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By the early 1850s, the former slave James W.C. Pennington had become an internationally prominent African American minister, abolitionist and reformer. With its scathing analysis of the chattel system, gripping account of his escape, and inspirational story of self-education and conversion to an activist faith, Pennington's autobiography,
The Fugitive Blacksmith (1849), found readers on both sides of the Atlantic. Pennington's second major work,
A Text Book of the Origin and History of the Colored People (1841), pioneered a new kind of Black history. However, during the Civil War era, Pennington's star declined, and after Reconstruction, he was largely forgotten.
This volume offers the first-ever modern edition of
The Fugitive Blacksmith and
A Text Book, alongside other selections of Pennington's essential sermons, speeches, and journalistic contributions, and an introduction by the volume editors. The volume provides readers the rich biographical and historical background, as well as the political and intellectual contexts, necessary to appreciate Pennington and his activism. Through these texts, which explore perennial philosophical questions about human nature, the meaning of freedom, and the possibility of a just and inclusive society, we see Pennington in his rightful place as an important part of the Black intellectual tradition in the 19th century.
List of contents
- Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- A Chronology of James W.C. Pennington's Life
- Introduction
- Section 1: Pennington's Autobiography and Writings on His Life
- 1.1 The Fugitive Blacksmith
- 1.2 Frederick Douglass on Pennington
- 1.3 The Story of Pennington's Brother and Nephews
- 1.4 A Letter to Harriet Beecher Stowe
- 1.5 Petition for Pennington's Honorary Doctor of Divinity to Heidelberg's Faculty of Theology
- Section 2: African American History and Destiny; Black Education and Excellence
- 2.1 A Text Book of the Origin and History of the Colored People
- 2.2 The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade
- 2.3. The Destiny of Black People in the United States
- 2.4 "The Self-Redeeming Power of the Colored Races of the World"
- 2.5 "The Great Conflict Requires Great Faith"
- 2.6. Letters on Black Education and the Colored Convention Movement
- 2.7. On Black Female Excellence
- Section 3: Philosophy and Theology
- 3.1 Covenantal Theology, Christian Republicanism, and the Divine Right of Resistance
- 3.2 The Bible Against Slavery
- 3.3 Racial Prejudice and Segregation in the Church
- 3.4 The Government of God over Nations
- 3.5 Christian Zeal
- 3.6. Ecclesial Conflicts over Slavery
- 3.7 African Missions
- Section 4: Abolitionism, the Politics of Resistance, and the Civil War
- 4.1 Celebrating British West Indian Emancipation
- 4.2 Fighting African Colonization
- 4.3 Protesting the Fugitive Slave Law
- 4.4 The Campaign against Segregation in New York City Public Transportation
- 4.5 Pacifism and the Hope for Divine Justice
- 4.6 Praying for John Brown
- 4.7 The Moral Meaning of the Civil War
- 4.8 A Call for Black Enlistment
- 4.9. The Right to Black Self-Defense
- 4.10. Observing Early Reconstruction in Mississippi
- Bibliography
- Index
