Henry Highland Garnet

Henry Highland Garnet (December 23, 1815 - February 13, 1882), an African-American abolitionist and orator, was born a slave near New Market in Kent County, Maryland. He and his family escaped to Pennsylvania in 1824, before moving to New York, where from 1826 and 1833, Garnet attended the African Free School, and the Phoenix High School for Colored Youth. Two years later, in 1835, he started to attend the Noyes Academy in New Hampshire, but was driven away by an angry segregationist mob.

In 1839, after graduating from the Oneida Theological Institute in Whitesboro, Garnet moved to Troy, New York. He served as the pastor of the Liberty(Fifteenth) Street Presbyterian Church from 1864 until 1866, and during this time he became the first black minister to preach to the House of Representatives. He joined the American Anti-Slavery Society and frequently spoke at abolitionist conferences. One of his most famous speeches, "Call to Rebellion," was delivered August, 1843 to the National Negro Convention in Buffalo, New York.

In addition, by 1849 Garnet began to support emigration to Liberia. He was appointed president of Avery College in Pennsylvania, and became minister to Liberia in 1881, but he died two months later.

External Links

• Underground Workshop
• Spartacus Schoolnet
• Article from the Star Tribune