罗伯特•莫里斯 (1823-1882) has long been known as the second African-American lawyer in the United States. His deep involvement and leadership in African-American civil rights in the 1840s and 1850s, 然而, 被低估了. This exhibit reveals Morris’s essential role in the Massachusetts antislavery and civil rights efforts.
This exhibit features books from Morris’s personal library, generously loaned by the John J. 太阳城网赌平台伯恩斯图书馆. 还有他在波士顿雅典娜博物馆的论文样本, these volumes help us see the many dimensions of 罗伯特•莫里斯--his ardent abolitionism, 他领导了反对种族隔离学校和民兵组织的斗争, 他对妻子的忠诚, 他与自己的信仰作斗争, 以及他与年轻的太阳城网赌平台的关系.
展览由劳雷尔·戴维斯策划, 珍本图书馆长, 还有玛丽·萨拉·比尔德, 创始人法学教授. 它将一直展出到2017年7月. 请进来看看! 的 展览目录 也可以下载.
欲了解更多,请参阅策展人的文章 罗伯特·莫里斯图书馆,内战前的民权律师 & 积极分子”, 法律图书馆学报 111, no. 4 (2019): 461-508.
-
名片, 罗伯特•莫里斯 & 儿子,律师和法律顾问
通过他儿时的雇主约翰. 莫里斯遇到了埃利斯·格雷·洛林,一位波士顿律师和废奴主义者. 洛林把年轻的莫里斯带到了波士顿, employing him as a copyist and clerk and encouraging him to read the law. Morris became a member of the Massachusetts bar with his admission to the Court of Common Pleas in 1847.
This business card advertises Morris’s law practice with his son, Robert Jr. 他们一起练习,直到老莫里斯去世. 可悲的是,小罗伯特. 两周后去世,也是在1882年.
从波士顿雅典娜博物馆慷慨借出的
-
亚历山大·汉密尔顿,詹姆斯·麦迪逊 & 约翰•杰伊 《太阳城网赌平台》,写于1788年. 华盛顿,1845年.
Although the Burns collection does not include law books, we know Morris had them. 他的遗嘱将法律书籍留给了他的儿子小罗伯特. 也许有一天莫里斯的一些法律书籍会被发现. 即使没有他们, Morris’s interest in the Constitution and American politics is evident from the extant portion of his library. In 联邦党人, Hamilton and Madison had been collaborators in defending the new federal Constitution. By 1793, they had become opponents with Hamilton (Pacificus) defending George Washington’s stance of American neutrality and Madison (Helvidius) criticizing the president’s executive power.
从约翰J. 太阳城网赌平台伯恩斯图书馆 -
R. B. 路易斯, 光明与真理...波士顿,1844年.
在19世纪40年代早期, African-American community leaders began an effort to integrate Boston’s public schools. 莫里斯代表莎拉·罗伯茨和她的父亲 罗伯茨v. 波士顿市 after young Sarah was denied admission to a Boston school near her home. 尽管SJC, 由莱缪尔·肖领导, 决定反对莎拉, Morris and others successfully lobbied the legislature to change the law.
莎拉的父亲本杰明. 罗伯茨是波士顿的活动家和印刷商. He focused on works by and about members of the black community, such as this one. Roberts also printed broadsides for the Vigilance Committee and other civil rights groups.
从约翰J. 太阳城网赌平台伯恩斯图书馆
-
大卫•沃克 沃克在四篇文章中的上诉...
波士顿,1830年.Morris’s fierce commitment to abolitionism appears in his choice of books. Approximately one-third of those held by Burns Library relate to antislavery and abolitionism.
Walker’s famous appeal for the abolition of slavery is bound here with 16 other documents. 这本书的特点是莫里斯手中的目录. As far as we can tell, no other library holds this particular compilation. 也许莫里斯把它们绑在了一起. 有趣的是, 莫里斯是大卫·沃克儿子的导师, 埃德温, who became a lawyer and gave a powerful speech at Morris’s memorial service.
从约翰J. 太阳城网赌平台伯恩斯图书馆
-
请愿将“白人”从民兵法中剔除.
