3

TEXTUAL NOTES 511

229.20 Kansas-Nebraska Act] That "in 1854, we had the Missouri compromise" is
not what Douglass intended to state in the copy-text, given that he correctly
identifies the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 as having "removed the only grand
legal barrier" against the extension of slavery.

233.38 the free negro] We emend the copy-text's "the negro" to "the free negro,"
gi,en that it is that class of person to which Douglass is referring here and elsewhere
in this chapter.

235.17 slave] The copy-text's reading. "a free State," is contradictory. Those hoping
to extend slavery into Kansas wanted to exclude individuals who were opposed
making it a "slave State."

260.18-19 Rochester, I said:) The copy-text reading—"Rochester, at the time, I
said"—dates the delivery of the Corinthian Hall speech to the early Civil War years.
Yet, the portion quoted could not have been delivered "at the time" since it refers to
events occurring later, including the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. We have
deleted "at the time" from this sentence, and have added it to the previous sentence
focusing on the Northern attitude toward the South during those early years. That
is, we have emended on the premise that Douglass is referring to the North's point
of view "at the time" of the early years of the war, and he did not mean the time at
which he spoke at Corinthian Hall. Another possibility, of course, is that Douglass
did deliver the speech there during the early years, and he unwittingly waxed
anachronistic when preparing typesetting copy in 1881.

271.5 tears and blood."] Centered in the following line of the copy-text and above
the first line of the next paragraph appears "THE BLACK MAN AT THE WHITE
HOUSE." Now editorially deleted, the word group's originally envisioned function
is undeterminable.

274.35 secretary of state] The copy-text erroneously identifies William H. Seward
as the "secretary of war."

278.28 the corner of 5th ave, and 45th st.] The copy-text refers only to the corner
of Fifth Avenue and not the cross street that we have cited in our emendation.
283.24 and had welcomed me] The copy-text does not read "and had welcomed"
but "and had conquered his race-prejudice, if ever he had any; at any rate, he had
welcomed" this suggesting that Salmon P. Chase may have once been prejudiced
agamst the African American. We view the revision appearing only in the expanded
second American edition, BX1-BX3, as an authorial act of self-censorship.

288.34-289.22 party, ... the right.] In all of the contemporaneous printings
of the American editions of Life, Douglass criticizes the Honorable Robert C.
Winthrop in the paragraph that follows. Beginning with the the third printing of the
first edition (A3, 1882), Douglass recants in a footnote. See "Historical Collation,"
291.27 In the paragraph that follows, we emend the copy-text to replace the critical
passage with the decidedly laudatory one that initially appeared in the second
printing or the English edition (E2, 1883) and which we view as authorial in
origin.