(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION) [ANON] The Kidnapped Clergyman; or E

Sale 2239 - Lot 76

Price Realized: $ 840

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Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200

(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION.) [ANON.] The Kidnapped Clergyman; or Experience the Best Teacher. 123 pages. 12mo, original cloth-backed drab gray boards with printed label on the upper cover; some light staining and foxing; text-block partially separated from the spine; tips rubbed; early bookplate; a better than-average copy. Boston: Dow and Jackson, 1839

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a rare early anti-slavery play. The Kidnapped Clergyman is thought by some scholars to have been the model for William Wells Brown's first play; "Experience, or How to Give a Northern Man a Backbone." [1856]. The author's Preface explains that it is virtually impossible to comprehend the suffering of the slave, and proceeds to tell the story of a well-meaning clergyman, who having just delivered a sermon is quite satisfied with it and himself, and even more so for having given a poor child five dollars to take to a sick woman. But now a series of strangers enter into his house and at first praise him for his sermon and good intentions: a London bookseller, discusses plans to print hundreds of thousands of copies of his sermon, another is a doctor sent by Queen Victoria herself! Finally, five men roughly enter the house and proceed to beat, handcuff and kidnap the clergyman. One of them whispers to the poor cleric, "say 'don't master don't,' say it or I'll cut you to pieces." They seize his wife and children as well, and sell them all to a planter. There follow scenes of humiliation and torment. In the last scene, the minister awakes; of course, it was all a dream. One of the most unusual anti-slavery works. Sabin, 37719.