April 7, 1837 - Anderson Ruffin Abbott - a podcast by Stephen Hammond

Canada’s first black doctor, Anderson Ruffin Abbott, is born.Wilson Ruffin Abbott and Ellen Toyer lived in Alabama before moving to Toronto, Ontario, where they acquired property and Wilson became active in politics. On April 7, 1837, their son Anderson Ruffin Abbott was born. After excelling at school, the young Abbott graduated from the Toronto School of Medicine in 1857 and continued with studies at the University of Toronto. After studying under a foreign-born black doctor, Alexander Thomas Augusta, Abbott obtained his license from the Medical Board of Upper Canada and became Canada’s first Canadian-born black doctor in 1861.In 1863 he signed on as a medical cadet in a “colored” regiment for the Union Army during the American Civil War, and eventually became a civilian surgeon for the military. He worked at hospitals in Washington, D.C., receiving high praise for his work. In April 1865, when President Abraham Lincoln was shot, Abbott was on duty, and tended to him as he died. In gratitude, Mary Todd Lincoln presented Abbott with a shawl Lincoln wore during his first presidential inauguration. A year later, Abbott returned to Toronto, and in 1871 was admitted to the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons. That same year he married Mary Ann Casey and moved to Chatham, Ontario. There they had three daughters and two sons. Abbott became a prominent member of the Chatham community: promoting the education of students in a non-segregated environment, becoming a coroner, writing for various journals and taking leadership roles in literary and medical organizations. Abbott continued to write and advocate for education and the integration of blacks and whites until he died in December 1913.

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