D.P. Kidder, editor. The History of Adjai, The African Slave Boy who Became a Missionary. New York: Lane & Scott, 1851. 

8vo. Frontispiece. Contemporary marbled boards. First American Edition. 

An early edition biography of Samuel Ajayi Crowther (ca 1809-1891), a Yoruba linguist and the first African Anglican bishop of West Africa. Born in Osogun (modern-day Nigeria), he and his family were captured by Fulani slave traders when he was an adolescent and then sold to Portuguese slavers. He was freed by the Britsh Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron which was enforcing the British ban of the Atlantic slave trade and resettled in Sierra Leone. There, he studied English and converted to Christianity.

In 1864, he was ordained as the first African bishop of the Anglican Church. He received a doctoral degree from Oxford University and translated the Anglican Book of Common Prayer into Yoruba.

Scarce - only 2 copies have sold at auction in the last 100 years.

 [African Americana, African American History, Black History, Slavery, Enslavement, Abolition, Emancipation] [Books, Bibles, Soldier's Bibles, Prayer Books, Ephemera, Pamphlets, Publications, Booklets]

Rubbing and wear to extremites. Toning and some brown spotting.