A Tribute for the Negro

The purport of the present volume, in contradistinction to the idea of the Negro being designed only for a servile condition, is to demonstrate that the Sable inhabitants of Africa are capable of occupying a position in society very superior to that which has been generally assigned to them.
-from the Preface

This extraordinary book, first published in 1848, serves as both an angry denunciation of the "terrible institution" of slavery in the United States and a celebration of the survival and achievements of Africans in America in the pre-Civil War era. A Tribute for the Negro:

.explains the "sin of slavery"
.refutes notions of the correlation of intellectual ability to skin color
.explores the history of slavery across the globe
.discusses the "pernicious influence of slavery"
.mounts an impassioned defense of African culture
.offers numerous biographical accounts of slave life in America.

An important document of the North American slave experience-and of the abolitionist movement it inspired both in the States and abroad-this is must reading for anyone interested in this most shameful aspect of American history.

British writer WILSON ARMISTEAD (1819-1868) was a correspondent of Charles Darwin. He also wrote Anthony Benezet (1859).