Black Doctor

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.

"This is an important book."

DR. JOHN R . KAUFMANMCKIVIGAN

Professor of History and Editor of the Frederick Douglass Papers

IUPUI (Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis

"James McCune Smith, the first Black doctor in America, was a remarkable man. Christopher L. Webber's 'Black Doctor' is a remarkable biography of Smith. Long overdue, it is a welcome addition to the literature of the African American freedom struggle. Thoroughly researched and engagingly written, this definitive biography of Smith offers important historical insights on African American leadership, the abolitionist movement and antebellum era politics in America."

PROFESSOR ROBERT C. SMITH, Ph.D. (retired)

San Francisco State University

Recipient of Howard University's Distinguished Ph.D. Alumni Award

"Christopher L. Webber's Black Doctor: A Biography of James McCune Smith (1813 - 1865) is a vital work informing so many of us about the first fully trained and credentialed Black doctor in the United States. I was delighted to learn about Smith's incredible achievements in light of the structure of racism surrounding his context. I highly recommend Webber's thorough work and inspiring story into the challenge of being black in America."

THE REV. MICHAEL BATTLE, Ph.D.

Herbert Thompson Chair of Church and Society & Director of the Desmond Tutu Center General Theological Seminary

"A thoroughly gripping life story of rising from ashes and becoming a true trailblazer. This is the important unsung history of Dr. James McCune Smith-READ IT."

E. LISA FORTE_MASON, ESQ., SR.

Warden, St. Philip's Episcopal Church

CHRISTOPHER L. WEBBER is a priest of the Episcopal Church who has served parishes in Brooklyn and Long Island, Tokyo, Japan, and Bronxville, New York. In retirement he served parishes in the northwest corner of Connecticut. He grew up in Cuba, New York, a small town in the western part of the state, and graduated from Princeton University before earning two theological degrees and an honorary degree from the General Theological Seminary in New York. Webber's writing career began late in his ministerial life when he was asked to write A Vestry Handbook, which is still in print fortyyears later; his subsequent books are wideranging, from hymnals, church guidebooks, and collections of prayers, to The Beowulf Trilogyand American to the Backbone, a biography of James W.C. Pennington, a fugitive slave who became a leading figure in the pre-Civil Warabolition movement. His wife, Margaret Rose, died just short of their 60th anniversary. Webber has four children and four grandchildren and lives in San Francisco.

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