Abolitionist Novel My Southern Friends, First Edition, 1863

[Abolition] [Literature] Kirke, Edmund. My Southern Friends. New York: The Tribune Association. First edition, fortieth thousand, 1863. Original brown cloth boards with gilt title to spine. 8vo. 308 pages. This is the first edition of My Southern Friends, a slavery-era novel written under the pseudonym "Edmund Kirke" by James Roberts Gilmore. Published in 1863, at the height of the American Civil War, this work is one of the more vivid fictionalized accounts of life in the antebellum South, combining the conventions of novelistic narrative with documentary realism and abolitionist advocacy. Its title page quote—“All of which I saw, and part of which I (truncated) was”—gestures toward Gilmore’s autobiographical intent, reflecting his travels through the South and his observations of slavery firsthand. Structured episodically, the narrative moves from Northern urban poverty to Southern plantations, taverns, and slave auctions. The chapters document a cross-section of antebellum life, including “The Negro-Trader,” “A Slave Sale,” “On the Plantation,” “The Negro Meeting,” and “Black Clairvoyance,” often centering on the lives of enslaved Black Americans. The content is especially notable for its early literary documentation of Black religious expression and for centering African American characters—an unusual feature for its time. The table of contents explicitly references “A Black Overseer,” “A Cute Darky,” and “A Ministering Angel – A Black Bookkeeper,” illustrating the racialized language and stereotypes of the period while also offering insight into how white Northerners imagined Southern Black life in the years preceding emancipation. Gilmore was a Unionist, abolitionist, and editor aligned with The New York Tribune, which also served as publisher of this edition. He adopted the name Edmund Kirke to separate his political journalism from his novelistic output, though both were vehicles for his anti-slavery stance. The book can be situated alongside Among the Pines and Down in Tennessee, completing a trilogy of works Gilmore used to advance the abolitionist cause. This copy retains its original blindstamped boards and presents in very good condition, with some foxing. A penciled inscription on the preliminary leaf confirms the author’s identity and notes it as the first edition. The novel’s intersection of literary craft, political advocacy, and firsthand observation makes it a valuable addition to collections of Civil War-era literature, abolitionist writing, and early African American representation in print. Overall very good condition. (Inventory #: 21859)