Cover made from antebellum illustrated broadside advertising "Negro Kersey" cloth. Approx. 11 1/8 x 6 1/2 in. 

A handmade envelope from reused paper that was previously a broadside advertising "Negro Kersey." The advertisement features a group of enslaved individuals at a celebration, with a man playing a fiddle and the others dancing. All are dressed in a striped fabric - presumably the fabric being peddled. Kersey was a type of twill weave associated with the poorest echelons of society, with the lowest quality sold to enslavers. 

The envelope was almost certainly made out of necessity during the Civil War when paper shortages became acute in the South. 

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs]