Allen, William Garrin

Compiled by an American interracial couple in self-imposed exile in Great Britain. William G. Allen, born in Virginia of a free mulatto mother and Welsh immigrant father, was educated in black schools and the Oneida Institute, and taught school in Troy, N.Y. In 1847 he moved to Boston where he studied law. In 1850 he joined the faculty at NY Central College, which was a co-educational and interracial college, where he became engaged to a white student, Mary King. When the couple was threatened with mob violence, they ran off to New York City to be married and sailed to England in 1853. During their seven year stay, Allen wrote two autobiographical books and gave anti-slavery lectures. The couple stayed active in British emancipation societies, and were undoubtedly the compilers, and perhaps makers, of this little hand-made volume, sent to Boston's Female Anti-Slavery Society to be sold at their annual fair.