EXTREMELY SCARCE 1823 PARLIAMENTARY RECORDS ON SLAVERY

(SLAVERY) (PARLIAMENT). Slaves. WITH: Slave Population. (London), 1823. Two volumes.

Rare 1823 Parliamentary acts and colonial reports on slavery in the British colonies of the Caribbean, two exceptional volumes of laws and papers, printed by order of the House of Commons in February and in March 1823, providing precise documentation on the taxation, commerce and legal governance of slavery, and an implicit, sometimes chilling record of its human misery. $5500.

THE BURNS CASE HELPED FOSTER "LINCOLN’S PRESIDENCY, THE SOUTH'S SECESSION AND THE CIVIL WAR"

(SLAVERY) (BURNS, Anthony). Boston Slave Riot. Boston, 1854.

First edition of a seminal pre-Civil War pamphlet on the 1854 arrest and Boston trial of fugitive slave Anthony Burns, whose return to his Virginia slave owner at the order of the Boston court sparked public fury and "set Boston on its ear in the spring of 1854," inspiring Whitman to write his Boston Ballad and Thoreau to deliver his speech, Slavery in Massachusetts, to a July 4, 1854 antislavery rally, with highly elusive front wrapper featuring an engraved portrait of Burns. $5200.

ORIGINAL 1840 LETTER FROM THE STATE DEPARTMENT ARRANGING PAYMENT FOR LEGAL REPRESENTATION IN THE AMISTAD CASE

(SLAVERY). Autograph letter signed. Washington, February 1840.

Original 1840 autograph signed letter from the Department of State to attorney William Holabird enclosing $200 (not present) as payment for his clerk C.A. Ingersol, who temporarily took over representing the government in the Amistad case during a special session of the District Court in New London. $4500.

"A DISGRACE TO THE NATION, AN ACT OF EXTREME CRUELTY"

(HAMLET, James) (TAPPAN, Lewis). Fugitive Slave Bill: Its History and Unconstitutionality. New York, 1850.

First edition of the 1850 law, issued soon after its passage, containing the “only printed record of Hamlet’s case,” documenting his arrest and trial, along with text of the bill, details of congressional votes, and coverage of a mass protest meeting of Black New Yorkers at the A.M.E. Zion Church, stating their resolve to meet force with force in defense of "our lives and liberty." $4200.

"FREEDOM IS THE NATURAL RIGHT OF ALL MEN"

(SLAVERY). Constitution of the Abolition Society. No place, early 19th century.

Rare generic template of a broadside for an abolition society constitution, from the early days of their proliferation, with the original printer's registration nicks. $3500.

"THE ACCUMULATION OF HUMAN AGONY… THE CRUELTIES AND HORRORS OF THE PASSAGE ACROSS THE ATLANTIC"

(SLAVERY) BUXTON, Thomas Fowell. African Slave Trade. London, 1839.

First edition of British abolitionist Buxton's powerful call to abolish the slave trade by following the lead of William Wilberforce in calling for treaties and commerce between Britain and Africa, inscribed in a secretarial hand above the title page to the daughter of abolitionist Zachary Macaulay, "Miss F. Macaulay. From the Author," and sister of noted historian Thomas Macaulay, with the owner signature of Fanny Macaulay on the initial blank. $3200.

"YOU ARE IN A FREE STATE, AND HAVE ONLY TO GO ASHORE TO BE FREE"

(SLAVERY) WILLIAMSON, Passmore. Case of Passmore Williamson. Philadelphia, 1856.

First edition of "the most complete record available" of the controversial Pennsylvania case on fugitive slaves, an exceptional presentation copy inscribed by Williamson to, "R. l. Bodley, With respects of P. Williamson," a core work establishing a precedent "in federal and state courts… and important cause célèbre for the antislavery movement," crucial in asserting a clear path for the following year's Dred Scott decision and provoking a "legal crisis… that led to the Civil War." $3200.

"IN THIS BOASTED LAND OF CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY, WRITHING UNDER THE LASH"

STEWARD, Austin. Twenty-Two Years a Slave. Rochester, N.Y. 1857.

First edition of the exceedingly scarce autobiography of the Black Abolitionist, born enslaved, who became a leader in New York as the state's Black Americans made a "turn toward radicalism" and spoke out against fresh laws restricting free Black voting rights, documenting the brutality of his life in slavery, his fight for Black rights in the North, and his role as leader of Canada’s Wilberforce colony, with engraved frontispiece portrait and four full-page illustrations, in original cloth. $3200.

