Contains Frederick Douglass's Only Work of Fiction

[Douglass, Frederick (c.1817-1895)] Edited by Julia Griffiths, on behalf of the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society

Autographs for Freedom [with Douglass's "The Heroic Slave"]

Boston: John P. Jewett and Company, 1853. First Edition. Three wood-engraved plates with tissue guards. Original cloth over boards. Duodecimo. viii, 263 pages.

Important collection of anti-slavery testimonies by eminent authors. Includes facsimile signatures of most contributors, which include Horace Mann, William Seward, Charles Sumner, Annie Parker, Gerrit Smith, Miss C. E. Beecher, and many others.

Most importantly, however, this collection contains the only piece of fiction published by Frederick Douglass. This short story, titled "The Heroic Slave," is based on an actual slave insurrection led by Madison Washington in 1841 aboard the slave ship Creole, while enroute to New Orleans from Virginia. This important Douglass item occupies pages 174-239 in four parts, with his signature in facsimile at the end.

Other important contributions by African American writers include the poem "How Long," by James Madison Whitfield and James McCune Smith's biographical sketch, "John Murray (of Glasgow)."

A handsome and quite sound copy of this elusive Frederick Douglass item in its original cloth binding.

Ref. BLOCKSON 9204; DUMOND p.62; BAL 11172.

Bound in original green cloth over boards with spine titled in gilt, both boards stamped in blind, pale yellow endpapers. Browning to spine with fading to gilt. Hinges sound, some light scattered foxing within textblock. Fading to spine, binding shows minor extremity wear. Pencilled ownership signature of Azariah Smith dated August 1853 on preliminary blank leaf, with his small name label on front free endpaper.

Item #1955

Price: $3,750