Lemuel Haynes

Biography

Lemuel Haynes spent his early life as an indentured servant, served in the Continental Army shortly after gaining his freedom, and spent most of his adult life in the pulpit—the first black man ordained as a minister in the United States. Haynes was the author of “Liberty Further Extended,” an argument for the abolition of slavery.

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Picture of Lemuel Haynes from the frontispiece of Sketches of the Life and Character of the Rev. Lemuel Haynes, A. M. (1837).
Lemuel Haynes
Excerpts from “Liberty Further Extended”

Haynes argues that there is no principled reason to deny people their natural rights on the basis of race, and that as such, slavery must be abolished.