James William Charles Pennington ( – October 22, 1870) was an American historian, abolitionist, orator, minister, writer, and social organizer active globally. Pennington is the first known Black student to attend Yale University. He was ordained as a minister in the Congregational Church, later also serving in Presbyterian churches for congregations in Hartford, Connecticut; and New York. After the Civil War, he served congregations in Natchez, Mississippi; Portland, Maine; and Jacksonville, Florida.
In the Antebellum period, Pennington was an abolitionist, and among the American delegates to the Second World Conference on Slavery in London. In 1850, he happened to be in Scotland when the Fugitive Slave Act was passed by the US Congress. As it increased the risk for fugitive slaves in the North, Pennington stayed in the British Isles while friends worked to buy his freedom from his former master and then from his estate. Pennington raised funds for the abolition movement on the public lecture circuit in England.
Pennington wrote and published what is considered the first history of blacks in the United States, The Origin and History of the Colored People (1841). His memoir, The Fugitive Blacksmith, was first published in 1849 in London.
On April 24, 2023, Yale awarded Pennington a posthumous M.A. Privatim degree
Early life
James was born into slavery in 1807, at a Tilghman plantation on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. When he was four years old, James and his mother were given to Frisby Tilghman, their master's son, as a wedding gift. They were taken by the younger Tilghman to his new plantation called Rockland, near Hagerstown in western Maryland. There James was trained as a carpenter and blacksmith. On October 28, 1827, at the age of nineteen, James escaped from the plantation, leaving behind his parents and eleven siblings.
Pennington reached Adams County, Pennsylvania, where he was taken in by the Quakers William and Phoebe Wright. They assisted the fugitive from slavery, and began to teach him to read and write, as well as paying him wages for his work. As Pennington was illiterate, Wright began to teach him to read and write. Pennington adopted the middle name "William" after his benefactor, and the surname "Pennington," after Isaac Penington, an English man who was prominent in Quaker history.
Move to New York
Moving north to Brooklyn, New York, a year later in 1828, Pennington found work as a coachman for a wealthy lawyer. He continued his education, paying tutors out of his earnings, and teaching himself Latin and Greek. New York's law for gradual abolition of slavery did not completely free all adults until 1827. In the early 1800s Kings County and Brooklyn on Long Island still had many enslaved laborers, as they were important to the agricultural economy of the area at the time.
Pennington attended the first Negro National Convention in Philadelphia in 1829. He continued to be active in the Negro Convention movement, becoming its presiding officer in 1853. Within five years he had learned so much that he was hired to teach school in Newtown (present-day Elmhurst, Queens, in western Long Island).
He also became involved in the Shiloh Presbyterian Church, Manhattan.
Education
Pennington applied to Yale Divinity School but was denied admission due to the color of his skin. Yale administrators allowed Pennington to take classes at Yale University without formally matriculating, but under degrading conditions. He was not allowed to speak or ask a question in class, borrow a book from the library, or add his name to the Yale catalog, humiliations that he called "oppression." After completing his studies at Yale Divinity School, Pennington was ordained to the ministry of the Congregational Church, suggesting that the church recognized he had received a Yale education.
On April 24, 2023, Yale awarded Pennington a M.A. Privatim, acknowledging, "Although we cannot return to Pennington ... the access and privileges [he was] denied when [he] studied at Yale, we recognize [his] work and honor [his legacy] by conferring on [him a] M.A. Privatim degree.".
Ministry and social justice work
Pennington first served a congregation on Long Island, probably in Queens. Next Pennington was called in 1840 by the Talcott Street Church (now called Faith Congregational Church) in Hartford, Connecticut. While serving as minister, Pennington wrote what is believed to be the first history of African Americans, The Origin and History of the Colored People (1841), drawing on current works of the time.