Black Harry

Greetings,

            Circumstances on Friday caused me to remember that May 17 is the anniversary of the death in 1806 of Harry Hosier, “Black Harry.”  (Presumably, tomorrow’s reflection with deal with those circumstances.)  He was born a slave (possibly in North Carolina) and later manumitted; nothing is known of his early life.  Reportedly the first African-American Methodist to be licensed to preach, Hosier traveled as a servant and an itinerant preacher with many of the main figures of early American Methodism: Francis Asbury, Thomas Coke, Richard Whatcoat, and Freeborn Garrettson.  He is believed to have attended the 1784 Christmas Conference in Lovely Lane Chapel in Baltimore.  He became a close friend of Asbury, often traveling with him.

Though illiterate and without formal oratorical training, Hosier was able, by persuasive preaching, to garner the attention of audiences without distinction of color.  He was a popular preacher, often a more desired speaker than his distinguished traveling companions, and was the first Methodist preacher, black or white, to be commented upon in a New York City newspaper (the New York Packet).

Harry Hosier lived and died as a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, though many African-Americans of his age, in the face of injustice, left that body to form other denominations.  His ministry was to all who stood in need of hearing the saving word of the Gospel, regardless of race, thereby serving as a reminder of the truth that in Christ there is neither slave nor free (Gal. 3:28).

Yours & His,

DED