In professional life the Negro had by 1860 made a noteworthy beginning.  Already he had been forced to give attention to the law, though as yet little by way of actual practice had been done.  In this field Robert Morris, Jr., of Boston, was probably foremost.  William C. Nell, of Rochester and Boston, at the time prominent in newspaper work and politics, is now best remembered for his study of the Negro in the early wars of the country.  About the middle of the century Samuel Ringgold Ward, author of the Autobiography of a Fugitive Negro, and one of the most eloquent men of the time, was for several years pastor of a white Congregational church in Courtlandville, N.Y.; and Henry Highland Garnett was the pastor of a white congregation in Troy, and well known as a public-spirited citizen as well.  Upon James W.C.  Pennington the degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred by Heidelberg, and generally this man had a reputation in England and on the continent of Europe as well as in America.  About the same time Bishops Daniel A. Payne and William Paul Quinn were adding to the dignity of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Special interest attaches to the Negro physician.  Even in colonial times, though there was much emphasis on the control of diseases by roots or charms, there was at least a beginning in work genuinely scientific.  As early as 1792 a Negro named Caesar had gained such distinction by his knowledge of curative herbs that the Assembly of South Carolina purchased his freedom and gave him an annuity.  In the earlier years of the last century James Derham, of New Orleans, became the first regularly recognized Negro physician of whom there is a complete record.  Born in Philadelphia in 1762, as a boy he was transferred to a physician for whom he learned to perform minor duties.  Afterwards he was sold to a physician in New Orleans who used him as an assistant.  Two or three years later he won his freedom, he became familiar with French and Spanish as well as English, and he soon commanded general respect by his learning and skill.  About the middle of the century, in New York, James McCune Smith, a graduate of the University of Glasgow, was prominent.  He was the author of several scientific papers, a man of wide interests, and universally held in high esteem.  “The first real impetus to bring Negroes in considerable numbers into the professional world came from the American Colonization Society, which in the early years flourished in the South as well as the North ... and undertook to prepare professional leaders of their race for the Liberian colony.  ’To execute this scheme, leaders of the colonization movement endeavored to educate Negroes in mechanic arts, agriculture, science, and Biblical literature.  Especially bright or promising youths were to be given special training as catechists, teachers, preachers, and physicians.  Not much was said about what they were doing, but now and then appeared notices of Negroes who had been prepared privately