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(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION.) PENNINGTON, J[AMES] W.C.
A Two
Year’s Absence or a Farewell Sermon Preached in the Fifth Congregational
Church by J.W.C. Pennington, Nov. 2nd, 1845.
31 pages, 8vo, dis-bound.
Hartford: H.T. Wells, 1845
[1,500/2,500]
James Pennington (1807-1870) escaped from slavery in Maryland in 1827. He made his
way to the Northeast where he studied and became an ordained minister. Pennington was actu-
ally well educated, the first black student at Yale, and the author of the first black history
(Textbook of the Origin and History . . . Colored People 1841). In 1838, he had officiated at
the wedding of Frederick Douglass and Anna Murray. Years later however, word of his location
had gotten back to his owner who put out reward for his recapture. In this “Farewell Sermon,”
Pennington explains to his flock why he must leave them, not from risk of capture: “If I
wanted dollars to buy myself, I could raise a thousand within the fire limits of Hartford in
twenty-four hours,” but in order to continue to prepare for the “great moral battle day,” the
extinction of slavery, He explains that he is going to take a leave of two years to do “classical
study.” Pennington toured for several years, returning to his flock in 1850.
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(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION—NARRATIVES.) PETERSON, DANIEL H.
The Looking -Glass: Being a True Report and Narrative of the Life, Travels and
Labors of the Rev. Daniel H. Peterson, a Colored Clergyman; Embracing a
Period of Time from the Year 1812 to 1854, and Including his Visit to Western
Africa.
Frontispiece and additional plates. 150 pages. 12mo, original gilt-pictorial red
cloth; extremities rubbed with minor loss of cloth; previous owner’s names on pastedown
and first blank.
New York: Wright, 1854
[800/1,200]
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. He was the first African
American traveler to Western Africa. Blockson, 8868, Work 313.
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