Mixed Race Studies

Black Puritan, Black Republican: The Life and Thought of Lemuel Haynes, 1753-1833

Oxford University Press
2002-12-12
248 pages
9.04 x 6.84 x 0.9 inches
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0195157178
DOI: 10.1093/0195157176.001.0001

John Saillant, Professor of English and History
Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan

In the second half of the eighteenth century, British and American men and women began criticizing the slave trade and slavery as violations of the principles of Christianity, natural rights, and political security. A black spokesman for abolitionism was Lemuel Haynes (1753–1833), one of the first African Americans to publish. Haynes served as a minuteman in the American War of Independence and began writing against the slave trade and slavery in the 1770s. After ordination in a Congregational church, he assumed a pulpit in Rutland, Vermont, where he became a leading controversialist, defender of the theology of Jonathan Edwards, and interpreter of republican ideology. He was dismissed from his pulpit in 1818, because his affiliation to the Federalist Party and his opposition to the War of 1812 offended his congregation. The last 15 years of his life were characterized by pessimism about the ability of Americans of the early republic to defeat racism as well as by a defense of Puritanism, which he believed could guide the creation of a free, harmonious, and integrated society.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• 1. A Further Liberty in 1776
• 2. Republicanism Black and White
• 3. The Divine Providence of Slavery and Freedom
• 4. Making and Breaking the Revolutionary Covenant
• 5. American Genesis, American Captivity

But God was only getting started. It was at this time, in 1783, that [Lemuel] Hayne’s ministry began to grow. A young white woman, good friend and schoolteacher, Elizabeth Babbitt, moved from her home in order to be near Haynes. Just 21 years old, she proposed to Haynes, breaking several barriers and cultural norms in the process. She waited to propose until they had reached Connecticut because of the several miscegenetic laws that Massachusetts had. He joyfully accepted and they had 10 children together.

Thaddeus Tague, “Historical Reformer – Lemuel Haynes,” Nations, December 12, 2020. https://nationsmedia.org/historical-reformer-lemuel-haynes.

May We Meet in the Heavenly World: The Piety of Lemuel Haynes – Profiles in Reformed Spirituality (Anyabwile, ed.)

Reformation Heritage Books
2009-06-01
128 pages
4.5 x 0.4 x 6.9 inches
Paperback ISBN: 9781601780652
Ebook ISBN: 9781601783486

Lemuel Haynes (1753-1833)

Edited and Introduced by:

Thabiti M. Anyabwile, Pastor
Anacostia River Church, Washington, D.C.

Through both the biographical essay and the selections from Lemuel Haynes’s writings, readers are sure to perceive an Edwardsian sense of spirituality that ever lived in view of eternity. Well acquainted with difficulties, suffering, and death, Haynes’s ministry was infused with the unfailing hope of heaven.

Table of Contents:

1. The Life and Piety of Lemuel Haynes (1753-1833)
2. The Gospel and Slave-Keeping
3. The Necessity of Regeneration
4. The Nature of Regeneration
5. A Brief Sketch of a Tour into the State of Vermont
6. The Character of a Spiritual Watchmen
7. Meeting with God and Our people on the Day of Judgment
8. How Eternity Affects Daily Ministry
9. To Timothy Mather Cooley
10. To Timothy Mather Cooley
11. Reminders When a Faithful Minister Is Taken Away
12. Ministers and Their Families before the Bar of Christ
13. Government and Religion Stand Together
14. To Timothy Mather Cooley
15. True Greatness
16. To Timothy Mather Cooley
17. To Timothy Mather Cooley
18. To Timothy Mather Cooley
19. Confiding in God’s Government and the Use of Means
20. Expect to Die Soon
21. To Timothy Mather Cooley
22. To Timothy Mather Cooley
23. Love without Dissimulation
24. The Gospel Ministry and Politics
25. To Deacon Elihu Atkins
26. Traveling into Another World
27. Suffering and Glory
28. To Deacon Elihu Atkins
29. Make Haste to the Lord
30. Externally Marked for Christ
31. In the Hands of God
32. Christ Is My All

Lemuel Haynes

Vermont History
Vermont Historical Society
Barre, VT
2019-10-03

Steve Perkins, Executive Director

Lemuel Haynes of Rutland, Vermont was an incredible Vermonter. Haynes, an African-American man, was a great writer, thinker, and minister. In 1785, he was one of the first, if not the first, African-Americans to be ordained into the Congregational Church in the whole United States and led a mostly white congregation for over 30 years.

Watch the video here.

Historical Reformer – Lemuel Haynes

Nations
2021-12-20

Thaddeus Tague

The First Black Pastor in American History

On April 19th, 1775 – war was coming to Lexington, Massachusetts. The 77 hastily armed colonists arrived first. The sun began to rise, and with it came the sound of a marching war machine. The militaristically-naked colonists gaped at the more than 700 redcoats that faced them, weapons drawn. A sneering British major had approached within shouting distance and yelled, “Throw down your arms! Ye villains, ye rebels.” Within moments, firing started on both sides. Eight colonists lay dead. The British force advanced and set fire to the town. As soon as they advanced beyond the town however, they were met with the veritable thousands of “minutemen” who had assembled nearby. Quickly deployed and burning to protect their freedom, the minutemen overwhelmed the British force. In the days after, thousands more men were recruited in the local region. One of these men was a newly freed slave named Lemuel Haynes. A passionate Christian and Calvanist, Lemuel helped fight and tend to the wounded during the subsequent engagements. Seeing the blood and combat on the following few days – he vowed in his heart that he would fight to extend freedom and liberty to all men and women in the new colonies…

Read the entire article here.