Barclay, James:

$950 · Offered by William Reese Company

[AUTOGRAPH LETTER, SIGNED, FROM JAMES BARCLAY TO JUDGE BENJAMIN PATTON, DISCUSSING CASES AT THE PHILADELPHIA HOUSE OF REFUGE AND CELEBRATING THE IMMINENT OPENING OF THE HOUSE OF REFUGE FOR COLORED ... A brief but interesting letter from James Barclay, Chair of the Executive Committee for the Pennsylvania Prison Society and founder of the House of Refuge for Colored Children, discussing the questionable admittance of two Irish boys to the former, and the forthcoming establishment of the latter.Founded by the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons (later known as the Pennsylvania Prison Society), the House of Refuge was first opened in 1828 as a humane and rehabilitative alternative to adult prison for young offenders. Although the institution was not founded with a specific race policy, no black child was admitted to the House after its first year of operation. Cecile P. Frey notes in the Journal of Negro History that from that time "[u]ntil 1850, when the House of Refuge for Colored Children was opened in Philadelphia, youthful offenders of that race were placed in adult prisons rather than in any separate facility" (p.10). Barclay worked to remedy the situation by establishing the House of Refuge for Colored Children, which was finally opened a few months after this letter was written, in December of 1849. According to Frey, this was the "only time in the 19th century that a northern state opened such an institution designed specifically for blac

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