Frank Freeman's Barber Shop; A Tale. Illustrated by Rush R. Hall.

New York: Charles Scribner, 1852 First edition of one of the earliest anti-Uncle Tom novels, published in the same year as Stowe's book. . Publisher's brown cloth. Spine titled in gilt. . Twelvemo. Frontispiece and five plates. Edgewear and sunning to spine. Modern century bookplate to front pastedown. Modern paper slip (with title of book) tipped in on front flyleaf. Some foxing and toning. A good copy of a pro-slavery novel. The present work was one of the many novels published in response to Uncle Tom's Cabin. It tells the story of Frank, who is persuaded by abolitionists to flee from slavery in the south. The abolitionists promise that Frank can find (truncated) a prestigious career in the north, but, instead, they press him into the enslavement of low-wage work. In the end, members of the American Colonization Society pay for Frank's passage to Liberia, where he can supposedly find a better life. Like Sarah J. Hale's Liberia (1853), it asserts that enslaved people should be freed on the condition that they migrate to the colony of Liberia. The notion that free Black people could not coexist with white people in the United States was the guiding principle behind the "Back-to-Africa" movement, which was spearheaded by the American Colonization Society. The movement was widely opposed by free Black people and abolitionists in general, as the families of many enslaved people had lived in the United States for generations. The movement was a failure, and thousands of Black people who had been falsely "repatriated" to Liberia died of local diseases. (Inventory #: 17493)