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(SLAVERY & ABOLITION.) Narrative of Andrew Jackson, of Kentucky; Containing . . . Twenty-Six Years of his Life while a Slave. 36 pages. 12mo, original printed wrappers, moderate wear and some early ink scribbles; moderate foxing and minor wear to contents; two early names inked on rear wrapper. Syracuse, NY: Liberty Intelligencer Office, 1846 [wrapper dated 1847]
First edition. This Andrew Jackson (most definitely not the president) was legally born free to an enslaved father and a free mother in Kentucky, but was nonetheless raised in slavery and did field work until his eventual escape as a young man. He made his way to Wisconsin and did some lecturing for the abolitionist cause. This memoir was "narrated by himself, written by a friend," and concludes with 3 abolitionist "Songs of Freedom" by other authors. The friend was likely John N.T. Tucker, an author, newspaperman and abolitionist activist who was a Syracuse resident at the time. The Preface is signed "T", and one of the poems, titled Fugitive's Triumph, is by "J.N.T.T."
This example has the first-edition text, from the same setting of type as one sold by Swann on 25 March 2021, lot 4, right down to the obvious typographical errors such as "Introutction" at the head of page vi. All known surviving copies are incomplete and lacking wrappers. The present wrapper may have been original to all first editions. It differs from the title page on a few points, crediting Jackson with 25 years as a slave rather than 26, crediting the publisher as Kinney & Marsh of Syracuse, and giving the year as 1847. An expanded 120-page second edition was issued in Syracuse by the Daily and Weekly Star later in 1847.
Sabin 35392 and Work, page 312 (both noting only the 1847 edition); not in Afro-Americana or Blockson; see also Jackson's entry in the Kentucky African American Encyclopedia. Only two in OCLC (State Library of Pennsylvania and Newberry Library, both incomplete); a much longer 1847 second edition ("Narrative and Writings") followed.
