Guide to the May Anti-Slavery Manuscript Collection,
1749-1933

Samuel Joseph May (1797-1871) was an American Unitarian minister and civil libertarian, one of the founders of the New England Anti-Slavery Society in 1832 and of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833; he also worked for women's rights.

Consists mainly of correspondence among American abolitionists, including many letters to Samuel Joseph May. Also included are May's diaries from 1859-1861 and 1865-1870; correspondence among members of May's family and the family of James Miller McKim; and some correspondence with Daniel Willard Fiske and George William Harris concerning the building of the May Anti-Slavery Collection at Cornell University. Correspondents include Lyman Abbott, John Brown, Henry Grafton Chapman, Maria Weston Chapman, David Lee Child, Lydia Maria Child, Daniel Willard Fiske, William Lloyd Garrison, D.C. Haynes, George William Harris, H.B. Holmes, Oliver Otis Howard, Oliver Johnson, Joseph May, Lucretia F. May, Samuel May Jr., Samuel Joseph May, James Miller McKim, William Forster Mitchell, Lucretia Coffin Mott, Wendell Phillips, Reuben Tomlinson, George Cabot Ward, and Theodore G. Wright.

Large book and pamphlet collection concerning slavery and the anti-slavery movement also held in the repository, including slave narratives; abolitionist tracts, sermons, and letters; poetry and hymns, and documents of state governments and organizations concerning slavery.

Organized into these series: Maria and Henry Chapman papers, Lydia Maria Child papers, letters from other abolitionists, Freedmen's Aid Organization indexes, and bound manuscripts.