First Edition. 4.5 x 7”, 108p. Original binding of cloth spine and printed paper-covered boards. Long religious ink notation on blank rear fly leaf, signed Boston Conger.
Rare. Not in the Blockson collection. Extensively reprinted but very rare as First Edition. No copy in recent auction records, and WorldCat locates only one institutional copy of the original, at Oberlin.
A 30 year-old clergyman and biblical scholar, Sawyer was an ardent anti-slavery activist in a northern city that was not sympathetic to African-Americans. In this book, he sides unambiguously with “radical” Abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison who contended that slavery should be immediately abolished. His wife was Secretary of the small New Haven Anti-Slavery Society formed that year and both husband and wife were undoubtedly involved in the Underground Railroad.