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SUGAR VERSUS HUMANITY

[HULL ROCKINGHAM]. [Drop-head title:] Slavery. From the "Hull Rockingham" of January 31, 1824.

[Liverpool]. [Rushton and Melling], [1824]. First offprint edition.
8vo. 8pp. Disbound, later stitched into marbled wrappers. Leaves dampstained, primarily at margins
The first offprint edition, from the Liverpool-based newspaper the Hull Rockingham, of an impassioned article critiquing a letter by one Mr. Sanders on the subject of slavery.

The periodical labels Sanders an 'abstract enemy of slavery', stating that 'Abstractedly, he considers it impolitic and inhuman. Practically, he asserts it to be the 'foundation of government', and 'the reciprocation of tyranny and slavery, as necessary to support society in its origin'. The article proceeds to methodically deconstruct the inherent contradictions in this statement. However, though supportive of the total abolition of slavery, the paper concedes that immediate emancipation throughout the British Empire may lead to chaos for both the enslaved and planter alike, concluding that: 'since the abolition of the slave trade, there need not, at this moment, have been a slave in the West Indies', and retains entirely racist notions that though freed, the previously enslaved 'will not work, unless compelled by the whip, or some other similar forcible inducement, and we shall have less sugar than we have. 'Aye, there's the rub. Sugar versus justice and humanity!'

OCLC records copies at just six locations (Cornell, NLA, Oberlin College, Ozark Dale County Library, Texas Southern, and Yale); COPAC adds no further.
£ 500.00 Antiquates Ref: 13684