Important African Americana Collection Leads at Freeman's
Paul Cuffe, signed autograph letter, sold for $96,000
An important African Americana collection has nearly tripled its pre-sale estimate at the latest Freeman’s Books & Manuscripts auction.
The auction featured several collections including the archive of American abolitionist Rev. Samuel J. May. “This remarkable collection of unique documents dealing primarily with the abolitionist movement, but also educational reform and anti-slavery in general, descended through May’s family and has never before been offered for sale,” said Darren Winston, SVP, Head of Department, Books & Manuscripts.
Across 20 lots, the collections made a total of $233,808, nearly three times their pre-sale estimate of $85,000-$132,800. The top lot of the collection was a rare autograph letter by Black entrepreneur, abolitionist, Quaker, and pioneering Pan-Africanist Paul Cuffe selling for $96,000 against a pre-sale estimate of $15,000-$25,000. Only a handful of Cuffe letters are known to have appeared at auction.
Written just before his departure for his final voyage to Sierra Leone in 1815, the letter details the logistical and financial arrangements for transporting free Black families from Massachusetts to West Africa aboard his brig Traveller. Largely financed by Cuffe himself, the expedition became the first African American-led effort to voluntarily resettle free Black Americans in Africa.
The top lot of the sale was a rare promissory note printed, accomplished, and twice signed by Benjamin Franklin at his Passy press outside Paris in December 1781,which sold for $352,000. Issued less than two months after the American victory at Yorktown, the document recorded repayment of a French government loan that helped finance the Revolutionary War. Printed as part of a limited series of certificates supporting loans negotiated by Franklin during his tenure as Minister Plenipotentiary to France, the document is among the last works produced at his Passy press. Only a small number remain in private hands.
The top book of the auction was a rare first edition of The Book of Mormon that beat its presale estimate of $100,000-$150,000 selling for $230,400. Published in 1830, just before the formal establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it is the only edition identifying Joseph Smith as the book's author rather than its translator and retains its original witness testimonies. Only an estimated 500-700 copies survive of the original 5,000 printed.
