A Story of Precarious Black Freedom in Joseph Watson’s Correspondence
The Joseph Watson Correspondence digital collection, contributed by LSU Special Collections, offers insight into the precarious freedom of antebellum black northerners through the story of a Philadelphia mayor’s attempt to return free black children who were kidnapped and sold into slavery. The correspondence also offers an example of dialogue between a white northerner and white southerner that smooths over some of the harsh realities of slavery for the sake of cross-regional cordiality.