(13 1/8 x 7 7/8 inches). First edition. [a]-b2 B-Z4. [i]-[x] [1]-176. 186 pp. Diplomatic messages with the USA on pages 19-144. One full-page engraved map titled "Route of the Egyptian Army under Ahmed Pasha on a Slaving Expedition, February 1843" by Standidge and Co. (p. 169). Later black half morocco binding over black cloth with five raised bands forming six compartments on spine with gilt-lettered title in second and fourth compartments and date in sixth, with the binder's ticker of Monastery Hill Bindery on back pastedown Important documents, letters, and reports regarding Great Britain's efforts to curtail the African slave trade across the globe, including over 100 pages of diplomatic cables with the USA. "Class D. Correspondence" referred to diplomatic letters between the Foreign Office and nations that had not signed treaties with Great Britain regarding the slave trade. Every year from 1830 to 1859 this correspondence was presented to both Houses of Parliament and published: this is the annual compendium covering the year 1843. And though the importation of slaves was illegal in the United States at that time, there is a considerable amount of American-British interaction. Great Britain had abolished slavery in toto throughout its colonies in 1834 after the passage of the Abolition Act of 1833. It had been home to a powerful abolition movement that held influence in government for some time prior. Great Britain's economy had grew less dependent on slavery than its rivals like the US were, and slave revolts on its far-flung colonies had been costly to put down. Those reasons, coupled with domestic religious and social sentiment, had led the British Empire to take action. Insistent British diplomatic correspondence is included here with other key major powers who had not yet signed on to trying to halt the slave trade. The present work covers contacts with Central America, Equator, New Granada, Peru, various consulates in the United States, the Barbary States, Egypt, Turkey, Crete, Albania, and Muscat. Much detail is provided about individual ships involved in the trade.
