The underground rail road : a record of facts, authentic narratives, letters, &c., : narrating the hardships, hair-breadth escapes, and death struggles of the slaves in their efforts for freedom, : as related by themselves and others or witnessed by the author : together with sketches of some of the largest stockholders and most liberal aiders and advisers of the road / by William Still, for many years connected with the Anti-Slavery Office in Philadelphia, and Chairman of the Acting Vigilant Committee of the Philadelphia Branch of the underground rail road ; illustrated with 70 fine engravings by Bensell, Schell and others, and portraits from photographs from life.

Format:

• Book

Author/Creator:

• Still, William, 1821-1902, author.

Contributor:

• Bensell, Edmund Birckhead, 1842- engraver.
• Porter & Coates, publisher.
• Jas. B. Rodgers Co., printer.
• Rosengarten Family Fund.
• American Subscription Publishing Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

• Still, William, 1821-1902.
• Underground Railroad.
• Fugitive slaves--United States--Biography.
• Fugitive slaves.
• Abolitionists--Biography.
• Abolitionists.
• United States.
• Antislavery movements--United States.
• Antislavery movements.
• Slavery--United States.
• Slavery.

Genre:

• Biographies.
• Engravings (prints)

Physical Description:

4 unnumbered pages, 780 pages, 24 unnumbered leaves of plates : illustrations, portraits ; 24 cm

Manufacture:

Philadelphia : Jas. B Rodgers Co.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : Porter & Coates, 822, Chestnut Street, 1872.

Summary:

"Historically significant document by Still, a free-born Black man who became an author and abolitionist movement leader in Philadelphia, PA. The volume document the stories of escaped slaves, and remains "the only first-person account of Black activities on the Underground Railroad written and self-published by an African-America...William Still was a major contributor to the success of the Underground Railroad activities in Philadelphia and a part of Philadelphia's free Black community that played an essential role in the Underground Railroad. He personally provide room and board for many African Americans who escaped slavery and stopped in Philadelphia on their way to Canada. Through his work with the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery's Vigilance Committee, he raised funds to assist runaways and arrange their passage to the North. He was instrumental in financing several of Harriet Tubman's trips to the South to liberate enslaved Africans" (Turner, Diane D. "William Still's National Significance." Web blog post. William Still: African American Abolitionist. Temple University, n.d. 18 August, 2016)." --description from Lorne Bair Rare Books Inc., bookseller.

Notes:

• "Sold only by subscription."--Title page.
• "Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1871, by Wm. Still, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington."--title page verso.
• "Jas. B. Rodgers Co. Electrotypers and Printers, 52 & 54 North 6th Stree, Philad'a."--title page verso.
• Frontispiece portrait of William Still.

Local Notes:

• Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Rosengarten Family Fund.
• Kislak Center copy is bound in dark green cloth; title, in initials, in gilt on front cover; blind-tooled on back cover. Title, author, and publisher name on spine in gilt. Additional decorative blind-tooling on front and back covers; spine.
• Kislak copy has hand-written marginalia in pencil on front free endpaper. Otherwise, a clean copy.
• Kislak copy contains publisher's subscription prospectus. Item is four pages; includes endorsements from 'prominent men': Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Salmon P. Chase, abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, publisher Horace Greeley and other notable people from Philadelphia, Pa. Prices are obscured by blue ink.

OCLC:

2082902

Online:

The Rosengarten Family Fund Home Page