Prince Hall (1735 – 1807) was an African American noted as a tireless abolitionist, for his leadership in the free black community in Boston, and as the founder of Prince Hall Masonry.
Hall tried to gain New England’s enslaved and free blacks a place in Freemasonry, education and the military, which were some of the most crucial spheres of society in his time. Hall is considered the founder of “Black Freemasonry” in the United States, known today as Prince Hall Freemasonry. Hall formed the African Grand Lodge of North America. Prince Hall was unanimously elected its Grand Master and served until his death in 1807.
He lobbied for education rights for black children and was active in the back-to-Africa movement. Many historians regard Prince Hall as one of the prominent African-Americans during the early years of the United States.
== Early life ==
Hall was born in 1735. Hall may have been born in Barbados, somewhere else in the Caribbean, or in Africa. Author and historian James Sidbury said: “It is more likely that he was a native of New England.”
Historian Charles H. Wesley developed what is now the widely accepted theory about Prince Hall’s early years. Based upon his research, by age 11 Prince Hall was a slave to Boston tanner William Hall. By 1770, Prince Hall was a free, literate black man living in Boston. The manumission certificate for Prince Hall, dated one month after the Boston Massacre [April, 1770], stated that “no longer Reckoned a slave, but [had] always accounted as a free man.” It is unclear how he learned to read and write; he may have been self-taught or, like other slaves and free blacks in New England, he may have had assistance.{#tag:ref|Sidbury contends that Hall was in Boston by 1763 (end of the Seven Years’ War).|group=”nb”}
== Family, church and work life ==
Hall and a woman named Delia, a servant outside William Hall’s household, had a son named Primus in 1756.
Hall joined the Congregational Church in 1762; he was 27 years of age. He then married an enslaved woman named Sarah Ritchie who died. He married Flora Gibbs of Gloucester eight years after Sarah’s death.
In Boston, Hall worked as a peddler, caterer and leatherworker, owning his own leather shop. In April 1777 he created five leather drumheads for an artillery regiment of Boston. Hall was a homeowner who voted and paid taxes.
His son, Primus, was a fellow abolitionist, spent years supporting education of African American children, was a Freemason in his father’s lodge and had served in the Revolutionary War.
== Revolutionary War ==
Hall encouraged enslaved and freed blacks to serve the American colonial military. He believed that if blacks were involved in the founding of the new nation, it would aid in the attainment of freedom for all blacks. Hall proposed that the Massachusetts Committee of Safety allow blacks to join the military. He and fellow supporters petition compared Britain’s colonial rule with the enslavement of blacks. Their proposal was declined.
England issued a proclamation that guaranteed freedom to blacks who enlisted in the British army. Once the British Army filled its ranks with black troops, the Continental Army reversed its decision and allowed blacks into the military.{citation needed|date=April 2013} It is believed, but not certain, that Hall was one of the six “Prince Halls” from Massachusetts to serve during the war. His son, Primus, was a Revolutionary War soldier, having enlisted at the age 19.
Having served during the Revolutionary War, many African Americans expected, but did not receive, racial equality when the war ended. With the intention of improving the lives of fellow African Americans, Prince Hall collaborated with others to propose legislation for equal rights. He also hosted community events, such as educational forums and theatre events to improve the lives of black people.
Many of the original members of the African Masonic Lodge had served during the Revolutionary War.
== Freemason ==
The black Masons had limited power; they could meet as a lodge, take part in the Masonic procession on St. John’s Day, and bury their dead with Masonic rites but could not confer Masonic degrees or perform any other essential functions of a fully operating Lodge. Unable to create a charter, they applied to the Grand Lodge of England. The grand master of the Mother Grand Lodge of England, H. R. H. The Duke of Cumberland, issued a charter for the African Lodge No. 1 later renamed African Lodge no. 459 September 29, 1784. The lodge was the country’s first African Masonic lodge. Due to the African Lodge’s popularity and Prince Hall’s leadership, the Grand Lodge of England made Hall a Provincial Grand Master on January 27, 1791. His responsibilities included reporting on the condition of lodges in the Boston area. Six years later, on March 22, 1797 Prince Hall organized a lodge in Philadelphia, called African Lodge #459, under Prince Hall’s Charter. They later received their own charter. On June 25, 1797 he organized African Lodge (later known as Hiram Lodge #3) at Providence, Rhode Island.
