July 2022 Catalogue

Black Americana and Abolition – 47 – Bauman Rare Books - July 2022 “One Of The Best Accounts Of How Runaway Slaves Made Their Way To Freedom” 79. STILL, William. Still’s Underground Rail Road Records. Philadelphia, 1883. Thick octavo, original gilt-stamped brown cloth. $2800. First expanded and revised edition of Still’s major history of the Underground Railroad—“the only work on that subject written by an African American”—with engraved frontispiece portrait of Still, famed as father of the Underground Railroad, profusely illustrated with 23 full-page and numerous in-text engravings. Leading African American abolitionist Still, the father of the Underground Railroad, was born a free man to former slaves and was chairman of Philadelphia’s Vigilance Committee, where he “kept a record of the experiences of all fugitives who came through the city” (Dumond, 333). Underground Railroad, first published in 1872, “is one of the best accounts of how runaway slaves made their way to freedom” (ANB). This first revised and expanded edition features James P. Boyd’s Life and Work of William Still, which includes facsimile letters from Horace Greeley, Charles Sumner and Henry Wilson. Text fine with expert reinforcement to inner paper hinges, trace of soiling to bright cloth. A highly desirable about-fine copy. First Edition Of The Fugitive Slave Bill: Its History And Unconstitutionality, 1850 80. TAPPAN, Lewis. The Fugitive Slave Bill: Its History and Unconstitutionality: With an Account of the Seizure and Enslavement of James Hamlet, And His Subsequent Restoration to Liberty. New York, 1850. Octavo, period-style half brown calf gilt. $4200. First edition of this damning analysis of the 1850 law, issued soon after its passage, containing the “only printed record of Hamlet’s case.” “Hamlet was the first fugitive slave arrested and remanded under the Fugitive Slave Act of Sept. 18, 1850. He was seized just eight days after the law was passed”... This contains “the only printed record of Hamlet’s case’” (Finkelman, 85-6). The Fugitive Slave Act “is universally considered to be among the most unfair and illegitimate laws ever passed by Congress” (Finkelman). Small institutional inkstamp above title page. Text fine.

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