Two unrecorded anti-slavery pamphlets addressing the forced migration of labourers from the Polynesian islands and of so-called ‘coolie emigration’ from ‘French West Indian and South American possessions’ to British India. These otherwise unknown texts have been bound alongside two classic British pamphleteering texts attacking American slavery, during the Civil War, five other imprints and a long autograph poem which was written in response to a challenge by ‘some malicious belles’.
The two texts by Robert Shaw on ‘Coolie Emigration’ and ‘Coolie Traffic’ are puzzlingly absent from institutional libraries. The first draws on four letters that Shaw wrote to ‘The Times of India’; the second pamphlet deals with the threat ‘to depopulate the beautiful islands of the Pacific, and to introduce into our Australian Colonies... social disorganisation and moral corruption.’ The first of these is inscribed from ‘Gen.l Shaw’ to a fellow general although we can find no such record of a General Shaw in India at this time.
DESCRIPTION Nicely bound in burgundy half morocco over marbled boards; pamphlet list to front pastedown. The pamphlets are of various sizes and the Cape Town imprint is followed by a long manuscript poem written by a ‘Mr Saddleton’ or similar. An intriguing volume.
IMPRINTS
1 Goldwin Smith, Does the Bible Sanction American Slavery? 1863, John Henry, and James Parker, Oxford and London, iv pp74 - expansion of a lecture at the Manchester Athenaeum
2 Scenes from an Unfinished Drama, Entitle Phrontisterio, or Oxford in the 19th Century, 1852, Fourth Edition, Oxford, J Vincent, pp24
3 F Gilbert White, Address delivered at the closing of the fine arts exhibition on Monday, Jan. 24, 1859, pp16
4 Lilian - autograph poem, [2] [26] [2] ‘At a small party at Cambridge some malicious Belles endeavoured to confound their sonnetteering friends, by setting unintelligible subjects for the exercise of their poetical talents... and the following poem was an attempt to explain the riddle.’ First page signed ‘Mr Saddleton’ - or similar.
5 Goldwin Smith, A Letter to a Whig Member of the Southern Independence Association, 1864, Macmillan, pp76
6 Robert Shaw, Letter on Coolie Emigration Addressed to the Times of India, pp32 inscribed to a fellow British General with ‘Gen.l Shaw’s kind regards.’ UNRECORDED
7 [Robert Shaw] The Coolie Traffic and The Polynesian Slave-Trade, F Barrett, pp16 - UNRECORDED
8 The Fight at Dame Europa's School; Marjorie Fleming A Sketch, Simpkin Marshall, pp28
9 John Brown, M.D., Majorie Fleming: A Sketch, 1863, Edinburgh, Edmonston and Douglas
10 Sir James Stephen, On Desultory and Systematic Reading, 1853,
