Item #346494 Official Report of the Niger Valley Exploring Party. Martin Robison Delany.

Official Report of the Niger Valley Exploring Party.

New York: Thomas Hamilton; London: Webb, Millington & Co.; Leeds: J. B. Barry, 1861.

Price: $15,000.00


About the item

First edition. [4], 75, [1]pp. 8vo. Disbound, without the printed wrappers. Short edge tear to terminal leaf. Housed in a morocco backed box. Blockson, Commented 34.

Item #346494

"At first opposed to colonization, Delany came to believe blacks could not and would not receive equal status with whites in America. Representing the National Emigration of Colored Men, he led an investigation into the Niger Valley in West-Africa to study its suitability for colonization. His report gave an account of topography, climate, flora, fauna, diseases, remedies, commerce, religion and slave trade in a vivid commentary ... Delany's report was first published in an abbreviated version in London, a condition that he deeply regretted. He later prepared the present edition. His publisher Thomas Hamilton was the first black publisher of importance in America. The report is one of the basic works about black repatriation in Africa and it established Delany's reputation as the first black sociologist and the first black nationlist" (Blockson).

Rare on the market, we find no other example in the auction records in the last quarter century.