African Americana

1 page, 4to, 7 15/16 x 9 7/8 in., with address panel on integral leaf verso, a few small separations along old creases. 

A threatening letter written to Black preacher Reverend Henry Adams who had purchased a church in Louisville: "We are opposed to that church being occupied by the Blacks, and we know that there are men living in that part of the city who will not suffer it, and if the laws are insufficient to protect them in this right, they will protect themselves, and should you persist in congregating the Blacks there, the consequences be upon your own head." The threats continue, ending "Beware - Beware - Beware -" with an accusatory postscript: "You have obtained your citizenship by evading the law yet you may easily be deprived of it, if not by law, by other means. again we say - Beware -." 

The church in question is the Fifth Street Baptist Church in Louisville, which still congregates. The church began when enslaved individuals who had attended the white congregation of First Baptist Church were given the "privilege of worshipping to themselves" in 1829. The same year, they recruited Reverend Henry Adams (d. 1872), the recipient of the letter here, originally from Georgia. He would lead the church for 33 years. 

A lot at Fifth and York Streets was gifted to the congregation by Benjamin Stansburg, becoming one of the first buildings in Louisville owned by African Americans. This letter was written in response to the move by the congregation to a larger building on Fifth Street, between Walnut and Chestnut, which had been formerly occupied by the First Christian Church that had moved and sold the property to the First Colored Baptist Church, changing its name to Fifth Street Baptist Church by 1845. Despite the threats here, the Fifth Street Baptist Church still congregates in the same building today.