All I’ll add is that Smith was more “America’s first formally-credentialed Black physician,” since most physicians (in America, at least) didn’t attend medical

All I’ll add is that Smith was more “America’s first formally-credentialed Black physician,” since most physicians (in America, at least) didn’t attend medical school at the time; instead, medical schools were seen as an advanced education for tenured medical professionals, which made Smith’s accomplishments all the most striking, I think. Douglass’ publishing partner Martin Delany, for example, was practicing as a physician in Boston in or around 1830 (IIRC), after having apprenticed under physicians. He would later enroll as one of the first Black doctors at Harvard Medical School, but racism amongst students and professors meant all Black students were expelled before he could graduate, which led to his career as a firebrand abolitionist.