[Walker, Jonathan] Chapman, Maria Weston (preface)

[The Branded Hand] Trial and Imprisonment of Jonathan Walker, at Pensacola, Florida, for Aiding Slaves to Escape from Bondage, with an Appendix, Containing a Sketch of his Life

Boston: Anti-Slavery Office, 1850. Hard Cover. Good+ binding. Item #8911

12mo. 126 pp., frontis, illus. Early printing. As issued, in embossed cloth. Binding a trifle soiled with some fading; tidelines to the upper portion of the front endpapers and frontispiece else expecting toning/foxing; generally, a presentable and solid copy of a mid-century narrative.

Walker was a New England abolitionist who moved to Florida in 1844 to advance the cause. An attempt to help seven enslaved men escape was plagued by misadventure that resulted in it being thwarted, Walker being imprisoned and fined, and having his hand branded with "S. S.," marking him a slaver stealer. Originally published in 1845, this narrative was reprinted several times in that decade; this edition contains material not found in the first edition including a poem by John Greenleaf Whittier in tribute to Walker, "The Branded Hand." Despite its repeated printings, early editions of the book remain fairly uncommon in commerce. In addition to the frontispiece, there are three striking full-page in-text illustrations, depicting "common mode of whipping with a paddle," the author confined to the pillory, and the branding of Walker's hand. Blockson Catalogue 10153 (2nd ed.); Dumond, p. 113. Servies 3589.

Price: $500.00