Priscilla Juvelis, Inc

[Anti-Slavery] Broadside. The Sorrows of Yamba; or, The Negro Woman’s Lamentation. To the Tune of Hosier's Ghost. London and Bath Sold by J. Marshall and S. Hazard, Printer[s] to the Cheap Repository for Religious and Moral Tracts 1795

Early printing of a famous anti-slavery item published both as a broadside and pamphlet, sometimes attributed to Hannah More (1745-1833) who may have derived it from William Cowper’s ‘The Negro’s Complaint’. Broadside: 10- 1/2 x 17-3/4 inches, printed in three columns within all-around decorative border, each column separated by smaller decorative rule, the title below "Cheap Repository." and a single rule, followed by "To the Tune of Hosier's Ghost." followed by wood cut of a white man forcibly pulling an African female slave away from a boat. There are 40 4-line stanzas. Despite a touch of ruffling to the top left corner and one or two minor closed tears and about 1/16" darkening at top edge, this is a near fine copy and unusual thus. This famous anti-slavery narrative poem is sometimes attributed to Hannah More (1745-1833) who may have derived it from William Cowper’s THE NEGRO COMPLAINT. This is one of the early issues of THE SORROWS OF YAMBA, which was printed in both broadside and pamphlet form until the mid-nineteen century. The first separate American edition was printed in Palmer, Massachusetts in 1805. The chilling words of this heart-wrenching poem - relating to the reader the terrors involved in the separation of families, the degradation and horrible condition of the Atlantic crossing in slave ships -the selling of ships - resonate with the cruelty of the African slave trade and implores its abolishment.

$US3000

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