Slavery in North America:

From the Colonial Period to Emancipation

This four-volume facsimile edition draws together rare sources relating to American slavery systems until emancipation during the Civil War. The chronological spread of sources reveals changes in the material and intellectual underpinnings of slavery over time. Moreover, the arrangement of the sources reveal the geographical diversity of slavery across North America, and offer scholars access to the experience of a wide range of constituencies from slaves and slave-owners, through abolitionists and pro-slavery ideologues, to travellers and plantation visitors. The complicated role that slavery played in the ideological construction of Confederate nationhood is also explored.

All texts included in this edition are extremely rare and some are transcribed for the first time. All are inaccessible outside of a few highly-specialised research libraries. The edition benefits from a general introduction, volume introductions, headnotes, endnotes and a consolidated index in the final volume. It will be vital for scholars of the History of Slavery, the History of Abolitionism and American History.

• Draws together a wide range of previously uncollected and extremely rare sources
• Several sources are transcribed for the first time
• Full editorial apparatus includes a general introduction, headnotes, footnotes, and a consolidated index in the final volume
• Each facsimile page is digitally cleaned and enhanced, significantly improving on the quality and legibility of the original text

Contents

Volume 1: The Colonial Period
Editor: Timothy Lockley
Thomas Cooper & David McCord, Statutes at Large of South Carolina (1836-41) (excerpt); James Barclay, The Voyages and Travels of James Barclay (1777) (excerpt); Grand Jury Presentments from The South Carolina Gazette (1733–75) (excerpt); Edmund Gibson, Two Letters of the Lord Bishop of London (1727); George Whitefield, Three Letters from the Reverend Mr. G. Whitefield: viz. Letter I. To a Friend in London, concerning Archbishop Tillotson. Letter II. To the same, on the same subject. Letter III. To the inhabitants of Maryland, Virginia, North and South-Carolina, concerning their Negroe (1740) (excerpt); Alexander Garden, Six Letters to the Rev Mr George Whitefield. …The sixth, containing remarks on Mr. Whitefield's second letter, concerning Archbishop Tillotson, and on his letter concerning the Negroes (1740) (excerpt); Anne Dutton, Letter to the Negroes lately converted to Christ in America (1743); Samuel Davies, Letters from the Rev. Samuel Davies, and others; Shewing, the State of Religion in Virginia, South Carolina, &c. Particularly among the Negroes (1757); John Saffin, A Brief and Candid Answer to a Late Printed Sheet entitled the Selling of Joseph (1701) in Abner C Goodell, 'John Saffin and His Slave Adam', Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts (1895) (excerpt); An account Shewing the Progress of the Colony of Georgia in America from its First Establishment (1741) (excerpt); Richard Nisbet, Slavery not forbidden by Scripture (1773); David Margate, manuscript pages on his experience as a black British preacher employed by the Countess of Huntingdon to minister to her slaves at Bethesda in Georgia (1775)

Volume 2: The Revolutionary and Early National Period
Editor: Timothy Lockley
Trial records of three slaves; The Life and confession of Cato: a slave of Elijah Mount, of Charleston in the county of Montgomery, who was executed at Johnstown, on the 22nd day of April 1803, for the murder of Mary Akins. Johnstown (1803); Report of the Commission of the American Historical Association (1897) (excerpt); Rules for the Regulation of the Society for the Relief of Free Negroes, and Others, Unlawfully Held in Bondage (1784); Charles Crawford, Observations upon Negro Slavery (1790) (excerpt); Philanthropos [David Rice], Slavery Inconsistent with Justice and Good Policy (1792) (excerpt); Noah Webster, Effects of Slavery, on Morals and Industry (1793) (excerpt); Morgan J Rhees, Letters on Liberty and Slavery: in Answer to a Pamphlet, entitled, 'Negro-slavery defended by the Word of God' by Philanthropos (1798); Barnaby Nixon, A Serious Address to the Rulers of America, in general, and the State of Virginia, in particular (1806); Henry Holcombe, The First Fruits in a Series of Letters (1812) (excerpt); Digest of the Ordinances of the City Council of Charleston, from the year 1783 to July 1818 to which are annexed, extracts from the acts of the Legislature which relate to the city of Charleston (1813) (excerpt); Jarvis Brewster, An Exposition of the Treatment of Slaves in the Southern States, Particularly in the States of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina (1815)

