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Our Nig; or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black, in a Two-Story White House, North. Showing that Slavery's Shadows Fall Even There. By "Our Nig.

  • Boston: Geo. C. Rand & Avery, 1859
By [Wilson, Harriet E.]
Boston: Geo. C. Rand & Avery, 1859. First edition. First edition, first printing. 140 pp. Bound in publisher's elaborately blind stamped brown cloth, spine lettered in gilt, coated yellow endpapers. Very Good, spine lean, cloth sunned and a little stained, lettering rubbed and cloth worn at tips, binding holding but some page gatherings proud and hinges cracked; occasional stains, wear, and foxing to contents. Gift inscription on front free endpaper in pencil. An unsophisticated copy of an extremely rare, sought-after book, both in the trade and at auction: the last copy at auction was in 1990. Suffice to say, the opportunity for anyone to purchase a first edition of this novel may not come again for many years.

This autobiographical novel was famously rediscovered by scholar Henry Louis Gates in 1981 and was long regarded as the first novel published by a woman of African descent in North America. Gates writes in his introduction to the reprint that the author, Harriet Wilson, "seems to have published it herself (though with some assistance from unknown patrons)," which undoubtedly contributed to its scarcity. Published just two years before the start of the Civil War, "it stands as a hallmark of American literary history," Gates continues, and "it subtly combines compelling storytelling with unflinching indictments of Northern antiblack racism" as well as the institution of slavery.

Details

Title

Our Nig; or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black, in a Two-Story White House, North. Showing that Slavery's Shadows Fall Even There. By "Our Nig.

Author

[Wilson, Harriet E.]

Condition

Unknown

Publisher

Geo. C. Rand & Avery: Boston

Date

1859

Edition

First edition

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