A very rare first edition of the story of Daph and her "charge," i.e. two white children. She was enslaved during the slave riots in the Indies. She was apparently not an active participant in them, but in the middle of the bloodshed, noticed two babies left alone. She snatched them up to protect them, hoping to find their parents after the violence ceased. The parents never returned to the home, presumably killed. The story recounts her attempts to get them to America aboard a ship with a sympathetic "Republican," i.e. anti-slavery Commander who takes them to America where she takes them to New York, and ultimately ends up having them adopted by parents in New York who have lost their own children . . . and Daph becomes a part of the family.
We trace no other copies of the first edition on the market or at auction.
Anonymous. The Babes in the Basket; Or, Daph and Her Charge. By the Author of "Timid Lucy," "Heart and Hand," Etc. New York. Anson D. F. Randolph. 1859. 216pp.
A good + copy, bound in cloth, generally solid, with generally bright pages and light foxing. Nice Ciivil War era inscription as well.
