Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. Written By Himself Frederick Douglass African American Writers,African-American History,African-American Slavery

Boston: Published at the Anti-Slavery Office, 1849. Small octavo. Portrait frontis., xvi, 125, [5]pp. Publisher's brown cloth, gilt-lettered and embossed in binding. Small losses at ends of spine; tight splitting along joints; corner-tips rubbed; a very good copy. Fifth Boston edition of the first autobiography authored by Frederick Douglass documenting his early life on Edward Lloyd's plantation in Maryland, his pivotal battle with Edward Covey, the "slavebreaker," and his journey to self-education and self-emancipation. Published seven years after Douglass escaped slavery, Benjamin Quarles wrote that "the first-hand evidence [Douglass] submitted and the moving prose in which he couched his findings and observations combine to make his Narrative one of the most arresting autobiographical statements in the entire catalogue of American reform." Douglass's 1845 Narrative was followed by two subsequent autobiographies-My Bondage and My Freedom (1855) and Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1881). This copy's spine gilt remains bright, and its textblock is exceptionally well-preserved. An attractive example of the book that "made Frederick Douglass the most famous black person in the world." (David Blight) This edition not in Blockson, Catalogue or LCP, Afro-Americana. For the first edition: Blockson 101, no. 27. Dumond, p48. Work, p474.