James Derham

James Derham, also recorded as James Durham, was born into slavery in Philadelphia on 2 May 1762 and became the first African American to formally practice medicine in the United States, although he never received an M.D. degree. As a child he was transferred to the physician John Kearsley Jr., under whom he studied medicine, learning about compound medicines for throat illnesses and about bedside manner. He passed through several enslavers, including a surgeon for a British regiment in the American Revolutionary War, and in New Orleans served as assistant to the doctor Robert Dove, who granted him his freedom and helped him open a practice. He corresponded for years with Benjamin Rush, who read Derham's paper on diphtheria to the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. His final letter to Rush, written in 1802, is the last record of his life.