Autograph Document Signed, "for Dunlap and Claypoole". Receipt to Francis Gurney, for his newspaper advertisement of a "black Girl for sale".

Symbolic of the stark contrast between revolutionary American ideals and the new Republic's tolerance of slavery - even in northern states – is this receipt, dated during George Washington's Presidency, for a Philadelphia newspaper advertisement of a slave for sale by Francis Gurney, a wealthy merchant who had been an officer in Washington's Continental Army. Ironically, the receipt was written by John Claypoole, husband of Betsy Ross, legendary seamstress of the first American flag, on behalf of his cousin David's printing firm, famous for their very first imprints of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. Since Dunlap & Claypoole also published the Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser - America's first daily newspaper - they took money for printing ads, and while John Claypoole and his wife were among the Quaker founders of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, they did not draw the line at publicizing the sale of human beings "owned" by their neighbors.