Title: The works of Lord Byron complete in one ...
Publisher: London: John Murray, Albemarle Street.
Publication Date: 1837
Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: Fair
ANTI-SLAVERY, HUGH DUNLOP'S COPY WITH HIS 1841 SIGNATURE ON TITLE PAGE. Frontispiece, engraved title page, [i,ii], engraved dedication leaf, iii-viii, 5 pages of facsimiles of Byron's handwritting, 576pp., [PP1-3C4 the 185 page poem of Don Juan completely expurgated to remove what was considered unfit to be read by gentlemen -a somewhat misguided attempt at censorship, this literary expurgation directed towards decency reveals considerable prudery], 3C5-3G6. Sporadic light staining and general handling marks throughout. Some extrememly light pencil marks, often dotted lines, one or two brief marginal phrases, probably in the hand of Hugh Dunlop. 23.5 x 16 cm. Near contemporary half dark green morocco, the spine in 6 compartments with raised and gilt tooled bands, and simple gilt lettering. Binding worn and abraded, corners bumped. The binder's pencil annotations indicate that the volume was rebound and probably Don Juan removed on 21/10/1896. Replacement plain endpapers, pasted over original marbled endpapers and strengthened with cloth tape, have ownership signature of the Overstall family. (Admiral Sir) Hugh Dunlop Royal Navy (1806-87) from 1822 served on the Tartar off South America, the Prince Regent, & the Procris, in the North Sea, the Barham, & the Scylla, both in the West Indies. He served on the Druid at Halifax, and then the Aurora & the Brittania in the Mediterranean. Lieutenant Dunlop (whose 15th December 1841 signature has been confirmed by comparison to 3 signatures held in the National Archives) 1841-2 was aboard the Shearwater commanded by Commander John Washington, stationed at Woolwich, and surveying the east coast of England. In 1847 he was Commander of the Alert, 6 guns, off the West African coast. He was Commander of the R.N.'s West Africa Squadron sent to enforce the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act (1807) & suppress the transatlantic slave trade between West Africa and the plantations of the Americas, intercepting and detaining slave ships and releasing captive Africans found on board who formed the Liberated Africans Department in the British Colony of Sierra Leone (Freetown was founded in 1792). Dunlop destroyed slaving establishments on the Bussa River, and at Gallinas, and compelled local chiefs to banish slave traders. I am in dread of government having been driven into withdrawing the Squadron from the Coast, and that the slave trade is to be left to fatten in all its atrocity in future, to the everlasting disgrace of our Country." (1848). Dunlop was accountable for several treaties with African tribal leaders between 1847-9: "I resolved to take upon myself the whole responsibility of stopping this infamous trade so disgraceful to a British Colony. My great hope of succeeding was by means of the chiefs of these rivers, and to them I now applied to make a Treaty with me for the suppression of the Slave Trade." Dunlop contracted fever 3 times from going ashore in pursuing his aim with zeal beyond regulation duty. "I have completely put an end to the entire Slave Trade on my part of the coast from Cape Verd to Cape Palmas. I have forced the Chiefs to banish the slave dealers, and to deliver up all the slaves to me 1300 in number and 200 prisoners of war." (1849) He then sailed the Tartar to the Baltic in the Crimean War, captured 11 Russian ships at the Biala Ford, and 8 others in the fjords of Bothnia. In 1859 Dunlop was Commodore at Jamaica sent to Vera Cruz to suppress the resurgence of the Cuban slave trade largely on American slavers & his Squadron conducted blockades in the Gulf of Mexico, accusing the "rascally Yankees" of intransigence in ending the Slave Trade. He was a full-blown Admiral in 1878. This volume was owned and read by a prominent and courageous zealot in the frontline against the Slave Trade. Bookseller Inventory # 4242