Lemuel Haynes

It was a Saturday evening custom in the Rose household to read a sermon of well-known New England preachers for family devotions. Lemuel read a sermon on John 3.3 with great enthusiasm. After he finished, Father Rose wagered that the sermon came from Jonathan Edwards or George Whitefield. “No,” Lemuel answered, “It was Lemuel’s sermon!” His so-called “Saturday Evening Sermon” gave Lemuel his start in preaching. Lemuel Haynes (1753-1833) was born of a black father and white mother. He was abandoned at birth and became an indentured servant in the Rose family who treated him like a son. Lemuel was a name taken from Proverbs 31. He was released from indentured servitude at twenty-one and joined the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War. He was the first African American ordained to ministry in the United States. He served a white church in Vermont for 30 years before being forced out because some could no longer submit to a man of mixed race in the pulpit. He was known for his evangelical fervor at a time when Universalism was gaining traction in Vermont. He saw glaring inconsistencies between “all men are created equal” and the institution of slavery in America.
Few people today have ever heard of this “Black Puritan.” He composed his own epitaph, “Here lies the dust of a poor hell-deserving sinner, who ventured into eternity trusting wholly in the merits of Christ for salvation.  In the full belief of the great doctrines, he preached while on earth, he invites his children and any who read this, to trust eternal interest on the sure foundation.”  We close with one of Lemuel’s favorite prayers from Psalm 63: