American to the Backbone: The Life of James W. C. Pennington, the Fugitive Slave Who Became One of the First Black Abolitionists

American to the Backbone: The Life of James W. C. Pennington, the Fugitive Slave Who Became One of the First Black Abolitionists. By Christopher L. Webber. (New York: Pegasus Books, 2011, Pp. 480. $29.95.)

Christopher Webber, known by Episcopalians as the author of a number of excellent manuals for vestries, liturgical commentaries, as well as a metrical psalter, has launched into new territory, chronicling the life of an African American abolitionist, James William Charles Pennington. Pennington was a teacher on Long Island, eventually finding his way to Yale Divinity School in 1833 where he was treated in paternalistic fashion but showed great promise and competence. He was ordained in the Congregational Church in 1838 and served a church in...