1817-1818 WILLIAM COWPER. Poems and Table Talk in Fine Leather Bindings. The Negro's Complaint.

A superbly charming pair of early match-binding imprints of the devotional and abolitionist poems of John Newton's friend and co-author of the famed Olney Hymns, William Cowper.  

Both volumes filled to the brim with Cowper's devotional verse, The Minor Poems volume is of particular interest for its inclusion of his most famous anti-slavery poem, "The Negro's Complaint," illustrated by Richard Westall's engraving depicting an enslaved man appealing to heaven. The volume also includes a companion abolitionist poem "Pity for Poor Africans". Written at the request of the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, "The Negro's Complaint" gave voice to the human suffering of the Middle Passage and became a wildly popular ballad printed on broadsides across Britain and America. Coupled with Cowper's devotional hymns, Sunday School verses, and his "Sonnet to William Wilberforce," these volumes demonstrate how Newton's influence helped transform personal evangelical piety into an active, literary campaign against the transatlantic slave trade.

Cowper, William. Table Talk, and Other Poems; by William Cowper, of the Inner Temple. London. Printed for John Sharpe, Piccadilly. 1817. 203pp. Engraved title + 7 engravings. 

[Together with]

Cowper, William. The Minor Poems of William Cowper of the Inner Temple. Parts I & II. London. Printed by John Sharpe, Piccadilly. 1818. 108 + 108pp. 2 engraved titles + 5 engravings. 

Very good condition in matching half leather bindings. Some light rubbing as shown, minor foxing. A very nicely preserved pair .