Beschreibung:

Title: Report made to the Chamber of Deputies on the abolition of slavery in the French colonies by Alexis de Tocqueville, July 23, 1839. Translated from the French Author: Tocqueville, Alexis de Place: Boston Publisher: J. Munroe and Co. Date: 1840 Description: 54 pp. (8vo) 24x14.5 cm (9½x4¾"), original printed wrappers. First Edition in English. Scarce American edition of Alexis de Tocqueville's report as "rapporteur" for a committee in the French Chamber of Deputies tasked to consider the abolition of slavery in the French colonies of Martinique, Guadaloupe, Bourbon and Guiana. His proposal was for the abolition to take place over a transition period in which the State would act as arbitrator between the former masters and the new freedmen, assigning the blacks, who would be paid wages, to the colonists. As Tocqueville's biographer states, "A portion of the wages would revert to the State in partial amortization of the indemnities paid to the slaveholders at the time of the emancipation. By thus interposing the power of the State, Tocqueville hoped to prevent the bloody settling of accounts between the two races that had so struck him in the United States." His proposal did not reach the floor of the Chamber for debate, but slavery was abolished in the French colonies in 1848. His proposals did, inevitably, exert influence on the anti-slavery movement in the United States. Lot Amendments Condition: Wrappers chipped, front wrapper neatly re-attached; very good. Item number: 274475