Anderson Ruffin Abbott was born in Toronto on April 7, 1837, to Wilson and Mary Ellen Abbott, free Black Americans who had left Alabama after threats against their store and built a prosperous life in Canada — Wilson came to own dozens of Toronto properties. Anderson was educated at the Toronto Academy and Oberlin College, studied medicine in Toronto under Dr. Alexander Augusta, and in 1861 received his licence: the first Black Canadian licensed as a physician.

When the American Civil War came, Abbott served as a civilian surgeon in Union hospitals in Washington, D.C., one of only a handful of Black surgeons in the war. Returning to Canada, he became coroner for Kent County and later surgeon-in-chief there, practising in Chatham and Toronto. He died in Toronto on December 29, 1913.