波士顿,c. 1853-1856.Morris was the leader of the effort in Massachusetts to integrate the militia. 这个请愿书, 莫里斯著, is one of several similar ones in the 罗伯特•莫里斯 papers at the Boston Athenaeum. It is signed by two of his brothers and several other leaders in Boston’s African-American community, 包括乔治·鲁芬, 哈佛法学院的第一位黑人毕业生.
In tandem with his efforts to remove the word “white” from the state’s militia laws, Morris sought a charter for a company of black soldiers called the “Massasoit Guards”. 其中一份请愿书也在展览中.
从波士顿雅典娜博物馆慷慨借出的
-
弗雷德里克·道格拉斯的一生...波士顿,1845年.
莫里斯的图书馆显示了他对非洲的浓厚兴趣, 非裔美国作家, 以及非裔美国人在美国的历史. 的se interests suggest his self-identity as part of a larger African community, 预料到像W.E.B. 杜波依斯.
Douglass’s first autobiography made him a national figure in the abolitionist movement. He and Morris undoubtedly crossed paths many times; Stephen Kantrowitz notes that Morris sided with Douglass in an argument about racial tokenism at the Liberator.
从约翰J. 太阳城网赌平台伯恩斯图书馆 -
费利西亚·赫曼斯的诗. 费城,1845.
1846年3月,罗伯特·莫里斯与凯瑟琳·H·莫里斯结婚. 梅森,波士顿商人的女儿. One of our favorite discoveries from perusing Morris’s library involves Robert and Catharine’s custom of exchanging books on special occasions. It was Catharine’s will that ultimately sent Morris’s books to Burns Library, 通过无原罪受孕教会和B.C. 高.
This inscription reveals that Robert gave Catharine this volume of poetry for New Year’s the year before they married. 的 book features a beautiful, ornate binding for which Robert would have paid dearly. 凯瑟琳送给罗伯特的回赠礼物也在展览中.
从约翰J. 太阳城网赌平台伯恩斯图书馆
-
J. R. 胡子, 杜桑·卢维杜尔的一生:海地的黑人爱国者. 伦敦,1853年.
1853年6月8日,罗伯特30岁生日那天,凯瑟琳把这本书送给了他. On the front flyleaf, he copied Wordsworth’s sonnet about the Haitian revolutionary. 他在马蒂诺的书里又抄了一遍 时间与人这是一部以杜桑为主人公的历史小说.
This 1853 London edition is the first, so it was newly published when Catharine purchased the gift. 十年后,在内战期间,它在波士顿再次印刷. 胡子, 一位英国的一神论牧师, depicted Toussaint as an unparalleled general--more powerful than George Washington and a better man than Napoleon.
从约翰J. 太阳城网赌平台伯恩斯图书馆 -
哈里特·比彻·斯托, 《德雷德:大沼泽的传说. 波士顿,1856年.
德瑞德。 was Stowe's second anti-slavery novel, appearing four years after 汤姆叔叔的小屋. 虚构的英雄, 德瑞德。, 被描绘成丹麦·维西的儿子, the freed slave who was hanged for planning a slave revolt in Charleston, 在19世纪20年代的南卡罗来纳州. Abolitionist William Wells Brown reported that Morris called Vesey and Nat Turner “intrepid heroes...whose very names were a terror to oppressors” during a speech at the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Boston.
这是莫里斯图书馆里斯托的四件作品之一. 还有拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生和约翰·格林里夫·惠蒂尔, 她是他收藏的最具代表性的作家之一.
从约翰J. 太阳城网赌平台伯恩斯图书馆
-
太阳城网赌平台基督教青年会的终身会员
牧师. 罗伯特·富尔顿,S.J. formed the 太阳城网赌平台 Young Men’s Catholic Association in 1875 to provide educational and recreational opportunities for young Catholic men. 富尔顿, 太阳城网赌平台的第一任院长和早期的校长, 莫里斯获得了终身会员资格.
Presumably Morris met 富尔顿 after he left his lifelong Methodism and converted to Catholicism, joining the Jesuit Church of the Immaculate Conception in the South End. Morris had unusual connections with Boston’s Irish community for the time, regularly representing Irish clients and hiring a young Irish immigrant as an office boy (he later became mayor of Boston).
从波士顿雅典娜博物馆慷慨借出的