38.   Ralph Waldo Emerson.  An Address Delivered in the Court-House in Concord, Massachusetts, on 1st  August, 1844, on the Anniversary of the Emancipation of the Negroes in the British West Indies (Boston: James Munroe and Company, 1844). Letterpress on paper; half bound in light brown morocco and marbled paper boards; original printed light brown paper wrapper retained. Myerson A17.1.a.  From the Emerson collection of William Taylor Newton, presented by Edith  Emerson Forbes and Edward Waldo Emerson, 1918.
 

   This, Emerson’s first powerful attack on slavery, was delivered at the request of radical abolitionist Mary Merrick Brooks, wife of Concord lawyer Nathan Brooks.  Following initial delivery of the address, Emerson—now a recognized antislavery advocate—was asked several times to reread it at abolition gatherings.

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