Author and historian James Sidbury said “Prince Hall and those who joined him to found Boston’s African Masonic Lodge built a fundamentally new “African” movement on a preexisting institutional foundation. Within that movement they asserted emotional, mythical, and genealogical links to the continent of Africa and its peoples.
After the death of Prince Hall, on December 4, 1807, the brethren organized the African Grand Lodge on June 24, 1808, including the Philadelphia, Providence and Boston lodges. The African Grand Lodge was in 1827 renamed the Prince Hall Grand Lodge, in his honor.
Hall was considered the “father of African Freemasonry.” Prince Hall said of civic activities: My brethren, let us pay all due respect to all who God had put in places of honor over us: do justly and be faithful to them hat hire you, and treat them with the respect they may deserve; but worship no man. Worship God, this much is your duty and christians and as masons.
== Community activism ==
After Hall obtained his freedom, he worked within the state political arena to advance rights for blacks, end slavery and protect free blacks from being kidnapped by slave traders. He proposed a back-to-Africa movement, pressed for equal educational opportunities, and operated a school for African Americans in his home. He engaged in public speaking and debate, citing Christian scripture against slavery to a predominantly Christian legislative body.
=== Education ===
Hall requested that the Massachusetts Congress create a school program for black children. Hall cited the same platform for fighting the American Revolution of “Taxation without Representation.” Although Hall’s arguments were logical, his two attempts at passing legislation through the Massachusetts Senate both resulted in failure. Denied equal funding,{citation needed|date=April 2013} Hall started a school program for free black children out of his own home that emphasized classical education and Liberal Arts.{citation needed|date=April 2013}
Primus, his son, established a school in his home for the education of African American children and sought funding from the community, including African American sailors. Elisha Sylvester was a teacher there. After Elisha, two Harvard University students taught the school. Unsuccessful in attempts to establish a public school with the city of Boston in 1800, the school was moved to the African Meeting House, the church built by Thomas Paul, an African American minister. Primus Hall continued fund-raising to support the African American school until 1835.
=== Speech and petition writing ===
He is known for giving speeches and writing petitions. In a speech given to the Boston African Masonic Lodge, Hall stated, “My brethren, let us not be cast down under these and many other abuses we at present labour under: for the darkest is before the break of day… Let us remember what a dark day it was with our African brethren, six years ago, in the French West Indies. Nothing but the snap of the whip was heard, from morning to evening”.
His notable written works include the 1792 Charge and 1797 Charge. Hall’s 1792 Charge focused on the abolition of slavery in his home state of Massachusetts. He addressed the importance of black leaders playing prominent roles in the shaping of the country and creation of unity. In his 1797 Charge, Hall wrote about the treatment and hostility that blacks received in the United States. He recognized black revolutionaries in the Haitian Revolution. Hall also wrote a petition in 1787.
In a speech he presented in June, 1797, Hall said: 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…
=== Back to Africa movement ===
Prince Hall was involved in the Back-to-Africa movement and approached the legislature to request funds for voluntary emigration to Africa. In January 1773, Prince Hall and seventy three other African-American delegates presented an emigration plea to the Massachusetts Senate. This plea contended that the African Americans would be better suited to the warm climate of Africa and would better endure the African lifestyle. This failed.
Hall fought hard for the movement when a group of freed black men were captured and detained while making their way to Africa. Due to a lack of support and enthusiasm for the movement, Hall decided to turn his efforts towards equality in education.
== Copp’s Hill Burying Ground ==
Prince Hall died in 1807. and is buried in the Historic Copp’s Hill Burying Ground in Boston along with other notable Bostonians from the colonial era. Also, thousands of African Americans who lived in the “New Guinea” community at the base of Copp’s Hill are buried alongside Snowhill Street in unmarked graves.
A tribute monument was erected in Copp’s Hill on June 24, 1835 in his name next to his grave marker. The inscription reads:
> “Here lies ye body of Prince Hall, first Grand Master of the colored Grand Lodge in Mass. Died Dec. 7, 1807”
Source(s): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Hall