James Mccune Smith: A Brief Biography

James McCune Smith

James McCune Smith was born on April 18, 1813 in New York to a mother who was a freed slave named Lavinia Smith and a father was Samuel Smith, a white merchant and his mother master. He went to African Free School in New York City. In 1824, at the age eleven he was chosen to give a speech to the Marquis de Lafayette out of his whole class. When graduating he was denied admission into many American colleges because of his color. Later he was able to raise enough money to go to the University of Glasgow in Scotland. In Scotland, he completed a bachelor’s and master’s degree first in his class for both degrees. A year later he went for a medical degree in 1837 and graduated first in his class again. He was determined to
Together they had seven children, but only five survived to adult hood. James opened a medical office and a pharmacy (the first one ever to be owned/operated by a African American) which brought in many different types of clients on West Broadway. . He worked as a physician and surgeon from 1838 until 1863. For 20 years, he served on the medical staff at the Free Negro Orphan Asylum in New York City. Also while back in New York, he became a powerful anti-slavery and anti-racism organizer, orator and a writer. In his scientific writings Smith debunked the racial theories in Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia, refuted phrenology and homeopathy, and responded with a forceful statistical critique to the racially biased US Census of
There he was elected as a member in 1854 of the American Geographic Society, but he was never admitted to the American Medical Association or any other local medical associations. He has been most well-known for his leadership in abolitionism, also a member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, with people like Frederick Douglass, Gerrit Smith, and John Brown, who he helped start this society. McCune was big on not sending African Americans back to Africa. He met with blacks in favor of the move in Albany, New York, in 1852 and persuaded them to adopt a statement urging the New York State Legislature to reject efforts to send African Americans back to Africa. Smith got as far as challenging a member of Congress from South Carolina, John C. Calhoun, after Calhoun pronounced that African Americans were prone to insanity. Smith's response was shown to be false. After that he did all that he could to support African American emancipation and equality, Smith worked as a supporter of the Underground Railroad and wrote articles in a newspaper. Smith wrote about medicine, sciences education, racism and literature. In 1863 he was planning to move to Ohio to become a professor of anthropology at Wilberforce College, but because of his health he had to turn the job