WILLIAMS, GEORGE WASHINGTON

History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880. Negroes as Slaves, as Soldiers, and as Citizens. Portrait frontispiece. 2 volumes. Large thick 8vo, cloth, backstrips lightly faded; ownership name on front pastedown and bottom edge of Vol. I. New York, 1883 FIRST EDITION. Without question, the most ambitious and fact-filled history of the period up to that date. George Washington Williams, soldier, clergyman, lawyer, legislator, and historian (1849-1891) began this mammoth work while preparing a lecture on the American Negro in 1876. In his research, he became "surprised and delighted" to find that so much material was available to him. As a Philadelphian, he availed himself of the enormous holdings of the Library Company of Philadelphia and over a seven year period, after consulting over 12,000 books and pamphlets, produced this work. LCP, Negro History 230; Work, page 282; Blockson, 101 Influential Books 44.