1858 Corner Third and Mulberry Street, Unknown Town, North Carolina.
John P. Sampson was recorded in an article that appeared on July 24, 1858 in The New York Herald (New York, New York). A Grand Union Celebration Of The Emancipation In The British West Indies. The citizens of New York, Brooklyn and Williamsburg will celebrate the above event at Morris Grove, L. I., on Monday August 2.
The Following speakers are expected to be present and address the assembled people:—Hon. E. D. Culiver, Prof. W, J, Wilson, J. W. B. Smith, Wm. Goodell, of New York; Junius C. Morrell, Weeksville; Rev. J. A. Davis, New Haven; Rev. A. /n. Freeman, D. W. B. Ellis, of Brooklyn; Rev. H. H. Garnett, Rev. James Underdue, Wm. Lloyd Garrison, Boston, John P. Sampson, James M. Eddy, North Carolina. All the colored military companies, Sunday schools, and all benevolent societies, are invited to participate. A Band of music is engaged. Cars will leave the corner of Atlantic and Smith street at 10 A. M. precisely, stopping at Weeksville.
Fare fifty cents; children under fourteen years half price. Should the weather prove unfavorable the next fair day will be selected. Tickets for sale by the following Committee of Arrangements;—P. P. Jenkins, Dr. Ellis, Peter Tucker, Samuel Thompson, Capt. Ferguson, David Morse, Brooklyn; Thomas Downing, Mr. Lawrence, New York.
In the list of orators the name John P. Sampson will be noted, and on that head we have received from him an autograph letter in the following words, verbatim et punctuatum et lliteratum:—
Having seen my name used in a circular yesterday as one of the speakers for the occasion of August 2nd I will say I a not only exempt from the natural character of its denomination as a public speaker, but that my name was used without my knowledge or consent. John P. Sampson, N. C.
Mr. Sampson is a young gentleman from North Carolina, and follows his vocation—that of a daguerreotypist—near the banks of the classic stream known as Old Tar river. Mr. Sampson is evidently a person of intelligence. His features retain but slight traces of his Mongolian extraction, and his cuticle has the most delicate Southern tinge. In fact, he is what would be called in the South a likely looking yellowman.” We are not acquainted with Mr. Sampson’s views on the abstract question of slavery; but as he is a Southerner, doing business in a slave State, we presume that he holds the conservative opinions common to the people of the district in which he resides. His style is somewhat Oriental, and it may puzzle an ordinary mind to know exactly what he means when he says he is “exempt from the natural character of its denomination; but from the tone of his card the inference is irresistible that he does not agree with his brethren who adhere to the Garrisonians. His business card throws a little more light on the subject here it is:—
Sampson’s daguerreotypes, at his daguerrean gallery, corner of Third and Mulberry street, for fifty cents and upwards, are now speaking for themselves. Copying and all that pertains to the art done at low prices.
The daguerreotypes of Mr. Sampson “speak for themselves,” and, therefore, he has no occasion to cultivate the graces of oratory. He may believe that negro emancipation in the West Indies brought more sorrow than jubilee—more tears than smiles; and it is quite certain that with the aid of a camera, he has been able to take Mr. Garrison’s dimension as they are. There is no flattery or palaver about the daguerreotype; and artists in that line are sharp enough to see through all the humbugs of the day, Garrison included. Mr. Sampson is a daguerreotype artist, and not a politician of the Garrison order. He repudiates the connection altogether, and prefers to work out his own salvation.
Finally, we may say that this wholesale appropriation of a man’s name, which is as much his property as his boots or his trousers, has become an intolerable nuisance, and it ought to be stopped. By-and-by these politicians will be writing some other man’s name on a bank check—so strong is the force of habit and so facile the descent to crime. Let Massa Garrison & Co. take heed in season.
John P. Sampson is not recorded in other photographic directories.