1835 ANTI-SLAVERY RECORD. Five Loose Issues, Including Volume I. No. I. Rare Abolitionist Woodcuts &c.

A wonderful little assemblage of 5 individually published issues of The Anti-Slavery Record, including the seminal issue, Volume I, No. I; and Volume I [January, 1835]. No. 4 [April, 1835]; Volume I. No. 7 [July, 1835]; Volume I. No. 11 [November, 1835]; and Vol. II. No. 7 [July, 1836].

The individual issues are preferable as the bound volumes often do not include the original wraps, which display some of the most important woodcut illustrations, described by the publication as their "incendiary pictures.' A single issue [of which we also offer as part of this lot], being Vol. I, No. 7, sold at Hake's last year for just under $850.00, and the woodcut on that issue was quite dirtied and inferior any of the three front woodcut examples offered here, etc., 

As noted, the featured woodcuts were an important part of the publication. Vol. II, No. VII [also offered as part of the lot] was not published with the usual front woodcut, but does include an important description of their inclusion:

"Incendiary Pictures. Owing to the absence of the Editor no 'incendiary picture' was prepared for this number of the Record. We have, however, procured and placed above a little one - 'inflammatory, incendiary, and insurrectionary in the highest degree' - which is in common use at this city, for the southern trade, by a firm of stereotypers, who, on account of the same southern trade, refused to stereotype the Record because it contained just such pictures! Now, how does it come to pass, that this said picture when printed in a southern newspaper is perfectly harmless, but when printed in the Anti-Slavery Record is perfectly incendiary? We have nothing further to say about it till this question is answered." 

An excellent lot with some minor faults as described. Included in the group:

The Anti-Slavery Record. Vol. I. No. 1. January. 1835. New York. American Anti-Slavery Society. 1835. 12pp + wraps. 

Good + with very faint ex library stamp to upper right, small three hold to inner margin which remains clear of all text and woodcuts. Small ink number on first page and pencil numbering erased.

Contents include: Anecdotes of American Slavery | Pro-Slavery Arithmetic | Facts Showing the Safety of Emancipation [it is worth noting that the first lengthy article of the first issue dealt with the potential issue of revenge and mass killings by the slaves if freed] | Amalgamation [on the fear of the races mixing and becoming one; first line "Why do you dread such an amalgamation?" Fair question.] | Natural Equality | The Remedy for Slavery | What Other Nations think of American Slavery | Contrast between the Mosaic Servitude and American Slavery | The Little Blind Boy [refused admission to the asylum because he was "colored"] etc.

The Anti-Slavery Record. Vol. I. No. 4. April. 1835. New York. American Anti-Slavery Society. 1835. 12pp + wraps.

Good with the front cover all but detached and the binding quite weak. It appears it was misprinted as the rear wrap is bound second because the material is contiguous between them; likely a misprint and bound this way purposefully. 

Contents include: The same woodcut as Vol. I, No. VII noted above. It contains two panels, on the left a slaver holding the whip to young black children, and on the right a teacher instructing young black children. The caption then reads, "Which of these systems of education shall we hand down to posterity?" Article and beautiful woodcut of the "George Washington of St. Domingo," which attempts to answer the challenge that the black race is inferior and therefore may be enslaved | What Have the People of the North to Do with Slavery? | More Facts Showing the Safety of Emancipation | They Cannot Emancipate - The Laws Forbid It | The Slaveholding Revivalist | How Slaveholders Love Liberty, etc., 

The Anti-Slavery Record. Vol. I. No. 7. July. 1835. New York. American Anti-Slavery Society. 1835. 12pp + wraps.

Good + to very good. Small faded oval ex library stamp on front wrap, interior fine. Small hold punches at inner gutter, well clear of text and woodcuts. An exceptionally crisp example far excelling the quality of the one offered at Hakes. The woodcut is very richly inked.

Contents include: The woodcut as described in the previous issue, though here even a better impression | Slavery in Brazil | Slavery Protected by the Army of the United States | Scenes in the City Prison of New York [Superb woodcut of illustrating the case of the accused runaway / fugitive slave Stephen Downing] | The Kidnapped Girl | Slavery a Sin | Helping to Buy a Father | What Colonization Means | Anti-Slavery Meetings in Pittsburgh [with accounts of the addresses] | etc.

The Anti-Slavery Record. Vol. I. No. 11. November. 1835. New York. American Anti-Slavery Society. 1835. 12pp + wraps.

Good + to very good. Small faded oval ex library stamp on front wrap, interior fine with minor foxing. Small hold punches at inner gutter, well clear of text and woodcuts. An exceptionally crisp example with richly inked woodcut and beautifully preserved deep seafoam green wraps. 

Contents include: A superb woodcut of a slavedriver leading a group of shirtless slaves in white pants, the one at the fore playing the fiddle and one toward the middle holding an American flag; the slavedriver in the middle of striking the with the whip. It reads below, "The American Slave Trade. - A Scene of Frequent Occurrence." | Why are the Slaveholders Angry? Persecution of Amos Dresser [a white abolitionist who was arrested and publicly whipped in Nashville, Tennessee for having on his possession abolitionist publications - a superb woodcut of Dresser ready to be beaten before a thronging crowd] | The Hebrew Bondservice | Hayti | Granville Sharp | Anecdote of Naimbana | Which of the Races is Descended from Cain? | Slavery by James Montgomery | Abstinence from the Products of Slave Labor, etc,.

The Anti-Slavery Record. Vo.II. No. 7. November. 1835. New York. American Anti-Slavery Society. 1835. 12pp.

Good only, perhaps lacking wraps, though maybe issued without as described for this month where the Editor was absent above. Title present and textually complete. Faint ex library stamp on title and the same three small holes not affecting text. Final leaf tender. 

An early little inscription on the title reads "Whittier's bill of abomination."

Contents include: Hints on Anti-Abolition Mobs | The Duty of Abolitionists | A Mob in Lockport | The Bill of Abominations by John Greenleaf Whittier | the above-mentioned woodcut, etc.,