more. OCLC shows holdings of some issues (from single issues to substantial runs, sometimes only partial issues) at seven institutions: AAS, Duke, the Library of Congress, Historic New Orleans, Cornell, Boston Public, and the University of Texas at Austin.
Danky 4834.

Price: $850.00