The Rev. J. W. Loguen, as a Slave and as a Freeman. A Narrative of Real Life

Loguen, Jermain Wesley | [edited by John Thomas?]

Published by J. G. K. Truair & Co, Syracuse, NY, 1859

About this Item

Octavo. 444 pp., frontis. First edition. As issued, in embossed cloth. Spine ends, corners, and board edges rubbed with some fraying; contents are generally toned; early owner name and address on the front free endpaper; another name erased on the rear free endpaper. Loguen (1813-1872) was born into slavery in Tennessee, his mother an enslaved woman and his father an enslaver. After his siblings were sold, he escaped through Kentucky and into Indiana. He settled in Syracuse and joined the African Methodist Episcopal Zion church where he would eventually become a bishop. He was an outspoken abolitionist and was the principal figure in the Underground Railroad in Syracuse. With the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850, he was publicly defiant: "I don't respect this law," he said, "I don't fear it, I won't obey it! It outlaws me, and I outlaw it, and the men who attempt to enforce it on me. I place the governmental officials on the ground that they place me. I will not live a slave, and if force is employed to re-enslave me, I shall make preparations to meet the crisis as becomes a man" (qtd in OANB). This book is a third-person account of his life in slavery, his escape, and his life as minister and abolitionist in New York and Canada. Though generally attributed to Loguen, it was possibly written under Loguen's oversight by abolitionist, John Thomas, or at least edited by Thomas. An important contribution to abolitionist literature and uncommon in commerce. Library Company, Afro-Americana 6022; Work p. 312. Sabin 41824; Oxford American National Biography. Not in Blockson. Seller Inventory # 8797

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Rev. J. W. Loguen, as a Slave and as a ...

Publisher: J. G. K. Truair & Co, Syracuse, NY

Publication Date: 1859

Binding: Hard Cover

Condition: Good binding

Edition: 1st Edition