James W.C. Pennington

James W.C. Pennington (c. 1807-1870) was a US abolitionist, a runaway slave from Maryland turned anti-slavery preacher, teacher, writer, and activist. He officiated at Frederick Douglass’s wedding in 1838. A year later he joined Lewis Tappan in organizing help for the slave mutineers of the Amistad. He took part in Elizabeth Jennings Graham’s fight against the racially segregated streetcars (trams) of New York, having been thrown off one himself.

Books:

• 1841: A Text Book of the Origin and History, etc, of the Colored People
• 1859: Fugitive Blacksmith

Even though Steven Spielberg did not seem to remember him in “Amistad” (1997), Harriet Beecher Stowe did in “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (1852):

“In all states of the Union we see men, but yesterday burst from the shackles of slavery, who, by a self-educating force, which cannot be too much admired, have risen to highly respectable stations in society. Pennington, among clergymen, Douglas and Ward, among editors, are well known instances.”

Education: Once he escaped Maryland in 1828 to the free state of Pennsylvania, Quakers took him in and started to teach him how to read and write. He later went to night school and became a schoolteacher in Newtown, Long Island (now Elmhurst, Queens). He was the first Black student accepted to Yale Divinity School – but he had to sit in the back row, was not allowed to borrow books from the library, or be listed as a student. The Congregational Church ordained him as a pastor all the same.

Religion: In his experience slave masters let slaves have Sundays off but did nothing to bring them to Christ. Religious instruction was accidental, by way of spirituals, songs doing for Black slaves what stained glass did for European peasants. He credits the “sad degradation” of Africa in the 1800s, despite its promising beginnings in Egypt and Ethiopia (Nubia), to pagan darkness, the worship of many gods. Unlike Christendom, it lacked the right foundation.

“A Text Book of the Origin and History, etc, of the Colored People” (1841) is not so much a history as an argument against racism. Chapter 1, for example, is spent arguing against the Curse of Ham, a blatant misreading of the Bible that was used as the main defence of Black slavery. He also has to argue that Blacks have the same intelligence as Whites:

“But why put him [the coloured man] under the same law, and thus punish him with the same hand, if he is not equally intelligent with the white man? …

“the records of legislation from Maine to Louisiana [North and South], will show a balance of severity against us. So that here the conduct of our opponents turns against their theory.”

It is sobering to read how little some things have changed in 181 years.

“This [racial] prejudice hates the truth. And this is not all, but it hates to be pushed with the truth. … It is opposed to truth religiously, morally, and politically, nor will hear truth. And hence the more you show the truth the more objectionable and obnoxious you are.”

You see the same today in the outcry against critical race theory and “The 1619 Project”.

– Abagond, 2022.

See also:

• American abolitionists
  • Frederick Douglass
  • Harriet Beecher Stowe
  • David Walker
• Amistad
• Elizabeth Jennings Graham
• Nubia
• The Curse of Ham
• White American racism in the 1800s
• critical race theory
• The 1619 Project

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