From the Library at Mount Vernon: Supreme Court Justice Bushrod Washington’s Double Signed Copy of the 4-Volume Pro-Slavery Publication, The History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies

Washington, paradoxically, was the first president of the American Colonization Society, dedicated to resettling black people in Africa.

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Bryan Edwards was a wealthy West Indian sugar planter, politician and historian in the 18th century. The sugar industry relied heavily on slave labor, and Edwards was pro-slavery, vigorously opposing the abolition of the slave trade. His most important work was The History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the...

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From the Library at Mount Vernon: Supreme Court Justice Bushrod Washington’s Double Signed Copy of the 4-Volume Pro-Slavery Publication, The History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies

Washington, paradoxically, was the first president of the American Colonization Society, dedicated to resettling black people in Africa.

Bryan Edwards was a wealthy West Indian sugar planter, politician and historian in the 18th century. The sugar industry relied heavily on slave labor, and Edwards was pro-slavery, vigorously opposing the abolition of the slave trade. His most important work was The History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies, originally published in two volumes in 1793, and subsequently expanded to four. In this wide-ranging work, he stated his aim as 'to describe the manners and dispositions of the present inhabitants, as influenced by climate, situation, and other local causes … an account of the African slave trade, some observations on the negro character and genius, and reflections on the system of slavery established in our colonies'. In his defense of slavery, Edwards noted an awareness of an important shift in British sensibilities, claiming that 'the age itself is hourly improving in humanity'. He went on to assert that 'this improvement visibly extends beyond the Atlantic' and that it had led slaveholders to ameliorate their treatment of slaves on the plantations in the British West Indies’. Volume 4 described the campaigns of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars in the West Indies, and provided updated sections on the issue of abolition.

George Washington left his entire estate at Mount Vernon to his nephew, Bushrod Washington, making his wishes known that the Mount Vernon slaves there were to be freed. Bushrod followed his uncle's instructions, but then he brought his own slaves to Mount Vernon in 1802, selling them on the block when money troubles arose. Bushrod inherited 42 slaves from his father, John Augustine Washington, in 1787. Some of them had become Bushrod’s property upon his marriage two years earlier, and his father’s will confirmed the transfer. He inherited more slaves from his parents’ estate after his mother, Hannah Bushrod Washington, died in 1801. It was these slaves, or their descendants, that he brought to Mount Vernon; in time he had 83 slaves. Seemingly paradoxically, he believed in African resettlement for blacks, and in 1816 helped create the American Colonization Society, holding the position as its first president for the remainder of his life.

Washington was a Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1798 to 1829, so all of these activities take place against a backdrop of his service on the High Court.

Bushrod Washington’s copy of the complete set of Edwards’s work, 4 volumes, with his ownership signature “Bushrod Washington, Mount Vernon” in two of the volumes. Signed books from Bushrod Washington’s library are quite uncommon, a search of public sale records going back four decades revealing just two others reaching that market during that time.  Books overall in very good condition, with the cover of volume becoming separated.

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