The History, Civil and Commercial, of The British Colonies in the West Indies.: To which is added, an Historical Survey of the French Colony in the Island of St. Domingo.

London: B. Crosby; Mundell & Son, Edinburgh; J. Mundell, Glasgow,, 1798. First combined edition of this classic work from the "pre-eminent statesman-intellectual of the British West Indies" (Davis, p. 188). Edwards (1743-1800) was a politician, plantation-owner, and historian whose financial interests in Jamaica placed him in opposition to the abolitionist movement. He witnessed the slave insurrection in St Domingue (Haiti) first-hand and his account remains "the most significant text" for this period in English (Howgego). His most popular work, an ambitiously wide-ranging survey of the British Colonies, was originally published in 1793, ran into numerous editions, and was translated into five languages. It appears here, in an abridged edition, for the first time alongside his Historical Survey of the French Colony, which was first published in 1797. Octavo (210 x 127 mm). Contemporary sheep, smooth spine with blind rules, board edges tooled in blind. Engraved folding map. Front pastedown with bookplate of one Peter M. Scott of Kilbarchan, Renfrewshire, dated 1992, and newspaper clippings dated 1908; contemporary ownership inscription of one James Arthur of Benston, New Cumnock to half-title. Bound without advertisements. Traces of label removal to rear pastedown. Slight surface crackling to spine, loss to label, corners worn, covers rubbed, front free endpaper cut down with ribbon attached, map (usually found opposite p. xvi.) sometime tipped-in as frontispiece, half-title bound after title, p. vii bound before p. v, chipping to outer margins of a few initial and final leaves, occasional light marks, otherwise clean. A very good copy. Howgego E15, H7; Sabin 21905. David B. Davis, Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution, 1975.