Raynors 2012-09
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 9/27/2012
Newspaper, a complete and authentic issue of the New York Daily Times. November 5, 1855, 8pp., disbound, VG. From the front page running over a full column, “The Case of Passmore Williamson. Mr. Williamson Again Before Judge Kane.” In part, “The petition of Passmore Williamson respectively showeth that he desires to purge himself of the contempt ... by making true answers to such interogatories ...” This followed by 2/3 columns of questions and answers and closing with “Judge Kane then remarked...the contempt is now regarded as purged and the party is released from custody.” On July 18, 1855, while working for the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, Williamson helped Jane Johnson and her two children escape enslavement from John Hill Wheeler who in 1855 was on a trip with his slaves from Washington, D.C., to Nicaragua as an ambassador. Williamson with a group of freemen, including William Still, forcibly took Wheeler's slaves from his possession and helped them to safety. When Wheeler tried to stop Johnson's escape, a minor scuffle ensued. That was enough to get all the participants charged with riot, forcible abduction, and assault. Williamson, the secretary of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society and a well-known public figure, was later convicted of contempt of court by Pennsylvania District Court judge John K. Kane and served a sentence between July 27 and November 3, 1855, in Moyamensing Prison.
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