Justin Croft : Rare & Fine Antiquarian Books - Specialist in antiquarian books, especially in the field of literature, history, social sciences, religion, art and architecture, science and medicine

Presentation copy of the first separate edition (first printed as Occasional discourse on the negro question in Fraser's Magazine, December, 1849) inscribed in the author's holograph and signed "T.C." to Thomas Erskine (probably the Scottish theologian). The essay represents perhaps the most extreme example of the hardening of Carlyle's political opinions towards the end of his life and has been debated ever since. Carlyle's opinion was that all humanity had a moral imperative to work. Against a background of declining productivity among the West Indian sugar plantations after the abolition of slavery Carlyle insisted that if the employees (mainly freed slaves and their children) would not work, then they must be made to work. In this short single work Carlyle established himself as a formidable (if much reviled) opponent of liberalism.