Samuel Jackson

Dr. Samuel Jackson (1787-1872) was considered by some to be the best physician in United States in the mid-19th century, but far less is documented about his interest in political economy. Samuel Jackson was born on March 22, 1787, in Philadelphia. In 1808, he would receive his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. He would eventually become a professor at the University of Pennsylvania in 1835, where he taught physiology and medicine. Jackson would remain a professor at the university until his retirement in 1863. Jackson’s economic writings would appear in 1819 and were a product of his collaboration with Mathew Carey through the Philadelphia Society for the Promotion of National Industry. Only two of Jackson’s essays are known today. It is possible that he wrote more which were never published or others which have been lost over the years. The first of his essays was entitled a General View of the Subject of Political Economy and the second was Proportion of Persons who Raise the Necessaries of Life. Both essays were published as part of Mathew Carey’s Essays on Political Economy. Jackson died on April 2, 1872, at the age of eighty-two