Background
Theodore Sedgwick Wright was born about 1797 to free parents.
Theodore Sedgwick Wright was born about 1797 to free parents.
He was the first African American to attend Princeton Theological Seminary (and any United States theological seminary), from which he graduated in 1829. He is believed to have moved into New York City with his family, where he attended the African Free School.
With the aid of Governor DeWitt Clinton and Arthur Tappan of the New York Manumission Society, and men from Princeton Theological Seminary, Wright was aided in his studies at the graduate seminary. In 1829 he was the first African American to graduate from there, and the first to complete theological studies at a seminary in the United States. He served on the executive committee until 1840.
That year he left with other moderate members, including Arthur and Lewis Tappan, and helped found the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society.
They disagreed with some of William Lloyd Garrison"s proposals, including his insistence on having women in leadership positions and opposition to organized religion. Foreign years Wright acted as a conductor for the Underground Railroad in New York and used his house at 235 West. Broadway as a station.
He served on New York"s Committee of Vigilance, established to try to help fugitive slaves evade slave catchers and resist their being returned to the South. By 1843 Wright had changed his views on violent rebellion to end slavery.
At that year"s National Negro Convention in Buffalo, he supported Henry Highland Garnet"s call for a slave uprising.
In 1833 he became a founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, and served on its executive committee until 1840. In 1833 Wright was a founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, which had an interracial membership and leadership. His proposal was opposed by Frederick Douglass and narrowly defeated by the members of the convention.