2 volumes, 8vo (178 x 103 mm). 3 engravings, two of which are folding. (Folding plate illustrating the salve ship's cargo torn with significant loss and mostly incomplete, some browning). Contemporary tree calf, spine compartments separated by gilt fillets, red morocco lettering-pieces gilt (vol. I rebacked preserving original spine). Provenance: Elizabeth Maule (book label); Mary Peart? (early ownership signature); Thomas Faddis (ownership signature dated 1920).

FIRST AMERICAN EDITION, published the same year as the English edition, of the seminal history of the transatlantic slave trade and its abolition by Thomas Clarkson, a leading campaigner against the slave trade in the British Empire. A founding member of the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, he campaigned extensively until the passage of the 1807 Slave Trade Act which ended the trade. The work here includes the infamous diagram of the slave ship Brookes, first published in 1791, and used by Clarkson and William Wilberforce in their abolition campaigns. Goldsmiths' 19725; Kress B.5319; Sabin 13486.