[Clarkson, Thomas]:

ABOLITION OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE, BY THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT. ABRIDGED FROM CLARKSON. TOGETHER WITH A BRIEF VIEW OF THE STATE OF THE SLAVE-TRADE AND OF SLAVERY. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. [AND VOL. II.].

Augusta [ME]: Published by P. A. Brinsmade, 1830. Verso of title page: "Glazier, Masters & Co. Printers, Hallowell." Two volumes in matching quarter sheep, with gilt-lettered spine bands and spine title. viii, [9]-227, [1 blank] pp; vi, [1], 10-256 pp, as issued. Some rubbing, inner hinges cracked but joints firm. Volume II lacks the rear free endpaper, and its front free endpaper is torn. Very Good.

Volume I has an illustration at page 201 of the iconic kneeling, shackled slave, with the legend, "Am I Not a Man and a Brother?" The preface, signed in type R[alph] R[andolph] Gurley, explains that the book is "Clarkson's History of the Abolition of the Slave-trade, in an abridged form. . . An abridgement has been attempted, because it was seen that it might be made without any serious injury to the work. The thread of the narrative is preserved unbroken. And all the main and interesting facts are embraced." Gurley [1797-1872] was a fifty-year officer of the American Colonization Society. He planned the Society's settlement in Liberia, and edited the African Repository.
From his early manhood, Clarkson "devoted his life to abolitionism" [Encyclopedia Britannica on line]. A close ally of William Wilberforce and Granville Sharp, they formed The Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade in 1787. Their efforts bore fruit in 1807, when a bill for the abolition of the slave trade finally passed. He published this book the following year.
LCP Supp. 424. Sabin 81725. Item #41514

Price: $1,000.00