1009

Lament of a Southern Black on "Bobolition."

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:40.00 USD Estimated At:80.00 - 110.00 USD
Lament of a Southern Black on  Bobolition.
Civil War period songsheet intended for the Northerner craving peace but not necessarily abolition. "Young Eph's Lament," combination of letterpress and stone-lithography by Charles Magnus. 5 x 8, hand-colored in seven colors, showing a Union soldier conversing with a black carrying a walking stick, beside a palmetto tree. Four lengthy stanzas, in black dialect: "Oh, where will I go if dis war breaks de country up, And de darkeys hab to scatter a-round...De bobolition here, de sesession dare, And neather one nor t-other of 'em's right... Why don't dey tend to bussness making boats and building rail-roads, While de niggers raise de cotton and de corn. But Massachusetts dare and South Carolina here, Disturb dis happy Union wid de growl... Oh, I wish dat de white folks of dis great confederation, Would only...stop dar cannonading, marching, shooting and bombarding...Dar's a scarcity it seems, ob cabbage, peas an' beans, Kase dar's nobudy home to send 'em...." Upper right tip feathered from old, pale waterstain, not affecting design, else very fine. A fascinating example of the panoramic scope of patriotic publishing during the war, intending to offer stationery for every shade of Union ardor or Southern sympathy. (Magnus' Manhattan was a hotbed of Southern sympathizers.)