Henry Highland Garnet #1537
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Henry Highland Garnet
An African American abolitionist and orator. An advocate of militant abolitionism,Garnet was a prominent member of the abolition movement that led against moralsuasion toward more political action. Renowned for his skills as a public speaker, he urged blacks to take action and claim their own destinies. Garnet was the first blackminister to preach to the United States House of Representatives. Was an Abolitionist, activist, and minister. Born in 1815 in Kent County, Maryland. Born a slave, Henry
Highland Garnet became a leading and sometimes controversial figure in the abolitionist movement of the 1800s. He was about nine years old when he and his family escaped from their owner in 1824. They had permission to attend a funeral in another part of Maryland, but they eventually made their way to New York City instead. In New York City, Garnet attended the African Free School. There he studied science and English, among other subjects. Garnet also learned about navigation, and later spent some time working aboard ships. Returning after a voyage in 1929, he discovered that his family had been pursued by slave hunters. His parents got away, but his sister was captured. Angered by this attack on his family, Garnet is said to have bought a knife and walked the city streets looking for a confrontation with a slave hunter. His friends convinced him to stop seeking vengeance and to hide out on Long Island. In the 1830s, Garnet continued his education at several institutions. He eventually ended up at the Oneida Institute in Whitesboro, New York. Finishing his studies in 1840, Garnet pursued a spiritual path. He became a Presbyterian minister and served as the first pastor of the Liberty Street Negro Presbyterian Church in Troy, New York, beginning in 1842.
