Benjamin Rush: an Enlightened Christian and an Abolitionist

Rather than assume the Africans were inferior to the white, Rush argued that they had the same capability to read and write. In 1773, African American poet Phillis Wheatley published his Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, which made him rather happy. Born in Gambia, Senegal, Wheatley became a slave when she was just seven years old. Then Wheatley was purchased by the Wheatley family of Boston, who taught her to read, write and encouraged her to write poetry. When her Poems were published, George Washington highly praised it. For Rush, Wheatley was a good example for African slaves to prove that they had the same capabilities as the white to accept education.


Rush believed that the African slaves were not inferior to the white in intellects and the case of Dr. James Durham could demonstrate it. On May 1, 1762, James Durham was born as a slave in Philadelphia. While he was still a young boy, he was sold to John A. Kearsley, Jr., an expert on sore throat diseases, who introduced him to medicine. Durham continued to work in medicine with different masters and finally bought his freedom before his twenty-first birthday. In 1788, Durham traveled to Philadelphia and met Dr. Benjamin Rush. At their first meeting, Rush was impressed with Durham’s medical knowledge and praised him for his language skills, because he could speak French and Spanish. Since abolitionists attempted to change the belief that the Negro was inferior and lacking in intelligence, Rush was interested in interviewing him and gladly to introduce him to his family, his academic colleagues, and his friends. Later, they became good friends and corresponded to each other for many years.