Boston's Black Brahmin: Dr. John S. Rock

BOSTON'S BLACK BRAHMIN: DR. JOHN S. ROCK George A. Levesque No doubt because of its alliterative lilt, the phrase "Boston Brahmin" has long been common coin in the American lexicon. But slogans, like myths, must be rooted in fact if they are to be accepted as semaphores for a more complex reality. In the second and third quarters of the nineteenth century, New England's prestige as "the emporium of all that was good and great in America" was at its highest; and Boston, dubbed by contemporaries "the Athens of America," was the recognized center of the bewildering variety of benevolent and intellectual activity then taking place in the young nation. As the title of this essay suggests, the alliterative quality of the phrase "Boston Brahmin" can be improved upon; so, too, can the representativeness of that remarkable company of clerics, physicians, educators, professional reformers, statesmen, and men of letters apostrophized by the rubric. That addition, and the subject of this article, is Boston's forgotten Brahmin, the talented physician-lawyer Dr. John S. Rock. John Swett Rock was born in Salem, New Jersey, a small town some fourteen miles southeast ofWilmington, Delaware, on October 13, 1825. He died in Boston on December 3, 1866, at the age of forty-one. A story in the New York Tribune in 1865 on the occasion of his admission to the federal bar offered this verbal portrait: Rock was described as "jet black, with hair of an extra twist—let me have the pleasure of saying . ..." the Trib's correspondent added, "of an aggravating 'kink'— unqualifiedly, obtrusively, defiantly 'Nigger'—with no palliation of complexion, no let down in lip, no compromise in nose, no abatement whatever in any facial, cranial, [or] osteological particular . . ." William Wells Brown, who knew Rock personally as a fellow-travellerin the cause of abolitionism, described him as "tall and of good figure, with a thoughtful countenance, and a look that indicates the student."1 *I wish to express my appreciation to Professor David Donald for sharing with me his research notes on Charles Sumner; to Edward J. Sweny of the New England Deposit Library, forhis customary diligence; to Dennis C. Marnon of the Houghton Library; to the staffofthe inter-library loan department at Indiana State University for their resourcefulness on by behalf; and to my colleague, Joe Weixlmann, for his critical reading of the manuscript. 1 "The Dred Scott Case Buried in the Supreme Court—A Negro Lawyer Admitted by Civil War History, Vol. XXVI, No. 4 Copyright © 1980 by The Kent State University Press 0009-8078/80/2604-0003 $01.00/0 BOSTON'S BLACK BRAHMIN327 Everything we know aboutJohn Rock reinforces the characterization of him as a man of the mind. Uncommonly studious as a youngster, he early became attached to books, and preferred their company to the amusements normally enjoyed by children his age. Aware that their son had a bent for learning, Rock's parents encouraged his scholarly interests , and in 1844, although then only nineteen years of age, the young student began a four-year stint as a teacher in the public schools of his native Salem.2 Like many young men, Rock did not see schoolteaching as the capstone of his career ambitions. Accordingly, after teaching his charges eight hours a day, Rock, in his afterhours, would indulge his real ambition , to become a physician. Under the tutelage of two local doctors who opened their private libraries to him, he began his medical apprenticeship . However, when the time came for Rock to enter medical school, none would admit him. Undaunted, and determined to have a future in a related profession, Rock now undertook the study of dentistry which, unlike medicine, did not then require formal academic training. In the summer of 1849, after an apprenticeship of a year or more with a local dentist, Dr. Harbery, young Rock felt ready to open his own dental office.3 Since his practice would be largely, if not exclusively, limited to Negro patients, Rock decided to begin his practice in neighboring Philadelphia, where lived one of the largest free black populations of any city in the ante-bellum North. The belief that plyinghis profession in...