Volume 3: The Antebellum Period
Editor: Jonathan Daniel Wells
Alexander Edwards, Ordinances of the City Council of Charleston (1802) (excerpt); Virginia Cary, Letter on Female Character, Addressed to a Young Lady, on the Death of her Mother (1828) (excerpt); G S, ‘Sketches of the South Santee’, American Monthly Magazine (1836) (excerpt); Foby, 'Management of Servants', Southern Cultivator (1853) (excerpt); John Mason Brown, ‘Songs of the Slave’, Lippincott's Magazine (1868) (excerpt); William Thomas, ‘The Enemies of the Constitution Discovered’ (1835) (excerpt); William Cost Johnson, ‘Speech of William Cost Johnson, of Maryland, on the Subject of the Rejection of Petitions for the Abolition of Slavery’ (1840); Nathaniel Russell Middleton, ‘Address Delivered before the Chrestomathic Society of the College of Charleston’ (1849); Louisa McCord, ‘Negro and White Slavery’, Southern Quarterly Review (1851); Samuel Galloway, Ergonomy; or, Industrial Science (1853) (excerpt); L W Spratt ‘Speech upon the Foreign Slave Trade’ (1858); H O R, ‘The Governing Race: A Book for the Time, and for All Times’ (1860) (excerpt); George W Freeman, The Rights and Duties of Slave-Holders (1837); Henry C Wright, Duty of Abolitionists to Pro-Slavery Ministers and Churches (1841); Paul Trapier, The Religious Instruction of the Black Population: A Sermon Preached in Several of the Protestant Episcopal Churches in Charleston on Sundays in July 1847 (1847); Nathaniel Beverley Tucker, A Discourse on the Dangers that Threaten the Free Institutions of the United States (1841); Daniel Whitaker, ‘The Rights of the South’, Whitaker's Magazine (1850); State v. Elias, Spartanburg District, Court of Magistrates and Freeholders, Trial Papers, Case 224 (1859) (excerpt)

Volume 4: The Civil War and Emancipation
Editor: Peter S Carmichael
Rev A Verot, Slavery & Abolitionism, being the Substance of a Sermon, Preached in the Church of St. Augustine, Florida (1861); Addresses Delivered before the Virginia State Convention by Hon. Fulton Anderson, Commissioner from Mississippi, Hon Henry L. Benning, Commissioner from Georgia, and Hon John S. Preston, Commissioner from South Carolina (1861); Commonwealth vs. Harriette Slave Property of B B Cooley & John W Cooley for Murder of Mrs Hetty A Cooley (1861 (excerpt); ‘Ebony Idols’, The Richmond Enquirer (1861); Charlie Ward, ‘I’m Coming to My Dixie Home; as Sung by Lincoln’s Intelligent Contrabands' (1861); The Spirit of the South towards Northern Freemen and Soldiers Defending the American Flag Against Traitors of the Deepest Dye (1861); The Abolition of Slavery: The Right of the Government under the War Power (1861); Calvin H Wiley, Scriptural Views of National Trials (1863) (excerpt); J J D Renfroe, ‘The Battle Is God’s’: A Sermon Preached Before Wilcox’s Brigade (1863); ‘Court Martial of William Walker, United States Colored Troops’ (1864); Conscript Office, Richmond, Virginia: circular #40 (1864); James E Yeatman, A Report on the Condition of the Freedmen of the Mississippi, Presented to the Western Sanitary Commission; Suggestions of a Plan of Organization for Freed Labor, and the Leasing of Plantations along the Mississippi (1864); Francis W Pickens, ‘Letter of Hon Francis W Pickens. The Crops and Condition of the Country. Effects of Emancipation. The Different Races of Mankind’ (1866)

Related titles

• Slave Agriculture and Financial Markets in Antebellum America : The Bank of the United States in Mississippi, 1831–1852
• Slavery, Abolition and Emancipation : Writings in the British Romantic Period
• The British Transatlantic Slave Trade

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