Trial and Imprisonment of Jonathan Walker, At Pensacola, Florida..

1845. Boston: Anti-Slavery Office, 25 Cornhill, 1845.. Boston: Anti-Slavery Office, 25 Cornhill, 1845. The Branded Hand [Trial]. Walker, Jonathan [1799-1878], Defendant. [Chapman, Maria Weston (1806-1885), Preface]. Trial and Imprisonment of Jonathan Walker, At Pensacola, Florida, For Aiding Slaves to Escape from Bondage. With an Appendix, Containing a Sketch of His Life. Boston: Published at the Anti-Slavery Office, 25 Cornhill, 1845. 119 pp. Woodcut title-page vignette. Three plates. 12mo (7-1/4" x 4-1/4"; 18.5 x 11 cm). Original cloth, blind frames and ornaments to boards, gilt title (Narrative of Jonathan Walker) to front board. Binding slightly cocked, light rubbing and a few minor stains to boards, minor bubbling to cloth of front board, some wear to spine ends and corners. Moderate toning and light foxing to interior, early and recent owner signatures (J.E. Brown, Ursula G. Sanders) to front free endpaper. A very good copy. $950. * First edition. While working in Pensacola, Florida in 1844, Walker, a Massachusetts resident and expert sailor, attempted to help seven enslaved men escape by boat to the Bahamas, where slavery had been abolished. The boat was captured and Walker and the escapees were returned to Florida. Tried and convicted for aiding fugitive slaves, Walker was fined and placed in a pillory for several days. One of his hands was branded with the letters "SS," marking him as a "slave stealer." He was imprisoned until his fine was paid by donations from abolitionists. Walker's case made him a celebrity among abolitionists, which saw his brand as both a mark of honor and proof of the barbarity of laws upholding slavery. Walker's account of his case and life, which features a title vignette of his branded hand, is a classic abolitionist text that went through three later editions, the last one in 1850. It features a preface by Chapman, who was a leading Massachusetts abolitionist and editor of the important anti-slavery journal The Non-Resistant. American Imprints 45-6701. Widener and Weiner, Law's Picture Books 6.07. Cohen, Bibliography of Early American Law 13760.