This response to Uncle Tom's Cabin encourages readers to be concerned about the working class, or "white slaves of poverty" in the North, rather than Southern slavery.
Probably the first abolitionist novel published in the United States, it tells the story of the mixed-race son of a plantation owner. First published anonymously, some readers took it to be true memoir rather than fiction.
Perhaps the most influential work of fiction about slavery, Stowe's novel prompted plays, parodies, responses, and was republished many times. This is the first edition; Special Collections also holds several other editions, both illustrated and not.
An expanded edition of The Slave, probably brought out to capitalize on the popularity of Stowe's novel. The author added a new section of the novel, sending the hero back to the South in search of his family.
Phillis Wheatley was taken by enslavers as a small child. People she was enslaved by in Massachusetts taught her to read and she continued to pursue her gift for writing poetry.
"in the character of an ancient negro, born a slave in Pennsylvania ... With a brief historical introduction and biographical notices of some of the earliest advocates for that oppressed class of our fellow-creatures."
Published in 1809 following the abolition of slavery in Great Britain, this collection of poems features the work of James Montgomery, James Grahame, and E. Benger and calls emphatically for the end of the trade of enslaved people in the West Indies.
