THOMPSON (Mary W.)
Sketches of the history, character, and dying testimony, of beneficiaries of the Colored Home, in the city of New-York.
PROTECTION AND PEACE FOR THE HOMELESS
THOMPSON (Mary W.)
Sketches of the history, character, and dying testimony, of beneficiaries of the Colored Home, in the city of New-York.
An excellent piece of social history providing much insight into vulnerable Black populations in mid-century New York.
The preface provides a neat description of the purpose of the Colored Home: "The institution not only provides protection and a peaceful home for the respectable, worn-out colored servants of both sexes of our city, by sheltering and sustaining them during the lingering days of declining life, but furnishes them in their last moments the consolations of religion." The home had an agreement with the Alms House to take in the "diseased, hopeless, and helpless" for a season or until they'd regained their health or employment.
The bulk of the work comprises biographies of fifteen sick and otherwise homeless residents. Hercule Schureman (who was 100 years of when entered the home); Blind Sopha (brought from Africa when she was seventeen years old); Amy Jordan (born into slavery in Virginia, "she twice worked for and paid the amount required for her freedom..."); Judy Richards, Abigail Dobson ("a native of the West Indies ... she remembered 'Mr Washington's wars'"), Phillis Douglas (who was enslaved in New Jersey).
Rare: OCLC locates copies at UNC, University of Illinois, Howard, Marietta College and the BL only. We find another at AAS. Just a handful of copies recorded at auction, the last in 2007.
