Introduction
Inspired by conscience and guided by principle, abolitionists took a moral stand against slavery that produced one of America’s greatest victories for democracy. Through decades of strife, and often at the risk of their lives, anti-slavery activists remained steadfast in the face of powerful opposition. Their efforts would ultimately force the issue of slavery to the forefront of national politics, and fuel the split between North and South that would lead the country into civil war.
On display from June 5 through September 27, 2003, “Abolitionism in America” documents our country’s intellectual, moral, and political struggle to achieve freedom for all Americans. Featuring rare books, manuscripts, letters, photographs, and other materials from Cornell’s pre-eminent anti-slavery and Civil War collections, the exhibition explores the complex history of slavery, resistance, and abolition from the 1700s through 1865. The exhibition offers a rare opportunity to view some of Cornell Library’s greatest treasures, including a manuscript copy of the Gettysburg Address written by Abraham Lincoln, a manuscript copy of the Emancipation Proclamation, and a copy of the 13th Amendment signed by Lincoln and members of Congress.
Anti-Slavery Collections at Cornell
Cornell University played an early and key role in the preservation of abolitionist history. In 1870, the University’s first President, Andrew Dickson White, acquired the complete library of his friend Samuel J. May, an abolitionist minister from Syracuse, New York. Word of Cornell’s acquisition spread among prominent abolitionists, many of whom responded to the call to contribute their personal papers and documents to the Cornell Library. White supplemented May’s collection of more than 10,000 anti-slavery pamphlets with an extensive Civil War collection of his own. Housed in the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections in the Carl A. Kroch Library, both collections form part of Cornell's vast holdings documenting ante-bellum and Civil War America.
Later additions to the Library’s holdings have continued to build upon Andrew Dickson White’s vision. In 1950 Marguerite Lilly Noyes presented Cornell with the Nicholas H. Noyes ’06 Collection of Historical Americana, consisting of some of Cornell’s most valuable letters and documents. In 2002, Gail ’56 and Stephen Rudin donated a spectacular collection on slavery in America to the Cornell University Library, enhancing Cornell’s ability to teach the history of this terrible struggle to future generations of students and scholars.
Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Samuel J. May graduated from Harvard in 1817 and subsequently became a teacher. After studying theology under Norton and Ware in Cambridge, he was ordained in 1822. He served as a pastor in churches in Connecticut and Massachusetts, before coming to Syracuse in 1845. His congregation, now named the May Memorial Unitarian Universalist Society, still exists there.
May was first and foremost a humanitarian and he worked tirelessly for a variety of causes. As a pacifist, he organized the Windham County Peace Society. As an early champion of equal rights for women, he invited Angelina Grimké to address his congregation on abolitionism, and wrote a sermon “the Rights and Condition of Women” in 1846. As an abolitionist, he served as a general agent and secretary of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, and his house was a station on the Underground Railroad between Boston, Syracuse and Canada.
May’s friendship with Cornell’s first President, Andrew Dickson White, and his passionate belief in the enduring educational value of his abolitionist library inspired May to donate his collection to Cornell University in 1870, a year before his death.
May Collection Designated a National Treasure
In 1999, Cornell University Library received a $331,000 grant to preserve the Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection. The grant was awarded through the “Save America's Treasures” initiative, a public-private partnership between the White House Millennium Council and National Trust for Historic Preservation, administered by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
This grant provided resources to enhance access to the collection through cataloging, conservation, and digitization. As a result, the pamphlets in Samuel J. May's great Anti-Slavery library are now available as electronic searchable text for the first time. The May Anti-Slavery pamphlets can be accessed through Cornell Library’s on-line Gateway via ENCompass, a digital library management system developed through a partnership between Cornell University Library and Endeavor Information Systems.