EXTREMELY RARE EARLY IMPRESSION OF ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL IMAGES OF ALL TIME—FAMED 1791 ENGRAVING OF A SLAVE SHIP—HERE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN BOOK FORM, PRECEDING CLARKSON'S 1808 IMAGE: FIRST EDITION OF ABSTRACT OF THE EVIDENCE, 1791, UNCUT IN ORIGINAL BOARDS

(SLAVERY) HOUSE OF COMMONS. An Abstract of the Evidence Delivered Before a Select Committee of the House of Commons in the Years 1790, and 1791; On the Part of the Petitioners for the Abolition of the Slave-Trade. London: Printed by James Phillips, George Yard, 1791. Octavo, original gray paper boards sympathetically rebacked, later printed paper spine label, uncut; pp. xxvi, [1], 2-36 [folding plate] 37-155 [folding map]. Housed in a custom chemise and clamshell box.

Rare first edition of eye-witness testimony on the horrors of the British slave trade, containing for the first time in book form the famous large folding wood-engraving of slaves packed onto the decks of the slave-ship Brookes—intended as a gruesome test of the "humane" Dolben Bill of 1788—together with a folding map of the western coast of Africa at rear, exceedingly rare in original boards.

In November 1788 Parliament enacted the Dolben Bill, which limited the number of slaves in a cargo to five for every three tons of a ship's burthen. Within a few months, anti-slavery activists in Plymouth tested the new bill by obtaining the measurements of the slave-ship Brookes and imposing slaves in its hold— in the ratio much less than required by the "humane" Dolben Bill— with stupefying results. There are 294 persons pictured (one per ton); the Dolben Bill would have put the number at 495. Modern scholars have determined that the Brookes actually made one voyage with a cargo of 704! The famous engraving of slaves closely fitted in the hold of the Brookes is one of the most powerful and influential images in the history of social justice. It was immediately reproduced by the influential London Society for the Abolition of Slavery, in the form of a large wood-engraving depicting, not only the hold of the Brookes, but also her hull and top deck. In 1789 William Wilberforce had a scale model of the Brookes built (with images from the London plate cut out and pasted on its decks), which he presented to the House of Commons during one of his most passionate and persuasive speeches.

This edition's very early wood-engraved version of the Brookes' hull and hold (Figures I-VII, based on two of the eight sections of the earlier London plate) is accompanied by a summary of testimony given by former participants in the slave trade. Antislavery activists compiled this summary "so that Members of Parliament wouldn't have to wade through thousands of pages of transcripts of hearings. And then, most unexpectedly, they found that they had produced a best-seller. Although the phrase was unknown at the time, they had inadvertently compiled the first great work of investigative journalism. For this was the first book against slavery that, instead of arguing from the Bible, relied entirely on a carefully-documented series of eyewitness accounts. The testimony was shocking then and it is still shocking today" (Adam Hochschild). With famous folding engraved plate (17-by-17 inches) of the hold of the slave-ship Brookes, and folding map of the coast of Africa. Sabin 81745. Hugo 3768. ESTC T143402. See Kress B2011; Goldsmith's 14984.

Only expert paper repair to foldline of the Brookes plate, text and plates fresh with only slight foxing to preliminaries and original boards. An exceptional copy.