born , May 6, 1812, Charles Town, Virginia, U.S.
died Jan. 24, 1885, Xenia, Ohio
U.S. abolitionist and physician.
After working in Pittsburgh, Pa., as a doctor's assistant, he founded a newspaper, Mystery , in the 1840s to publicize the grievances of blacks; he later copublished the North Star (184649) with Frederick Douglass . One of the first blacks admitted to Harvard Medical School (185051), he later practiced in Pittsburgh. He developed a strong interest in foreign colonization by black Americans and went to Africa to investigate sites. He moved to Canada in 1856 and returned early in the American Civil War to recruit for the 54th Massachusetts Volunteers, for which he also served as surgeon. He was made a major, the first black to receive a regular army commission. He later served in the Freedmen's Bureau .