The Liberty Bell.

FRIENDS OF FREEDOM,.

Item Number: 82409

Boston: Printed by Andrews, Prentiss and Studley for the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Fair, 1845.

First edition of this late 19th century compilation of anti-slavery letters, essays, sonnets, hymns, and poems. Bound by B. Bradley Bindery, Boston. Octavo, original illustrated cloth, gilt titles to the spine, gilt liberty bell illustration to the front panel. In good condition with some loss to the crown and foot of the spine. A rare example of Americana.

The city of Boston, Massachusetts became the headquarters of the New England Anti-Slavery Society and took a leading role in the abolitionist movement in the 1830s and 1840s. The Society sponsored a diverse set of lecturers who traveled throughout the New England area, speaking in local churches or halls, and also selling abolitionist tracts and weekly issues of the The Liberator, the abolitionist newspaper founded by William Lloyd Garrison and Isaac Knapp in 1831. By 1833, 47 local societies were founded in ten northern states, 33 of them in New England. The Society also sponsored mass mobilizations such as yearly anti-slavery conventions and celebrations of July 4th and the Anniversary of the Abolition of Slavery in the West Indies on August 1st.