1850 BAPTIST PSALMODY. First Southern Baptist Hymnal Ever Produced. Pro-Slavery, Alabama, Charleston, &c.

A very scarce and finely preserved true first edition, issued in Charleston of the very first Southern Baptist hymnal ever issued by the Southern Baptist Convention. Prior to its issuance [1850], many churches used The Psalmist [1843], issued by the northern Baptists and edited by abolitionists Samuel Francis Smith and Baron Snow. Smith had written America 12 years earlier and it had become an anti-slavery anthem. 

In response, the Southern Baptist Convention charged Basil Manly with the construction of a separate hymnal that would be void of the subtle and not so subtle anti-slavery messaging of The Psalmist. He was a good choice; he "owned" 40 enslaved persons himself, virtually ensuring no slave-holder would feel the least bit bothered by any of its contents referring to the universal brotherhood of humanity, the imageness of all humans as children of God, on the evils of oppression and usury, etc. These themes are conspicuous in their absence. 

To my recollection, the only copy we have ever handled. 

Manly, Basil and Basil Manly, Jur. The Baptist Psalmody: A Selection of Hymns for the Worship of God. Charleston, South Carolina.: Southern Baptist Publication Society. Richmond: T. J. Starke. Macon: S. Boykin. Selma: Merritt Burns. Montgomery: B. B. Davis. 1850. First Edition. 786pp.

A very finely preserved example in full morocco with raised bands, gilt dentils, etc., Some abrading to leather, not consolidated and looking quite sharp. Some minor foxing toward page edges throughout.