Mar 21, 2013 - Sale 2308

Sale 2308 - Lot 552

Price Realized: $ 1,188
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
(TRAVEL.) HARRIS, J. DENNIS. A Summer on the Borders of the Caribbean Sea. 179 pages. 8vo, original gilt and blind-stamped black cloth; very slight wear to the crown of the spine. New York: Burdick, 1860
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Additional Details

The rare first edition of this African American's visit to the Caribbean, just prior to the civil war. Harris's account includes descriptions of the Dominican Republic, Turks and Caico islands as well as portions of British Honduras. The author's purpose, like that of Martin Delany and Robert Campbell's exploration of the Niger Valley, was to search out suitable terrain for African American settlement. By the late 1850's, there were many intellectuals in the black community that felt that the American Negro while he might eventually gain his freedom, and even citizenship would never have true social equality. In many respects they were correct. It took nearly a century to gain passage of the Civil Rights Acts of the 1960's.