Black Medical Practitioners on Yonge Street

Pharmacy of Dr. Alexander Thomas Augusta

Source : Toronto Public Library Digital Archive


Dr. Augusta

Dr. Augusta graduated from Trinity Medical College and practiced medicine for eight years before returning to the US. 

Source: Picture of Alexander Thomas Augusta before 1891. Wikimedia Communs. 


Augusta Pharmacy Ad, 1855

Goods and treatments offered by Dr. Augusta.

Source: The Provincial Freeman in October 1855


Dr. Anderson R. Abbott

First Canadian-born Black medical doctor.

Source: Picture of Abbott circa 1863. Wikimedia Communs. 

Text version of the audio

African American doctor Alexander Thomas Augusta operated a private practice and his own pharmacy on Yonge Street between Elm and Gould. He migrated to Canada West in 1853 from the United States after being rejected from American medical schools because of his race. He was born free in Virginia. In 1856, he graduated from the Toronto School of Medicine or Trinity Medical College, which is now part of the University of Toronto.

Augusta’s pharmacy offered medicinal drugs, perfumery, and dye-stuffs over the counter. He offered a range of services including filling the prescriptions of other physicians, leeching treatment, bloodletting, cupping, and teeth extractions. Augusta also served as an assistant physician for the House of Industry, on Elm Street at Elizabeth Street in the heart of St. John's Ward. 

Anti-slavery activist

Augusta was an anti-slavery activist. He participated in community-led activities and helped found The Provincial Association for the Education and Elevation of the Coloured People of Canada. 

Augusta was a mentor to Anderson Ruffin Abbott, the first Canadian born Black doctor. Abbott entered the Toronto School of Medicine in 1857 and studied for four years under Dr. Augusta. Dr. Abbott received a license to practice from the Medical Board of Upper Canada in 1861. Abbott was admitted to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Upper Canada and had a long and very successful medical career. 

Return to the US 

In 1863, Dr. Alexander Thomas Augusta left Canada West to return to the US where he served as a major in the Union army. Pres. Abraham Lincoln appointed Augusta as the head of the Freedmen’s Hospital in Washington, D.C, a hospital established in 1862 to provide medical care to the formerly enslaved. 

Abbott also left his hometown of Toronto to enlist in the Union Army, serving as a member of the Medical Corps. He then joined Dr. Augusta at the Freedman’s hospital and eventually returned to Canada West. 

First Black Hospital Administrator in USA

Augusta became head surgeon of the 7th Regiment Infantry, US Colored Troops. He was the first of eight Black officers to serve during the Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln appointed Augusta as the head of the Freedmen’s Hospital in Washington, D.C., a hospital established in 1862 to provide medical care to the formerly enslaved. This appointment made Augusta the first Black hospital administrator in the United States. 

In 2023 a plaque was erected near College Street and Queen’s Park in honour of Augusta and a plaque was erected in the Doctor’s Parkette in Kensington Market in honour of Abbott.

Extrait de
Tracing Mary Ann Shadd Cary's Footsteps in Mid-19th C. Black Toronto

Tracing Mary Ann Shadd Cary's Footsteps in Mid-19th C. Black Toronto image circuit

Présenté par : Dr. Natasha Henry-Dixon, York University
Directions

Téléchargez l'application BaladoDécouverte (pour Android et iOS) et accédez au plus vaste réseau francophone d’expériences de visites guidées en Amérique.