Channels, Fall 2019

Channels • 2019 • Volume 4 • Number 1 Page 33 politicians “chose to subordinate their antislavery convictions to the imperatives of party and national unity.” 6 Amidst increasing political tension, Lemuel Haynes continued until his death in 1833 as a preacher, community fixture, and political commentator, all while remaining interested and informed on national politics. Given the rise of partisan politics in the early republic, Lemuel Haynes grew popular in several New England states not for his moral antislavery stance but for his rational preaching and firm identity as a Federalist. HAYNES’ RISE TO VOCATIONAL MINISTRY Lemuel Haynes toiled on the Rose family farm in Granville, a town in western Massachusetts, until the local militia called upon his pious family and asked their plowboy to enlist. Just twenty-one years old and known as the adopted son of Deacon David Rose, Haynes responded to the Granville militia immediately following the battles for Lexington and Concord. Haynes arrived in Granville as an infant, destined to serve as an indentured servant to the Rose family. Deacon Rose and his wife chose early in the indenture never to view Lemuel as anything but a son. They taught the boy to thresh wheat, care for livestock, buy horses, and attend a district school. A white woman named Alice Fitch gave birth to Haynes in West Hartford, Connecticut. Fitch, who was possibly a blood- member of a well-to-do family, delivered her child in the home of a wealthy West Hartford man known as Haynes. 7 Fitch intentionally named her son after Haynes, who was head of house. Haynes never met his biological father, who was a man described as having African roots. Fitch chose an interesting name for Haynes, “Lemuel,” after the Jewish King whose identity is uncertain, but whose name in the Bible means “belonging to God.” Biblical scholars who study the book of Proverbs remain unsure about what the name Lemuel is referencing. Possibilities include an obscure King of Judea, the son of Solomon’s concubine, or even Solomon himself. What is clear about the Proverbs 31 text is advice the mother passes to Lemuel in the first ten verses. Haynes familiarized himself with that passage of Scripture and took it to heart as personal exhortation towards a meaningful life. Haynes enlisted with the Massachusetts minutemen and marched from Granville into New York following the capture of Fort Ticonderoga in May of 1775. Haynes was present to retrieve cannons from the British stronghold and returned to Granville after two years of military service. 8 At some point following his military service, Haynes wrote an essay decrying the institution of slavery which he called “Liberty Further Extended.” Haynes formulated and published one of the first reasoned arguments against slavery. 6 Mason, Matthew . Slavery and politics in the early American republic . Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006. 7. This direct quote comes from Matthew Mason’s critical assessment of Federalist and Republican actions around the issues of slavery. Mason suggests that politicians, clergy, abolitionists, and citizens argued against slavery on both moral and political grounds. Haynes is unique not just for his skin tone but for his ability to articulate political and moral critiques of slavery throughout a lengthy career as a public figure. I contend that Haynes was an early abolitionist who sought to effect social change through an emphasis on gradual governmental and social reform based on the direction of the Federalist Party in the 1790’s. 7 Cooley, Timothy M. (1837) Sketches of the Life and Character of the Rev. Lemuel Haynes. New York: Harper & Brothers. Reprint, New York: Negro Universities Press. 1969. 28-29. 8 Cooley, Timothy M. (1837) Sketches of the Life and Character of the Rev. Lemuel Haynes. New York: Harper & Brothers. Reprint, New York: Negro Universities Press. 1969. 46.