James McCune Smith (1813–1865) was a prominent physician and abolitionist. Educated at the African Free School in New York City, he was unable to attend any university in the U.S. at that time, so he attended Glasgow University in Scotland in 1832 and earned three degrees, including his medical degree.
This past week, Dr. James McCune Smith, the man thought to be the first African American physician in America, was honored. Smith’s white descendants, including his 91-year-old-great granddaughter, Antoinette Martignoni, gathered in a cemetery to dedicate a tombstone at the unmarked grave where he was buried in 1865.
Dr. Smith was well known historically for a speech he gave in 1838 titled “The Abolition of Slavery and the Slave Trade in the French and British Colonies.”
Ironically, although Dr. Smith was a vocal proponent for the right of enslaved people of color to be free, three of his children are said to have passed as white when they became adults, a common practice for fair-skinned blacks at that time.
“He was one of the leaders within the movement to abolish slavery, and he was one of the most original and innovative writers of his time,” said John Stauffer, a professor of African-American studies at Harvard University who has written extensively about Dr. Smith. –torrance stephens, ph.d.
