Captain Canot; or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver. Being an Account of the Career and Adventures on the Coast, in the Interior, on Shipboard, and in the West Indies.
New York: D, Appleton & Co., 1854. 1st Edition. 8vo. Good. Item #19185
A yeoman's copy of this influential pre Civil War slaving account, detailing the life of Theodore Canot, who was involved in virtually all aspects of slavery, from a hired ship hand, to ship captain, to plantation owner.
"Living in Florence, he embarked in 1819 in Livorno for America never to return. From 1820 to 1840, with a talent for language practice and for commerce, he became one of the most important slave traders active between Cuba and the coasts of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
"First embarking on merchant ships, he was quickly confronted with piracy which developed after the end of the slave trade by the nations in the Antilles. He then moved to the coast region of Guinea, at the mouth of the Rio Pongo, as an employee and quickly as a trusted man and then on his own. He also made numerous journeys of convoys of cargoes of slaves to Cuba, thus recounting his races with British "cruisers," the rebellions of slaves, mutinies, shipwrecks.
Around 1840, he abandoned the slave trade to become a plantation operator in the same region. He still occasionally engaged in slave trafficking. " - wiki
Original brown cloth. Titling in gilt to spine. Tight binding. Mild rubbing and edge wear to binding, more so to crown of spine with a chip across the top and a closed tear to the cloth along the upper front joint. Spine with a slight lean. Interior foxed. Contemporary owner signature to front flyleaf. Presents handsomely in a clear, archival mylar dust jacket.
Price: $85.00