Isaac Knapp

Isaac Knapp
Born	January 11, 1804 Newburyport, Massachusetts
Died	September 14, 1843 (aged 39) Boston, Massachusetts[1]
Occupation	printer and publisher
Signature

Isaac Knapp (January 11, 1804 – September 14, 1843)^[2] was a printer and publisher in Boston, Massachusetts.

Biography

Knapp was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts to Philip Coombs Knapp and Abigail Remmick; siblings included Abigail Knapp.^[3] In 1825 he was proprietor of the Essex Courant newspaper.^[4][5]

With his friend William Lloyd Garrison he produced the anti-slavery Liberator newspaper, 1831-1841.^[6][7] He also co-founded the New England Anti-Slavery Society.^[8][9] His printing office was located on Congress Street (circa 1831) and then on Cornhill.^[10][11]

Garrison and Knapp had a falling out around 1840, and Knapp left the Liberator. In a otherwise favorable eulogy written by Garrison and printed in the Liberator, Garrison implies Knapp became an alcoholic and that his death resulted from this.^[12]

Works issued by Knapp

Life of Olaudah Equiano, 1837

• Constitution of the New England Anti-Slavery Society. 1832.

1836

• Report on the condition of the people of color in the state of Ohio: From the Proceedings of the Ohio Anti-Slavery Convention, held at Putnam, on the 22d, 23d, and 24th of April, 1835, 1836
• Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society (1836), Annual Report
• Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society (1836), A Full Statement Respecting Abolitionists and Anti-Slavery Societies
• Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (1836–1838), Annual report
  • 1837

1837

• Olaudah Equiano (1837). The Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African. (first published in 1789 in London)^[13]
• Slavery illustrated in its effects upon woman and domestic society, 1837
• Proceedings of the 4th New-England Anti-Slavery Convention, held in Boston, 1837
• Harvey Newcomb (1837), The 'Negro pew': being an inquiry concerning the propriety of distinctions in the house of God, on account of color

1838

• N. Southard (ed.), American Anti-Slavery Almanac for 1838^[14]
• Thomas Treadwell Stone (1838), Martyr of Freedom
• John Gabriel Stedman (1838). Narrative of Joanna; An Emancipated Slave, of Surinam.
• Elizabeth Heyrick (1838), Immediate, not gradual abolition: or, An inquiry into the shortest, safest, and most effectual means of getting rid of West Indian slavery
• Sarah Moore Grimké (1838), Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Woman
• James Williams (1838). Narrative of James Williams, an American slave, who was for several years a driver on a cotton plantation in Alabama. OCLC 13131138.
• Phillis Wheatley (1838). Memoir and poems of Phillis Wheatley, a native African and a slave (3rd ed.)., along with poems by George Moses Horton

1839

• New England Non-Resistance Society (1839), National Organizations

Catalogues

• "Descriptive Catalogue of Anti-Slavery Works, for Sale by Isaac Knapp" (PDF), Liberator, November 10, 1837
  • Titles listed: Abolition of the Slave Trade, Adams' Letters, Adams' Oration, Adin Ballou's Discourse, Anti-Slavery Catechism, Anti-Slavery Manual, Anti-Slavery Record, Archy Moore, Authentic Anecdotes of American Slavery, Barrows on the Slave Question, Birney's Second Letter, Bourne's Picture, British Apprenticeships, Channing on Slavery, Channing on Texas, Charles Ball, Chloe Spear, Crandall's Trial, Discussion, Dissertation on Servitude, Dresser, Stones' Letters, &c., Enemies of the Constitution Discovered, Evils and Cure, Godwin on Slavery, Granville Sharp, Gustavus Vassa, Important Pamphlet, James Jackson, Jay's Inquiry, Juvenile Poems, Kentucky Address, Lemuel Haynes, Liberty, Memoir of Phillis Wheatley, Miss Beecher Reviewed, Miss Grimke's Appeal, Miss Grimke's Epistle, Mott's Sketches, Mrs. Child's Appeal, Mrs. Stewart's Productions, Objections Answered, Our Liberties in Danger, Phillis Wheatley, Rankin's Letters, Right and Wrong in Boston, Slave Produce, Slave's Friend, Smith's Bible Argument, Songs of the Free, Stanton's Remarks, Stewart's West India Question, Testimony of God Against Slavery, The Fountain, The Generous Planter, The Negro Pew, The Oasis, Thompson at Manchester, Thompson in America, Thompson in G. Britain, Thompson's Lectures and Debates, Valuable Documents, Vigilance Committee, Whittier's Poems, Wilberforce.
• Standard Anti-Slavery Books for Sale by Isaac Knapp, no.25 Cornhill, 1838

References

1. "DIED - In this city". The Liberator (Boston, Massachusetts). 22 Sep 1843. p. 3. Retrieved 24 August 2014 – via Newspapers.com.
2. ""Pedigree Resource File," database, FamilySearch, entry for Isaac /Knapp/.". FamilySearch. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Retrieved 24 August 2014.
3. Walter McIntosh Merrill (1956). "Passionate Attachment: William Lloyd Garrison's Courtship of Helen Eliza Benson". New England Quarterly 29. JSTOR 362183.
4. Arthur Mason Knapp (1909), The Knapp Family in America, Boston: Fort Hill Press, pp. 28–29, OCLC 9109492
5. "Essex Courant", Chronicling America (U.S. Library of Congress)
6. "Mr Isaac Knapp says that he has been deprived of his interest in the Liberator unjustly". Boston Post. 17 Dec 1841. p. 2. Retrieved 24 August 2014 – via Newspapers.com.
7. Berry, Faith (2006). From Bondage to Liberation: Writings by and about Afro-Americans. A&C Black. p. 92. ISBN 9780826418142. Retrieved 24 August 2014. [Knapp's] gambling debts caused Garrison's supporters to buy out Knapp's financial interest [in The Liberator]. He later claimed fraud and published one issue of Knapp's Liberator, attacking Garrison, on January 8, 1842.
8. William Lloyd Garrison (1971). The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison: I will be heard, 1822-1835. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-52660-0.
9. "Isaac Knapp". National Cyclopedia of American Biography 2. 1892.
10. Boston Directory, 1831, Garrison & Knapp, editors and proprietors Liberator, 10 Merchants Hall, Congress Street
11. Boston Directory, 1835, Garrison & Knapp, 31 Cornhill
12. Garrison, William Lloyd (29 September 1843). "Letter to the Editor". The Liberator. p. 2. Retrieved 4 March 2016.
13. Toyin Falola and Amanda Warnock, ed. (2007). "Chronology". Encyclopedia of the Middle Passage. Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-33480-1.
14. Charles L. Nichols, "Notes on the Almanacs of Massachusetts" (PDF), Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society 22 (1): 15-134. 1912

Further reading

• Wendell Phillips Garrison; Francis Jackson Garrison (1885). William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879: The Story of His Life Told by His Children. Century Company. (mentions Knapp)

External links

• "Isaac Knapp". Portraits of American Abolitionists. Massachusetts Historical Society.
• "Knapp, Isaac, 1804-1843 -- Correspondence". Boston Public Library. (digitized letters)