Mar 27, 2014 - Sale 2342

Sale 2342 - Lot 42

Price Realized: $ 2,125
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION--EMIGRATION.) CAMPBELL, ROBERT. A Pilgrimage to My Motherland; or Reminiscences of a Sojourn Among the Egbas and Yorubas of Central Africa in 1859-60. Engraved frontispiece and double-page map of Egba, Yoruba and Adjacent Countries. 116 pages; 12mo, original front cover mounted to recent blue cloth binding (by Aste) with the title in gilt up the spine. London, 1861

Additional Details

the scarce first london edition, chronicling robert campbell and martin r delany's exploring expedition to the niger valley. Delany and Campbell were charged with exploring the Valley to find suitable areas for settlement by African Americans slaves as well as Free blacks who felt that true assimilation would never come to pass in America. It was found that the Niger Valley was not only healthier than the fever-ridden coastal portions of Africa; it was also perfectly suited to the growth of cotton. Campbell and Delany were to make the necessary arrangements for treaties with the local chiefs to prepare the way for what was hoped to be massive emigration. The entire operation, under the rubric of the African Civilization Society, was backed by such figures as Lord Alfred Churchill and Thomas Clegg on one side of the ocean and Benjamin Coates and such noted African American figures as Henry Highland Garnett and Reverend Charles Ray on the other. Frederick Douglass on the other hand opposed the idea. The outbreak of the Civil War ended the project entirely. Campbell returned to Africa with his family; Delany became involved with the recruitment of black troops.