Hamish Riley-Smith

Rare Books And Manuscripts

William Wilberforce

A Letter on the Abolition of the Slave Trade 1807

First Edition Uncut in the original sheets

WILBERFORCE,William.

A Letter on the Abolition of the Slave Trade; Addressed to the Freeholders and other Inhabitants of Yorkshire.
London, Luke Hansard & Sons for T.Cadell and W.Davies and J.Hatchard, 1807

Octavo, 23.0 x 15.0 cm, uncut in the original sheets, stab holes, pp.(2) +396 + (4), printing flaw on page 276 affecting part of the text on 11 lines, publishers adverts dated December 1806, advert leaves browned, an excellent copy, a remarkable survival in the original sheets, uncut and never bound, preserved in a green cloth box.

£4,850

Printing & the Mind of Man, 232b. Sabin 103953.

FIRST EDITION of William Wilberforce’s book of 80,000 words which he completed on the evening of 27th January 1807 and published four days later. It summed up his arguments against the slave trade which he had presented over the previous twenty years. Copies were rushed to the House of Lords as soon as it came off the presses to coincide with the debate and 2nd reading of the Abolition Act that was to take place in the first week of February 1807. The Lords carried the Abolition Bill by 100 votes to 34, and the triumph was repeated in the House of Commons on 23rd February – 283 votes to 16.

William Wilberforce - A Letter on the Abolition of the Slave Trade 1807
William Wilberforce - A Letter on the Abolition of the Slave Trade 1807

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