A Dissertation on Slavery: with A Proposal for the Gradual Abolition of it, in the State of Virginia

Philadelphia: Mathew Carey, 1861. 104pp. 1 vols. 8vo. Original wrappers, detached and chipped. Presentation inscription on upper wrapper. 104pp. 1 vols. 8vo. St. George Tucker (1752-1827) was an eminent jurist and born in Bermuda and living in Va. when he wrote this revolutionary pamphlet, first published in 1796, advocating the abolition of slavery by emancipating children born to slave mothers, thus gradually but effectively abolishing an institution which Tucker abhorred. Tucker’s argument was urgent, and prophetic: “The author [considers] the Abolition of Slavery in this State, as an object of the first importance, not only to our moral character and domestic peace, but even to our political salvation.” And although his plan fell short of abrupt abolition and offered a gradual approach, his moral repugnance for the institution spoke loud and clear. As Edwin Wolf puts it, “For an influential Virginian to publish a tract which, if not abolitionist, was at least sympathetic to the Negro was encouraging to men like Carey who published it, and shocking to the Southerners who read it…The tract was particularly valuable so far as it told of emancipation, legislation and the contemporary state of slavery in Virginia…It was not so much what Tucker said; it was who said it…”

The work was reprinted in 1861, on the eve of the Civil War, with the following note on verso of the title: "In laying this very rare pamphlet before the public it is not intended to favor the schemes of any of the present political parties of the country, but simply to show that were the opinions of a distinguished professor and jurist of the Old Dominion, sixty-five years ago." Sabin 97375; Howes T396; Dumond, p. 111; Blockson 9360