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Estimate Range: $1,500 - $2,000
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1785 Rare Slavery Related American Philadelphia Imprint by Abolitionist Anthony Benezet titled: "A Caution To Great Britain and Her Colonies, in a Calamitous State of the Enslaved Negroes in the British Dominions.”

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1785-Dated Philadelphia Printing of the rare Anti-Slavery Pamphlet by Early American Abolitionist Anthony Benezet titled, "A Caution To Great Britain and Her Colonies, in a Calamitous State of the Enslaved Negroes in the British Dominions. A New Edition.”, Fine internally Choice.

This scarce, early Anti-Slavery imprint was first published in Philadelphia in 1767. This is the 1785 "New Edition", as noted on the front wrap with prior owner’s name at top in faint pencil. The author, Anthony Benezet, (1713-1784), was a French-born American Quaker abolitionist and teacher active in Philadelphia. In 1775, he founded one of the world's first Anti-Slavery Societies, The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage", and in 1770 he founded the Negro School at Philadelphia.

Benezet is considered the foremost advocate of abolition before the American Revolution. Sewn period binding with partial looseness, some minor corner and edge chipping, and natural tone to front and back wraps, internal pages are crisp and clean having exceptional press text embossing remaining in most of the pages from an excellent sharp printing. In this work, Benezet presents a detailed account of the atrocities committed against enslaved Africans in the British West Indies as well as in the American South. Throughout this early abolitionist text, Benezet emphasizes the shared humanity between slaves and slavery's supporters, imploring readers to see clearly the cruelty of what he pointedly calls "Man-trade." References: SABIN 4671. HOWES B345. DAB II, pp.177-78.
Born in France and educated in England, Benezet emigrated to Philadelphia in 1731, where he was a dedicated Quaker educator who taught free classes for Black students. "In the history of abolition, Benezet... should have a place of honor. He was not only a link between the writings of the moral philosopher, such as Montesquieu... but also one between America and Britain" (See: Thomas, Slave Trade, page 473).

Benezet's Caution employs "a refined and polished argument... wielded like a laser scalpel to excise the practice of slavery from the British dominions." He quotes Montesquieu, and offers blunt descriptions of the slave trade, the brutality of the Middle Passage and the torture of enslaved Africans in the southern colonies.

His work brings together key excerpts of works of Enlightenment figures to "show that no man had the right to take possession of another's liberty and make a salable commodity of him" (Crosby, 86). With Caution, Benezet fundamentally "set the tone for much of the debate over slavery during the revolutionary period" (Nash, Race and Revolution, 97)

By using this pioneering work to expose the entrenched profits and practices of the slave trade, Benezet is one of the first abolitionists to cite documents, drawn from commercial sources, that affirm England's part in supplying "her American Colonies with Negro-slaves." He was "the first who embraced, as a matter of public policy, the banning of the slave trade, the gradual but rapid abolition of slavery in the colonies, monetary compensation to Negroes for the years they spent in bondage, and equality under the law for those of African descent."

Caution also expresses his determination to convince England's king, "his ministers and Parliament, that they had become unwitting dupes in their empire's perpetuation of 'this evil of so deep a dye,' and that it was time for them to act by decree or legislation to put an end to it" (Crosby, 84). Arguing it is not necessary to prove intent "in order to convict a man of murder," he declares that any who "deprive another of his Liberty... by unjust force or violence," in a way that ends in death, are "actually guilty of murder."
Keywords: Slavery, 1785, Imprint, Abolition, Colonies, Enslaved Negroes, Anthony Benezet, Quaker, Anti-Slavery, Africans
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Estimate Range: $1,500 - $2,000
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