Raynors HCA 2016-10
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/21/2016
An Abolitionist imprint, “Doctor Dana’s Sermon on the African Slave Trade, 1790,” New Haven. 1791. 33pp. Half title. Dbd. Light tanning, an occasional fox mark. An important early American abolitionist tract. An anti- slavery society had been formed in Connecticut in 1790, and the state was in the midst of outlawing the institution altogether at the time. Ezra Stiles, president of Yale University and a former slave owner himself, was president of the Connecticut Society for the Promotion of Freedom. Dana uses the Epistle to the Galatians as his starting point, but eventually goes into great detail on the history of the slave trade in the New World, dating back to the 16th century. Statistical tables give the number of slaves in the United States in 1790, and also the amounts of slaves imported yearly throughout the 18th century. Dana puts forth Christian reasons and the ideal of the American Revolution in his call for abolition: "Those who profess to understand and regard the principles of liberty should cheerfully unite to abolish slavery." Dana was then the pastor of the First Congregational Church of New Haven, and had a long and distinguished career in the clergy. This is The New York Public Library duplicate copy of this sermon, with their ink stamp on the verso of the titlepage and a pencil note in the hand of Wilberforce Eames, then "Chief of the American History Division," on the half title.
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