James Valentine (1815-1879), designer & engraver. F. Deraedemaeker, lithographer. Illustrated cover with scenes from Uncle Tom's Cabin. London: Ackermann & Co.; Glasgow: Oliphant & White; Edinburgh: Johnstone & Hunter; London: B. Theobald, circa 1853. 4 3/4 x 3 in. 

A very scarce British anti-slavery postal cover featuring six vignettes from Uncle Tom's Cabin, the enormously popular abolitionist novel, covering the entire verso of the envelope. The upper flap shows Uncle Tom's bankrupt enslaver selling him, separating him from Aunt Chloe and his children. Below, Uncle Tom is depicted reading his Bible while seated on cotton bales on a Mississippi River steamboat. The other four scenes vividly portray the violent realities of slavery, with two vignettes of Uncle Tom being whipped, Eliza and her son Harry escaping North while being pursued by slave catchers, and a distraught Susan as her daughter Emmeline is separated from her and sold. Between the scenes, biblical verses (Matthew 7:12; Isaiah 43:1) and a paraphrased quote from the novel (Chapter 37) are printed on ribands.

In the 1850s, the Dundee printer James Valentine was active in several progressive causes, including abolition, temperance, and prison reform. He was an associate of American social activist and radical pacifist Elihu Burritt (1810-1879), who had moved to England in 1840.

Very scarce. One other example has sold at auction. A postally used example (canceled 28 March 1853) is held at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum. OCLC locates a possible holding at the National Library of Scotland, described as "engraved envelope with anti-slavery messages and illustrations by James Valentine of Dundee," but lacking Oliphant as a publisher.  

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [African Americana, African American History, Black History, Slavery, Enslavement, Abolition, Emancipation]  [Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs] [Postal History, Covers, Philately]

Postally unused. Crisp and bright.