262 - RAYNAL, Guillaume-Thomas, Abbé. The Philosophical and Political History of the French Islands in the West Indies.

RAYNAL, Guillaume-Thomas, Abbé. The Philosophical and Political History of the French Islands in the West Indies. First separate edition of this history of the French West Indies compiled by Abbé Raynal and illustrated with his portrait on the frontispiece, containing one of the earliest intellectual critiques of the transatlantic slave trade and the colonial system of the 18th century. Lausanne: Pierre Heubach, 1784. In-8 Bradel-bound, navy blue cardboard cover, speckled edges. XV and 355 pages, typographic mark on the title page, 1 frontispiece portrait engraved after Lardy, 1 fold-out table at the end showing “the State of Goods Transported in 1775.” Cover rubbed, top edge trimmed with a 2-cm split in the spine, portrait and title page slightly soiled, minor foxing. First separate edition of this text excerpted from the monumental *Philosophical and Political History of the Settlements and Trade of Europeans in the Two Indies* (written by Raynal with significant collaboration from Diderot), entirely devoted to the French West Indies (Saint-Domingue, Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Saint Lucia). The author provides an economic, geographic, and social overview of the islands, while delivering a highly vehement philosophical and anti-colonialist argument against the slave trade and the institution of slavery. The volume opens with a frontispiece portrait and includes, at the end, a fold-out table showing “the state of goods shipped in 1775.” From the library of Denys Comar (1937–2021). Interior is well preserved.