Mar 10, 2011 - Sale 2239

Sale 2239 - Lot 118

Price Realized: $ 2,160
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
A VERY UNUSUAL NARRATIVE (SLAVERY AND ABOLITION---NARRATIVE.) PRINCE, MRS. NANCY. Narrative of the Life and Travels of Mrs. Nancy Prince. [5]-87, [1] pages. 12mo, original gilt and blind-stamped cloth; spine extremities and lower tips lightly rubbed. Boston: Published by the author, 1850
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the rare first edition of a remarkable narrative. Nancy Gardner Prince (1799-1856) was brought up in a comfortable and strict New England Congregationalist household. She was tutored by her maternal grandfather Tobias Wornton who claimed to have fought in the Revolutionary War. Her mother married three times, and it is believed that Nancy's first stepfather, Money Vose was abusive. Vose died when Nancy was in her teens and she was forced to find work to help sustain a large family. At first she picked berries, and later became a seamstress. Nancy re-met Mr. Nero Prince, an acquaintance of her mother's in 1823. Prince had twice been to Russia and had served under the Czar for ten years. They married in 1824 and sailed for St Petersburg that same year. Nancy lived with Prince in the Czar's household for nine years, during which time she became quite an entrepreneur, making elegant baby linens and boarding children. In 1833, she returned to Boston. Her husband was to follow but died not long after her arrival in America. Nancy Prince established a home for black children and devoted the rest of her life to the black community. Nancy Prince's "Narrative" is among the most unusual of the nineteenth century. It is a story of remarkable achievement given her race and the era in which she lived. Afro Americana, 8468.