# Is "American Slavery As It Is" by Theodore Dwight Weld, with Angelina Grimke Weld and Sarah Grimke a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of American Slavery As It Is by Theodore Dwight Weld, with Angelina Grimke Weld and Sarah Grimke (American Anti-Slavery Society, 1839) is identified by: First edition, octavo, 224 pages, published from the Society's office at 143 Nassau Street, New York, in 1839; the title page identifies the work as No.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition, octavo, 224 pages, published from the Society's office at 143 Nassau Street, New York, in 1839; the title page identifies the work as No
- 10 in the Society's Anti-Slavery Examiner pamphlet series
- Compiled chiefly by Theodore Dwight Weld from firsthand testimony and thousands of notices and advertisements clipped from Southern newspapers, work gathered over months by his wife Angelina Grimke Weld and her sister Sarah Grimke
- The book's documentary method — assembling advertisements and news items from the Southern press itself as evidence of slavery's conditions — was distinct from the personal-narrative form used in contemporary slave autobiographies
- Publisher imprint reads American Anti-Slavery Society
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Theodore Dwight Weld, with Angelina Grimke Weld and Sarah Grimke |
| Publisher | American Anti-Slavery Society |
| Year | 1839 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition, octavo, 224 pages, published from the Society's office at 143 Nassau Street, New York, in 1839; the title page identifies… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
First edition, octavo, 224 pages, published from the Society's office at 143 Nassau Street, New York, in 1839; the title page identifies the work as No. 10 in the Society's Anti-Slavery Examiner pamphlet series. Compiled chiefly by Theodore Dwight Weld from firsthand testimony and thousands of notices and advertisements clipped from Southern newspapers, work gathered over months by his wife Angelina Grimke Weld and her sister Sarah Grimke. The book's documentary method — assembling advertisements and news items from the Southern press itself as evidence of slavery's conditions — was distinct from the personal-narrative form used in contemporary slave autobiographies.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Because the pamphlet was issued as No. 10 of the American Anti-Slavery Society's Anti-Slavery Examiner series rather than as a standalone bound book, its series-designation leaf is among the parts most often missing or supplied in facsimile in surviving copies; its presence, absence, or completeness in a given copy is a condition issue, not evidence of a separate or later printing.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *American Slavery As It Is* by Theodore Dwight Weld, with Angelina Grimke Weld and Sarah Grimke a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/american-slavery-as-it-is
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.