New-York: [American Anti-Slavery Society], 1833.
Price: $1,500.00
Softcover. First edition thus. Octavo. [15]pp. Sewn printed self-wrappers. Text is complete, but erroneously paginated, as issued by the publisher. Former owner's early ink name on front cover with his neat notations in upper margin of two leaves, observing the mispagination in upper margin. Scattered moderate foxing in the text, with narrow loss to paper along the lower foredge, moderate creasing at corners of text, a very good copy.
An important John G. Whittier publication, marking the beginning of the poet's long and active involvement in anti-slavery agitation. The American Anti-Slavery Society was founded in 1833 by William Lloyd Garrison, John Greenleaf Whittier, Arthur Tappan, and others. This entire issue is devoted to Whittier's "closely reasoned and documented attack on the Colonization Society" in *Justice and Expediency* which demands immediate and unconditional emancipation of slaves, and this commitment places him squarely within the Garrison camp of reformers and abolitionists..." [Lowance, *A House Divided: The Antebellum Slavery Debates in America,* p. 173], preceded only by a privately printed edition of 500 copies published in Haverhill in 1833 (see *BAL* 21681). The last leaf prints "Decision," a poem by "M."
Item #519383
