Books and Manuscripts

London: Hurst and Robinson, 1825. First edition. Folio. Illustrated with 21 hand-colored plates; each with accompanying leaf of text (three plates with J. Whatman watermark, dated 1832, and one dated 1822). Lacking the rare leaf describing the conditions of the enslaved population on the island. Three-quarter black calf over marbled paper-covered boards, stamped in blind and in gilt, red morocco spine label, spine ends rubbed, extremities lightly worn, front and rear boards rubbed; matching marbled edges and endpapers; inscription in pencil in an unknown hand on verso of front free endpaper states, "From/Westport House/Ireland/Marquess of Sligo"; foxing to front and rear endpapers; scattered minor foxing to plates and text; light offsetting from plates on to text; book-plate on front paste-down. Abbey, Travel 683; Tooley 240; Sabin 29591.

Westport House, located in County Mayo, Ireland, is the ancestral home of the Browne family, whose head was the Marquess of Sligo. The 2nd Marquess of Sligo, Howe Browne (1788-1845), was an Irish peer and was appointed colonial governor of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands in 1834. With the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, slavery was abolished across much of the British Empire. The act, however, did not give immediate freedom to Jamaica's enslaved population, as they became "apprenticed" to their masters for four years after the act's passage. Abolitionists called it slavery by another name. With the appointment of Howe as colonial governor, many plantation owners expected him to govern with their interests in mind, but they were quickly disappointed. Browne personally abhorred slavery, and instituted reforms to transition the island away from the practice, including the advocating for the building of schools for the black population, the institution of a wage system for workers on his estates, as well as reforming the islands corrupt legal system. His attempts at reform were met with fierce resistance by the island's wealthy planter class, and the planter-dominated Assembly eventually removed him from office in 1836.

Originally issued in seven parts between 1824 and 1825.