The Vanishing Slave: Publishing the Narrative of Charles Ball, from Slavery in the United States (1836) to Fifty Years in Chains (1858)
O 5 January 1838 the abolitionist and leader of the American AntiSlavery Society (AASS) Theodore Weld wrote to Sarah and Angelina Grimke: "We have half a dozen fugitives from southern slavery now in the city just arrived here all together. Two of them are exceedingly interesting cases. One a man of thirty whose history is as rife with the highest interest as Charles Ball." Weld made reference to the former slave Charles Ball by way of introducing a fugitive slave lately arrived in New York, James Williams, whose narrative the AASS would publish a few weeks later. The comparison between Ball and Williams reveals that at one moment of their publishing history, the two slaves' narratives, respectively Slavery in the United States: A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Charles Ball, a Black Man (1836) and Narrative of James Williams,
The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America