TED CLAUSEN SCULPTURE |
COMPLETE TEXTS
TEXTS ON THE INSIDE OF THE MEMORIAL:
The words of
PRINCE HALL
1730s–1807
Abolitionist
Patriot
Entrepreneur
Founder of the first
African American Lodge of Freemasons
I must love all, for He made all, and upholds all . . .
let them be of what colour or nation they may,
yea even our very enemies . . .
1792
I shall begin with our friends and
brethren; and first, let us see them dragg’d from
their native country by the iron hand of tyranny
and oppression, from their dear friends and
connections, with weeping eyes and aching hearts,
to a strange land and strange people,
whose tender mercies are cruel; and
there to bear the iron yoke of slavery & cruelty
till death as a friend shall relieve them.
1791
Your Honors need not to be informed that a
Life of Slavery, like that of your petitioners,
deprived of every social privilege, of every thing
requisite to render Life even tolerable,
is far worse than non-existence.
Petition by Prince Hall and six others to the Massachusetts State Legislature, 1777
As we are willing to pay our equal part
of these burdens, we . . . have the right to
enjoy the privileges of freemen . . . and . . .
the education of our children.
Petition to the Massachusetts State Legislature, 1787
Now my brethren, as we see and
experience that all things here are frail and
changeable and nothing here to be depended
upon: Let us seek those things . . . which are sure,
and steadfast, and unchangeable. . . .
Patience, I say, for were we not possess’d of a great
measure of it you could not bear up under
the daily insults you meet with
in the streets of Boston.
1797
Sure this was not our conduct in the late war;
for then they marched shoulder to shoulder,
brother soldier and brother soldier,
to the field of battle.
1792
. . . give the right hand of affection and fellowship
to whom it justly belongs; let their colour
or complexion be what it will, let their nation
be what it may, for they are your brethren
and it is your indispensable duty so to do . . .
1797
Again we must be good subjects to the laws
of the land in which we dwell, giving honour
to our lawful Governors and Magistrates,
giving honour to whom honour is due . . .
1792
. . . he that despises a black man for the
sake of his colour reproacheth his Maker . . .
1792
Although you are deprived of the means of
education, yet you are not deprived of the means
of meditation; by which I mean thinking, hearing
and weighing matters, men, and things
in your own mind . . .
1797
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.
1797
. . . he should lend his helping hand to a
brother in distress, and relieve him . . . .
Good advice may be sometimes better than
feeding his body, helping him to some lawful
employment, better than giving him money;
so defending his case and standing by him
when wrongfully accused, may be better than
clothing him; better to save a brother's house
when on fire, than to give him one.
1792
. . . all men are free and are brethren.
1797
TEXTS ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE MEMORIAL:
1730s~PRINCE HALL IS BORN. DURING THIS PERIOD OF THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE THE BIRTHPLACES AND DATES OF THE ENSLAVED ARE RARELY RECORDED BY SLAVE OWNERS.
If you love your children, if you love your
country, if you love the God of love, clear
your hands from slaves, burden not your
children or country with them.
~From a 1794 pamphlet by Richard Allen (1760–1831),
former slave and first bishop, African Methodist Episcopal
Church, and Absalom Jones (1746–1818), former slave and
the nation’s first African American Episcopal priest
Prince Hall has lived with us 21 years and
Served us well upon all occasions, for which
Reasons we maturely give him his freedom and
that he is no longer to be Reckoned a Slave, but
has been always accounted as a freeman by us
as he has served us faithfully. Upon that account
we have given him his freedom. As witness our
hands this ninth day of April, 1770.
~Susannah and William Hall, Boston
Liberty is Equally as precious to a Black man
as it is to a white one, and Bondage Equally as
intolerable to the one as it is to the other.
~Lemuel Haynes (1753–1833), member of the patriot militia and the
first African American Congregational minister
Among the thousands of African Americans who fought in the
Revolutionary War, many hundreds came from New England. African
American soldiers recruited in Cambridge included Cato Boardman,
Prince Cutler, Peter Dego, Neptune Frost, Cuff Hayes, Jack (Jock)
Pearpoint, York Ruggles, Cato Stedman, and Cuff Whitemore.
1775~PRINCE HALL AND FOURTEEN OTHER AFRICAN AMERICANS JOIN THE FRATERNAL ORDER OF FREEMASONS. THEY FORM AFRICAN LODGE #1, IN BOSTON, 1776, AND APPLY TO THE GRAND LODGE IN LONDON FOR FORMAL RECOGNITION, 1784.
