The Life of Fugitive Slave James Pennington - 05/14/2012

Christopher Webber, Author of American to the Backbone: The Life of Fugitive Slave James W. Pennington

Christopher Webber, Author of American to the Backbone: The Life of Fugitive Slave James W. Pennington, will come to the Spa City on to discuss the life of James Pennington as part of the Alfred Z. Solomon Charitable Trust Program Series. James Pennington was illiterate when he escaped from slavery at the age of 19, but over time he became a school teacher, the first African-American student at Yale and helped desegregate the New York City street car system. He had many other notable achievements including working as a pharmacist in Saratoga Springs. As remarkable as the individual story of James Pennington is, it also sheds light on the critical years in which Americans were first challenged to imagine this country as more than a mono-racial society. Insisting that “I am an American to the backbone,” Pennington and others resisted the efforts of the American Colonization Society to solve America’s race problem by sending those of African descent “back to Africa,” a continent most of them never knew. This is a critical part of America’s story and Christopher Webber’s book, American to the Backbone, has won praise from reviewers for the way it tells the story. Join us for a lecture about this fascinating man and his story by author Christopher Webber. This is free of charge and open to everyone. Christopher L. Webber, a graduate of Princeton University and the General Theological Seminary in New York (with two earned degrees and an honorary doctorate from the latter), is the author of a number of books ranging from a guidebook for Vestries to Beyond Beowulf, the first-ever sequel to the old English saga, Beowulf.