How History Unfolds on Paper: Important Americana from the Eric C. Caren Collection, Part X

The American Universal Magazine
Philadelphia: Printed by Richard Lee, 1797. In four issues (Monday, April 3, Vol. II, No. IX; Monday, May 15, Vol. II, No. XII; Monday, May 29, Vol. II, No. XIII; Monday, June 13, Vol. II, No. XIV). 8vo. 52 (i.e. 48); (3), 198-402, (4) pp. Quarter brown leather over marbled paper-covered boards, red morocco spine label, stamped in gilt, cocked, boards and extremities rubbed and worn; all edges trimmed; front free endpaper wanting; library ink stamp along gutter of first title-page; scattered soiling and dampstaining; remnants of removed library label on rear free endpaper.

A published attack on President Washington as a slaveholder, almost certainly the first magazine printing of this important letter, printed during Washington's lifetime, in the June issue, on pp. 353-360.

British poet and bookseller Edward Rushton's "Expostulatory Letter to George Washington," fiercely criticizes then-President Washington for his ownership of slaves. In his younger years Rushton had worked on slave ships and became an abolitionist as a result. In one particularly horrific instance, Rushton was aboard a slave ship when an ophthalmia outbreak occurred. Upset, he first tried sneaking extra food and water to the enslaved passengers before eventually reprimanding his own captain, which resulted in Rushton being charged with mutiny. As a result of his prolonged contact with the sick, Rushton contracted the disease himself, resulting in his losing all sight in his left eye and developing a cataract in his right. This incident effectively ended his sailing career, and he retired to Liverpool.

In 1796, Rushton wrote letters to Thomas Paine and George Washington heavily criticizing them for their continued involvement in human enslavement. His letter to Washington read in part, "...you who conquered under the banners of freedom–you who are now the first magistrate of a free people are (strange to relate) a slave holder...Shame! Shame! That man should be deemed the property of man or that the name of Washington should be found among the list of such proprietors...Ages to come will read with Astonishment that the man who was foremost to wrench the rights of America from the tyrannical grasp of Britain was among the last to relinquish his own oppressive hold of poor unoffending negroes. In the name of justice what can induce you thus to tarnish your own well earned celebrity and to impair the fair features of American liberty with so foul and indelibile a blot." The letter was returned, Rushton noted, without a syllable in reply, leading him to decide to publish it.

Despite Washington's own personal and evolving stance against slavery, at the time Rushton sent his letter George Washington was engaged in a desperate search for a runaway slave, Ona Judge, who had fled the president's household on 21 May 1796. Newspaper ads were printed and numerous attempts were made to trick her into returning, all of which failed; Washington even sent a letter to his nephew, Burwell Bassett, Jr., two months before his death asking for his help in recapturing Judge. Washington died in December 1799, and Judge died a free woman in New Hampshire on February 25, 1848.

George Washington inherited his first enslaved persons at the age of eleven after the death of his father in 1743. As a young man, he relied heavily on enslaved labor at Mount Vernon, the estate he inherited in his early twenties, and he actively participated in the buying and selling of enslaved people. His marriage to Martha Dandridge Custis in 1759 significantly expanded the number of enslaved individuals under his control, increasing it by more than eighty people. Between the early 1750s and the 1770s, Washington purchased at least seventy-one enslaved individuals. With the outbreak of the American Revolution, Washington reduced his direct involvement in the slave trade, though he continued to acquire enslaved people through natural increase and the settlement of debts. By the time of his death in 1799, Mount Vernon’s enslaved population numbered 317 people, 123 of whom Washington personally owned. In his will, he granted immediate freedom to his valet, William Lee, and directed that the rest of the enslaved people he owned be freed upon Martha Washington’s death. Martha later emancipated them during her lifetime, officially freeing them on January 1, 1801.

Rushton's letter is scarce in any printing. According to Sabin (74280), a privately printed pamphlet version was also printed in Liverpool in the same year, likely preceding this printing. Sabin also notes an 8vo printing, published in Boston in 1831 (74281), while Evans notes a broadside printed possibly in Boston, around the same time (32786). Kentucky Imprints furthermore notes that the Kentucky Gazette in 1797 advertised an edition printed at its offices in September 1797, but no copy of that edition has been located (HRS 64). According to RBH, we can locate only two copies of this June issue at auction since 1975.