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John Adams

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:2,000.00 - 4,000.00 USD
John Adams

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Auction Date:2013 Feb 13 @ 18:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Partly-printed DS, signed “J. Adams,” one page both sides, 7.5 x 12, October 30, 1767. Document reads, in part: “To the sheriff of our county of Worcester, his under-sheriff or deputy greeting. We command you that you summon Sarah Dodge of Brookfield in our County of Worcester, widow administratrix of the estate of Francis Dodge late of Brookfield…Lemuel Jones of Weston in our said Country of Middlesex yeoman, administrator de bonii non of Ebenezer Hammond late of Weston aforesaid yeoman deceased intestate in a plea of covenant broken for the whereas the s'd Francis Dodge in his left time & in the life time of the said Ebenezer Hammond to wit on the Thirty first day of January 1750 at Weston afres'd by his deed of bargain & sale under his hand & seal in court to be produced bargained sold and delivered to the said Ebenezer a certain Negro slave named Cuffe then about seventeen years of age with his wearing apparell to have & hold the said Negro with his apparrell to him the said Ebenezer Hammond his executors administrator or assigns as his & their proper goods & chattels and the said Francis did therein covenant & engage to warrant secure & defend the said Negro slave with his apparrell to him the said Ebenezer Hammond his Executors, Administrators & assigns against the lawful claims & demands of all perform whatsoever. Now the said Lemuel Jones, administrator as aforesaid in fact says that the said Francis had no good right to sell & deliver the s'd Negro as aforesaid.” At the bottom of the document, and extending on to the reverse, Adams writes: “and the said Sarah Dodge administratrix as aforesaid comes and defends to and saith that the said Francis in his lifetime never trothe his covenant aforesaid but in all things kept the same, nor has she the said Sarah Administratrix as aforesaid broke the same covenant since her said…but hath kept the same in all things, and thereof puts.” In very good condition, with intersecting folds, one through a single letter of signature, and scattered toning and soiling.

Already a well-respected and prominent lawyer in Boston, Adams became a key political figure on the continental stage in 1765 when he headed opposition to the recently imposed Stamp Tax. Carrying out his legal duties, Adams served as attorney in this 1767 case regarding the 1750 sale of a young slave. Though vehemently opposed to the practice of slavery throughout his life, he remained patient in regard to abolition, understanding that the issue would drive a wedge between the north and south at a time when unity was of the utmost importance. The exact date that slavery was abolished in Massachusetts is unclear, but a common view is that it was forbidden by implication in the Declaration of Rights that Adams wrote into the Massachusetts Constitution in 1780.
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