First Edition 1856 Pro-Slavery “Anti-Tom” Novel, Tit for Tat: A Reply to “Dred” / SOLD

Description

First Edition 1856 Pro-Slavery “Anti-Tom” Novel, Tit for Tat: A Reply to “Dred”

Small octavo, original dark green cloth with pebbled texture, spine titled in gilt “TIT FOR TAT / A REPLY TO / DRED” with decorative gilt device and publisher’s imprint at the base. Binding remains sound; cloth shows scattered rubbing and light wear at the spine ends and corners, but the gilt lettering is still bright and easily readable.

Issued in 1856, this work belongs to the wave of pro-slavery or “anti-Tom” novels published in response to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s hugely influential Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) and its follow-up Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp (1856). Rather than challenging slavery, the anonymous author defends Southern society and attacks abolitionist portrayals of enslaved people, making the volume a revealing artifact of the heated sectional debate over slavery in the years immediately preceding the Civil War.

Surviving in its original cloth, this first edition is a significant piece for collections focused on slavery and abolition, 19th-century American literature, or the print culture that helped shape public opinion on the road to disunion.

Inventory Number: HIS 286