Peter Still papers, 1850-1875

Location

Rutgers University Libraries (New Brunswick, N.J.)

Background

Slave, of Maryland and Alabama; brother of William Still (1821-1902)

Contents

Correspondence (1850-1875), chiefly relating to Still's campaign to purchase his wife, Vina Still, and family held as slaves in Alabama and the publication (1856) of Kate E.R. Pickard's biography, The Kidnapped and the Ransomed; memo book (1853-1854) of funds collected; and Still family record (1798-1821). Persons and places represented include William Lloyd Garrison, Horace Greeley, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Cortlandt Van Rensselaer, and Burlington, N.J., and Philadelphia, Pa.

Quotation [From letter of Oct. 12, 1852 of William Still to Peter Still; Peter Still Papers, MC 1392, Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries.]

 

"We would be glad to hear what you are doing toward effecting the deliverance of your family. ... Have you ascertained yet what your friend in Burlington ... N.J. will do in the way of pecuniary means, providing you can buy your family?..."

 

[Note: His wife and family were finally released in the 1850s]

 

For more information on Peter Still, see: The Saga of Peter Still (PDF, 161 KB)

(See the NUCMC catalog record) (PDF, 9 KB)

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