New York: Mahlon Day, 1826. First edition. Twelvemo. Leaves measuring 180 x 105 mm. 192 pp. A Good copy. Contemporary tree calf with morocco label to spine. Contemporary Quaker woman's ink inscription to upper pastedown (Library of Lottie [illegible], Monthly Meeting of Friends, No. 91) with corresponding numeral on spine and another woman's pencil ownership inscription to upper free endpaper (Susan J. Smith, Burlington, NJ) dated October 1878. Lower outer joint cracking and fragile. Some foxing throughout. One of the earliest collective biographies centered on Black Americans, Mott's Sketches is uncommon institutionally and scarce in the trade. This is the only copy of the first edition on the market.

Abigail Mott, the sister of Lucretia, was a lifelong activist for the rights of women and Black Americans. Both raised as Quakers, the Mott sisters were committed to the principles of human equality; the pursuit of it defined both of their lives. While the Motts took separate paths in the promotion of women's rights (Lucretia pursuing enfranchisement as Abigail pushed for equal education), they shared a common dedication to the anti-slavery movement that included involvement with the Underground Railroad. For Abigail, the popular genre of collective biography provided an intersection at which to promote her two passions. After all, nineteenth-century America had seen a surge of such books anthologizing members of political and social movements to educate the public about their accomplishments. A collective biography of Black Americans could ensure that these people's contributions were documented, recognized, and remembered; and it could urge readers to think further about the number of enslaved people shaping the nation without reward. Taking a democratic approach to her selections, Abigail drew attention to Black innovators such as Phillis Wheatley and Benjamin Banneker; but she also dedicated even more space to the stories of otherwise unsung men and women, positively influencing their communities despite the violence they themselves faced. Not a single biography overlooks the cruelty of slavery at the institution or personal level – and biographies detail whether the subjects were torn from their homes and forced into slavery, born into the condition of slavery, born into freedom or emancipated.

Strategic in entwining her advocacy for education and for abolition, Abigail ensured the widest possible readership for her book, designing it specifically for placement in schools: "By the consent of the compiler and at the recommendation of the Trustees of the African Free Schools of New York (who have liberally patronized the work), the pieces in the following compilation have been divided into reading sections, with a view to have the volume introduced into Schools as a Class Book. It is hoped this arrangement will be equally agreeable to Subscribers and to those Teachers who may use it in their Schools." For related movements, it provided a new model for writing previously marginalized voices into the popular national history – twenty-two years later, as the women's movement solidified around women's exclusion from major abolitionist conferences, it was a method that would be adopted by suffragists. Mott's method effectively laid the groundwork for a new and more equitable approach to expanding literary representation of Americans.

Sabin 51111. Good (Item #8125)