“A LAVISH VOLUME… TIMED TO CELEBRATE THE ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE”

(SLAVERY—ABOLITION) MONTGOMERY, James, GRAHAME, James and BENGER, E[lizabeth]. Poems on the Abolition of the Slave Trade. London, 1809 [i.e. 1810].

First edition of famed publisher and artist Bowyer’s richly illustrated volume featuring eloquent anti-slavery poems by Montgomery, Grahame and Benger, a major antislavery work issued shortly after Britain’s abolition of the slave trade, with engraved portraits of abolitionists Sharpe, Clarkson and Wilberforce, engraved allegorical title page and nine full-page engravings after paintings by artist Sir Robert Smirke, a handsome wide-margined copy in contemporary boards. $2900.

"YOU ARE IN A FREE STATE, AND HAVE ONLY TO GO ASHORE TO BE FREE"

(SLAVERY) WILLIAMSON, Passmore. Case of Passmore Williamson. Philadelphia, 1856.

First edition of "the most complete record available" of the controversial Pennsylvania case on fugitive slaves, establishing a "precedent set in federal and state courts… and important cause célèbre for the antislavery movement," crucial in asserting a clear path for the following year's Dred Scott decision, and provoking a "legal crisis… that led to the Civil War," elusive in original cloth. $2800.

"THE WOMAN IS THE GIVER, THE WORLD FORCE OF ENERGY… YOU HAVE MADE ME UNABLE TO AVOID MOTHERHOOD, EVEN IF I WANTED TO"

EYLES, Margaret Leonora. Margaret Protests. London, 1919.

First edition of this early feminist novel, in rare original dust jacket. $2800.

"SLAVERY EXTINGUISHES ALL THE RIGHTS OF MAN… THE GREATEST OF ALL TYRANNIES"

(BOURNE, George). Picture of Slavery. Boston, 1838.

First Boston edition, issued by famed abolitionist Isaac Knapp, of Bourne's provocative work, preceded only by the 1834 Middleton, CT. first edition, this incendiary antebellum work is by the controversial minister who was expelled from the church for verbally attacking ministers and slave-owners in his congregation—"one of the first radical abolitionists"—featuring eleven woodcut-engraved illustrations of slavery's “appalling and atrocious criminality," exceptional in unrestored original cloth. $2600.

"THE ACCUMULATION OF HUMAN AGONY… THE CRUELTIES AND HORRORS OF THE PASSAGE ACROSS THE ATLANTIC"

(SLAVERY) BUXTON, Thomas Fowell. African Slave Trade. London, 1839.

First edition of British abolitionist Buxton's powerful call for an end to the slave trade by following the lead of William Wilberforce in calling for treaties and commerce to end the traffic in slavery, a handsome copy in contemporary calf. $2400.

"A CLASSIC IN EMANCIPATIONIST LITERATURE"

CLARKSON, T[homas], Esq. Thoughts on… Slaves in the British Colonies. London, 1823.

First edition of Clarkson's powerful work in the fight to end slavery, arguing "if you put into one scale the gold and jewels of the Planters, you are bound to put into the other the liberty of 800,000 of the African race; for every man's liberty is his own property." $2200.

"THE ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE WAS INDISPENSABLY REQUIRED… NOT ONLY BY RELIGION AND MORALITY, BUT BY EVERY PRINCIPLE OF SOUND POLICY"

(SLAVERY) (HOUSE OF COMMONS). The Debate on a Motion for the Abolition of the Slave-Trade. London, 1792.

Second and first edition, respectively, of these two important government publications regarding Britain's late 18th-century debate over abolishing the slave trade. $2200.

"ONE OF THE MOST VIGOROUS OF THE WRITINGS TO APPEAR IN THAT CONTROVERSY"

(TEXAS) (SLAVERY) [LUNDY, Benjamin]. The War in Texas. Philadelphia, 1836.

First edition of Quaker abolitionist Benjamin Lundy's spirited anti-slavery argument protesting Texas' aggression against Mexico, "showing that this contest is a crusade against Mexico set on foot and supported by slaveholders, land speculators, etc., in order to re-establish, extend and perpetuate the system of slavery and the slave trade." $2200.

"VERY PROBABLY AN END WILL SOON BE PUT TO THE PRACTICE OF TRANSPORTING SLAVES FROM AFRICA TO THE NEW WORLD"

(SLAVERY). The Interference of the British Legislature. London, 1816.

