I chose Martin Robinson Delany because of the many contributions he made toward the impact on the history of African American as a doctor, journalist, abolitionist, civil war commander, politician, and teacher. Martin Delany was a free black man who was able to study medicine under a white abolitionist physician and eventually became one of the first black men to study medicine at Harvard University in 1850. In 1843 he established himself as a journalist by starting a black newspaper called “The Mystery” in Pittsburg. He lost his newspaper in 1847 but was recognized by Fredrick Douglas and became a co-write for Douglas’ periodical called “The North Star”. After publishing four books in 1852 he began an emigration movement of African Americans out of the …show more content…
He was the youngest of five children and was born free because of the Virginia state law and Pati Delany, his mother who was a seamstress, who held the status of a free African American. The Delany family lived in Charles Town, Virginia until early 1820’s. Martin mother took her family to Pennsylvania in order to avoid persecution by authorities because she attempted to teach her five children how to read and write, which in those times in Virginia was not allowed under the Virginia state law. Marin lived in Pennsylvania until he was nineteen then traveled to Pittsburg in 1831. It is said that Delany worked as a barber and laborer during the day and studied nights at the Bethel African American Methodist Episcopal Church. By 1833 Martin, who was attending Jefferson College, gained the ability to become an apprentice to Dr. Andrew McDowell a white physician and abolitionist. Delany learned methods on how to treat patience with cholera using leeching and fire cupping techniques. Martin was mentored by three different physicians, all abolitionists, and eventually opened who his own fire cupping/leeching