MG-121. JOHN STROHM PAPERS, 1816-1874.
Correspondence of John Strohm (1793-1884), a Lancaster teacher and surveyor who served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, 1831-1833.
Correspondence. Contains a letter dated January 15, 1836 from Columbia lumber merchant and African American abolitionist Stephen Smith denouncing the "commerce in human flesh," and pleading with Strohm to "uphold the rights of man" and to "secure such laws as will aid in securing and protecting the citizens of this commonwealth from those acts of popular violence from which you are aware I am a common sufferer"; a letter from Isaac Strohm, a relative of John Strohm, August 11, 1839, mentioning abolition in Ohio; and a letter from "Passmore," August 4, 1841, containing a poem critical of slavery and territorial expansion.
Memorials/Petitions. These are position papers submitted with a petition for proposing amendments to the Constitution of Pennsylvania. The file contains a "Memorial to the Honorable, the Delegates of the People of Pennsylvania in Convention at Philadelphia Assembled, January 6, 1838, " that was "signed on behalf of the people of color in the city and county of Philadelphia [by] Charles W. Gardner [and] Fredk. A. Hinton." The two signers of this controversial petition were African American abolitionists involved in the Negro Convention Movement and other African American self-help activities. Also contained in this file is a "memorial to the Convention to withhold from Negroes the right of Suffrage, [Wm.] Meredith, January, 1838," and a "Memorial to the Convention on the Subject of Negro Suffrage-Citizens of Philadelphia, [Wm.] Meredith, January, 1838," both of which are anti-African American in their content.