Photo by JT Lynch
Prince Hall was a Revolutionary soldier, born a slave in
1735, and freed a month after the Boston Massacre. He earned his living, in part, as a leather
craftsman, and created five leather drum heads for the Boston Regiment of
Artillery in 1777.
Mr. Hall was a Bostonian who enlisted, who may have fought
at Bunker Hill. He was a voter, a
taxpayer, owned his own leather shop and a house in Boston. He got involved in advocacy for the rights of
Boston’s African American community, and founded the world’s first lodge of
black Masons, African Lodge No. 1, now named the Prince Hall Grand Lodge—the African
Lodge of the Honorable Society of Free and Accepted Masons of Boston. This was the world's first organized society
in America devoted to social, political, and economic improvement. He spoke out against slavery, and spoke out
against the lack of schools for black children, and created one in his own
home.
He had hoped that blacks who served in the Continental Army
during the Revolution would earn full citizenship as a result of their loyalty
and sacrifice.
In his senior years, he spoke at the African Lodge in June
1797, about mob violence against blacks:
Patience, I say; for were we not
possessed of a great measure of it, we could not bear up under the daily
insults we meet with in the streets of Boston, much more on public days of
recreation. How, at such times, are we shamefully abused, and that to such a
degree, that we may truly be said to carry our lives in our hands, and the
arrows of death are flying about our heads....tis not for want of courage in
you, for they know that they dare not face you man for man, but in a mob, which
we despise...
Photo by JT Lynch
He died in 1807 at the age of 72. He is buried at the Copps Hill Burial Ground
in Boston, a cemetery on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. The revolution continues, in South Carolina,
and everywhere a human being yearns for Independence Day from those are inhuman.
I wish you all a happy Independence Day.
I wish you all a happy Independence Day.
Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star.
The eBook and paperback are available from Amazon and CreateSpace, which is the printer. You can also order it from my Etsy shop.
If, however, you wish a signed copy, then email me at JacquelineTLynch@gmail.com and I'll get back to you with the details.
