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By Isabella Zavala

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About Dr.James Durham

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Durham was owned by a number of doctors, ending up in New Orleans with a Scottish physician, who hired him in 1783 to perform medical services.

Dr. James Durham has been widely acknowledged as the first recognized African American to be a physician in the United States. ... James Durham was born in 1762 in Philadelphia. He lived and worked most of his early life as a slave, owned by slaveholders who were themselves doctors.

James Derham (May 2, 1762—1802?), also known as James Durham, was the first African American to formally practice medicine in the United States, though he never received an M.D. degree.

Dr. James Durham has been widely acknowledged as the first recognized African American to be a physician in the United States. Due to lack of detailed documentation of his life, little is known about him including the date and manner of his death, as he would go missing in 1802, never to be seen again.

Dr. James Durham has been widely acknowledged as the first recognized African American to be a physician in the United States.

James Durham[1] (May 2, 1762[2]—1802?), also known as James Durham,[3] was the first African American to formally practice medicine in the United States,[4] though he never received an M.D. degree.

Dr.James Durham was a really known for being recognized and he really did take time off to help people.Dr.James was a good guy cause he helped us people.

"Then came Dr. James Durham, who could tell even the learned Dr. Rush something of medicine, and Lemuel Haynes, to whom Middlebury College gave an honorary A. M. in 1804. These and others we may call the Revolutionary group of distinguished Negroes - they were persons of marked ability, leaders of a Talented Tenth, standing conspicuously among the best of their time. They strove by word and deed to save the color line from becoming the line between the bond and free, but all they could do was nullified by Eli Whitney and the Curse of Gold. So they passed into forgetfulness."[7]

James Durham was born into slavery in Philadelphia in 1762. As a child, Durham was transferred to Dr. John Kearsley Jr. under whom Derham studied medicine. From Dr. Kearsley, Derham learned about compound medicine with a focus on curing illnesses of the throat,[3] as well as patient bedside manner.[5] Upon Dr. Kearsley's death, Derham, then fifteen years old,[3] was moved between several different masters before finally settling with Dr. George West, a surgeon for a British regiment during the American Revolutionary War. He was eventually transferred again, this time to New Orleans doctor Robert Dove. As an assistant at Dove's practice, Durham and Dove became friends, and Dove eventually granted Durham his freedom. With some financial assistance from Dove, Derham opened his own medical practice in New Orleans.[5] By 1789, his practice is reported to have made about $3,000 annually.[6] In 1788, Durham and Dr. Benjamin Rush met each other in Philadelphia, and corresponded with one another for twelve years. Durham's final letter to Rush in 1802 is the last record of his existence. It is believed that after the Spanish authorities restricted Durham to treating throat diseases in 1801, Derham left his practice in New Orleans.[3]

Early life and education

James J. Durham was born to James W. Durham and Dorcas Durham on April 13, 1849 near Woodruff, South Carolina in Spartanburg County. He and his mother were slaves of his father. At about the age of ten, they moved to a farm near Cashville, South Carolina where he worked until he was aged fifteen. At that point he was apprenticed to the blacksmith's trade which lasted until 1870. In July, 1867 he converted to the Baptist denomination and joined the Pilgrim Baptist Church in Greenville County and later that year was licensed to preach. In June 1868 he was ordained and made pastor of Foster Chapel in Spartanburg County fifteen miles from his home. He held the pastorate for eighteen months when he resigned and attended a school in Greenville Court House, continuing to work on Saturday's and during the summers. During the summer of 1873 he took courses in Latin and Algebra and entered the senior preparatory class for South Carolina College, failing to gain entrance to the Freshman class of the school. He took a job teaching the next summer and in October 1874 he entered the freshman class with a scholarship[1] and some financial support from his father.[2] When the State government became democratic, funding to the school was dropped, and in the spring of 1877, South Carolina College closed. In October 1877 he entered the Junior class of Atlanta University in Atlanta, Georgia. In May 1879 he left Atlanta University and in March 1880 he enrolled at Fisk University where he graduated with an A. B. in May.[1]