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

Abstract This is the first modern critical anthology of the writings of James W.C. Pennington (1808–1870). An internationally renowned intellectual, theologian, abolitionist, and reformer, Pennington was a leading light of nineteenth-century African American thought and political organization. He has been unjustly forgotten today. In tandem with its companion volume, James W.C. Pennington: Essays Towards Rediscovering a Great African American Intellectual and Reformer, the anthology seeks to recover Pennington and present his thought to contemporary readers. The anthology contains Pennington’s two major works—his slave narrative, The Fugitive Blacksmith (1849), and his race history, A Text Book of the Origin and History of the Colored People (1841)—alongside a carefully selected sampling of his sermons, his publications on abolitionism, Black education, missions, and transatlantic reform, and documents related to his life. Many of these works have never appeared before in print. All texts are fully annotated and brought together in thematic sections. The critical introduction places the different chapters within the overlapping contexts of Pennington’s life and thought.