Slave Trade

Franklin, Benjamin. An Address to the Public, from the Pennsylvania Society for promoting the Abolition of Slavery, and the Relief of Free Negroes, unlawfully held in Bondage Philadelphia, 9th of November 1789... [Philadelphia: Francis Bailey, 1789], broadside, folded--Pennsylvania Society. Philadelphia, 26 October, 1789. At a meeting of the Pennsylvania Society for promoting the Abolition of Slavery &c. An Essay of a Plan for improving the condition of Free Negroes...A Plan for improving the condition of the Free Blacks. Philadelphia: Francis Bailey, 1789, broadside, folded, integral address leaf on verso to Sir William Forbes--Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. London, 28th July, 1789. At  a Committee of the Society, instituted in 1787, for the purpose of effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade... [London: 1789]--The Speech of...William Pitt, on a motion for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, in the House of Commons, on Monday the second of April, 1792. James Phillips, 1792, [Sabin, 63097]; and 7 others from the same period, including works on income tax in Great Britain, an observation on Paine's pamphlet on the English system of Finance, A Vindication of the French Emigrants (Dublin, 1803) and the Trial of William Jackson for high treason (Dublin, 1795); 8vo (apart from broadsides), contemporary half calf, marbled boards, minor wear to binding (1)

The Forbes Baronetcy was created in 1626 for Sir William Forbes (d. circa 1650) by James VI in the Barontage of Nova Scotia. The majority of the works offered here were acquired by the sixth Baronet, also William (1739-1806), who added Pitsligo to his title in 1781. He was an eminent Scottish banker and benefactor, good friend of James Boswell and Samuel Johnson (see lots 45-46), and finally succeeded in recovering the Pitsligo estates forfeited after the Jacobite rebellion of 1745. His son William, the seventh baronet, beat Sir Walter Scott to the hand of the renowned beauty Williamina Belsches Stuart (1776-1810), and it was with their marriage that the family moved to her family seat, Fettercairn House in Kincardineshire, Aberdeenshire.

One of the sixth baronet’s acquisitions for his library at Pitsligo were numerous highly important miscellanies and tract volumes, many of which were purchased as a set from Edinburgh bookseller Elphinstone Balfour in October 1786. These were subsequently supplemented by further contemporary tracts and other works from the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century. Most of these miscellanies bear a nineteenth century Forbes family bookplate.

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing unless otherwise stated
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

RARE BROADSIDES PRINTED IN PHILADELPHIA CALLING FOR THE ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE.

The first item listed here (seven copies listed in America by ESTC) is the important and rare broadside issued by the Pennsylvania Society soliciting contributions to fund a plan for educating and employing freed slaves: "...Attention to emancipated black people . . . will become a branch of our national policy ... To instruct; to advise; to qualify those who have been restored to freedom ... are the great outlines of the annexed plan, which we have adopted, and which we conceive will essentially promote the good, and the happiness of these, our hitherto too much neglected fellow creatures . . . Signed by order of the Society, B. Franklin, President". The Society was first established in 1774 by James Pemberton and Dr. Benjamin Rush. After the American Revolution in 1787 it was reconstructed on a larger basis under the presidency of Franklin. The second item, also a very rare broadside, appears to be very similar, but not identical to ESTC W42519 (recorded at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania only), with its proposal to set up four committees.