FROSSARD (Benjamin-Sigismond). The Cause of Black Slaves and the Inhabitants of Guinea, Brought Before the Tribunal of Justice, Religion, and Politics; or A History of the Slave Trade and the Enslavement of Blacks, Evidence of Their Illegitimacy, and Means of Abolishing Them Without Harming Either the Colonies or the Colonists. Lyon: printed by Aimé de La Roche, 1789. — 2 volumes, in-8, 197 x 124: frontispiece, (1 f.), v, 367 pp.; (1 f.), vij, 403 pp., (2 ff.). Marbled sheepskin, plain spine with decoration, red edges (contemporary binding). A rare first edition of the abolitionist work by Benjamin-Sigismond Frossard (1754–1830), a pastor and professor at the Faculty of Protestant Theology, first in Paris and later in Montauban. It is considered one of the first major abolitionist texts in French from the 18th century. It was during a trip to England in 1784–1785 that the author met key figures in the British abolitionist movement, such as Thomas Clarkson and Granville Sharp. He visited slave ships and gathered firsthand accounts, which strengthened his commitment to the cause. Frossard advocated for gradual emancipation, arguing that slaves, once free, would be more productive and that their improved conditions would stimulate population growth, thereby benefiting the colonial economy. He proposed compensating slave owners for their losses in order to facilitate acceptance of abolition. For him, abolition was above all a struggle between vice and virtue. He believed that freeing slaves meant “letting good triumph over evil” and conforming to divine will. He also emphasized the need to publicly denounce the slave trade as an act of depravity and barbarism, so that its supporters would be socially ostracized. The edition is illustrated with a beautiful frontispiece captioned “Be Free and Be Citizens,” engraved by Charles-Ange Boily after a drawing by Pierre Rouvier. Copy belonging to Denis Jean-Marie Lemoine de La Giraudais (1739–1814), deputy from Brittany to the National Constituent Assembly. Leather bindings; the headband of the first volume is torn off. Provenance: Denis Jean-Marie Lemoine de La Giraudais, with bookplate and signature on the title pages. — Philippe Zoummeroff (auction of December 9, 2016, lot 143).