Archy Moore The White Slave; Or Memoirs Of A Fugitive. With A New Introduction.

New York and Auburn,: Miller Orton & Mulligan,, 1855.. 8vo.. Modern brown cloth over boards with gilt title to spine. New endpapers decorated in gilt. Some minor foxing mostly to outer margins and outer edges of plates. Clean tear professionally repaired to p357-58. Overall a nice copy of a scarce book. With 8 full-page plates. The first abolitionist novel The Slave: or Memoirs of Archy Moore, was published in 1836 by historian Richard Hildreth. It featured an enslaved mixed-race hero, son of a white planter and an enslaved mother, who is herself the daughter of a white planter. When he and his sister decide to escape, they have no problems Òin passing oursleves as white citizensÓ.The title of the 1852 edition referes to the appearance of the hero: The White Slave or Memoirs of a Fugitive. Richard Hildreth (1807-1865) American journalist, author, philosopher, historian and antislavery activist. Best known for writing the six-volume work History of the United States of America covering 1497-1821. Historians consider it a highly accurate politicla history of the early Republic but with strong bias in favor of the Federalist Party and the abolition of slavery. Hildreth was the joint founder and editor of the Boston Atlas and was also author the popular anti-slavery novel The Slave: or Memoir of Archy Moore in 1836.