John Quamino

John Quamino (c. 1744 August 1779) was a formerly enslaved man who trained as a missionary and may have been the first African to attend college in America.

Early life Quamino was born to a wealthy family near Anomabu in Ghana, perhaps in 1744 or 1745. In the 1750s, when he was a small child, his father arranged for him to travel and receive a Western education. However, the captain who was meant to transport Quamino instead sold him into slavery. By the 1760s, Quamino was in Newport, Rhode Island, enslaved by Captain Benjamin Church, the father of Dr. Benjamin Church. Quamino's duties in the Church household are unclear. Quamino converted to Christianity shortly after arriving in Newport, where he was a member of the First Congregational Church under Samuel Hopkins.