Robert B. Thomas. The Old Farmer's Almanac...for the Year of Our Lord 1851. Boston: Tappan, Whittemore & Mason, [1850]. 

12mo. Woodcut illustrations throughout. Original illustrated wrappers. Frist edition. 

Inscribed to front wrapper: "Loel Sweetser / South Reading." 

A fascinating copy of the 1851 Old Farmer's Almanac owned and inscribed extensively by Loel Sweetser (1802-1873), a shoemaker from South Reading (later Wakefield), Massachusetts. In the margins, Sweetser has inscribed a personal chronicle recording important weather events and deaths in his family and community. Importantly, he recorded on page 12: "Thomas Sims, a fugitive slave, was taken back to slavery from Boston the 12th, in consequence of which, the bells in this town tolled more than two hours."

Thomas Sims (circa 1828-1902) was the son of Minda Campbell, an enslaved woman, and James Sims, a Georgia plantation owner who enslaved Minda and his son, Thomas. On 21 February 1851, Thomas emancipated himself by stowing away on the ship M. & J.C. Gilmore. Just months later, he was arrested under the purview of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Tried just 3 days later, he was forcibly returned to Georgia under military protection. He was publicly whipped 39 times, and then sold down South to a Mississippi enslaver. The "Sims Tragedy" was a major blow to abolitionists, drawing wide sympathy as evidenced by the testimony recorded in the margins of this almanac.

Sims would yet again seek freedom, escaping in 1863 and returning to Boston during the chaotic siege of Vicksburg. Interestingly, Charles Devens was one of the U.S. Marshals who had been tasked with returning Sims to enslavement. Evidently moved by Sims' plight, he unsuccessfully attempted to buy Sims' freedom. In 1877, he appointed Sims to a position in the U.S. Department of Justice. 

[African Americana, African American History, Black History, Slavery, Enslavement, Abolition, Emancipation] [Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs] [Ephemera, Pamphlets, Publications, Booklets]