1854 W. A. STEARNS. Slavery in its Present State and Relations. Rare with Great Provenance!

Very rare work on the present state and abominable practices of Slavery in the United States. The author, William Augustus Stearns, had just been elected President of Andover the same year. It was a bold and controversial move to make his first official publication on the subject of slavery. The message was clear; Andover would join with the abolitionists as an institution and there would be no compromise or moderation on the subject. He begins at Jamestown and details the history of America with slavery and builds toward a plea for total abolition of the "traffic in flesh." 

Amherst continues to hold his papers, which include extensive correspondence with abolitionists of the time.

Additionally, this copy was gifted and inscribed by J. W. Olmstead as editor of the Watchman and Reflector, perhaps the most influential Baptist periodical of the time. Later, this periodical would contract Charles Spurgeon to write or them exclusively in America and he would publish his "Red Hot Letter on American Slavery" in its pages. 

William Cathcart  (1826–1908), in his Baptist Encyclopedia, called it “the most popular Baptist paper in all New England." 

Stearns, William Augustus. Slavery, in its Present Aspects and Relations. A Sermon Preached on Fast Day, April 6, 1854. Boston and Cambridge. James Munroe and Company. 1854. 48pp. 

Exceptionally scarce pamphlet with no copies on the market. Generally good with minor previous institutional markings. Chips to title as shown.