Am I Not a Woman and a Sister

Hard Times Token. Late in 1837 the American Anti-Slavery Society of N.Y. commissioned Gibbs & Gardner of Belleville N.J. to strike these tokens as a fund raiser. This particular example is a very scarce token type that has a fully struck "8" in the date on the reverse. The study below estimates that only about 1/10 of the total number stuck has the full date. This is even scarcer because of the exceptional condition of this example. Note the reversed 'N' in UNITED. For other tokens in this 'family' see Liberia. LOW 54B / HT-81A R3.
(1838 HT-81A "AM I NOT A WOMAN & SISTER") is credited to the Belleville mint, New Jersey.
AM I NOT A WOMAN & SISTER antislavery token. It is also said to commemorate the formation of the Liberty Party in 1838.
In late 1837 the American Anti-Slavery Society, located at 143 Nassau Street, New York, commissioned the firm of Gibbs Gardner & Co. of Belleville, N.J. to strike these copper tokens.
The AASS published a weekly newspaper, The Emancipator, published by Charles W. Denison and edited by Joshua Leavitt. In its issue of Nov. 23, 1837, the Emancipator ran an advertisement offering the Female Slave tokens made of good copper and with a device on reverse similar to legal U.S. cents, they sold well.
The ad also said that it was proposed to issue Kneeling Male Slave tokens as well, and this accounts for the few pattern pieces of HT 82, which were never produced for circulation.
U.S. Mint Director Patterson moved quickly to suppress the circulation of HT 81, and it is apparent that by late December, 1837, he had succeeded in part. No further ads for the Female Slave tokens appeared in the AASS weekly or in other Journals, but since the number of pieces of HT 81 still surviving is quite large, they may well have been distributed by middlemen.
A photo of the exceedingly rare "I'm I Not a Man & A Brother token can also be found museum's USA section.

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There is an extensive study of these HTT and engraver Hulseman in our Library:
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This article details the info on The Kneeling Slave Token:
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One notable mystery on these is that the minting origins are still unknown. The article speculates on two well known HTT sources and Rulau now states that it was minted by Gibbs Gardner & Co. of Belleville NJ. There is also an article on that mint in the Library at:
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