A superb first edition, early printing of the Memoir of Solomon Northup, a free-born African American. He was drugged and kidnapped in Washington, D.C. before being transported to New Orleans and sold into enslavement.

Published during the first year of his regained freedom, the narrative was among the most influential of the anti-slavery narratives of the era. It of course also formed the basis of the film of the same name, which won the Best Picture Academy Award in 2013.

A "Twenty-Second Thousand" just sold at auction for $1,500.00 with early imprints, as here, fetching larger sums. 

Northup, Solomon. Seventeenth Thousand. Twelve Years a Slave. Narrative of Solomon Northup, A Citizen of New-York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853, From a Cotton Plantation Near the Red River, in Louisiana. Auburn. Derby and Miller. 1853. 336pp.

A good + copy, bound in cloth; through at the extremities, but attractive. Text is lightly shaken, with two signatures forward in the binding. Light to moderate foxing.