"THE RELATION OF MASTER AND SLAVE… IS A RELATION OF FORCE AND TERROR": RICHARD HILDRETH'S DESPOTISM IN AMERICA, 1854 EXPANDED EDITION OF "AN IMPORTANT SOURCE BOOK FOR ECONOMIC ARGUMENTS AGAINST SLAVERY" (ANB)

(SLAVERY) HILDRETH, Richard. Despotism in America: An Inquiry into the Nature, Results and Legal Basis of the Slave-Holding System in the United States. Boston: John P. Jewett, 1854. Octavo, original dark brown cloth. $500.

Enlarged edition of Hildreth's influential "bible for countless preached or printed attacks on slavery," with added chapter on the legal basis of slavery.

"In 1834 Hildreth… traveled south in search of a more healthful climate. For 18 months he stayed on a plantation in Florida, where he wrote an antislavery treatise, Despotism in America (1840), and America's first antislavery novel, The Slave; or, Memoirs of Archy Moore (1836)… Despotism in America became an important source book for economic arguments against slavery. In it Hildreth argued that slavery enslaved masters too; they did not have liberty to be benevolent… It emphasized the negative effects of slavery on the South: dependency on agricultural practices that depleted the land, neglect of commerce and manufacture, constant fear of slave rebellion and the resulting siege mentality. He elucidated the relationship between slavery and racism: contempt, antipathy, and disgust toward slaves was 'artfully, though imperceptibly, transferred from condition to race' and used, in a circular argument, as a justification for slavery. According to Donald Emerson the work was 'a bible for countless preached or printed attacks on slavery.' Wendell Phillips called it 'the profoundest philosophical investigation' of slavery and its effects" (ANB). First published in 1840.

Occasional light foxing to text, minor spotting and edge-wear to cloth. A very good copy.