Mar 29, 2018 - Sale 2471

Sale 2471 - Lot 37

Price Realized: $ 406
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600
(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION.) [Bourne, George.] Picture of Slavery in the United States of America. 11 plates. 227, [1] pages. 12mo, contemporary cloth, moderate wear; moderate foxing; a few early inscriptions including decorative owner's signature on front free endpaper. Middletown, CT: Edwin Hunt, 1834
Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

first edition of a disturbingly graphic illustration and indictment of slavery. It includes some material from Bourne's 1816 pamphlet "The Book and Slavery Irreconcilable," but adds much more material, as well as powerful engravings such as "Selling Females by the Pound," and "Ladies Whipping Girls." "Tanning a Boy" shows a white boy who was allegedly captured and enslaved, and was given baths in a tanning solution to darken his skin.
Bourne (1780-1845) stood out even among abolitionists of his day by describing enslaved people as citizens, and with his call for "immediate emancipation without compensation." This was apparently a step too far for one early owner of this book. On page 136, Bourne wrote "The period has arrived when slavery must be entirely abolished." It is here amended in manuscript: "The period is fast approaching. . ." Afro-Americana, 1414; Sabin 6921.