![]() ![]() Lemuel Haynes was self-taught from his earliest days, stealing morsels of knowledge by evening firelight. Taking his status in society from his mother, he was raised as an indentured servant but embraced as a member of the family. The mixed child was adopted by a man named David Rose, a congregational deacon, who named him Lemuel (Proverbs 31:1). His mother, a Scottish indentured servant, abandoned him at birth. His distinguished life began from the humblest of beginnings. Haynes was the first African-American pastor to be ordained by any North American denomination, and most likely the first African American to pastor an all-white congregation. ![]() ![]() Red, white, and blue abolitionism coursed through the veins under his brown skin - skin which bled in the American Revolution and poured, over long years, the great sweat of gospel preaching. He refuses to play nice with our neat little modern categories of race, politics, and religion. He was a man before his time, and yet woke memes on Facebook have never mentioned him. These influences pressed him into a diamond-tipped iron stylus, poised to be a scribe for God’s glory. This is the strange world into which Lemuel Haynes was born. Jonathan Edwards is finishing his course, the free sons of Columbia are waxing warm against the Crown, and slavery and racism cast their shadow over much of American life. We’re in West Hartford, Connecticut, North American colonies. ![]()
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