African Americana

4pp., folio, 14 5/8 x 21 in. (disbound, chipping at edges, dampstaining). 

Masthead with woodcut engraving showing an enslaved person whipped in the background and an enslaved family being split apart and sold. This 1835 issue includes extensive coverage of discussions in Congress on the abolition of slavery and the slave trade in the District of Columbia, an eventuality which did not occur until 1862. Other anti-slavery news and rhetoric fills the pages, with commentary throughout. A front page headline "Slavery" is followed by the text of a Louisiana handbill describing in detail 34 men, women, and children to be sold at auction. Garrison's impassioned editorial statement prefaces the text of the handbill: "Traffic in Human Souls. The following handbill has been put into our hands by a friend who was recently in New-Orleans from which city he brought it. Read it, Americans, and blush not merely for your country, but for your species! Judge ye, by the panegyrie passed upon them, whether the slaves are not qualified for freedom."

[With:] Letters on American Slavery from Victor Hugo, De Tocqueville, Emile De Girardin, Carnot, Passy, Mazzini, Humboldt, O. Lafayette -- &c. Boston: American Anti-Slavery Society, 1860. 24pp, 12 mo. (chipping at edges, disbound, first and last pages completely separated from binding, "Burton Hist. Collection" duplicate stamp on p3). A compilation of anti-slavery writings from a variety of prominent nineteenth-century figures. -- The Pro-Slavery Candidate. From the National Era of June 17. Mr. Pierce and the Anti-Slavery Movement. Washington, D.C.: Buell & Blanchard Printers, [1852]. 8pp, 5 7/8 x 9 in. (disbound, front and back pages separated from binding, dampstains).  Inscibed at top right in period ink by previous owner. A piece of campaign literature from the 1852 presidential election in which pro-slavery Northern Democrat Franklin Pierce defeated Whig Winfield Scott. (Also published under the title "A Brief Chapter in the Life of General Franklin Pierce.")