1
●
(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION.) ANON.
Some Observations on the Assiento
Trade, as it Hath Been Exercised by the South Sea Company, Proving the
Damage Which will Accrue to the British Plantations in America.
38 pages. Small
8vo, later calf-backed cloth-covered boards; tips rubbed; joints started.
London: Whitridge, 1728
[500/750]
A pamphlet criticizing the crown for renewing the arrangement with the Spanish government
called the “Assiento”— quite literally, the “Agreement.” That agreement, first signed in
1713, gave the British, and more specifically the investors in the South Sea Company the
exclusive rights to the African Slave Trade.
2
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(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION—JAMAICA.)
Large vellum deed for the
transfer of real estate and seventy slaves, of William Nedham Esq., formerly of
Jamaica, presently of London, to Edward Morant Esq. of Southampton.
Large,
single sheet of vellum, 31 x 25
1
⁄
2
inches, folded, as is usual with blue tax stamps and two red
wax seals on green cloth tags; docketed. Outer portion of the vellum a bit dusty, internally
quite fresh; small hole at the conjunction of the folds, with no serious loss of text.
Rio Mino in Vere Parish 4 June, 1771
[3,000/4,000]
AN EARLY DEED
listing every slave by name, like “Old Quamino,” and in many cases indi-
cating family members, such as “Lutinda’s Quatibba.” The Nedham family was one of
Jamaica’s oldest, established after the conquest of the island from the Spaniards during
Cromwell’s time. Edward Morant, also a member of an old line Jamaican family, was proprietor
of many estates on the island, and from where various parts of that island take the family
name; such as Morant River.
SHOCKING FIRST-HAND ACCOUNTS
3
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(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION.) WILLIAM WILBERFORCE ET AL.
Abridgements of the Minutes of the Evidence, taken before a Committee of the
Whole House to whom it was Referred to Consider of the Slave Trade, 1789
[bound with] Abridgement of the Minutes. . . 1790, Number II [offered with]
Abridgement of the Minutes of the Evidence taken before a Committee of the
Whole House, to whom it was Referred to Consider of the Slave trade, Number
III [bound with] Abridgement of the Minutes. . . 1791, Part IV.
[2], 82; [2], 246;
157; 163, with folding table. Some related ink marginalia in No’s I and II; last several leaves
of number IV with a hole affecting several words on each page (understandable in con-
text). 8vo’s bound in calf-backed contemporary marbled boards full tree calf, hinges weak.
London, 1789-1791
[1,500/2,500]
“
Parliamentary debates on the abolition of the slave trade were inaugurated in the late 1780’s.
The evidence includes testimony of slave traders, plantation managers and overseers, slave own-
ers, physicians for slaves and other eye-witness observers and participants. They provide often
shocking first hand accounts of the slave trade, the Atlantic “Middle Passage,” as well as life on
the plantations and the horrid abuses of the slave laborers thereon.
P R I N T E D & M A N U S C R I P T
A F R I C AN AME R I C ANA
