Twelve Years a Slave. Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New-York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853, from a Cotton Plantation Near the Red River in Louisiana
Auburn; Buffalo; London: Derby and Miller; Derby, Orton, and Mulligan, 1853. [4],336pp., plus frontispiece portrait and six plates. 12mo. Original publisher's cloth, spine gilt. Spine ends and corners worn, cloth rubbed; patches of discoloration to rear board. Slightly later, pencil ownership inscription and annotation on front free endpaper recto. Scattered staining and soiling, heavier to initial leaves; moderate toning and dust soiling. Good plus. Item #6011
Second printing, "Fifth thousand," of this classic and powerful slave narrative. The author, Solomon Northup, was a free Black landowner in New York, but was kidnapped into slavery during a trip to Washington, DC, in 1841, and spent twelve years enslaved under several owners in Louisiana before his freedom was obtained in 1853 after a coordinated search. His story, in the words of Frederick Douglass, "chills the blood," and Northup's work became one of the most influential and popular anti-slavery narratives of the 1850s. The first edition of 4,000 copies was published in early July 1853 and sold out in weeks, requiring the immediate undertaking of the present second printing, and in the July 15, 1853, it is advertised that, "To-day the long looked for issue of the fifth thousand...will commence at Derby, Orton, & Mulligan's." A good copy and only slightly later printing of this cornerstone of American abolitionist literature.
Price: $3,750.00