Dr. Anderson Ruffin Abbott

Dr. Anderson Ruffin Abbott. , Dr. Abbott was among the first Black Canadians licensed as a medical doctor., Anderson Abbott was born in Toronto to Wilson and Ellen Abbott, business owners who fled racial violence in Alabama in 1834. They settled in Toronto, where Wilson fought in the 1837 Upper Canada Rebellion and became a wealthy property owner. He supported Black political causes and ran for Toronto city council., Dr. Abbott attended University College and the Toronto School of Medicine. He earned his medical licence in 1862 after apprenticing for American-born Dr. Alexander Augusta, one of the first licensed Black doctors in Canada., During the US Civil War, Dr. Abbott became a surgeon in the Union army and was Surgeon in-Chief at the Freedmen's Hospital. He returned to Toronto in 1866 and became the acting resident surgeon at Toronto General Hospital. With his wife, Mary Ann Casey, he later moved to Chatham, where he was appointed Kent County Coroner. As president of the Wilberforce Educational Institute from 1873 to 1880, he fought against racially segregated schools. He continued to move around Southwestern Ontario, practising medicine and holding important community roles., Dr. Abbott increasingly dedicated himself to writing newspaper articles about Black history, the Civil War, medicine, and poetry. He died in Toronto in 1913, having advocated for racial equality in education and broken barriers in the medical field.