ARMISTEAD, Wilson.
A Tribute For The Negro: Being a Vindication of the Moral, Intellectual, and Religious Capabilities of the Coloured Portion of Mankind; with Particular Reference to the African Race.
Manchester: William Irwin [and London, Charles Gilpin; New York, William Harned; Philadelphia, H. Longstreth and G. W. Taylor] , 1848.
$12,000.00
In Stock
Item Number: RRB-151977
+$450
"The Most Extensive Collection of Nineteenth-Century Slave Narratives and Biographies": Rare First Edition, Deluxe Issue of Wilson Armistead's A Tribute For The Negro
First edition, deluxe issue of Armistead's best known work, containing possibly the most extensive collection of nineteenth-century slave narratives and biographies. Octavo, original publisher's deluxe plum morocco gilt, flat spine decorated gilt, with a vignette depicting a pleading slave and the legend "Am I not a man and a brother" to the front board, all edges gilt, engraved frontispiece and 11 plates. Goldsmiths' 35477; Hogg 1491. In near fine condition with light rubbing to the extremities. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. An excellent example of this rarity, easily one of the nicest extant.
This is the best known work by Wilson Armistead (1819 - 1868), a Leeds mustard manufacturer. It was written in response to the suggestion that the blacks of Africa were not human in the fullest sense, and that their enslavement was therefore legitimate. In the first part of his Tribute, entitled "An Inquiry into the Claims of the Negro Race to Humanity, and a Vindication of their original equality with the other portions of Mankind," Armistead rebuts these claims on several fronts, marshalling a whole array of scientific arguments. He rejects the suggestion that the mere colour of a black man disqualifies him from being part of mankind; far greater differences can be seen between, for example, English and Italian cattle, yet we would not hesitate to say that they were of the same species. Moreover, who is to say that the savage state of the black African is the only possible state; after all, Cicero speaks in very similar terms of the British (barbarians, not even fit for slavery; they cannot even learn music) to those used of Africans by the apologists for slavery in the United States and elsewhere. And yet, the prejudice against coloured people persists, as does the practice of enslavement; and the latter perpetuates the former, for a slave deprived of all that a human being expects, in terms of autonomy, education and liberty, is not likely to exemplify those qualities. Armistead argues that it is only by accepting blacks as equals that they will become so.
The second part of the work is, if anything, even more interesting, as it contains possibly the most extensive collection of nineteenth-century slave narratives and biographies, collected from a number of sources as well as from Armistead's own experiences through the Leeds Anti-Slavery Association. It is also notable for the portraits of several Africans, drawn by the author.
A Tribute For The Negro: Being a Vindication of the Moral, Intellectual, and Religious Capabilities of the Coloured Portion of Mankind; with Particular Reference to the African Race.
$12,000.00
In Stock