James William Charles Pennington (c. 1807 – October 22, 1870) was an American historian, abolitionist, orator, minister, writer, and social organizer.

As it increased the risk for fugitive slaves in the North, Pennington stayed in the British Isles while friends worked to buy his freedom from his former master and then from his estate.

[6] Moving north to Brooklyn, New York, a year later in 1828, Pennington found work as a coachman for a wealthy lawyer.

In the early 1800s Kings County and Brooklyn on Long Island still had many enslaved laborers, as they were important to the agricultural economy of the area at the time.

[9] Within five years he had learned so much that he was hired to teach school in Newtown (present-day Elmhurst, Queens, in western Long Island).

He was not allowed to speak or ask a question in class, borrow a book from the library, or add his name to the Yale catalog, humiliations that he called "oppression.

Privatim, acknowledging, "Although we cannot return to Pennington...the access and privileges [he was] denied when [he] studied at Yale, we recognize [his] work and honor [his legacy] by conferring on [him a] M.A.

[2] In this work, Pennington expressed anti-Catholic sentiments and claimed that supposedly Biblical justification for slavery had roots in "a doctrine first invented by a bishop of the Romish church".

[16] Pennington was among those in the late 1830s who became involved in seeking justice for some West African Mende people illegally taken in slavery.

It was ultimately settled by the United States Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the Mende, saying that as free men (since the African slave trade had been banned), they had the right to defend themselves and try to regain their freedom.

Although Pennington was called to New York in 1850 to serve the Shiloh Presbyterian Church, he feared returning while at such risk.

[18] Hooker worked with abolitionists in England to raise money to purchase Pennington from Tilghman's estate (the planter had died).

[16] While remaining in the British Isles for nearly two years for his safety, Pennington traveled widely there and in Europe, speaking and raising money for the abolition cause.

[19] After returning to the United States, Pennington helped form a committee to protest the segregation of the New York City public transit system.

Defended by young attorney Chester A. Arthur,[21] Jennings won her case in February 1855 in the Brooklyn Circuit Court, after a three-day trial covered by the New York Times.

[22][21] When Pennington was arrested and convicted in 1859 for riding in a "white only" street car operated by another company, he was represented by the Legal Rights Association.

[20] He challenged the system successfully and on appeal, gained an 1855 ruling by the State Supreme Court that such racial segregation was illegal and must end.

[23] Pennington identified as a pacifist, but during the American Civil War (1861–1865), he helped recruit black troops for the Union Army.