Civil War-Dated Billhead Receipt from "Free Labor Ware-House" Operated by Quaker Abolitionist

A 1p billhead receipt from George W. Taylor, owner of the "Free Labor Ware-House" in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The handwritten invoice was issued to customer John McAllister, Jr. on September 26, 1862 and includes nine grocery and mercantile items totaling $6.11. Docketed verso. Expected light paper folds, corner wrinkles, and a few chipped edges. Isolated stains, else near fine. 6.875" x 7.125."

Taylor, who was Quaker and a longtime member and officer in the organization of the Philadelphia Free Produce Association of Friends, operated a store offering customers the reassurance that he "manufactures his Cotton Goods from Material procured directly from those Growers, who neither own nor hire Slaves; and he takes special care to insure that all of the articles he sells in the Grocery line, are also produced exclusively by the labor of Free persons."

Of the items on McAllister's receipt, there are five types of sweeteners including molasses and cane sugar, powdered sugar, and crushed sugar, that typically would have been harvested using slave labor in the American South, for example. Instead, Taylor's molasses came from the West Indies, and other labor-intensive crops, such as coffee, were sourced from Jamaica. The British Caribbean had been emancipated since 1834.

The free-produce movement organized primarily by American and British Quakers in the 1790s-1860s boycotted the consumption of goods, both finished and unfinished, produced using slave labor. The Free Produce Society of Philadelphia was established in 1827, and the Philadelphia Free Produce Association of Friends was inaugurated in the late 1840s. Outside of Quaker country, on a national scale, the American Free Produce Society operated between 1838-1847. While President Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Emancipation Proclamation technically rendered the free-produce movement superfluous, there were always worries about actual compliance.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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