James W.C. Pennington : African American churchman and abolitionist /

Thomas has written a competent first book on the life and struggles of James Pennington, the fugitive slave blacksmith who became a clergyman and a leading abolitionist. His main argument is that Pennington exhibited the dual functions of African American religion in his career, holding to the dialectical tension between the "other-worldliness" of salvation in the hereafter and the "this-worldly" commitment to abolitionist activities. Ordained by the Presbyterians, Pennington was elected twice as a moderator in the white-controlled Congregational denomination. Eventually, the moderateness of these white denominations regarding slavery led him to join the predominantly black African Methodist Episcopal Church in its Southern campaign. Although Pennington supported the sending of culturally sensitive missionaries to the interior of Africa, he was firmly opposed to the colonization efforts of the American Colonization Society because he saw it as an effort to coerce African Americans into exile. Pennington became the first black person to receive an honorary doctor of divinity degree from the University of Heidelberg in 1843. Reading more like a doctoral dissertation than a moving historical narrative about an accomplished fugitive slave, this is, nonetheless, a thoroughly researched study. Appendix on the documents granting the honorary degree; extensive bibliography. Recommended for scholars and advanced graduate students. L. H. Mamiya; Vassar College