Mar 25, 2021 - Sale 2562

Sale 2562 - Lot 3

Price Realized: $ 406
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION.) Slavery in the United States: A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Charles Ball, a Black Man. 400 pages. Large 12mo, contemporary calf, moderate wear, front joint split; toning and moderate wear to contents, including loss of top corner of pages 149-150 affecting two lines of text, lacking rear flyleaf and rear free endpaper. Lewistown, PA, 1836

Additional Details

First edition of a narrative which has since been reprinted under several different titles. It covers about forty years of Ball's life and escapes under several masters, in addition to service in the United States Navy in 1798 (as a hired cook) and 1813. His early years were spent in Maryland, and he was sold to a yet harsher life on a cotton plantation in South Carolina in 1805. The 1837 second edition explains that the narrative was compiled by Isaac Fisher from Ball's verbal narrative. Afro-Americana 813; Work, pages 310-311.