Mar 21, 2013 - Sale 2308

Sale 2308 - Lot 60

Price Realized: $ 6,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 5,000 - $ 7,500
FIRST APPEARANCE IN AMERICA (SLAVERY AND ABOLITION.) CAREY, MATHEW. "Plan of an African Ship's Lower Deck with Negroes in the Proportion of not quite one to ton," folded engraved plate of a slave ship's hold 5-1/2 x 16-1/2 inches, folded, [appearing in] The American Museum. Two plates, including the latter. 628 pages. Thick 8vo, original full calf with red morocco spine label; five raised bands, with the number "5" in one panel; tips rubbed; short, clean crack to the top of the front joint; some light occasional foxing; remnants of a few inked words opposing the plate. A superior copy. Philadelphia: Mathew Carey, 1789

Additional Details

the first appearance of this iconic slave ship diagram. A larger scale version of this diagram would serve as the key to William Wilberforce and company's presentation before Parliament in 1791, published the same year as "An Abstract of the Evidence." This diagram is accompanied by an article titled "Remarks on the Slave Trade," by [Sir] W(illiam). Elford of the Plymouth Anti-Slavery Committee. This engraving was issued separately as a broadside by Mathew Carey (see Shipton and Mooney, 21807). The signature of "Martin Hoffman" appears on page 100. Hoffman (1763-1828) was a descendant of Martin Hermansen Hoffman, who arrived in New Netherland in 1657. Martin Hoffman was a New York City merchant and auctioneer at 67 Wall Street. He later established the auction house Hoffman & Seton, and was elected to the New York Chamber of Commerce in 1789.