A Pilgrimage to My Motherland: An Account of a Journey Among the Egbas and Yorubas of Central Africa in 1859-60.

CAMPBELL, Robert.

Item Number: 96234

New York: Thomas Hamilton, 1861.

First edition of Robert Campbell’s account of his journey throughout Central Africa. Octavo, original blind stamped cloth with gilt titles to the spine, complete with the lithographic frontispiece portrait of Campbell with tissue guard, and the original lithographic folding map. In very good condition with light rubbing. Scarce and desirable in the original cloth.

Campbell's A Pilgrimage to My Motherland was one of the first works published on emigrationism, or the return of freed slaves to Africa. The book presents a host of arguments - sociological, political, economic - for the viability of the program. Jamaican-born Robert Campbell accompanied abolitionist Martin Delany on his expedition to explore the Niger Valley in 1859 to investigate the area as a potential emigration point for freed slaves. Their journey resulted in two volumes published in 1861: this book and Delany's Official Report of the Niger Valley Exploring Party. Campbell followed through on the promise of his preface and returned to live in Africa, "If I am still asked what I think of Africa for the colored man to live and do well in, I simply answer, that with as good prospects in America as colored men generally, I have determined, with my wife and children, to go to Africa to live, leaving the inquirer to interpret the reply for himself."