First edition of this defense of the West Indian slave trade, arguing against emancipation. $1800.

"SIR: YOU ARE UNDOUBTEDLY APPRIZED OF THE FACT THAT THE MARSHAL OF THIS DISTRICT HAS IN CUSTODY THE SPANISH SCHOONER 'AMISTAD,' WITH HER CARGO AND 41 BLACKS, SUPPOSED TO BE SLAVES…"

(SLAVERY) (DEPARTMENT OF STATE). Africans Taken in the Amistad. Washington, 1840.

First edition of this Congressional document released pursuant to a Congressional resolution detailing government actions taken in the matter of the Amistad, consisting mainly of correspondence to and from Secretary of State John Forsyth. $1750.

HE "SLIPPED OFF HIS IRONS… I TOLD HIM TO FOLLOW ME AND HE JUMPED INTO THE BOAT QUICK"

BEARSE, Austin. Reminiscences of Fugitive-Slave Law Days. Boston, 1880.

First edition of the dedicated abolitionist’s account of his work for the Boston Vigilance Committee in fighting the Fugitive Slave Law, documenting his "daring rescues of captured fugitives with his sleek 36-foot sloop, the Moby Dick" with frontispiece of his ship, rare in original wrappers. $1650.

"ON THE SEVENTH DAY OF JUNE IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1797, MARY JOHNSON OF THE SIXTH WARD OF THE CITY OF NEW-YORK, A BLACK WOMAN, PERSONALLY CAME BEFORE ME…"

(BLACK HISTORY) (LAW). Document signed. New York, June 7, 1797.

Original 1797 bond agreement in which a Black woman, Mary Johnson, agrees to pay 20 pounds in the event of her failure to testify in an assault and battery case against a relative, important primary evidence of the legal status of free Black women in the early United States. $1350.

A STATEMENT ON THE FEDERAL PROPERTY TAX AFFECTING SLAVE-HOLDING STATES, 1816, INCLUDING THE VALUATION OF SLAVES AS PROPERTY

(SLAVERY) DALLAS, Alexander James. Letter from the Secretary of the Treasury. Washington, 1816.

First edition of Dallas’ statement of property values on a state-by-state basis, offered pursuant to the 1813 Act that ruled slaves as directly taxable property. $1350.

"THE FIRST SUBSTANTIAL LEGAL TREATISE ON AMERICAN SLAVERY"

(SLAVERY) STROUD, George M. Sketch of the Laws Relating to Slavery. Philadelphia, 1827.

First edition of Judge Stroud's groundbreaking 1827 work documenting state slave laws and relevant Constitutional provisions, held as a key resource for Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, a cornerstone volume “considered by many the best of the ante-bellum studies" on slavery, uncut in original boards. $1350.

PARTIALLY MANUSCRIPT COMMISSION FOR DEPOSITION, 1848, WITH MANUSCRIPT FOUR-PAGE DEPOSITION REGARDING OWNERSHIP OF CHILD SLAVE NAMED "WALLACE" OFFERED VERBALLY AS COLLATERAL TO COVER A DEBT INCURRED IN THE CARE OF HORSES

(SLAVERY). Manuscript legal document. Memphis, Tennessee, November 23, 1848.

Original partially manuscript State of Tennessee, Shelby County, commission for deposition form, dated 1884, with completely manuscript four-page deposition, pertaining to an unpaid debt and a dispute about the ownership about a slave boy named "Wallace," verbally offered by his owner, stage service operator J.H. Perkins, as collateral to secure debt incurred with John H. Bass, who cared for Perkins' horses. $850.

AUTOGRAPH LETTER ABOUT THE SLAVE TRADE IN HAVANA, INCLUDING THE DEATH OF A MAN FROM A SPLINTER AND THE CORRECT PRICE FOR A WOMAN TRYING TO BUY HER FREEDOM

(SLAVERY). Autograph letter signed. Havana, 6 May 1855.

Original 1855 autograph letter between a Cuban firm and a Massachusetts attorney about the death of an enslaved man on a Cuban plantation from a splinter and about the process of setting a price for an enslaved woman trying to buy her freedom. $850.

"SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL AND THEREFORE UNLAWFUL"

(SLAVERY) GRANGER, Amos P. Speech of Hon. Amos P. Granger, of New York. Washington, 1856.

First edition of this powerful 1856 congressional speech arguing that slavery was unconstitutional, both from a rights perspective and in the sense that it literally did not exist in the Constitution. $350.