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Henry Highland Garnet
Henry Highland Garnet
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the State of New York, held July that was opposed to the education
5th, 1827.
pioneer in the anti-slavery of the Negro. Even the house
Henry pioneer movement,
movement,Highland in the waswas
anti-slaveryborn
born Garnet,
When young Garnet was four-De- De-
where young Garnet lived, was at-
cember 23, 1815 in New Market, teen he worked as cook and steward tacked by the mob when he was ill
Maryland. His parents were slaves, on board a schooner from New in bed with a fever, but he got up
and his grandfather, called "Jo- York to Alexandria, Virginia, andand
drove the crowd away by firing
seph Trusty, ' ' had been stolen from Washington, D. C. Once on re- from his bedroom window.
the Congo, by slave traders, and turning home he was informed that In 1840, Henry Highland Garnet
sold in this country as a slave. the slave-hunters had discovered returned to New York and deliv-
When his master died, Henryk the hiding place of his familyered and his first speech at the annual
father decided that he and his fam- had invaded his home. The entire meeting of the American Anti-
ily should not be the slaves of those household furniture was destroyed slavery Society. It was a fine ef-
related to his former master. So,or stolen, but his family had es- fort, full of the promise of that
on the pretense of attending the caped. This bad news made such eloquence, wit and pathos which
funeral of relatives a few miles an impression on Henry, that he distinguished his later career. The
away, he escaped from the planta- was almost driven to madness. His same year, he was graduated with
tion with his wife and eight chil- chief concern was for his mother, honors from Oneida Institute and
dren. A covered market wagon who was the very center of all settled
his in Troy, New York, where
awaited them in the woods, and hopes and affections. He cherished he taught at the first colored dis-
they drove all night until near her with the most tender love and trict school. He also conducted
daybreak ; then they left the wagonwould gladly have given his life religious meetings in the lecture
and hid themselves in the woods rather than let any ill befall her. room of the First Presbyterian
until night. For several days they His friends finally had to hurry Church, where he was ordained an
slept in the woods and swamps, him out of town because of his des- elder in 1841. That year, he mar-
travelling only at night. Henry peration in trying to find the slave- ried Miss Julia Williams, whom he
was only nine years old at this hunters.
time This raid upon his peace-came to know while at school in
and had to be carried when he be- ful family, gave Henry an undying New Hampshire.
came too tired to walk. After dayshatred of slavery and aroused in For ten years Garnet pastored
him an anti-slavery fervor that in- thę Liberty Street Presbyterian
of weary travel by night, the fugi-
tives finally reached Wilmington,fluenced his future speeches against church in Troy, New York. During
Delaware, and the farm of Thomas its evils. this period, he was so highly es-
Garret, the good Quaker, to whom In 1831, Garnet entered the high teemed by the white people in the
so many thousands of slaves were school for colored youths, newly town that he was elected a life
organized in New York City, and
indebted for shelter, aid and food. member of the Young Men's Liter-
From Wilmington, Henry's family having a sound basis in the com- ary Society, taking a prominent
went to New Hope, Pennsylvania, mon branches of education, com- part in their discussions. He also
where Henry first entered a schoolmenced the study of Greek and published a weekly paper, the
house. Latin. During this period he at- Clarion , during this period. In
The family remained in Pennsyl- tended the First Colored Presby- 1843 he delivered before a conven-
vania a few months, then moved terian Church and aroused the in- tion of colored people his fiery ad-
to New York, where a new life dress in which he advised the slaves
terest of its pastor, a zealous aboli-
seemed to open to these wanderers, tionist, Theodore S. Wright, who to rise up against their oppressors
and they took the new name of encouraged young Garnet to pre- and break the chains of slavery.
Garnet. Here Henry attended the pare for the ministry and assistedGarnet's fame as a speaker final-
African Free School No. 1, in Mul- him in every way within his power. ly reached across the Atlantic
berry street, at the age of eleven Together they worked toward the where it created a desire to see and
years. He remained here until suppression of caste and slavery, to hear him. Not long after his ad-
he was thirteen, when he made two and toward the elevation of people dress before the State Legislature
voyages to Cuba as a cabin boy ; but of color. At the_death of his good of New York in behalf of equal
in 1830 he returned to the same friend, Garnet became the pastor suffrage, he was invited to Great
school for one year. While still a church.
of his Britain by friends of the Free La-
school boy, Henry, along with some Garnet was a student at the Ca- bor Movement, to lecture on the
friends, joined in the great celebra-naan Academy in New Hampshire slavery question. He remained
tion of the abolition of slavery when in it was destroyed by a mobabroad for over two years, making