{"product_id":"1795-john-newton","title":"1795 JOHN NEWTON. First American Edition of John Newton's Anti-Slavery Autobiography","description":"\u003cp id=\"p-rc_6089d9ed9105b0f2-51\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"citation-84\"\u003eThis 1795 Philadelphia imprint of John Newton’s \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan class=\"citation-84\"\u003eLetters, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan class=\"citation-84\"\u003ewhich includes his famous autobiographical \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan class=\"citation-84\"\u003eAuthentic Narrative. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan class=\"citation-83\"\u003eWritten after his dramatic conversion, the included \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan class=\"citation-83\"\u003eAuthentic Narrative\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan class=\"citation-83 citation-end-83\"\u003e chronicles Newton’s terrifying descent into the Middle Passage, his time enslaved himself under a slave trader’s wife on the West African coast, and his eventual rise to captaining slave ships before renouncing the trade and becoming a minister and abolitionist himself.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c!----\u003e\u003c!----\u003e\u003c!----\u003e\u003c!----\u003e\u003c!----\u003e\u003c!----\u003e\u003c!----\u003e\u003c!----\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp id=\"p-rc_6089d9ed9105b0f2-52\"\u003eAs the first American edition of these core writings, published by William Young in 1795, the book arrived in the United States during a intense period of post-Revolutionary debate over the moral legitimacy of human bondage. \u003cspan class=\"citation-82\"\u003eNewton had become one of Britain's most prominent anti-slavery voices and a key mentor to William Wilberforce, authoring his scathing eyewitness exposé \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan class=\"citation-82\"\u003eThoughts Upon the African Slave Trade\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan class=\"citation-82 citation-end-82\"\u003e in 1788. The American publication of his personal testimony and letters provided Northern abolitionist groups and religious reformers with an authoritative, firsthand account of the brutal reality of the Atlantic slave trade from a man who had participated in it directly.\u003csup class=\"superscript\"\u003e\u003c!----\u003e\u003c\/sup\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e By bringing Newton's narrative of sin, redemption, and the horrors of the slave trade to an American readership, this 1795 volume served as a potent evangelical tool used to awaken the public conscience against the institution of slavery in the young United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOffered at auction but once in the last 100 years, and that a disbound example. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNewton, John. Letters, Originally Published under the Signatures of Omicron and Vigil. By the Rev. Mr. John Newton, Minister of the Gospel in London, to which is Prefixed, an Authentic Narrative of Some Remarkable and Interesting Particulars in the Life of Mr. Newton. Communicated in a Series of Letters to the Rev. Mr. Haweis, Record of Aldwinckle, Northamptonshire. Philadelphia. Printed by William Young. 1795. First American Edition. 372pp. \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA rather nicely preserved example in original plain calf binding. Rubbed at extremities with some minor chipping as shown. 19th century Whitton family provenance. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Specs Fine Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51303394148388,"sku":null,"price":1250.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/specsfinebooks.com\/products\/1795-john-newton","provider":"Specs Fine Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}