ADVENTURES OF AN AFRICAN SLAVER Being a True Account of the Life of Captain Theodore Canot, Trader in Gold, Ivory & Slaves on the Coast of Guinea His Own Story as Told in the Year 1854 to Brantz Mayer Now Edited with an Introduction by Malcolm Cowley Illustrations and Cover Design by Miguel Covarrubias Published in 1928 in New York by Albert & Charles Boni Fourth Printing, September 1928 | Hardcover | 373 pages One of the most important primary source accounts of the illegal slave trade — in a landmark 1928 edition illustrated by one of the 20th century’s most celebrated artists. Adventures of an African Slaver is the memoir of Captain Theodore Canot (1804–1860), a Franco-Florentine trader who operated along the West African coast in the 1820s–1840s, running gold, ivory, and enslaved people in defiance of the British naval blockade. Canot told his story in 1854 to Brantz Mayer, and the resulting book became one of the most vivid and disturbing firsthand accounts of the Atlantic slave trade ever published. It is a primary historical document of the first order — unflinching, morally complex, and historically essential. The 1928 Boni Edition When Albert & Charles Boni published this edition in 1928, they commissioned Malcolm Cowley — the celebrated literary critic and editor who would later champion Faulkner, Hemingway, and the Lost Generation — to write a new introduction. The result was the definitive modern edition of Canot’s memoir, and it sold through four printings in the same year of publication. This copy is the Fourth Printing, September 1928 — the last printing of the original Boni edition. The Covarrubias Illustrations The illustrations and cover design were created by Miguel Covarrubias (1904–1957), the Mexican artist who was one of the most important visual interpreters of African and AfricanAmerican culture in the 20th century. His caricatures appeared in Vanity Fair and The New Yorker; his book Negro Drawings (1927) was a landmark of the Harlem Renaissance; and his ethnographic work on Africa, Bali, and Mexico established him as one of the great artistanthropologists of his era. For this edition, Covarrubias created nine full-page illustrations that are among the most powerful images of the slave trade ever produced: Black Cargo (frontispiece) — the diagram of a slave ship’s hold Ivory Caravan The Smuggling of Slaves Guinea Princess Foulah Chief — a stunning portrait of two West African figures Inspection and Sale of Slaves Pirates Boarding a Vessel A Village African Ritual Dance The illustrated endpapers — rows upon rows of silhouetted human figures, packed together in the geometry of the Middle Passage — are among the most arresting images in American book design of the 1920s. The cover design, printed directly on the boards, features the same bold silhouette aesthetic: a massive profile face in brown against a yellow ground, with sailing ships on the waves below. The Content Canot’s 49 chapters cover his entire career: his early voyages as a cabin boy, his first arrival in Africa, his years trading in gold and ivory, his descent into the slave trade, his encounters with the British Navy, his escapes, his relationships with African rulers and traders, and his eventual retirement. Chapter titles include “The Middle Passage,” “Inspection and Sale of Slaves,” “Fire in the Barracoons,” “Mutiny at Sea,” “The Dungeon of Goree,” “Slaving in Liberia,” and “My Last Cargo of Slaves.” It is a book that does not look away. Condition Very Good hardcover. Black cloth boards with Covarrubias cover design printed directly on boards — intact and striking. Spine gilt lettering intact with the Albert & Charles Boni “RUM” barrel colophon. Covarrubias illustrated endpapers present and clean. Interior pages toned but clean and legible throughout. No ownership inscriptions. No dust jacket.