Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1872. First edition. Publisher’s brick red beveled cloth with gilt title (the “paneled style” variant of the four binding options). Octavo. 4 [ publisher’s ads], [4], 780 pp. Complete with twenty-four plates, including frontisportrait of Still, and text engravings. Binding is clean and attractive with just a bit of shelfwear and what looks like a removed label from the spine. Red speckled edges. Brown coated endpapers. Inscribed on verso of frontis by Still to the abolitionist writer John M. Orrock: “Rev. J.M. Orrick [sic] with the regard of the author W. Still.” Rubber stamp of the “John M. Orrock Library, A.C.P. Society, 160 Warren Street, Boston” to upper margin of title-page. Also with the twentieth century bookplate of Volkert W. Doellefeld to upper pastedown, his small ink ownership signature to upper flyleaf, and rubber stamp (“Property of Volkert W. Doellefeld”) to dedication leaf and to the margin of page 321. A remarkably bright and appealing copy, easily Near Fine, housed in a custom slipcase with chemise. We could only trace one other presentation copy in the auction record, selling in 1915.

William Still (1821 – 1902) was an active agent of the Underground Railroad for nearly two decades, during which he kept meticulous records of the hundreds of freedom seekers who passed through Philadelphia. Shortly before the Civil War, however, Still hid and destroyed many of his original records, fearing legal repercussions. In the present work, which was "the only work written on [the Underground Railroad] by an African American," Still reconstructs these narratives of freedom and survival based on his personal experiences and his surviving records, plus "newspapers, legal documents, [and] correspondence of abolitionists and former slaves" (ANB). Due to the success of his business ventures in real estate, coal, and stove sales, Still was able to fund the publication of the present work, hire book agents to sell it, and present it at the 1876 Centennial Exposition.

Still was born in New Jersey to parents who had been enslaved. His father, Levin, had purchased his freedom, and his mother, Sidney, had escaped with Still and one of his siblings. Still began working at the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery in 1847 and soon began aiding fugitive slaves – including his younger brother, Peter, who had been left behind when his mother escaped forty years earlier. During and after the Civil War, Still’s activism and community engagement was extensive: he was one of the organizers of the Pennsylvania Civil, Social, and Statistical Association, which collected data on free Black people in the city; he helped establish one of the first YMCA branches for Black men; and helped manage an orphanage for Black children. He was also a supporter of universal suffrage and successfully campaigned to desegregate Philadelphia's public transit system. Still's contribution to his community was enormous, and his efforts as an abolitionist were hugely successful. Blockson writes, "William Still was one of the most energetic and adventurous of the many Philadelphians who operated the Underground Railroad...Still spent his life helping other escapees, and was so successful that, it was said, nineteen out of every twenty fugitives passing though Philadelphia stopped at his house" (Afro-Americana Exhibition).

Rev. John Muir Orrock (1829 - 1909) was an abolitionist author and Adventist Christian clergyman who wrote The Army of the Great King: Short Sermons on Short Texts, Miscellaneous Pieces, and Poetic Musings (1855), in which he preached against slavery. He also had a brief turn as a publisher, with his imprint appearing on two books: Good Night: a Life-Sketch, Selected Writings, Daily Readings (1884) by Josephine Johnson Orrock (1829 – 1882), his wife; and Canadian Wild Flowers (1884) by Helen Mar Johnson, seemingly a relative of his wife. The "A.C.P" was the Advent Christian Publication Society, which was the publishing arm of the American Advent Mission Society, though the 160 Warren Street address is now a Baptist church in the predominantly Black neighborhood of Roxbury.

Blockson 101, 41. American National Biography. Turner, Dr. Diane D. "William Still’s National Significance" (Temple University website). Also see the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. Near Fine (Item #6723)