Afro-American Encyclopaedia; or the Thoughts Doings and Sayings of the Race Embracing Addresses Lectures Biographical Sketches Sermons Poems Names of Universities Colleges Seminaries Newspapers Books and a History of the denominations Giving the Numerical Strength of Each. In Fact It teaches Every Subject of Interest to the Colored people as Discussed by More than One Hundred of Their Wisest and Best Men and Women by Haley, James T., editor - 1895

Nashville: Haley & Florida, 1895. First edition. Frontispiece of the Statue of Liberty, with photographs and illus. xiv, 640 pp. 2 vols. 4to. Publisher's cloth, titled in gilt. Rebacked, preserving much of original spine, new endsheets, frontispiece worn with some loss at margins, textblock toned with edgewear and rounding to corners, staining to margins. First edition. Frontispiece of the Statue of Liberty, with photographs and illus. xiv, 640 pp. 2 vols. 4to. First edition of this encyclopedia of African American history, comprised of short biographies and articles on African-American history and institutions. The book was sold by subscription and aimed at an audience booth white and black. The articles are largely sourced from newspapers and other printed sources; for example, the biography of Frederick Douglass by William Lloyd Garrison is reprinted from The Monthly Review. "The scarcity of books by negro authors suggested the idea of the compilation of this book.... We have tried to compress within a few hundred pages the momentous events connected with the Afro-American race during the nineteenth century" (Preface).