DOUGLASS FREDERICK Autograph Letter Signed to an unnamed rec

Sale 2619 - Lot 33

Price Realized: $ 18,750

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 10,000 - $ 20,000

"THERE IS NO ENTIRELY SATISFACTORY BIOGRAPHY OF JOHN BROWN" DOUGLASS, FREDERICK. Autograph Letter Signed, to an unnamed recipient ("Dear Sir"), stating that absence explains his delay in replying, remarking that [James] Redpath's biography of John Brown is adequate for providing the main facts [The Public Life of Capt. John Brown (1860)], and suggesting that he write a Boston bookseller to obtain it. 1 page, 8vo, ruled paper; horizontal folds, uncommonly good condition. Washington, 9 November 1882

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". . . There is no entirely satisfactory Biography of John Brown. There is one written by Mr. Redpath of Boston which in a rough and hasty way give the main facts of Brown's life; but I fear you may not be able to find even that at this late day. You might write to some Boston Bookseller and possibly pick one up."
Although the friendship between Douglass and John Brown was not always close, the two were together at one of the most formative moments in both their lives. In 1858, Brown shared Douglass's home in Rochester, NY, as he worked out the details for his raid on Harper's Ferry. Although Brown encouraged Douglass to join him at Harper's Ferry, Douglass declined. After the raid, and the Civil War that followed it, Douglass delivered a speech at Harper's Ferry that acknowledged the importance of Brown to history and to the cause of justice, a cause to which Brown and Douglass shared the same level of devotion: "If John Brown did not end the war that ended slavery, he did, at least, begin the war that ended slavery."