Dear Trinity Church and friends,
How do we tell the stories of those who are seemingly invisible? Imagine the people of color walking through the doors of the first Trinity Church on Summer Street. There are no portraits of them by artists Smibert or Copley as were done of the church’s affluent white members. In our archival records there is “only” a name and, on occasion, a descriptor.
What can you do with just a name? By seeking out where that name appears across multiple records one can begin to attempt to piece together individual lives and how they formed community inside and outside of the walls of Trinity Church. Here’s what our records, cross-referenced with other historical documents, reveal about the lives of 11 Black men and their families who attended Trinity Church, and what they established together to embolden Boston’s Black community.
On March 11, 1785, Isaac Johnson’s son, Isaac, was baptized. His sponsor was Luke Belcher. Two years later Johnson’s son John Henshaw by wife Flora was baptized as witnessed by namesake Jack Henshaw and his wife. In the City of Boston Index of Deaths 1810-1840, an Isaac Johnson, “colored,” is listed. He died from cancer in 1826. He was 70 years old.
On September 17, 1786, John Harrison, “an adult negro,” was baptized as witnessed by Prince Watts and Phillis Miller. He was married to Polly Brown. On September 21, children George and Betsey Louis were baptized. Sadly, burial records note that Betsey died the following year at the age of three. Between 1789 and 1795, children Samuel Lewis, Anna, and Thomas Morton were baptized. Their sponsors included Juba Morton, Phillis Miller, John Burdine, and Thomas Morton. Young Thomas Morton died in 1796, just one and half years old. In 1799, John Harrison witnessed the baptisms of Mary, Jane, and Nancy, also recorded as “adult negroes.” According to the City of Boston Taking Book from 1800, Harrison was a laborer working for a Mr. Hunnewell.
Rufus Callahan, “a free negro adult,” was baptized July 13, 1788. Wife Nancy was baptized in 1783. The 1790 Federal Census showed that his household included three people. The Boston Taking Books reveal from at least 1785 to 1801 Rufus earned and/or owned enough to be taxed. The 1785 book shows that he worked for John Amory. Rufus was 44 when he died of consumption in 1806.
On May 1, 1789, Reverend Samuel Parker baptized Thomas Burdine, “an adult free negro,” as witnessed by James Hawkins and Burdine’s wife, Hannah. Thomas and his wife served as sponsors for over a dozen people of color, mostly adults. Hannah’s death is recorded as February 12, 1823. She was 67. Her mortuary notice in the Independent Chronicle and Boston Patriot newspaper noted:
“The deceased was a colored woman, and has lived as a domestic in a number of the most respectable families of this city; she has been a member of Trinity Church for upwards of 40 years, and her behavior was always such as becomes a Christian, and she spared no pains in instructing those of her color in good works.”
On February 14, 1793, Gloucester Haskins, “the adult negro of Captain Haskins,” was baptized, with the Captain and his son Thomas serving as sponsors. Later that year Gloucester Haskins married Dinah Jackson. He died December 1, 1801, at the age of 57.
In the autumn of 1798, Trinity clergy baptized Freeborn, the son of Thomas Lewis. In that same year, Joseph Ocraman witnessed the baptism of Peter Peters, an adult. Ocraman also witnessed the baptism of Plato Allison. Joseph’s wife Margaret passed away in 1804. In 1805 he remarried to Abigail Gorby. Reverend Sylvester John Gardiner officiated.
James Hawkins, who sponsored Thomas Burdine, also sponsored Samuel, son of Butterfield and Clarissa Scotland. Hawkins died in 1800 and was buried in the Trinity Church tombs. He was 48.
Peter Bailey’s daughter Charlotte Dalton was baptized August 2, 1801. She died a year later in June 1802. His wife Diana died in 1803 at the age of 26. Upon his death in 1804, the newspaper New-England Palladium noted, “Peter Bailey, aged 30, a man of colour, well known and much esteemed for the faithful discharge of his duties, his honesty and sobriety …” Another newspaper, Columbian Centinel, noted that he had been an instructor of youth.
Church records note John Phillips “a negro” died in 1801 at the age of 37.
