[African-Americana] (Townsend, Hannah, and Mary Townsend) The Anti-Slavery Alphabet

A Scarce Juvenile Published by the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society

"Y is for Youth--the time for all Bravely to war with sin; And think not it can ever be Too early to begin."

Philadelphia: Printed for the Anti-Slavery Fair, 1847. Second edition. 12mo. (viii), 5-16 pp. Illustrated with 26 uncolored wood-engraved letters. Original stiff printed paper wrappers, original thread intact, front and rear wrapper starting, spine worn, wrappers worn with scattered loss and dampstaining; contemporary ownership signatures on front endpapers and within printed wreath on p. (iv); scattered light soiling and foxing to text leaves.

A scarce and unsophisticated second edition of this popular abolitionist pamphlet for children, printed and sold by the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society. First published anonymously in 1846 and sold at the Philadelphia Anti-Slavery Fair, this pamphlet's authorship has now been attributed to Quaker sisters Hannah and Mary Townsend. Created in order to inform a younger generation about the horrors of slavery and to teach them abolitionist practices, the Alphabet opens with a poem "To Our Little Readers," that encourages children to partake in the abolitionist movement by discussing slavery with their peers and boycotting goods harvested and made by slave labor. The pamphlet then goes through the alphabet ascribing concepts related to slavery to each letter and with an accompanying short incisive poem: "A is an Abolitionist--/A man who wants to free/The wretched slave--and give to all/An equal liberty."; "M is the Merchant of the north,/Who buys what slaves produce--/So they are stolen, whipped and worked,/For his, and for our use."; "S is the Sugar, that the slave/Is toiling hard to make,/To put into your pie and tea,/Your candy, and your cake."; "Z is a Zealous man, sincere,/Faithful, and just, and true;/An earnest pleader for the slave--/Will you not be so too?"

The Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society (PFASS) was an interracial anti-slavery society founded in 1833 by Mary Ann M'Clintock, Lucretia Mott, Margaretta Forten (daughter of Philadelphia abolitionist, James Forten) and her mother, Charlotte, and Margaretta's two sisters, Sarah and Harriet Forten, and others. It was formed after women were excluded from membership to the American Anti-Slavery Society. In the years leading up to the Civil War the group provided aid to the region's free Black community, through donations and their annual Anti-Slavery Fair. PFASS actively supported the efforts of the Underground Railroad by providing housing, money, and transportation to enslaved people seeking freedom. The Society also lobbied the Pennsylvania legislature--as well as the Federal government--to end slavery, and supported the Union during the Civil War. They disbanded following the ratification of the 15th Amendment in 1870.

We can locate only four other copies of this edition in the auction record in the last 75 years.