A very scarce work by Charles Spear, perhaps the most influential laborer for prisoner's rights in the 19th century. He was also influential in the fight against capital punishment, for the abolition of slavery, women's rights, etc.,
In the present, he recounts lines written from prison by Abolitionists and anti-Slavery advocates like William Lloyd Garrison and Daniel Defoe [a very early anti-slavery man], by those who are imprisoned for Conscience Sake, and those who are there Unjustly. These were all designed to help his readers realize the same continued to happen. This would become all the more critical in reconstruction when minor laws were overweighted to continue to enforce chattel slavery through the criminal codes.
No copies on the market or that we can trace at auction since 1916. Scarce.
Spear, Charles [ed.] Voices from Prison; A Selection of Poetry Written with the Cell, by Various Prisoners. With Biographical and Critical Notices. Second Edition, Revised by the Author. Boston. Published by the Author, 1848. 302pp.
Good+ with some chips at extremities as shown, a 1.5 inch clean excision on ffep. Else solid and clean with some scattered moderate foxing as shown.
