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140 (SLAVERY.) An Abstract of the Evidence delivered before a Select Committee of the House of Commons, in the years 1790 and 1791 . . . for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. Edinburgh: printed at the Joint Expence of the Glasgow and Edinburgh Societies, instituted for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, 1791 Duodecimo (192 × 110 mm). Uncut in original paper wrappers. Housed in a black flat-back cloth box by the Chelsea Bindery. Spine backing lost, covers spotted, wear to tips, rear cover slightly chipped at foot of joint, sewing loos- ening, some worming to front cover leading on to initial 9 leaves and map, minor offset from slave ship plate. Overall still a very good, unrestored copy. first edinburgh edition, with a pleasing double associ- ation of two scottish enlightenment intellectuals, of the bestselling précis of the Select Committee hearings on the slave trade, perhaps one of the earliest and greatest works of investiga- tive journalism in English. First published in London the same year, this work was the first book against slavery that, instead of argu- ing from the Bible or relying on the rhetorical skills of a Clarkson or Wilberforce, rested its case entirely on a carefully documented series of eyewitness accounts. These shocking accounts were aug- mented, on a large folding plate, by the famous stark woodcuts of slaves packed below decks. Despite the evidence given, the motion for abolition was defeated that year, and the slave trade was not abolished in the British Empire until 1807.
The provenance is highly apposite, with the ownership signa- tures of the female laird Elizabeth Rose of Kilravock (1747–1815) to the title page and Scottish Enlightenment writer James Dunbar (1742–1798) on the front inside cover. Elizabeth Rose, “a clever, well-educated and powerfully-willed woman who succeeded to her brother’s title” (Lindsay, p. 178), had a keen interest in Enlight- enment ethics and morality and cultivated a reading group which included other young women and members of Scottish intellec- tual circles. She borrowed extensively from family libraries in the area, including the Brodie Library, which Dunbar also patronised, and lent books to female friends in a strategy “which served to disseminate her own highly moralistic reading strategies, picking out books to send to friends that served explicitly pedagogical pur- poses” (Towsey, p. 21). Most notably, she lent out Rousseau’s Émile with an extensive commentary on its value, albeit with the warn- ing to not let it “migrate beyond the little back room” (ibid., p. 26). She was cousin of the novelist Henry Mackenzie (his letters to her were published in 1967), and, upon his introduction, Robert Burns stayed with her on his Highland tour in 1787. Her papers are depos- ited in an indefinite loan in the Scottish Record Office. The style of her ownership signature as seen in the present copy (“El. Rose”) is in accordance with other known examples of her books. Dunbar, co-founder of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and mor- al philosopher, was a strong supporter of abolition, stating that a good government ought to consider the slave trade as “repugnant” to morality and “dishonourable to the British name, degrading the human nature and diametrically opposite to the genius of the Christian religion” (cited in Berry, p. 264). ESTC T110052. For Elizabeth Rose: Lindsay, Maurice, review of ‘Henry Mackenzie, Letters to Elizabeth Rose of Kilravock . . . ‘, The Scottish Historical Review 47, no. 144, part 2, 1968; Towsey, Mark, “‘The Talent hid in a Napin’: Castle Libraries in Eighteenth-century Scotland”, Halsey & Owens, The History of Reading , vol. II, 2011. For James Dunbar: Berry, Christopher J., “James Dunbar and the American War of Independence” , Aberdeen University Review 45, 1974, pp. 255–66. £5,750 [125869]
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