M'QUEEN, James. The West India Colonies; The Calumnies and Misrepresentations Circulated Against Them by The Edinburgh Review, Mr Clarkson, Mr Cropper, &c, &c. Examined and Refuted. London, Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, 1824.
8vo. Contemporary diced calf, rebacked and with wear to corners; pp. xxvi. [20], 427, additional errata slip at the end of preliminaries; new fly-leaf at end, repair to corner of final leaf, a good copy, complete with half-title and errata slip.
Very rare first edition of this defence of slavery, written by one of Britain's staunchest Ant-Abolitionists. 'MacQueen's position on the issues had not changed since 1820, though it seemed it had since his arguments became increasingly hardened, extreme, persona1 and narrow as the emancipation debate progressed through the latter 1820s' (Jeffrey David Pardue, Agent of Imperial Change: James MacQueen and the British Empire, 1778-1870 p. 71). In defending slavery the author gives much statistical material relating to the West Indies and reveals the mind-set of the profiteers of a society whose wealth is to a great extent based on slavery.
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