Broadside, 1851, relating background to a duel between Posey and "Dr. Lomax," a neighbor in Abbeville District, S.C.; and a brief genealogical chart for the Posey family. Printed broadside, 28 July 1851 (Abbeville, S.C.), "To the Public," providing a detailed explanation of the events leading up to Posey's duel and wounding of Dr. [Warren George] Lomax. Posey challenged Lomax to the field of honor due to a perceived slight when Posey was refused admission a ball in celebration of the 4th of July, an event on whose organizing committee Lomax served as chair and on which Posey had declined to serve; other persons mentioned include Jehu Foster Marshall, who served on the ball's organizing committee with Lomax; in addition to questions of honor, the flyer provides insight into social conventions of Abbeville District during the late antebellum era in its description ofarrangementss for a dinner party prior marking the migration to Alabama of Posey's brother [Addison Francis Posey (1820-1903)], and the family relationships between slaves owned by Posey's brother and by Dr. Lomax. The broadside notes that Posey's brother, Addison owned Lewis, an African-American slave hired out to work in Due West, S.C. Lewis' wife worked at the home of Dr. Lomax, so Posey planned to allow Lewis to remain in South Carolina with his wife, although Harry, Chloe, and Mahala (who were Lewis' father, mother, and sister, respectively), would migrate with Posey to Alabama: "Before parting with them forever, he (Lewis) wished to give them a dinner. These were all that were to have been invited, except Dave, his fellow workman, and his wife.... For certain reasons that shall be sub rosa, Dr. Lomax insisted that a nice little girl, belonging to John McLauren, should be invited, and... she was.... Chloe and Mahala are women of exemplary characters, and have always been treated with the greatest care and kindnesss by my family...." Posey reports transporting the four slaves in his own carriage, "Dr. Lomax had invited me to take dinner with him on that day, and I was going without reference to the negro affair. But they wished me to go with them to protect them from an officious patrol..... It has been the habit of Dr. Lomax's family and mine, to attend the festivals of our favorite negroes, and to be entertained by each other on such occasions. And to make a full confession, I attended in 1848, with at least twenty gentlemen, an excellent barbecue, given exclusively by Dr. Lynch'es negroes, at his plantation." Two typescript sheets, consisting of a quote transcribed from 1853 edition of Posey's newspaper, discussing the significance of an insult, and impact of harboring a grudge: "An insult is worse than an injury.... the person who does not resent it, cherishes remembrance with humiliation and undying hate," a thought that Posey published in his Abbeville, S.C., newspaper "when he was twenty-six years old"; and typescript family tree with brief genealogy of the Posey family.
