(Hampton Students) Program, Slave Songs of the South by the Hampton Students. ([Hampton, Va?, 1875]), 4pp. 234 x 150 mm. (9 1/4 x 5 7/8 in.) Interior pages present a two part musical program of fourteen songs with a concluding note: “The Hampton Students were nearly all born in slavery, and their music is a faithful rendering of the songs peculiar to slave life. they are members of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, and are all engaged in a course of study which shall fit them to be teachers of their race.” The names of the ten members of the chorus are listed at the head of the second page.

The front page also promotes a volume of sheet music, Hampton and its Students published in 1874 by G. P. Putnam, New York. The final page features an engraving of Virginia Hall on the campus of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (today’s Hampton University). A caption below the image notes that “For nearly two years the Hampton Students have been singing to secure funds fro the erection of ‘Virginia Hall.’ Their exertions were seconded by many generous friends, who, stimulated by the efforts of these colored youths to help themselves, contributed so liberally that the building is now completed… An endowment of two hundred thousand dollars is needed, and the Hampton Students have undertaken to aid in securing it.”

Extremely Rare. We have found no examples of this program in any institutional collection, nor have we ever seen an example appear at auction.

Marginal tears and chips affecting text as shown, light soiling, minor losses to final page, moderate dampstains.

(EXA 4905) $750