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BOUND BY DOUGLASS AT THE NORTH STAR OFFICES
50
●
(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION.) DOUGLAS, FREDERICK.
Narrative of
the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself.
Lacking the frontispiece portrait of Douglass, as do all other copies examined. xii,
[xiii]-xvi, [1]-125 pages. Demi-8vo, original roan-backed printed paper-covered
boards; some discoloration and soil spots, bumped, a few abrasions mostly to extremi-
ties; considerable foxing throughout; removed book label on front pastedown.
Boston: at the Anti-Slavery Office, 1847-Rochester: Published at
the North Star Office, 1848
[18,000/22,000]
When Frederick Douglass’s Narrative first appeared in 1845, he had already been lecturing for
over four years as the shining star of the New England abolitionists, William Lloyd Garrison,
Wendell Phillips et al. Douglass’s Narrative was an instant best-seller, going through 5000 copies
of the first printing in four months. [There were, in all six more printings between 1845 and
1849.] It was the success of the Narrative that alerted Douglass’s owner Hugh Auld as to where
his slave could be found. As a result Douglass was forced to leave the country and in the fall of
1845 set sail for Cork, Ireland to begin a two-year lecture tour of Great Britain.
Upon his return, Douglass continued to lecture and contribute articles to various anti-slavery jour-
nals, including Garrison’s Liberator. However, there were grumblings about how much he should
be paid per article. After hearing that Douglass felt his writing was worth $2.50 per article,
Edmund Quincy, then current editor of the Liberator wrote to Caroline Weston [Maria
Chapman’s sister], “Talking of unconscionable niggers, I wrote to Douglass to ask him what he
should consider a fair compensation for the letters [articles] that he proposed he sh’d write for the
Standard [The Anti-Slavery Standard]. In due time I rec’d and answer saying he should think
two dollars and a half about right. I consulted Wendell [Phillips] about it & he thought we had
better not beat him down; but tell him that $1.00 was as much as we could afford.” (McFeely,
page 147). It was clear to Douglass that there were a great many white abolitionists who placed
their own position as the standard-bearers of social justice ahead of the interests of the African-
American.
In the fall of 1847, Douglass, encouraged by Amy Post and Gerrit Smith, had already made up
his mind to move to upstate New York and publish his own newspaper, to be called the “North
Star.” The evidence is clear that before leaving Boston, Douglass took with him an unknown
number of copies of the sheets for the Boston Anti-Slavery Society’s 1847 printing of his
Narrative. Once established in Rochester, he had them bound up as they are here, with the North
Star imprint. I have personally examined four copies of this binding of the Narrative, none
include the portrait frontispiece of Douglass, nor is there any sign that it ever was bound in. This
can be explained by the fact that engravings for 19th-century books were most often produced at a
totally different place than the printed text.
We were able to locate only nine other copies: three in private collections, copies held by Harvard and
the New York Historical Society, one in a recent dealer’s catalogue (defective), and three at auction in
the past five years.