1808 LEXINGTON KENTUCKY POSTMARKED ANTI SLAVERY LETTER

Very interesting 1 p. folio semi-literate letter, with early anti-slavery content, dated Lexington, Kentucky, Sep 21 1808, from Elysha Laws to Clement Laws, near Old Chester, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, with original postmarked address leaf, black Lexington, Oct 21, oval postmark + manuscript red 25c postal rate. The content is mostly personal, then he writes, "I am agoing to the State of Ohio and I am determined to take me [there], but affirm that country I do not like so well as I expect it in times that is muddy in wet terms and that of Slavery ingrafted [meaning ingrained] in the very souls of the people. The Legislature has passed laws in favor of it and it is said that no preacher dare to preach it down ... but if old Horace Mifflin was here [to] tell them that they would always have Heaven [as] the judge ... [signed] Elysha Laws." Fair conditon, intact and complete, well worn with small tears, small repair in bottom margin with cellophane tape, some tiny breaks at corners of folds. *** We have been in the paper Americana business since 1953 and are members of both the Manuscript and Ephemera Societies as well as numerous other collector organizations.