Henry Highland Garnet | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | December 23, 1815 New Market, Maryland, U.S. |
| Died | February 13, 1882 (aged 66) Monrovia, Liberia |
| Alma mater | Oneida Institute |
| Occupations | |
| Spouse | Julia Ward Williams |
| Personal | |
| Religion | Christian (Presbyterian) |
Henry Highland Garnet (December 23, 1815 – February 13, 1882) was an American abolitionist, minister, educator, orator, and diplomat. Having escaped as a child from slavery in Maryland with his family,[1] he grew up in New York City. He was educated at the African Free School and other institutions, and became an advocate of militant abolitionism. He became a minister and based his drive for abolitionism in religion.
Garnet was a prominent member of the movement that led beyond moral suasion toward more political action. Renowned for his skills as a public speaker, he urged black Americans to take action and claim their own destinies. ("He saw little hope for freeing the slaves except by their own efforts."[2]) For a period, he supported emigration of American free blacks to Mexico, Liberia, or the West Indies, but the American Civil War ended that effort. In 1841, he married abolitionist Julia Ward Williams and they had a family. Stella (Mary Jane) Weems, a runaway slave from Maryland, lived with the Garnets. She may have been adopted by them or employed as their governess. When Henry preached against slavery, he brought her up to talk about her own experiences and about her family still enslaved in Maryland. On one such trip in England, Garnet was hired by a Scottish church as a missionary. The family moved to Jamaica in 1852, and soon caught yellow fever. Stella died and was buried there. The rest, while sickened, boarded a ship for America. After the war, the couple worked in Washington, D.C.[citation needed]
On Sunday, February 12, 1865, he delivered a sermon in the U.S. House of Representatives while it was not in session, becoming the first African American to speak in that chamber,[3][4] on the occasion of Congress's passage on January 31 of the Thirteenth Amendment, ending slavery.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Britanicawas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Sernett, Milton C. (2004). Abolition's Axe. Beriah Green, Oneida Institute, and the Black Freedom Struggle. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press. p. 55. ISBN 0815623704.
- ^ "The First African American to Speak in the House Chamber | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives". history.house.gov. Retrieved February 8, 2023.
- ^ Garnet, Henry Highland (1865). A memorial discourse; by Henry Highland Garnet, delivered in the hall of the House of Representatives, Washington City, D.C. on Sabbath, February 12, 1865. With an introduction, by James McCune Smith, M.D. Philadelphia: Joseph M. Wilson. Archived from the original on May 14, 2020. Retrieved September 8, 2019.