FEATHERSTONHAUGH, G[eorge] W[illiam].
Excursion Through The Slave States, From Washington on the Potomac to the Frontier of Mexico; With Sketches of Popular Manners and Geological Notices.
New-York: Harper & Brothers , 1844.
$1,200.00
In Stock
Item Number: RRB-151980
+$450
"An Honest Description of the Slave-Holding States": Rare First Edition of George William Featherstonhaugh's Excursion Through The Slave States
First edition of the diplomat and geologist's controversial record of his travels through the American South in the 1830s, including his eyewitness accounts of slavery and his frank comments on slaveholders' defense of slavery. Octavo, bound in period-style three-quarter calf gilt over marbled boards with gilt stamping to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, red morocco spine label lettered in gilt, top edge speckled red, containing rarely found engraved title page with publisher's advertisement on the verso, and letterpress title page. Sabin 23960. Howes F68. Allibone I:583. Clark III:40. In near fine condition.
British diplomat and geologist Featherstonhaugh, who was employed by the U.S. War Department to make geological surveys, must have "cut an odd figure on the American frontier. His prejudices against the informality, materialism, and cultural backwardness of Jacksonian America did little to endear him to his hosts" (DNB). Excursions is an account of his travels through the slave-holding states in the mid-1830s, recording both his frank dislike of slavery and southerners' claims that "it elevated the character of the masters." To this Featherstonhaugh notes, with irony: "I was struck with this justification of slavery which... must mean that every man should be a slaveholder in order to the successful development of his own inherent dignity." On publication Excursions won praise as "an honest description of the condition of society in the slave-holding States south of the Potomac" (Athenaeum), and has become a vital primary source for historians. This important work "penetrated through portions of the republic in which the slave-trade flourishes... his occasional pictures of the heroes of the bowie-knife, the gentlemen slave-breeders, and various strange species of the genus homo he met with during his travels, are remarkably characteristic and entertaining" (New Monthly Magazine). On returning home Featherstonhaugh served as the British consul at Le Havre from 1844 to his death in 1866.
Excursion Through The Slave States, From Washington on the Potomac to the Frontier of Mexico; With Sketches of Popular Manners and Geological Notices.
$1,200.00
In Stock