Theodore Sedgewick Wright was born to free parents in 1797. He is named after the lawyer who represented Elizabeth Freeman — the first Black woman in Massachusetts history to sue for her freedom (she won).

Wright graduated from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1828. He was the first Black man in America to attend seminary, but his Black presbyterian contemporaries were many: Samuel Eli Cornish, Charles Ray, Henry Highland Garnet, Amos Beman, James W.C. Pennington, John Chavis, John Gloucester, and Charles W. Gardner. Wright was especially known for his theologically robust sermons.

Daniel Payne described Wright as: “”beloved by everybody who knew him on account of his generous nature and catholic spirit.”

Wright was a member of the Underground Railroad, one of the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society, a journalist for America’s first Black newspaper (Freedom’s Journal), chair of the New York Vigilance Committee, and pastor of a thriving Black congregation.

He died in 1847, after a long and fruitful ministry.