Prison life and reflections; or, a narrative of the arrest, trial, conviction, imprisonment, treatment, observations, reflections, and deliverance of work, burr, and thompson, who suffered an unjust and cruel imprisonment in missouri penitentiary, for attempting to aid some slaves to liberty

New York: Printed by S. W. Benedict, 1848. 377pp, [1]. Original publisher's blind-stamped brown cloth boards, recently rebacked with black cloth ruled and lettered in gilt. Boards rubbed and marked. Scattered spotting. Presentation copy, pencilled inscription to recto of front blank fly-leaf: 'From / the Author / G. T. - / Dec. 4/48'. The second edition, printed in the year after the first had appeared at Oberlin, Ohio, of ministry student George Thompson's (d. 1893) account of his imprisonment following an attempt to liberate Missouri slaves from bondage. In July 1841, Thompson, along with fellow ministry student James E. Burr (1814-1859) and Mission Institute resident Alanson Work (1790-1879) crossed the Mississippi River into Marion County, Missouri from Quincy, Illinois, with the intention of assisting enslaved persons escaping to Canada. They were swiftly caught and sentenced to twelve years at the Palmyra Penitentiary for 'slave abduction', though would only serve part of their terms, being pardoned between 1845 and 1846. The petition issued in support of the request for a pardon stated that they had been charged for 'no crime unless it be a crime to obey the explicit commands of Jesus Christ...Slavery is in itself an open and palpable violation of every principle of natural justice and divine equity and that therefore no laws enacted by man to uphold it can be of any binding moral obligation whatever'. The book highlights the inherent corruption and hypocrisy of the American legal system relating to matters of the slave trade and provides an invaluable account of abolitionist sentiments as divisions in the nation over the ethics of slavery were pushing the country towards Civil War. . Second edition. 12mo.