A Black Lawyer in Slave-Era America Sounds Impossible – But Macon Allen Did It

An Abolitionist Mentor Made It Possible

In 1844, a Black schoolteacher from Indiana walked into a Portland, Maine courtroom and changed American legal history. Macon Bolling Allen had already been rejected once for not being a “citizen” under state law.

But his mentor, an abolitionist attorney named Samuel Fessenden, found another way in. Allen would take an oral examination in front of a panel that did not want him there.

He passed anyway.

What happened over the next fifty years took him from an empty law practice in Maine to the first Black law firm in America and a judgeship in South Carolina.

The Court Rejects Him in April

On July 3, 1844, Macon Bolling Allen became the first Black person in America to earn a license to practice law. But it almost did not happen.

When Fessenden first petitioned for Allen to join the Maine bar that April, the Portland District Court said no. The court ruled that Allen was not a citizen of Maine because he had been living in Boston.

The rejection had nothing to do with his legal knowledge. It was a technicality, and Fessenden knew there was another path forward.

A Free Man Who Taught Himself

Allen was born free in Indiana in 1816 under the name Allen Macon Bolling. Indiana was a free state, but it was not welcoming to Black residents.

The state required Black people to register and post bond. Allen taught himself to read and write, then found work as a schoolteacher.

At some point in his twenties, he moved east to New England looking for better opportunities. In Boston, he changed his name to Macon Bolling Allen.

An Abolitionist Takes Him In

In the early 1840s, Allen arrived in Portland, Maine and began working for Samuel Fessenden. Fessenden was one of the most respected attorneys in the state and a founder of the Maine Anti-Slavery Society.

He took Allen on as a law clerk and began teaching him the profession.

Fessenden believed Allen had the ability to become a lawyer and was willing to fight for his admission to the bar. When the first attempt failed, Fessenden helped Allen try again.

Facing a Hostile Examination Panel

After the April rejection, Allen applied for admission by examination instead of petition. This method did not require Maine citizenship.

The examination panel was not friendly. Fessenden later said the committee did not want Allen admitted.

But Allen’s knowledge of the law was too strong to deny. He answered their questions and proved he belonged.

On July 3, 1844, he received his license.

Local newspapers noted it was the first time a Black man had been admitted to the bar anywhere in the country.

White Clients Would Not Hire Him

Making history did not pay the bills. Allen struggled to find any legal work in Portland.

White residents would not hire a Black attorney, and Maine had almost no Black population at the time.

Fessenden wrote to a fellow abolitionist that Portland was “an inveterate proslavery place” and that the local Black community was “few and poor.”

Within a year, Allen decided to leave Maine for a city with more opportunity.

He Walks 50 Miles to Boston

In 1845, Allen moved to Boston. According to some accounts, he walked fifty miles to the bar examination site because he could not afford transportation.

He passed the Massachusetts bar that May and became the first Black attorney to practice law in the state.

In Boston, he connected with Robert Morris, another Black lawyer, and the two may have opened the first Black law office in America. But even in Boston, Allen had trouble finding enough clients to make a living.

Becoming a Justice of the Peace

Allen decided to pursue a judgeship to supplement his income.

In 1847, he took a rigorous qualifying examination for Justice of the Peace in Middlesex County, Massachusetts.

He passed and was appointed to the position, becoming the second Black person in American history to hold a judicial office.

The first was Wentworth Cheswell of New Hampshire, who had been elected Justice of the Peace back in 1805. As Justice of the Peace, Allen handled minor crimes and small claims cases.

Moving South to Help the Freed

After the Civil War ended in 1865, Allen saw an opportunity to make a real difference.

He moved to Charleston, South Carolina during Reconstruction, when formerly enslaved people were gaining legal rights for the first time. Freedmen needed lawyers who would represent them in court.

Allen was one of the few Black attorneys in the country with decades of experience. Charleston offered him something Maine and Boston never had: a large Black population that needed his help.

The First Black Law Firm Opens

In 1868, Allen joined two other Black attorneys to form Whipper, Elliott, and Allen at 91 Broad Street in Charleston. William Whipper was a Pennsylvania-born abolitionist who had served in the Union Army.

Robert Elliott had come from England and quickly became active in South Carolina politics. Together, the three men created the first known Black law firm in American history.

Among other cases, the firm represented Black defendants fighting death sentences.

Elected Judge Over a White Incumbent

Allen’s career in South Carolina kept rising. In 1873, the state legislature elected him to serve as a judge on the Charleston County Criminal Court. He served for three years.

Then in 1876, he ran for probate judge of Charleston County against the white incumbent. Allen won.

He handled estate disputes and other civil matters until Reconstruction collapsed and federal troops left the South. After that, he moved to Washington, D.C. , where he worked as an attorney until his death in 1894 at age 78.

The Legacy That Started in Portland

Allen’s only known portrait hung in Portland City Hall for years after his death. Sometime in the early 1900s, it disappeared and has never been found.

But what Allen built did not vanish. He proved that a Black man could master the law, argue before juries, serve as a judge, and build a law firm from nothing.

Today, Black attorneys make up less than five percent of lawyers in America.

Every one of them practices in a profession that Macon Bolling Allen opened in a Portland courtroom 180 years ago.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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