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1886 Autograph Letter Signed by Parker Pillsbury the Anti-Slavery Abolitionist

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:350.00 USD Estimated At:500.00 - 600.00 USD
1886 Autograph Letter Signed by Parker Pillsbury the Anti-Slavery Abolitionist
Black History
Parker Pillsbury (“The Destiny of the Nation”) Writes to Friends During the Twilight of His Life March 28, 1886
March 28, 1886-Dated, Autograph Letter Signed, “Parker Pillsbury” affixed to a Printed Speech by Pillsbury titled, “The Destiny of the Nation” previously given before an Anti-Slavery gathering in 1847, Choice Very Fine.
Parker Pillsbury (1809-1898). was an American minister and advocate for Abolition and Women's Rights. He did applaud both Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and defended the actions of John Brown after the raid on Harpers Ferry. March 28, 1886, Autograph Letter Signed, “Parker Pillsbury” on lined, fine-laid paper, at Concord, NH, affixed to a Printed Speech by Pillsbury, titled “The Destiny of the Nation,” previously given before an Anti-Slavery gathering in 1847, measuring 8” x 5” with 6 pages. Here, Pillsbury thanks a friend for sending him a book that he had long sought.

He concludes with mention of his previous struggle against Slavery: “I will mail you with this, some of our old testimonies against the Church and Clergy of the Anti Slavery Times… P.S. - At the opening of our Rebellion, I procured a ream of paper and had it printed as is this sheet and used it during the war, for correspondence. Lately, I procured & prepared another ream in the same manner. As you see.”
Parker Pillsbury (September 22, 1809 – July 7, 1898) was an American minister and advocate for Abolition of Slavery and for Women's Rights.

Pillsbury was born in Hamilton, Massachusetts. He moved to Henniker, New Hampshire where he later farmed and worked as a wagoner.

With the encouragement of his local Congregational church, Pillsbury entered Gilmanton Theological Seminary in 1835, graduating in 1839. He studied an additional year at Andover, and there came under the influence of social reformer John A. Collins, before accepting a church in Loudon, New Hampshire. His work in the ministry suffered after he made a number of sharp attacks on the churches' complicity with slavery. His Congregational license to preach was revoked in 1840. However Pillsbury became active in the ecumenical Free Religious Association and preached to its societies in New York, Ohio, and Michigan.

Pillsbury's dislike of slavery led him into active writing and lecturing for the abolitionist movement and other progressive social reform issues. He became a lecturing agent for the New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and American antislavery societies, and held these posts for over two decades. He edited the Concord (N.H.) Herald of Freedom in 1840, and again in 1845 and 1846. In 1854, he served as an emissary from the American Anti-Slavery Society to Great Britain.

Pillsbury lectured widely on abolition and social reform, often in the company of fellow abolitionist Stephen Symonds Foster. He earned a reputation for successfully dealing with hostile crowds through nonresistance tactics. His support for nonresistance led to service on the executive committee of the New Hampshire Non-Resistance Society. Consequently, Pillsbury was not an active supporter of the Union war effort. However, he did applaud Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and defended the actions of John Brown after the raid on Harpers Ferry.

In 1865, Pillsbury broke with longtime associate William Lloyd Garrison over the need for continued activity by the American Anti-Slavery Society. He edited the National Anti-Slavery Standard in 1866.

Pillsbury helped to draft the constitution of the feminist American Equal Rights Association in 1865, and served as vice-president of the New Hampshire Woman Suffrage Association. With feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Pillsbury served as co-editor for the women's rights newsletter The Revolution, founded in 1868.

Pillsbury completed his abolition memoirs, Acts of the Anti-Slavery Apostles, in 1883.

His nephew, Albert E. Pillsbury, drafted the bylaws of the NAACP. (From Wikipedia).