Feb 21, 2008 - Sale 2137

Sale 2137 - Lot 62

Price Realized: $ 7,800
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
"I AM A WITNESS TO AMERICAN SLAVERY AND ALL ITS HORRORS" (SLAVERY AND ABOLITION). PENNINGTON, JAMES W. C. A Narrative of the Events of the Life of J.H. Banks, An Escaped Slave from the state of Alabama in America. 93 pp. 12mo, original flexible green cloth with a printed paper advertisement label for this title on the front cover with testimonials, etc; very slight wear. Liverpool: M. Rourke, 1861

Additional Details

first edition. rare. Banks was born in Rockingham County, Virginia in 1833 of slave parents. Written by James Pennington, himself a fugitive slave, living in England. He adds a "Notice" at the end of the book where he states: ". . . knowing the heart of a slave, and especially his burning desire to tell his own story, I have done what I could to put his facts in readable English, only asking to be permitted to use the words of Terence, the African poet, in the Roman amphitheatre 'homo sum; nil humani alenum Puto." Not in Brignano, Dumond, Blockson or the Schomburg Collection. OCLC locates only one copy at the Newberry Library.