Record

D504 - Clients of Messrs Brooke Taylor & Company of Bakewell, solicitors - [15th-20th cent]
- 144 - Letters of John Taylor - 1799-1864

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CONTENT WARNING	The fair copy of the letter to Abraham Lincoln contains views about slavery and emancipation that are now considered highly offensive. A full transcript is provided below.
Archive Reference / Library Class No.	D504/144/35
Title	Copy and draft letters from John Taylor
Date	Jan 1808-May 1862
Description	Including letters to Lord John Russell, Nov 1825 and Abraham Lincoln on the emancipation of enslaved persons in the southern States of America, May 1862 3 items are undated
Extent	1 bundle (42 items)
Level	File
Repository	Derbyshire Record Office
Archive Creator	Client of Messrs Brooke Taylor & Company of Bakewell, solicitors
Archive Creator	John Taylor
Format	Document
Term	Slavery
	Slaves
	Ethnic groups
	Forced labour
	Oppression
	Letters (documents)
Transcript or Index	Transcript of a fair copy of a letter to Abraham Lincoln, 19 May 1862 To Abraham Lincoln &c. &c. May 19. 1862 Sir, Your Proposition to buy up, and / enfranchise, the Slaves of the Southern States, / is as [crossed-through] creditable to your Humanity, and it is [two words crossed-through] / honourable to your Policy. But the Expen[se] / would be enormous. The Bible mention what / is necessary to be done in order to put down / slavery. (See Deut. 23.16) - "Thou shalt not deliver unto his Master / the Servant which is escaped from his Master / unto thee. He shall dwell with thee, even / among you, in that place which he shall choose / in one thy gates, where it liketh him best: / thou shal not oppress him." - There is no / separate word for Slave [underlined], as distinct from Ser/vant [underlined], in the Bible. The Hebrew is "obed". The above passage is quite enough to / put an end to all the Evils [underlined] of Slavery - for / if the Slave does not feel himself so much / aggrieved as to make him desire to escape / from his Master, he cannot be much injured. / - Many slaves are well satisfied with / their condition - leave them alone. But / as soon as any one is desirous of escaping / from his Master, assist him to obtain his / Liberty, according to the word of God, - & provi[de] / him with a place to dwell in, "where it / liketh him best". As no Scripture is of private (or pecular[ity)] / another (1 Sam 30.11-15). But in this case, / the Master has left his Slave to perish. In / no casse, however, is it right that the Slave / should be allowed to perish, for want of food, / on that he should be delivered up unto the hand / of his Master. I am, Sir, your obed't Servant / John Taylor The Right Hon'ble / Abraham Lincoln, / President of the United States of America 7 Leonard Place, Kensington, / London May 19 1862
Archivist Note	Content Warning and Transcript of the letter to Abraham Lincoln added 28 March 2022, BS.