Sold – A Rare Memento of the Transatlantic Struggle Against Slavery: Gerrit Smith Sends a Strand of the “Immortal” Thomas Clarkson’s Hair

Gerrit Smith was one of America’s most staunch abolitionists. First a candidate and supporter of the Liberty Party and its strong anti-slavery platform, he later was elected as a Free Soiler, believing that all people had the equal right to soil, regardless of color.  He gave his money to the Underground Railroad, to pay expenses for those charged under the Fugitive Slave Law, and most famously to support John Brown.  Smith was one of the “Secret Six,” a group of wealthy northern abolitionists who supported Brown in his effort to capture the armory at Harpers Ferry.  For this, he narrowly escaped charges himself.  Interestingly, he would later put up the money to bail Jefferson Davis out of jail.

The legendary Thomas Clarkson was the great English abolitionist and a leading campaigner against the slave trade in the British Emprie. He struck the first great blow against slavery when he achieved passage of the Slave Trade Act of 1807, which ended the British trade in slaves. In his later years Clarkson campaigned for the abolition of slavery worldwide.  He was a hero to the budding generation of anti-slavery politicians and activists in the United States, foremost among them Smith, who championed his work through the country and wrote to and of him often. As a member of Congress, he took to the floor of the House to recall something Lafayette said to Clarkson: “I would never have drawn my sword in the cause of America, if I could have conceived, that thereby I was founding a land of slavery.” Although Smith and Clarkson corresponded, the latter died well before Smith in 1846.  He became the symbol on the banner that men like Smith carried. 

In 1866, collector W. Andrew Boyd wrote to Smith, asking for his autograph and something by which he could remember Clarkson as well.  Smith responded with this note and a lock of hair from Clarkson, which Clarkson himself had sent to Smith at his request.  Note Signed, “For W. Andrew Boyd, The immortal Thomas Clarkson sent locks of his hair to me. Attached to this paper is a single hair from one of those locks.  Gerrit Smith.  Peterboro June 22, 1866.” The strand of hair is still present.

A touching connection between these two great abolitionists; we have never seen anything like it before.  Acquired from the descendants of the collector, this piece has never before been offered for sale.