Mar 20 at 10:30 AM - Sale 2697 -
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Sale 2697 - Lot 11

Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750
(ABOLITION.) Wilson Armistead. A Tribute for the Negro, being a Vindication of the . . . Coloured Portion of Mankind. 8 [of 10] plates. [iii]-xxxv, 564 pages plus [4] pages of publisher's advertisements. 8vo, publisher's gilt pictorial cloth featuring the "Am I Not a Man and a Brother" image on the front board, worn and rebacked; mostly disbound, lacking half-title leaf and pages 355-358, lacking two plates including Cinque, title page and dedication leaf detached and worn without loss of text, general wear, some early repairs; signed and dated by Hubert H. Harrison in 1927 on front free endpaper and dedication leaf. Manchester, England: William Irwin, 1848
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Additional Details

First edition. Wilson Armistead (1819-1868) was a Quaker merchant from Leeds who devoted much of his energies and profits to the anti-slavery movement. The Tribute showed the abilities and humanity of the African race by combining excerpts from works by people of African descent with short biographical sketches. Included are Olaudah Equiano, Phillis Wheatley, Ignacio Sancho, James Pennington, Alexander Crummell, Frederick Douglass, Paul Cuffe, William Wells Brown, and dozens more. Illustrations include an example of Toussaint Louverture's handwriting, and a portrait of the young Frederick Douglass.

This copy is battered and worn, perhaps from heavy use by its former owner, radical Harlem intellectual Hubert H. Harrison. A passage on page 315 is underlined in ink, perhaps by Harrison, regarding the abilities of enslaved physician James Derham. Afro-Americana 655; Sabin 2007; Work, page 570.

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