Feb 25, 2010 - Sale 2204

Sale 2204 - Lot 73

Price Realized: $ 5,280
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 5,000
INCLUDES A RARE SLAVE NARRATIVE (SLAVERY AND ABOLITION.) [FISHER, THOMAS AND OTTOBAH CUGUANO.] The Negro's Memorial, or Abolitionist's Catechism. Title-page printed in bold red and black letters. 127 pages. Crown 8vo, later marbled wrappers; early ownership signature at the top of the title-page; light occasional foxing. A tall, untrimmed copy with wide margins. London: Printed for the Author by Hatchard and Co., 1825
Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

exceedingly rare first edition of this important work by Thomas Fisher, printing as an Appendix an abridgement of the "Narrative of the Enslavement of Ottobah Cuguano, a Native of Africa; published by Himself in the Year 1787." The present is, in fact the second edition of that work. Fisher's Catechism, is written as a series of "Q"s and "A"s in eight sections. He begins with some simple definitions: "What is slavery?" "Is slavery consistent with the political Constitution of Great Britain?" etc, and progresses to the political and economical complexities of the slavetrade: "Q 31:" Has any consideration been made for the purpose of ascertaining the political and commercial importance of a more legitimate intercourse with Africa?" Fisher defends the Haitian revolution and attempts to dispel some of the more lurid tales of mass murder of whites by blacks. No copy of this work has come to auction in the last twenty-five years. Sabin 52275; not in Work, Afro-Americana, or the Blockson Collection; the Schomburg copy on microfiche.