By the early 1850s, the former slave James W.C. Pennington had become an internationally prominent African American minister, abolitionist and reformer. With its scathing analysis of the chattel system, gripping account of his escape, and inspirational story of self-education and conversion to an activist faith, Pennington's autobiography, The Fugitive Blacksmith (1849), found readers on both sides of the Atlantic. Pennington's second major work, A Text Book of the Origin and History of the Colored People (1841), pioneered a new kind of Black history. However, during the Civil War era, Pennington's star declined, and after Reconstruction, he was largely forgotten.

This volume offers the first-ever modern edition of The Fugitive Blacksmith and A Text Book, alongside other selections of Pennington's essential sermons, speeches, and journalistic contributions, and an introduction by the volume editors. The volume provides readers the rich biographical and historical background, as well as the political and intellectual contexts, necessary to appreciate Pennington and his activism. Through these texts, which explore perennial philosophical questions about human nature, the meaning of freedom, and the possibility of a just and inclusive society, we see Pennington in his rightful place as an important part of the Black intellectual tradition in the 19th century.