AMERICAN SLAVERY: AS IT IS
"...The greatest of the anti-slavery pamphlets; in all probability, the most crushing indictment of any institution ever written."Historian Dwight L. Dumond, in reference to American Slavery: As It Is.Take a trip with me to the year 1839, more than 20 years prior to the Civil War, just two years after the savage murder of abolitionist printer, Rev. Elijah Lovejoy, and less than a year following the gang arson of Pennsylvania Hall, in which case Philadelphia firemen stand-by, protectively spraying nearby buildings, while the new abolitionist auditorium burns to the ground. From this crucible, arises Theodore Dwight Weld, a fiery abolitionist orator, and sisters Sarah and Angelina Grimke, popular abolitionist speakers and women’s rights leaders, who, with the help of their compatriots, will create a 224-page indictment, a dense, intricately-detailed accusatory instrument against the institution of slavery that will expose the vile motives and practices of their fellow Americans and clarify a fracture in American society that will lead directly and inexorably to civil war. The unmistakeable impression this narrative gives to the modern reader is just how clear and apparent the moral issues regarding slavery were to the people of the time. It gives the lie to moral relativists who romanticize or gloss over the intentions of 19th-century slavers. In fact, the moral issues of slavery ring more clearly in this book than in most modern discussions of the matter. It is a very difficult read, raw and revelatory, especially today. Filled with narratives of victims and witnesses to the depraved institution of American slavery, detailing sources comprehensively; this book will prove wildly influential, providing vivid, documented accounts for the use of abolitionists and even serving as the central source work for Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, still 13 years in the future.  Here we offer a limited edition of the highest quality facsimile of the first edition of this most influential of the United States abolition sources, American Slavery: As It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses, published by The American Anti-Slavery Society, New York City, in 1839. The book is faithfully recreated here by New York City-based craft publisher, Funsub Books, in a thoroughly acid-free process, presented in its original double-columned, 9 x 5.75-inch format; faithfully providing hand-threaded binding of the original 14 signatures, plus facsimile cover wrap of royal blue heavyweight French art paper to recreate the oaktag original.The edition is limited to 750 copies, each individually numbered on a tipped-in signature that features editor’s notes and helpful glossary. The number assigned to your copy will be random; the photographs are of the first copy produced.
This wonderful, faithful facsimile of the first edition of this seminal document of American history will make a fascinating addition to your collection or a very thoughtful gift.