Feb 26, 2009 - Sale 2171

Sale 2171 - Lot 70

Price Realized: $ 1,020
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750
(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION--SLAVE NARRATIVE.) LEWIS, J. VANCE. Out of the Ditch, A True Story of an Ex-Slave. Frontispiece and additional illustrations, some from photographs. 8vo, original pictorial cloth; corners bumped. Houston: (for the author), 1910

Additional Details

first edition, of this scarce narrative J. Vance Lewis (1853[?]-1925) was born a slave on Christmas on a Louisiana plantation. As a boy, he was unaware of his state of bondage until his mother told him that Abraham Lincoln had emancipated them. Vance says that while most slaves were happy with being emancipated, "It was my opinion that we were being driven from our homes and set adrift to wander, I knew not where." Lewis attended several schools, including Lincoln University, and Chicago College of Law. He was admitted to the Michigan State Supreme Court in 1894 and the United States Supreme Court in 1897.