Books and Manuscripts

"It is high time, then, to resort to other measures,--to ways and means more summary and effectual. Too much time has already been lost in declamation and argument, in petitions and remonstrances against British slavery. The cause of emancipation calls for something more decisive, more efficient than words. It calls upon real friends of the poor, degraded and oppressed African to bind themselves by a solemn engagement, an irrevocable vow, to participate no longer in the crime of keeping him in bondage."

New York: Republished by James V. Seaman, 1825. Second American edition. 8vo. 24 pp. Disbound; all edges trimmed; foxing throughout.

A scarce copy of English Quaker abolitionist Elizabeth Heyrick's (1769-1831) influential pamphlet, the first in the Anglo-American world to call for an immediate and unconditional end to slavery in the British Empire. Although Heyrick would not live to see the end of slavery in Great Britain and its colonies (1833 and 1838) before her death in 1831, her writings and direct action tactics redefined British abolitionism, and were influential in American abolitionist circles, inspiring William Lloyd Garrison, Lucretia Mott, amongst others.

The first edition was published in London in 1824 and went through many editions. The first American edition was printed by Joseph Rakestraw in Philadelphia that same year, and was similarly followed by numerous editions in many cities.