Fascinating New Addition: 1846 Abolitionist slave narrative, personalized with children's drawing and writing!

Lewis & Milton Clarke, Narratives of the Sufferings of Lewis & Milton Clarke, Sons of a Soldier of the Revolution, Among the Slaveholders of Kentucky, One of the So Called Christian States of America; dictated by themselves. 1846. Bela Marsh: Boston.

The publication of slave narratives, either written by ex-slaves when fully literate or transcribed and paraphrased for them, were among the most popular and effective vehicles for the abolitionist movement, and played an important role in the development of American literature as well. This book contains the stories of two light-skinned brothers (made even lighter in the book's portraits) enslaved on a Kentucky plantation, both meeting again years later having escaped separately and followed the underground railroad through Oberlin, Ohio (which remains a bastion of progressive thought and activism in the Midwest to this day). Both of the brothers later toured the country extensively, giving talks at abolitionist societies and public meetings.
 

 

This tome was intensely personalized by the Dow family who originally owned it, and shows how integrally abolitionist literature was incorporated into the family lives of those who were heavily committed to it. The Dow family worked a small farm in Caledonia County near South Walden, Vermont, and represent the rank-and-file of the abolitionist movement – not intellectuals, but part-time activists who made progressive causes a part of their daily lives through reading and, presumably, more material means of support. The book's dense topography of inscriptions, drawings, and educational exercises show how it was passed around among several generations of the family in the curse of their routine lives.

 

The genealogy is unclear. The oldest member of the household was probably James S. Durant, who must have been born before or around 1800. His daughter Sophia Durant Dow had at least one son, Roswell. Jeremiah W. Dow may have been her husband (Roswell's father), or may have been her step-father (in which case, her husband's identity, if living, remains a mystery). Another member of the household, David Durant Dow, was (depending on the identity of Jeremiah) either Sophia's son or her brother.

The child, Roswell, has left the greatest mark on this book – literally. The book's initial inscription lists all of the above family members in a flowing, confident hand, while most of the copies many remaining marks are clearly made by one or more children – including Roswell at the least – over several years as they grew and matured. 

 

At least one child (probably Roswell) used flyleaves as a scratchpad for penmanship and mathematics. The names of the family – especially of Roswell himself – and the names of the town and county (South Walden, Caledonia County) are repeated many times, almost obsessively, as they attempted to master the flowing penmanship required in the 19th Century, along with simple marks simply practicing the pressure and angle of the pen in making lines and flourishes. There are also several mathematical problems, which are likely but not necessarily schoolwork.
 

Some of the markings are more closely related to the text; a passage from the end of the book about the hypocrisy of slaveholders is lightly copied out in pencil. Finally, a child has drawn a couple wearing clothing of the late 1840s or early 1850s – possibly characters from the book, or possibly members of Roswell's family.

  

The family's story was tragic. In September of the year this book was published, Sophia was committed, for unknown causes, to the Vermont Asylum for the Insane, where she would remain the rest of her life. Two other Dows, who were probably related to her, were interred there around the same time: James G. Dow and Hannah Dow from Walden. Her child Roswell has inscribed the name of South Walden several times in the book, implying that he spent at least part of his time living with that branch of the family.

The family took abolition seriously, and later Roswell put his life on the line for that cause, enlisting in the 2^nd Sharpshooter Regiment to fight in the American Civil War. He survived the war, but his release from the army coincided with his own unspecified struggles with mental illness, and in late 1866, he was committed to the same hospital as his mother and other relatives, though in different compounds, where they must rarely if ever have seen each other. Sophia died in the asylum four years later in 1872; Roswell was still there in 1910, listed as an indigent ward of the state.