It seems almost incredible that the
advocates of liberty, should conceive of the
idea of selling a fellow creature to slavery.
~James Forten (1766–1842), African American mariner, served
as a powderboy and sail maker during the Revolutionary War
1777~PRINCE HALL AND OTHER AFRICAN AMERICANS PETITION THE MASSACHUSETTS STATE LEGISLATURE TO ABOLISH SLAVERY.
Any time while I was a slave, if one minute’s
freedom had been offered to me, and I had been
told I must die at the end of that minute,
I would have taken it—just to stand one minute
on God’s airth a free woman—I would.
~Elizabeth Freeman (Mum Bett, 1742–1829), born into slavery,
successfully sued for freedom in Massachusetts.
1770s~PRINCE HALL WORKS AS A LEATHER DRESSER PROVIDING DRUMHEADS FOR THE COLONIAL MILITIA.
But to the slave mother New Year's Day comes
laden with peculiar sorrows. She sits on her cold
cabin floor, watching the children who may all
be torn from her the next morning; and often
does she wish that she and they might die before
the day dawns.
~Harriet Jacobs (1813–1897), escaped slave, freedwoman of Cambridge
1787~PRINCE HALL AND OTHERS PETITION THE MASSACHUSETTS STATE LEGISLATURE TO SUPPORT THE EMIGRATION TO AFRICA OF AFRICAN AMERICANS.
I, young in life, by seeming cruel fate
Was snatch’d from Afric’s fancy’d happy seat:
What pangs excruciating must molest,
what sorrows labour in my parent’s breast? . . .
Such, such my case. And can I then but pray
Others may never feel tyrannic sway?
~Phillis Wheatley (1750s–1784), African American poet,
freedwoman of Boston
1787~PRINCE HALL AND OTHERS PETITION THE MASSACHUSETTS STATE LEGISLATURE TO SUPPORT THE EDUCATION OF BLACK CHILDREN.
1796~PRINCE HALL PETITIONS THE CITY OF BOSTON FOR A SCHOOL FOR BLACK CHILDREN.
1798~A SCHOOL FOR BLACK CHILDREN IS ESTABLISHED BY
THE FREE AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY OF BOSTON.
My labors have not procured me any comfort.
I have not yet enjoyed the benefits of creation.
With my poor daughter, I fear I shall pass the
remainder of my days in slavery and misery.
For her and myself, I beg Freedom.
~Belinda, slave from Medford, petitioning the court for reparations, 1783
1787~PRINCE HALL RECEIVES A CHARTER FROM THE GRAND LODGE IN LONDON RECOGNIZING THE FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN MASONIC LODGE, #459 IN BOSTON, AND BECOMES ITS FIRST MASTER.
Thus packed together they are transported . . .
and . . . inhumanly exposed to sale. Can any
commerce, trade, or transaction, so detestably
shock the feelings of Man, or degrade the
dignity of his nature equal to this?
~Absalom Jones (1746–1818), former slave and first African
American priest of the Episcopal Church of America
MANY AFRICAN AMERICAN LEADERS OF THE NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURIES, FROM MARTIN DELANY, LEWIS HAYDEN, W.E.B. DU BOIS AND BOOKER T. WASHINGTON TO MEDGAR EVERS AND THURGOOD MARSHALL, FOLLOWED IN PRINCE HALL’S
FOOTSTEPS AND HAVE BEEN MEMBERS OF THE ORGANIZATION HE FOUNDED.
Prince Hall, an African, and a person of great
influence upon his Colour in Boston, being Master
of the African Lodge, and a person to whom they
refer with confidence their principal affairs.
~William Bentley (1759–1819), Congregational minister of Salem
On Friday morning, Mr. Prince Hall . . .
Master of African Lodge. Funeral this afternoon
at 3 o'clock from his late dwelling in Lendell's Lane;
which his friends and relations are requested to
attend without a more formal invitation.
~Boston Gazette, December 7, 1807
Remember youth the time is short,
Improve the present day.
And pray that God may guide your thoughts,
And teach your lips to pray.
~Jupiter Hammon (1711–1806), first published African American poet
1847~AFRICAN GRAND MASONIC LODGE #459 IS RENAMED
IN PRINCE HALL’S HONOR.