Jesse Torrey
A Portraiture of Domestic Slavery, in the United States; with Reflections on the Practicability of Restoring the Moral Rights of the Slave, Without Impairing the Legal Privileges of the Possessor, 1817
Philadelphia: John Bioren
142
Further images
Octavo. 94pp. Six tipped-in engravings throughout depict scenes all too familiar to African enslaved peoples in America in the early 19th century: the violence of white enslavers, the illegal kidnapping...
Octavo. 94pp. Six tipped-in engravings throughout depict scenes all too familiar to African enslaved peoples in America in the early 19th century: the violence of white enslavers, the illegal kidnapping of freedpersons, a woman desperately escaping captivity by jumping from an upper-story window, and the author himself recording biographies told to him by former enslaved people. Torrey's treatise, addressed to philanthropists, legislators, and enslavers in general, conveys an urgent and unflinching portrait of the injustices of slavery—albeit with some of the shortfalls common to the white abolitionists of the period. Bound in contemporary wallpaper wrappers. Pages generally foxed, covers modestly soiled and rubbed, else very good. Laid in is a newspaper clipping of "The Court of Death," a poem by John Gay.