The Fugitive Blacksmith and Other Essential Writings by James W.C. Pennington

This volume recovers the unjustly-forgotten African American abolitionist and minister, James W.C. Pennington. During the antebellum period, Pennington was an internationally-recognized intellectual, an exemplary African American figure. He was Yale Divinity School's first (unofficial) African American student, and his intellectual achievement took him to Europe, where he published a bestselling slave narrative and received an honorary Doctorate from Germany's oldest university. His writings, lectures, activism, and direct resistance make him one of the forgotten architects of the American antislavery movement. This volume is the first modern edition of any of Pennington's works, including his slave narrative and his monumental treatise on Black history, with a variety of his most impactful sermons, activist writings, and correspondence.