Haynes, Lemuel

Impact on the world

Abandoned by his parents as an infant and raised as an indentured servant in a devout Massachusetts farming family, Haynes served as a Minuteman at the 1775 capture of Fort Ticonderoga before turning to theological study, writing an unpublished 1776 essay, “Liberty Further Extended,” that argued the logic of the Declaration of Independence demanded the abolition of slavery — one of the earliest such arguments by a Black American writer. Licensed to preach in 1780 and ordained in 1785, Haynes became pastor of a white congregation in Rutland, Vermont, in 1788, leading it for 30 years as membership grew from 42 to more than 350 in a pastor-congregation relationship remarkable for its era both in length and racial dynamic; he later received an honorary master's degree from Middlebury College in 1804, becoming the first Black American to receive an honorary college degree. Married to a white schoolteacher, Elizabeth Babbitt, with whom he had ten children, Haynes continued writing and preaching against slavery throughout his life, and his Vermont home was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1975.

Life & background

Born July 18, 1753, in West Hartford, Connecticut, to a white mother and Black father who both abandoned him in infancy, Haynes was raised as an indentured servant in Granville, Massachusetts, until age 21, when he joined the colonial militia. He was ordained a Congregational minister in 1785, led congregations in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont over nearly five decades, including 30 years at Rutland, Vermont, and died in South Granville, New York, on September 28, 1833, at age 80.

Sources

1. BlackPast.org; Connecticut History (CTHumanities); Journal of the American Revolution