February 2021 Catalogue

B a u m a n R a r e B o o k s B l a c k A m e r i c a n a 2 0 2 1 42 “One Of The Best Accounts Of How Runaway Slaves Made Their Way To Freedom” 57. STILL, William. The Underground Rail Road. Philadelphia, 1872. Thick octavo, original green cloth. $3600. C lick for M ore I nfo First edition of the first definitive and groundbreaking history of the Underground Railroad—“the only work on that subject written by an African American”—with engraved frontispiece portrait of William Still, famed as father of the Underground Railroad, profusely illustrated with 23 full-page and numerous in-text engravings, in gilt-stamped original cloth. The history of the Underground Railroad “is an epic of high drama… one of the most ambitious political undertakings in American history” (Bordewich, 4). In that history, abolitionist William Still stands out as “the 19th-century’s foremost chronicler” (Piloski & Williams, 1013). Known as the father of the Underground Railroad, he was born to a fugitive slave mother and an enslaved father who bought his freedom. Still ran the Philadelphia headquarters of the Pennsylvania Anti- Slavery Society and was its “key operative in assisting fugitives.” His monumental Underground Railroad is “a treasure trove of information… the most detailed record now extant” (Foner, 151- 52, 12). Early owner signature. Interior generally clean with expert cleaning to first few leaves and very faint occasional dampstaining, expert restoration to original cloth and endpapers. “It was my good fortune to lend a helping hand to the weary travelers flying from the land of bondage.”