Gilbert Francklyn (ca. 1733–1799).

An answer to the Rev. Mr. Clarkson’s Essay on the slavery and commerce of the human species, particularly the African; in a series of letters, from a gentleman in Jamaica, to his friend in London: wherein many of the mistakes and misrepresentations of Mr. Clarkson are pointed out, both with regard to the manner in which that commerce is carried on in Africa, and the treatment of the slaves in the West Indies. Shewing, at the same time, the antiquity, universality, and lawfulness of slavery, as ever having been one of the states and conditions of mankind.

London, printed at the Logographic Press, and sold by J. Walter; C. Stalker; and W. Richardson, 1789.

8°, xvi, 263 pp.

Contemporary half calf with marbled sides, gold-tooled spine.

               First edition of one of the most notorious pro-slavery tracts, written in direct response to Thomas Clarkson’s seminal Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species (1786). Although presented as the testimony of an English gentleman long resident in Jamaica and familiar with the British sugar islands, Francklyn was in fact a London-based member of the West India lobby. Closely associated with Anthony Bacon (1717–1786), the influential industrialist and MP, he was involved from the 1750s in slave-supply contracts and colonial ventures, and later acquired estates in Jamaica and Tobago.
Francklyn’s Answer offers an unqualified defence of the slave trade and colonial slavery, rejecting Clarkson’s arguments as exaggerated and inaccurate, and insisting on the supposed benevolence of West Indian planters. He went further, grounding his case in a universalist claim that slavery was ancient, lawful, and a natural condition of mankind. The book thus stands as a revealing piece of pro-slavery propaganda at the very height of the parliamentary debates over abolition.
This copy bears a presentation inscription on the title: “To Admiral Barrington from his obed[ient] humble serv[ant] The Auth[or].” An important association, linking the book to Admiral Samuel Barrington (1729–1800), a notable naval commander of the American Revolutionary War.
Very rare: this copy is the only to appear at auction in over fifty years.

Condition: binding slightly rubbed. Inscription at the top of the title “To Admiral Barrington from his obed. humble serv. The Auth[or].” Inscription slightly trimmed. Lacking the half-title. Otherwise in very good condition.

Reference: Hogg, The African slave trade and its suppression, no. 1961; Ragatz, pp. 504-5; Sabin 25478.