WILBERFORCE (W[illiam].)
An Appeal to the Religion, Justice, and Humanity of the Inhabitants of the British Empire, in behalf of the Negro Slaves in the West Indies.
AUTHOR'S PRESENTATION COPY
An excellent, unsophisticated copy of the uncommon first edition. Presentation inscription “From the Author” to the half title.
In this work Wilberforce argues for the complete abolition of slavery, marking an advance on the 1807 bill which still provided for it in the colonies of the British Empire. He commences his Appeal seeking “by all lawful and constitutional means, to mitigate, and as soon as it may safely be done, to terminate the Negro slavery of the British Colonies; a system of the grossest injustice, of the most heathenish irreligion and immorality, of the most unprecedented degradation, and unrelenting cruelty.”
Forceful as ever, this Appeal led to the formation of the Anti-Slavery Society in the same year. The act for complete abolition wasn’t passed until 1833, a decade after this.
Sabin, 103591.
