General C.G. Gordon | Two autograph letters signed, to Sir Samuel Baker and Rev. Horace Waller, 1878

General C.G. Gordon

Two autograph letters signed (‘C.G. Gordon’), to Sir Samuel Baker and Rev. Horace Waller, on his plans to eliminate slavery: 

i) To Sir Samuel Baker, on the importance of registering slaves (“...the mere fact that none but registered slaves being acknowledged by the Govt. will do more, than anything else, to frighten off dealers from the trade, for the fact of unregistered slaves in their possession is damnatory to them […] My plan is a definite one, it is easy to check its not being obeyed. Now it is merely a question of who is the sharpest, the slave dealer or the Govt., one pecuniarily interested…the other only lukewarm to prevent it...”), with a sketch map of the Nile, 7 pages, 4to, Khartoum, 24 September 1878, light soiling

ii) To Rev. Horace Waller, similarly suggesting that “the only way to stop the slave trade is to register the existing slaves, legalize their possession, till the expunction of 12 years, freeing all slaves who are not registered”, 4 pages, 8vo, Khartoum, 20 October 1878

The explorer Sir Samuel Baker had been Gordon's predecessor as Governor of Equatoria, and Gordon was sharply critical of Baker's actions whilst in office. Horace Waller was a missionary and as such also subject to withering criticism from Gordon. Despite their many differences, all three men shared a fervent anti-slavery sentiment, and abolitionism was an important motive for all three men's involvement in east Africa.

PROVENANCE:

Spiro Family Collection; their sale, part 2, Christie's, New York, 26 February 2004, lot 33