Tag Archives: Glasgow

New Article: James McCune Smith and Glasgow: A Scholar’s Transatlantic Journey, 1821-1837

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Illustration of James McCune Smith from “Builders of History and Civilization: Pfeiffer Presents Dr. James McCune Smith, Physician and Scholar, 1813-1864.” Detroit Tribune, 9 March 1940.

Dear friends of Ordinary Philosophy:

My scribbling away continues!

I’ve just written an article for the University of Glasgow’s Beniba Centre for Slavery Studies. It discusses James McCune Smith’s early years as a scholar and his years at the University of Glasgow, where he earned his bachelor’s, master’s, and medical degrees between 1832-1837. As you’ll see in the article, McCune Smith’s time in Glasgow deeply influenced him and helped make him the intellectual and activist powerhouse he became.

I hope you enjoy what you read!

Sincerely,

Amy

Say What? Frederick Douglass on Originalist Interpretations of the United States Constitution

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‘The fact that Mr. [James] Madison can be cited on both sides of this question [of slavery] is another evidence of the folly and absurdity of making the secret intentions of the framers the criterion by which the Constitution is to be construed.’

~ Frederick Douglass, ‘The Constitution of the United States: is it Pro-Slavery or Anti-Slavery?’
Speech delivered in Glasgow, Scotland, March 26th, 1860

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