1866 J. SELLA MARTIN. Important MSs on Slavery by Black Abolitionist & Friend of Frederick Douglass

A very important MSs inscription by black former slave abolitionist, John Sella Martin. We trace no examples in the trade, none at auction, and very spare representation in institutional collections. 

John Sella [sometimes Stella] Martin [p1832-1876] was born enslaved in Charlotte, North Carolina. His mother was a slave who seems to have become pregnant after being raped by the son or nephew of her white master. Under the principle of partus sequitur ventrem, children of slave mothers took her status and were thus born into slavery.

At the age of six, Martin, along with his mother and his sister Caroline, were sold to a slave trader who took them to Columbus, Georgia.  There they were sold to a medical doctor, who owned them for three years, until bankruptcy forced him to sell his slaves. The family were sold separately. Martin’s mother Winnifred was sold to an Alabama minister, his sister was sold to a Mobile, Alabama slaveholder, and John, now nine, remained in Columbus with another slaveholder. He would never see his relatives again.

In his owner’s old age, he promised, by will, to free Martin upon his 18^th birthday. Dying before the day of Jubilee, his owner’s family successfully contested the will and Martin was sold nearly a dozen more times in the coming years.

By 1856, he had learned to read and write and escaped the south by forging his own manumission papers. He arrived in Chicago, Illinois on January 6, 1856.

He immediately turned abolitionist. Traveling with H. Ford Douglas, a fugitive slave from Virginia, he joined the growing abolitionist lecture circuit. While speaking in Detroit, he became ordained with the Baptists and spoke broadly across Michigan on abolitionist themes, especially as connected to the Gospel. Because of his theologically minded approach to the issue, he was invited to become the pastor of the predominantly white, but abolitionist Michigan Street Baptist Church in Buffalo, New York. While there, his wife helped found the Society for Fugitive Slaves and he continued to tour and lecture at anti-slavery events, becoming friends with Frederick Douglass. They would become close enough that Martin’s wife was a sworn witness to Frederick Douglass marriage.

Just before the outbreak of the Civil War, he was elected pastor at Joy Street Baptist Church, the oldest black church in Boston and would there become an important figure.

Martin's relationship with Douglass was challenging. Though friends and co-laborers, Martin was critical of Douglass' flight to Canada and England in 1859 to escape potential charges of collaboration with John Brown and the raid at Harpers Ferry. 

Just one year later, at the year anniversary of John Brown's death, Martin held special services at his Joy Street (Colored) Baptist Church. The speakers were Martin, Wendell Phillips, John Brown Jr, Frederick Douglass, and Maria Weston Chapman. 

After the Civil War, Martin's work continued. He spoke at the 1870 Great Jubilee March celebrating the passage of the 15th Amendment, guaranteeing black Americans the right to vote. In the immediate aftermath, Martin founded The New Era, a paper for freedmen during Reconstruction. It's primary corresponding Editor was Martin's long-time friend, Frederick Douglass.

A unique opportunity.

A single sheet inscription to Charles W. Schofield of London, dated 1866.

The phase of civilization which uses the advantages of wealth, culture, and position in oppressing those who are so unfortunate as to be without these aids to advancement, is itself the very essence of barbarism.

[signed] Sella Martin