Cyrus Vassal married Lucy Jenkins at Trinity Church in 1805. Their daughter Elizabeth was baptized in 1806 as witnessed by her parents and a Mrs. Alexander. The Vassals sponsored Mary Ann, the daughter of Frances Gardner, who was baptized that same day. Son Cyrus Anthony Gunther was baptized in 1809 sponsored by Cyrus senior and Gardner. Lucy died in 1811 at the age of 27. One year later Cyrus died at the age of 41.
What do these 11 men have in common aside from attending Trinity Church? In 1796 they, along with 33 others, formed the African Society. It was a benevolent brotherhood offering mutual aid to its members and their families, and also a venue for discourse about abolition and community uplift. The Society’s first rule:
“WE, the AFRICAN MEMBERS, form our-selves into a Society, under the above name, for the mutual benefit of each other, which may from time to time offer; behaving ourselves at the same time as true and faithful Citizens of the Commonwealth in which we live; and that we take no one into the Society, who shall commit any injustice or outrage against the laws of their country.”
Dues were collected that enabled the Society to provide financial assistance during times of hardship, as well as to offer periodic lectures on the second Tuesday of every third month. The lectures, most often by clergy, both white and black, were advertised in local newspapers and often held at Franklin Hall in the South End of Boston. In the ensuing decade, the meetings took place in a range of locations including the African Meeting House. In 1808, a lecture was delivered before the Society by Reverend Dr. Jedediah Morse. It was a celebration of the abolition of the slave trade in the U.S., Great Britain, and Denmark. The sermon was later published and profits from sales were distributed among the city’s African poor.
The group was forward thinking. Rule 12 of their bylaws stated, “Should the Society, with the blessing of heaven, acquire a sum, suitable to bear interest, they will then take into consideration, the best method they can, of making it useful.”
Members supported one another, but they also sought to empower the larger Black community by endeavoring to acquire funds for other Black activists and institutions.
None of these 11 men or their families were wealthy. Some owned property but most did not. They could not have always agreed but they were united in their faith. The 13th law of the Society reads:
The Members will watch over each other in their Spiritual concerns; and by advice, exhortation, and prayer excite each other to grow in Grace, and in the knowledge of our LORD and Saviour Jesus Christ, and to live soberly, righteously and Godly, in this present world, that we may all be accepted of the Redeemer, and live together with him in Glory here-after.
Reference to the African Society in local newspapers begins to wane in the mid 1800s. In 1832, an article appeared in The Liberator celebrating the establishment of the African Society but also acknowledging that the Society had become extinct or absorbed by other like-minded organizations. At that time, of the original 44 members, only five men were still alive, including Thomas Burdine.
The bonds of fellowship nurtured by these men and their families left an indelible mark in the city of Boston and well-beyond.
Until next month,
Cynthia
Sources and Further Reading
African Society. The Liberator. Saturday August 4, 1832. P.4.
“Annual African Lecture.” Boston Patriot. December 29, 1810.
“Black and White Roses!” Boston Patriot. July 17, 1813.
“Dr. Morse’s Sermon.” Columbian-Centinel. July 30, 1808.
Grover, Katherine and Janine V. da Silva. Historic Resource Study. Boston African American National Historic Site. 31 December 2002. https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/bost/hrs.pdf
Laws of the African Society https://www.masshist.org/database/viewer.php?item_id=573&pid=42
Mortuary Notice. Boston Patriot. Wednesday, April 29, 1802. p.3.
Mortuary Notice. Columbia Centinel & Massachusetts Federalist. January 11, 1804. p. 2.
Nell, William C. The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution, With Sketches of Several Distinguished Colored Persons:To Which Is Added a Brief Survey of the Condition And Prospects of Colored Americans. Boston: Robert F. Wallcut, 1855. https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/nell/nell.html
Records Relating to the Early History of Boston, Containing Boston Marriages from 1752 to 1809.
Historic Figures and Places
African Meeting House https://www.nps.gov/boaf/learn/historyculture/amh.htm
Jedidiah Morse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedidiah_Morse
Samuel Parker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Parker_(bishop_of_Massachusetts)
Thomas Paul https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Paul_(Baptist_minister)
Trinity Church Archival Records
Trinity Church Baptismal, Marriage and Burial Records