[AMERICAN ABOLITIONISM ~ 1834]. Picture of Slavery; In The United States of America

Middletown, Connecticut: Edwin Hunt, 1834. First Edition. Good. 8vo. (6" x 3.75"): 1 f. (frontispiece), [iv] 5-227, [1] pp. (final unnumbered page = Index), COMPLETE with all eleven full-page woodcut plates of which one is the frontispiece (foxing throughout as is true in all copies on account of the paper stock, though the paper is strong; front endleaf excised). Original publisher's brown cloth binding (visible vertical split in cloth on spine but structure perfectly sound), printed paper spine label affixed upside down (darkened, worn and almost illegible; spine evidently with old glue consolidation "repair" at head and tail, for which SEE IMAGES). DISTURBINGLY ILLUSTRATED, THIS IS THE TRUE FIRST EDITION OF THIS WITHERING INDICTMENT OF SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES, DENOUNCING SLAVE-HOLDERS AS "STEALERS OF MEN," AND PROCLAIMING SLAVES TO BE "U.S. CITIZENS." OUR AUTHOR IS CONSIDERED TO BE ONE OF AMERICA'S FIRST RADICAL ABOLITIONISTS, WHO NOT ONLY EXCLUDED SLAVE OWNERS FROM HIS CONGREGATION, BUT CHARGED SLAVEHOLDING MINISTERS WITH SACRILEGE.

George Bourne's "Picture of Slavery" is a highly charged attack on the practice of slavery, an "appalling and atrocious criminality," illustrated by eleven alarming full-page woodcuts which, despite their amateurish execution, graphically portrayed the horrific mechanisms for the sale of human beings, and many of the lifelong sufferings that ensued, including:

"Ladies Whipping Girls"
"Selling Females by the Pound"
"Flogging American Women" (depicting a female slave tied to a fence by her neck and whipped)
"Torturing American Citizens" (depicting a male slave tied to a tree and being whipped)
"A Slave Plantation" (depicting a slave-owner whipping a line of slaves)
"Exchanging Citizens for Horses" (SIGNED "[G.W.] Flag del.," depicting three slaves being sold, one of whom weeps)
"Tanning a Boy" (SIGNED "H.A. Munson," depicting a white boy who was allegedly captured and enslaved, and was given baths in a tanning solution to darken his skin)
"Auction at Richmond," etc.

Then, as now, these illustrations are upsetting in the extreme. Bourne's argument that slavery is contrary to Biblical teachings was in his day a novel one, claiming (correctly) that slavery is effectively "stealing" and therefore violates the Eighth Commandment (Exodus 20:15). In 1815 his vehement and uncompromising abolitionist views led to his expulsion from the Lexington Presbytery, where he had been a minister. The present text includes Bourne's text from his extremely rare 1816 "The Book and Slavery Irreconcilable," to which he added much new material as well as ALL the harrowing illustrations.

Born in England in 1780, Bourne is credited with delivering the first public demands for "immediate, unconditional, and universal emancipation" and demanded that "NO compensation should be given to the planters [i.e. slave-holders]." He died in NYC in 1845.

PROVENANCE: Bookplate of John Watson Christie (small cabin on a wooded lakeshore) designed by H.B. (or H.L.B.). This individual is certainly the John W. Christie (1883-1974) of Wilmington, Delaware, and Rev. of Westminster Presbyterian Church (see the crosses within circles flanking the words "Ex Libris"). Christie was the author of GEORGE BOURNE and the Book and Slavery Irreconcilable (Wilmington and Philadelphia: The Historical Society of Delaware and the Presbyterian Historical Society, 1969) and there can be no doubt that THIS COPY would have been an obvious source of information and inspiration. Concerning Christie and his research on Bourne, see H. Clay Reed's review of Christie's book in "Western Pennsylvania History" (April, 1970) pp. 188-190.

To our knowledge there are NO other copies of the first edition currently on the market.

Afro-Americana 1414. Sabin 6921.