Slavery in the United States: A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Charles Ball, a Black Man, Who lived forty years in Maryland, South Carolina and Georgia, as a Slave, under various masters, and was one year in the Navy, with Commodore Barney, during the late war. Containing an account of the manners and usages of the Planters and Slaveholders of the South, a description of the condition and treatment of the Slaves, with observations upon the state of morals amongst the cotton planters, and the perils and sufferings of a fugitive slave, who twice escaped from the cotton country.

Lewistown, PA: Printed and Published by John W. Shugert, 1836. 12mo, original full calf with gilt-stamped brown lettering piece and gilt-stamped double rules on spine. 400 pp.

First edition of this influential slave narrative. Charles Ball was born into slavery in Maryland around 1780. Separated from his mother when he was four, he was owned by several different masters and lived in three states. Attempting escape on numerous occasions, he eventually succeeded and lived on a small farm until he was recaptured in 1830. However, he escaped again, and moved to Philadelphia, where he wrote his autobiography, with the assistance of Isaac Fisher, a white lawyer. A popular slave narrative, it went through several editions. Mark Twain drew upon it for his descriptions of slavery in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.

REFERENCES: Howes B65.

CONDITION: Good, rubbed, bit of chipping at head of spine, lower right corner of front cover a bit chewed, rear cover pock-marked, still, a nice copy.