Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, General Research and Reference Division

Mifflin Wistar Gibbs, Shadow and Light: An Autobiography with Reminiscences of the Last and Present Century (Washington, D.C.: M.W. Gibbs, 1902)

Mifflin W. Gibbs, who arrived in Sacramento from Philadelphia in 1850, opened a successful business with a partner. Lester and Gibbs imported books and shoes from Philadelphia, London, and Paris. The shop quickly developed a "reputation for keeping the best and finest in the state," and boasted patrons from as far north as Oregon. Mifflin became a leader of the California Colored Convention, and immigrated to Canada in 1858 when gold was discovered in the Northwest. Politically active, he ran for and was elected to the Victoria City Council. After the Civil War, Gibbs returned to the United States and became a federal judge in Little Rock, Arkansas, and, later, the United States Consul to Madagascar. He published his autobiography, Shadow and Light, in 1902.