Notes on a Journey in America, from the Coast of Virginia to the Territory of Illinois
London: Printed by Severn & Co. for James Ridgway, 1818. Hardcover. Very good. Third edition. 8vo, pp 162, [4] ads, with folding map, hand-colored in outline, showing western New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and the Illinois and Michigan territories. Nineteenth-century quarter-leather and marbled boards. Corners worn, repair to joints with minor loss of original spine leather, map about fine; overall very good. "A man who chafed at his inability to vote or hold public office, and at paying tithes, Birkbeck had a vision of founding a colony in republican America. Following his father's death in 1816, he emigrated at the age of fifty-three with four of his children" (DNB). Although he went first to Virginia, he decided settle north of the Ohio River because of his profound hatred of slavery. He became, according to Hubach (p. 48), "one of the staunchest advocates of British settlement in the American west," and this narrative of his travels was intended to provide potential settlers with useful information about the frontier. Sabin 5569; Howes B-468. Item #14961