"The Crisis of Freedom" - A Sermon preached at the Free Church, in Lynn, on Sunday, June 11, 1854

The issue of slavery in the United States grew substantially during the 1850's until it tore the nation apart with the Civil War in 1861. The public, both in the North and South, were confronted with speeches, protests, demonstrations and other actions from both sides of the issue. "The Crisis of Freedom" -- A Sermon preached at the Free Church, in Lynn, on Sunday, June 11, 1854., by Samuel Johnson was one of the anti-slavery sermons of the mid-1850's. In this sermon, Johnson speaks out against slavery and, in particular, the Fugitive Slave Act.

The sermon is contained in a 21 page booklet, in paper covers, that measures approximately 5 ½ x 9 inches. It was published, "By Request of the Society", by Crosby, Nichols & Co. in Boston in 1854 and printed by Stacy and Richardson of Boston. The booklet, which is ex-libris, has pages that are tanned, with some chipping along the edges and occasional staining, but with the text clear and easily read. The overall condition of the booklet is good.

The illustrations accompanying this description show the booklet's cover and the first page of the sermon.

Samuel Johnson (10 October 1822 – 19 February 1882) was a United States clergyman and author. Johnson graduated from Harvard in 1842, and from the Harvard Divinity School in 1846. He joined no religious denomination. Save for one year with a Unitarian church in Dorchester, Massachusetts, where he displeased his congregation by his opposition to slavery, he was not settled as a minister until 1853. In 1853, he established an independent society in Lynn, Massachusetts, with which he remained till 1870, when he withdrew to complete studies of many years, the results of which appeared later in his publications. [Wikipedia]