Page 16 - Florida Sentinel 2-15-19

Black History
17th century
1670
• First free African-Ameri- can woman to own land in Boston: Zipporah Potter Atkins
18th century
1730s–1770s
1738
• First free African-Ameri- can community: Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose (later named Fort Mose) in Florida
1760
• First known African- American published author: Jupiter Hammon (poem "An Evening Thought: Salva- tion by Christ with Peniten- tial Cries", published as a broadside)
1768
• First known African American to be elected to public office: Wentworth Cheswell, town constable in Newmarket, New Hamp- shire.
1773
• First known African- American woman to publish a book: Phillis Wheatley (Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral)
• First separate African- American church: Silver Bluff Baptist Church, Aiken County, South Carolina 1775
• First African American to join the Freemasons: Prince Hall
1778
• First African-American U. S. military regiment: the 1st Rhode Island Regiment 1780s–1790s
1783
• First African American to formally practice medi- cine: James Derham, who did not hold an M. D. degree. 1785
• First African American ordained as a Christian min- ister in the United States: Rev. Lemuel Haynes. He was ordained in the Congre-
gational Church, which be- came the United Church of Christ
1792
• First major African- American Back-to-Africa movement: 3,000 Black Loy- alist slaves, who had escaped to British lines during the American Revolutionary War for the promise of freedom, were relocated to Nova Sco- tia and given land. Later, 1,200 chose to migrate to West Africa and settle in the new British colony of Settler Town, which is present-day Sierra Leone.
1793
• First African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church founded: Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was founded by Richard Allen
1794
• First African Episcopal Church established: Absa- lom Jones founded African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, Philadelphia, Penn- sylvania
19th century
1800s
1804
• First African American ordained as an Episcopal priest: Absalom Jones in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1807
• First African American Presbyterian Church in America: First African Pres- byterian Church founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by John Gloucester a for- mer slave.
1810s
1816
• First fully independent African-American denomi- nation: African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), based in Philadelphia, Penn- sylvania and mid-Atlantic states
1820s
1821
• First African American
to hold a patent: Thomas L. Jennings, for a dry-cleaning process
1822
• First African-American captain to sail a whaleship with an all-black crew: Ab- salom Boston
1823
• First African American to receive a degree from an American college: Alexan- der Twilight, Middlebury College
• First African-American owned-and-operated news- paper: Freedom's Journal, founded in New York City by Rev. Peter Williams Jr. and other free blacks. 1830s
1836
• First African American elected to serve in a state leg- islature: Alexander Twi- light, Vermont
1837
• First formally trained African-American medical doctor: Dr James McCune Smith of New York City, who was educated at the Uni- versity of Glasgow, Scotland, and returned to practice in New York.
1840s
1845
• First African American licensed to practice law: Macon Allen from the Boston bar
1847
• First African American to graduate from a US med- ical school: Dr. David J. Peck (Rush Medical College) • First African-American
president of any nation: Joseph Jenkins Roberts, Liberia
1849
• First African-American college professor at a pre- dominantly white institution: Charles L. Reason, New York Central College
1850s
1851
• First African-American member of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits): Patrick Francis Healy
Louisiana Native Guard of the Confederate Army
• First African-American U. S. federal government civil servant: William Cooper Nell
1862
• First African-American woman to earn a B.A.: Mary Jane Patterson, Oberlin College
• First recognized U. S. Army African-American combat unit: 1st South Car- olina Volunteers
1863
• First college owned and operated by African Ameri- cans: Wilberforce University in Ohio
• First African-American president of a college: Bishop Daniel Payne (Wilberforce University)
1853
• First novel published by an African American: Clotel; or, The President's Daugh- ter, by William Wells Brown, then living in Lon- don.
1854
• First African-American Roman Catholic priest: James Augustine Healy
• First institute of higher learning created to educate African Americans: Ashmun Institute in Pennsylvania, re- named Lincoln University in 1866.
• First published play by an African American: The Es- cape; or, A Leap for Free- dom by William Wells Brown
• First African-American woman college instructor: Sarah Jane Woodson Early, Wilberforce College 1860s
1861
• First North American military unit with African- American officers: 1st
1864
• First African-American woman in the United States to earn an M. D.: Rebecca Davis Lee Crumpler 1865
• First African-American field officer in the U. S. Army: Martin Delany
• First African-American attorney admitted to the bar of the U. S. Supreme Court: John Stewart Rock
• First African American to be commissioned as cap- tain in the Regular U. S. Army: Orindatus Simon Bolivar Wall, known as OSB Wall
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