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A BEAUTIFUL BOOK, INSIDE & OUT (SLAVERY AND ABOLITION--NARRATIVES.) PETERSON, REV. DANIEL H. The Looking Glass: Being a True Report and Narrative of the Life, Travels and Labors of Rev. Daniel H Peterson, a Colored Minister . . . Embracing a Period of Time from the Year 1812 to 1854, and Including his Visit to Western Africa. Frontispiece and seven additional full-page woodcut illustrations. 151 pages, 12mo, original gilt-pictorial brown cloth with apparently the author's wish for Liberia: 'A Land of Rest, Peace and Unity. A Government of Wisdom and Equality' in bold gilt letters with a dove, holding an olive branch. in the center; some very light foxing, otherwise a lovely copy. New York, 1854
first edition of a fascinating narrative. Peterson's parents were both Maryland slaves owned by a relative of President Tyler. Determined to purchase his mother's freedom, Peterson apprenticed himself as a servant and later a steward on a Delaware river steamboat. He married, and lived in the area of Baltimore and Philadelphia. Like many free blacks Peterson realized that he was only nominally free, but not a citizen, nor would he ever be one. Agitated by "the great evil of slavery in this gigantic Republic," Peterson decided "the best plan for the relief of colored people" would be to immigrate to Liberia. Before that could take place, he decided to go there and explore the possibilities for American blacks. Blockson 8868, Work 313.
