My Bondage and My Freedom: Part I.-- Life as a Slave. Part II.-- Life as a Freeman
New York and Auburn: Miller, Orton & Mulligan, 1855. First Edition. Engraved frontispiece portrait and two plates. Original cloth over boards. Octavo. [i-v], vi-viii, [ix], x-xvi, [xvii], xviii-xxxi, [xxxii], [33], 34-467 pages, 4 leaves of publisher ads.
This autobiography by Frederick Douglass (his second) is one of the most important slave narratives of the 19th century and a cornerstone of African-American literature. It presents a more detailed account of his life as a slave and his path to emancipation than is found in his first autobiography of 1845. Published just 17 years after his escape from slavery on Maryland's Eastern Shore and 3 years after Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin," it had a major impact on the abolition movement at the time.
Gerald Fulkerson, in his Textual Introduction in the Yale edition of the work, notes that machine collation found 5 distinct states among copies printed in 1855. The present copy is a very early state, containing 3 of the 6 issue points identified by Fulkerson.
Ref. BLOCKSON 9717; SABIN 20714; BLASSINGAME pp. 285-298.
Bound in original brown cloth over boards with spine titled in gilt, both boards stamped in blind, pale yellow endpapers. Re-backed with original spine laid down. Binding shows moderate extremity wear, a few minor stains, and browning to spine with gilt titling dulled. Prior owner name pencilled on front pastedown, scattered foxing and browning inside. A very good copy overall.
Item #2192
Price: $4,500