Author: [BUXTON, Thomas Fowell]
Title: Review of the African Slave Trade [Extracted from the British and Foreign Review, or European Quarterly Journal, No. XVIII] Bound with the Remedy Bound with the Remedy
Description: London, Richard and John E. Taylor/W. Clowes & Sons, 1839. First Edition. Hardcover. Later polished calf-backed boards with matching calf corners; [2], 467-507, [1]; 152; [2], 152 pages. A fascinating compilation of these three works. The first, an extract from a periodical, is a review of three works: THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE by Buxton; CORRESPONDENCE RELATING TO THE SLAVE TRADE presented to both Houses of Parliament, 1838-39; and ESCLAVAGE ET TRAITE by Agenor de Gasparin, 1838. The second, titled THE REMEDY without a proper title page and date but printed by W. Clowe & Sons, begins with the published introduction to the finished book but with variations in the text from the published version, starting in the very first paragraph. The third item has a proper title page and is also printed by W. Clowes & Sons with a statement at the bottom of the title page: "This Edition is not to be Published." It too differs from the published version and has slight differences from the other version included here. The purpose of the third item is revealed by Buxton in the preface to the published edition of THE REMEDY: "As the remedy I contemplate is now, for the first time, published, it is necessary to explain the reason why it has hitherto been withheld. In the spring of 1838, I stated to several members of the cabinet my views as to the suppression of the Slave Trade. I could not reasonably expect, that, in the extreme pressure of business during the sitting of Parliament, they would be able to find time to give it the consideration it required, I therefore prepared for the press and printed a few copies of my work--describing the horrors of the Slave Trade, and proposing a remedy, for the private use of the members of the administration, and placed these in their hands on the day that the session closed." This is certainly one of those copies and as such is quite scarce. What version the second item in this volume is remains a mystery, but clearly this is an early and scarce variant. Paper split at front gutter but covers firm. Near Fine Buxton believed that the only way to suppress the African slave trade was to promote "legitimate commerce" and that this new trade would launch Africa on the road to moral and material progress, a belief that eventually became conventional wisdom in mid-19th-century Britain.

Keywords: Slavery, Americana, Black History, 19th Century, African-American History, Abolitionism African-American History Slavery Abolitionism


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