Biography

Dr. James McCune Smith was more than just a pioneer.

Born in slavery in New York City when slavery was still legal there, James McCune Smith managed to get a good elementary education in a Quaker school but was turned down by colleges because he was Black. Seeing his ability, his pastor raised funds to send him to Scotland where in five years he earned a BA, MA, and MD with honors. He returned to New York
with better training than most American doctors and established a practice serving Black and white alike. Smith took a leading role in the abolition movement, working closely with Frederick Douglass and writing a regular column for Douglass's paper. James McCune Smith formed a rare Black-white friendship with Gerrit Smith, a wealthy white landowner in upstate
New York; when Gerrit Smith, Frederick Douglass, and others formed a Radical Abolition Party to work to abolish slavery, McCune Smith served as chair of the party's convention-the first time a Black American had chaired a national convention. One of the most important voices in the pre-Civil War abolition movement, this biography brings him to vibrant life as a key figure in American history.

This is his story.

The incredible story of a forgotten hero of nineteenth century America—a former slave who became a Yale scholar, congregational pastor, and international leader of the Antebellum abolitionist movement.

In 1827, at the age of 19, scared and illiterate, James Pennington escaped from slavery and soon became one of the leading voices against slavery prior to the Civil War. In five years he had become a school teacher and just ten years after his escape, Pennington was ordained to the ministry after studying at Yale. He served congregations in Long Island, Hartford, and Manhattan and traveled three times to England, Scotland, and the continent of Europe as an anti-slavery advocate. He was so respected by European audiences that the University of Heidelberg awarded him an honorary doctorate, making him the first person of African descent to receive such a degree. After the Civil War, he served briefly in Mississippi during reconstruction and then in Portland, Maine, and finally in Jacksonville, Florida.

As he fought for equal rights in America, Pennington’s voice was not limited to the preacher’s pulpit. He wrote the first-ever “History of the Colored People” as well as a careful study of the moral basis for civil disobedience, which would be echoed decades later by Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. More than a century before Rosa Parks took her transformational bus ride, Pennington challenged segregated seating in New York City street cars. He was beaten and arrested, but eventually vindicated when the New York State Supreme Court ordered the cars to be integrated. In 1853, as African Americans struggled to define their role in America in the face of growing racism, Pennington was chosen to preside at a Negro National Convention in Rochester, New York. Leading white Americans attempted to define their country in mono-racial terms and many black Americans emigrated to Liberia or Haiti, but Pennington insisted “I am an American to the backbone” and am entitled to the same rights as anyone else.

Often deeply discouraged himself, Pennington retained a delightful sense of humor, intellectual vivacity, and inspiring faith. American to the Backbone brings to life this fascinating, forgotten pioneer, who helped lay the foundation for the contemporary civil rights revolution and inspire generations of future leaders.