Reverend Dr. Thomas Nelson Baker : Philosopher Born Enslaved

The Rev. Dr. Thomas Nelson Baker was the first known African American to receive a Ph.D. in Philosophy in the United States. Born a slave in 1860 in Eastville, Virginia, Dr. Baker spent his youth and early manhood as a farm laborer, sporadically attending schools for freed people until he was 12 years old. Abbreviated as his education was, he nonetheless gained from it an unquenchable love of learning, dreaming of once more sitting in a classroom. The opportunity to do so came when he was 21 years of age at which time he entered Gen’l. Samuel Chapman Armstrong’s Hampton Agricultural & Normal School, graduating in 1885. After teaching for one year in Virginia’s Dismal Swamp, he attended Mount Hermon Boys’ School in Massachusetts, coming under the influence of evangelist D.L. Moody. He thereafter entered Boston Univ (B.A. 1893), receiving the highest of honors. Three years at Yale Divinity (B.D. 1896) were followed by postgraduate work at Yale (Ph.D. 1903). While a student at Yale he was minister of Dixwell Congregational Church, the oldest Black Congregational church in the U.S. Called in 1901 to the pulpit of 2nd Congregational Church in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, he remained in that position until retiring in 1939. Published in national journals and local newspapers, an early advocate of Black Pride, woman suffrage and ecumenicalism, Dr. Baker died in 1941.

This book will appeal to and be readable by readers of general African American biography, people affiliated with Dr. Baker’s schools, those seeking inspiration for life. It will be of particular importance to historians and scholars of philosophy, religion, education, and African American life. Dr. Baker’s connections to Armstrong and Moody, as well as a volatile relationship with W.E.B. DuBois, will, in addition, contribute meaningfully to the biographies of these men.