Independent Chronicle & Boston Patriot
Dec. 25, 1819
Dec. 25, 1819
This is an issue of a daily Boston newspaper which is over 200 years old! It measures 14.5x21 inches in size and is four pages long. The newspaper was once in a bound volume and has typical disbinding marks at its spine, but is otherwise in excellent condition, with light age browning. It also has an old name “Hon. L. Lincoln” penned in old ink in the upper front page margin, but this was common in that era, as the way newspapers were addressed to their subscribers. (There was a Levi Lincoln who was Attorney General under Thomas Jefferson, and later the governor of Massachusetts, who died in 1820. So it’s possible that this was once delivered to his home, but that’s only speculation.) The paper will be shipped folded once.
The Independent Chronicle & Boston Patriot covered a wide array of national and international news. This issue has several items of lasting interest. On the front page, there is a report of a shipwreck off the coast of New Jersey, with the loss of the ship’s captain and 14 crewmen.
Also on the front page is an article on troubles in Texas, with references to San Antonio, and James Long, who led an abortive and unsanctioned invasion of Texas, briefly resulting in the capture of Nacogdoches, with his followers proclaiming Long the first President of the Republic of Texas. Long was later captured, and killed in a Mexican prison in 1822, at age 29.
The article says, in its entirety:
“A gentleman in New-Orleans , says the New York Evening Post, has enclosed us the following extract from a letter which he received from his correspondent at Natchitoches, and observes, ‘as I am acquainted with the parties, I have no doubt of the facts therein set forth. Burtsell and Barker, mentioned in the extract, are well known in New-York, and will enable your citizens to judge of the accuracy of the report.’ Here follows the extract:
“NATCHITOCHES, Nov. 3, 1819.
“Nine o’clock this evening we received the news of the arrival of 2,000 Spaniards on the banks of the Sabine (all mounted), and within 50 miles of us. They have driven all before them on their march from San Antonio, and burnt all the villages. They have driven the remainder of the Republicans in all directions and have put several to death. Gen. Long has, with risk, got clear with his family; but the commander at this place has orders to send him, if caught, to Washington, by direction of the President. We do not know where this will end. We have but fifty soldiers at this post—They have got one family from New York, just settled there, by the name of Burtsell. We buried Mr. Barker 25 days since.”
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Then on page 2, in a column headed “Foreign,” among several items from Africa is an extract of a letter from the Cape Verde Islands, which includes several comments on the slave trade in Africa. This report is 3.5 column inches long, consisting of 31 lines of text, in small print. It says, in part:
“The British, in conjunction with the Spanish and Portuguese governments, have recently organized a court, at Sierra Leone . . . for the trial of captured slave vessels . . . The late expedition into the interior of Africa has reached Hourss, within 250 miles of Tombuctoo. It is now ascertained to a certainty that Mungo Park is no more. The horrid and inhuman traffic of he slave trade is now carried on to a degree never before equalled; scarcely a week passes but vessels from the Havana, bound to the coast for slaves, touch here for supplies. Even in these islands they have been imported, contrary to the law; and I have seen the miserable objects confined in a yard surrounded by a high wall, exposed for sale. I hope to hear soon that every exertion will be made by the different governments, to crush entirely this horrid traffic.”
“The British, in conjunction with the Spanish and Portuguese governments, have recently organized a court, at Sierra Leone . . . for the trial of captured slave vessels . . . The late expedition into the interior of Africa has reached Hourss, within 250 miles of Tombuctoo. It is now ascertained to a certainty that Mungo Park is no more. The horrid and inhuman traffic of he slave trade is now carried on to a degree never before equalled; scarcely a week passes but vessels from the Havana, bound to the coast for slaves, touch here for supplies. Even in these islands they have been imported, contrary to the law; and I have seen the miserable objects confined in a yard surrounded by a high wall, exposed for sale. I hope to hear soon that every exertion will be made by the different governments, to crush entirely this horrid traffic.”
