Kanzas and Nebraska: The History, Geographical and Physical Characteristics, and Political Position of Those Territories; An Account of the Emigrant Aid Companies, and Directions to Emigrants

Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Company, 1854. 8vo. 256 pp, 4 pp advertisements at end. Folding lithographed frontispiece map. Original brown embossed cloth, gilt-lettered on spine. A very good copy, spine slightly sunned, map with pale dampstain. FIRST EDITION of one of the earliest - if not the earliest - books on Kansas, considered the best book on the emigration occasioned by the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Hale gives an historical survey of Kansas, an account of the Indian tribes, and a detailed description of the soil, rivers, settlements, railroads, and projected cities in Kansas and Nebraska. Of particular interest is information on emigrant aid companies, emigration from the West (including of Chinese from California), the suitability and promise of the territory for emigrants and a significant discussion of the fugitive slave question, the Missouri Compromise, women's rights, suffrage, and the railroad. The "Map of Kanzas & Nebraska from the Original Surveys" (17x18.7 cm) has Nebraska including present-day Wyoming, Montana and adjacent areas. The map is one of three published in 1854 showing Kansas. Graff 1709; Sabin 2964; Wagner-Camp-Becker 239a.