BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY : AFRO-CANADIAN " WILSON RUFFIN ABBOTT " WAS THE FIRST CANADIAN BORN MAN OF BLACK HERITAGE TO BECOME A LICENSED PHYSICIAN : GOES INTO THE " HALL OF BLACK GENIUS "

                                     BLACK              SOCIAL              HISTORY                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               In 1861, Abbott became the first Canadian-born man of Black heritage to become a licensed physician. He was born to a prominent family in Toronto. His parents, Wilson Ruffin Abbott and Ellen (Toyer) Abbott, were two “free people of colour” who left Alabama to flee violence and eventually settled in Toronto in 1835 or 1836. His father owned several properties in Toronto and was active in politics. Thanks to his family success, he able to have access to an extensive education. An honour student, he eventually studied medicine at the Toronto School of Medicine and did his medical matriculation at the University of Toronto.

Abbott worked as one of eight black surgeons during the American Civil War. His skills in both the operating theatre and in social circles made him a popular figure in the Washington D.C.’s social scene. He enjoyed a close relationship with President Lincoln. When Lincoln was mortally wounded, Abbot was in attendance at his deathbed. Abbott returned to Canada in 1866 where established a medical practice. He was admitted to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario in 1871 and became a prominent figure in Toronto’s Black Community, like his parents before him. As a man committed to education and integration, 1873 to 1880 Abbott fought against racially segregated schools while president of the Wilberforce Educational Institute, a well-respected school for Chatham’s Black students preparing for university. Abbott was made president of both the Chatham Literary and Debating Society and the Chatham Medical Society in 1878. Abbott believed that access to higher education was essential to the success of individuals in his community.

A prolific writer, Abbott contributed to the Chatham Planet, Colored American Magazine of Boston and New York, the Anglo-American Magazine of London and New York Age. He wrote about medicine, the Civil War, Black history, Darwinism, biology, and poetry. Other notable accomplishments include being chosen as coroner for Kent County, Ontario in 1864, becoming the first Black man to hold that post. In 1892, Abbott was given the highest military honour ever bestowed on a Black person in Canada or the United States when he was appointed aide-de-camp “on the Staff of the Commanding Officers Dept.” of New York.

Abbott died in 1913 at the Toronto home of his son-in-law Frederick Langdon Hubbard, son of Black municipal reformer William Peyton Hubbard, at the age of 76. He is buried in the Toronto Necropolis.