"THERE IS NOT 'FREE SOIL' FOR THE FREED AFRICAN IN ALL OUR WIDE AMERICA": FIRST EDITION OF SAMUEL NOTT'S THE PRESENT CRISIS, 1860

NOTT, Samuel. The Present Crisis: With a Reply and Appeal to Euroean Advisers, From the Sixth Edition of Slavery and the Remedy. Boston: Crocker and Brewster, 1860. Slim octavo, disbound. $225.

First separate edition of the preface from Slavery and the Remedy (1856) with a new introduction, published on the eve of the Civil War.

The Present Crisis: With a Reply and Appeal to European Advisor combines a brief introduction with a printing of the preface to Slavery and Remedy, a popular meditation on slavery published continuously beginning in 1856. In both parts of this work, Nott holds firmly to several principles, including the idea that slaves—due to their sheer number—would not be fully emancipated, but that their condition needed to be improved to the greatest extent possible. He further asserts that the risk of the Civil War was not secession and the creation of two different states, but rather a poisonous hostility between two major factions within one nation. Clearly, Nott's theories did not bear out. However, his writings remain historically important as they reflect a popular "moderate" position at the time—one that supports abolition's goals but does not believe in the feasibility of emancipation.

Minor marginal chipping to edges of a few leaves, only a few spots of very faint soiling, remnants of prior binding from disbinding. Extremely good condition.