Thomas Branagan

Avenia: Or, a Tragical Poem, on the Oppression of the Human Species, and Infringement of the Rights of Man. In Six Books, with Notes Explanatory and Miscellaneous. Written in Imitation of Homer's Iliad [William Safire Copy]

Philadelphia: Silas Engles, 1805. Very Good. Item #5235

Philadelphia: Silas Engles, 1805. First Edition. Duodecimo. 358 pages plus errata. Lacks frontispiece. Full contemporary sheep with front cover crudely glued to spine. Gilt ruling and black label to spine. Edges scuffed, with a one inch abrasion tracing diagonally from front top corner of front board. Endpapers moderately foxed and text lightly so.

Previous owner's note to front pastedown in pencil from 1856, mentioning comparing this copy to another and finding all pages present. Previous owner's signature to title page [B.C. Leiber?]. This copy most recently from the collection of author William Safire.

Branagan was born in Dublin, ran away from home to become a sailor, worked on slave ships, and, eventually, became overseer of a slave plantation in Antigua. Branagan converted to Methodism, moved to Philadelphia, and became an ardent abolitionist. He wrote a number of books on the evils of slavery, some in the form of poetry, and Avenia is one of the earliest.

A sound copy with only one other copy available in retail at time of listing. Last in auction records in 1940s.

[Afro-Americana 1477; Dumond, Bibliography of Antislavery in America p. 32; Shaw and Shoemaker 8076; Wegelin No. 878].

Price: $250.00