“WE ENTREAT THAT THE IMMEDIATE AND TOTAL ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE BE SOLICITED FROM ALL THE SOVEREIGNS OF EUROPE”

(SLAVERY) AFRICAN INSTITUTION. Seventh Report of the Directors of the African Institution, Read at the Annual General Meeting on the 24th of March, 1813. To Which Are Added, an Appendix, and a List of Subscribers. BOUND WITH: Eighth Report of the Directors of the African Institution, Read at the Annual General Meeting on the 23d of March, 1814. BOUND WITH: Reasons for Establishing a Registry of Slaves in the British Colonies: Being a Report of a Committee of the African Institution. BOUND WITH: Special Report of the Directors of the African Institution, Made at the Annual General Meeting, on the 12th of April, 1815, Respecting the Allegations Contained in a Pamphlet Entitled “A Letter to William Wilberforce.” BOUND WITH: A Letter to His Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester, President of the African Institution, from Zachary Macaulay, Esq. Occasioned by a Pamphlet Lately Published by Dr. Thorpe, Late Judge of the Colony of Sierra Leone, Entitled “A Letter to William Wilberforce, Esq.” BOUND WITH: Substance of the Speech of the Right Honourable Lord Grenville, in the House of Lords, on Monday, June 27, 1814, in Moving for Certain Papers Relative to the Revival of the Slave Trade. London: Ellerton and Henderson and James Ridgeway, 1813-15. Octavo, contemporary full diced brown calf rebacked, raised bands, burgundy morocco spine label, marbled endpapers and edges.

First and second editions of six early works concerning Great Britain’s African Institution and its actions with regard to the problem of slavery in the British colonies during the early 19th century.

Extant between 1807 and 1825, the African Institution was an important abolitionist group operating out of Britain and including members of the Royal Family, Members of Parliament, prominent reformers such as William Wilberforce, Thomas Clarkson, and Zachary Macaulay, and activist lawyers. The African Institution took a three-pronged approach to the issue, focusing on the expansion of Western Civilization, abolition of the foreign slave trade, and improvement of the lives of slaves in the British colonies while still working toward complete abolition. The group was revolutionary in its time, bringing the problem of colonial slavery to the forefront and forcing Britain into further discussion on the issue. The first two pieces included in this collection are general reports from the African Institution, consisting of administrative notes, detailed reports about the progress of the anti-slavery movement, and appendices featuring abstracts of papers and other written material related to slavery and reprints of important documents. The third piece present in this collection supports the establishment of a slave registry in order to prevent clandestine importation of slaves into the British colonies, an ingenious scheme that made it unprofitable to import slaves as they could not be lawfully sold or held. It was also meant to have the added benefit of allowing for the tracking of atrocities committed against slaves, as a slave who was killed or maimed would be recognized as missing or altered. The fourth and fifth works in the collection are both responses to Thorpe’s “A Letter to William Wilberforce.” Dr. Thorpe was a judge in Sierra Leone, which was initially governed for Great Britain by the Sierra Leone Company. Thorpe intercepted confidential correspondence between Zachary Macaulay and a director of the Sierra Leone Company, in which Macaulay suggested that slaves in Africa could be redeemed from slavery by creating a system of indentured servitude. In that way, slave-owners could be compensated for their losses and the slaves would eventually be freed. Thorpe, however, asserted that the Sierra Leone Company, far from bringing civilization to the colony and running a successful business enterprise, was actually involved in the slave trade. He then attempted to show that the Directors of the Company were negligent in their duties and that they were the same people responsible for the formation of the African Institution. William Wilberforce was head of the Institution at that time and Thorpe stated that both he and the Institution were puppets of the Company and, therefore, were corrupt. Thorpe argued that the plan of indentured servitude was born of ambition and rapacity and that the Sierra Leone Company and thus the African Institution were intentionally circumventing both Parliament and the Crown for their own gain. Macaulay was pulled to the center of the controversy as the author of the letters and he was accused of poor character and treason. The works in this collection argue against all of Thorpe’s assertions, laying out a case that the accusations were factually incorrect, that the African Institution was in no way accountable to Parliament, and that the cited excerpts of Macaulay’s letters, while somewhat damning viewed out of context, in no way reflected Macaulay’s actual beliefs or the policy of the Sierra Leone company. The final work in this collection is Lord Grenville’s “powerful speech calling attention to the question of the slave trade in the newly restored French colonies” (DNB). Considered one of the high points of Lord Grenville’s career in the House of Lords, the speech requested that England make a declaration stating its commitment abolition of the slave trade in the European colonies and reaffirming its belief in the idea that slavery constituted a violation of the universal law of nations and, accordingly, of the principles of justice and religion. Letter to the Duke of Gloucester and Speech of Lord Grenville are second editions; all others are first editions. Sabin 42954. With an autograph table of contents tipped in before the title page. Booklabel. Several owner annotations and a laid in page of scholarly notes.

Scattered soiling to text, moderate wear to contemporary boards. A fascinating collection of works on slavery in the British colonies in extremely good condition.