Henry was born into slavery in New Market,Kent County,Maryland.According to James McCune Smith,Henry's daddy was George Trusty and his mama "of extraordinary energy.In 1824,the family which included a total of 11 members,secured permission to attend a funeral,from there,they all escaped in a covered wagon,first to Willington,Delaware and then to New York City.When Henry was ten,his family reunited and moved to New York City,where from 1826-1833,Henry attended the African Free School,and the Phoenix High School for Colored Youth.While in school,Henry began his career in abolitionism.With fellow schoolmates,he established the Garrison Literary and Benevolent Association.It garnered mass support among whites,but the club ultimately had to move due to racist feelings.Two years later,in 1835,he started studies at the Noyes Academy in Canaan,New Hampshire.
Due to his abolitionist activities Henry was driven away from the Noyes Academy by an angry segregationist mob.He completed his education at the Oneida Theological Institute in Whitesboro,New York,which had recently admitted all races.Here he was acclaimed for his wit,brilliance and rhetorical skills.After graduation in 1839,the following year he injuried his knee playing sports. It never recovered and his lower leg had to be ampulated in 1839.
He married Julia Williams,whom he had met as a fellow student at the Noyes Academy.Together they had three children,only one of whom survived to adulthood.
In 1839,Henry moved with his family to Troy,New York,where he taught school and studied theology.In 1842,Henry became pastor of the Liberty Street Presbyterian church,a position he held for six years.During this time,he published papers that combined both religious and abolitionist themes.Closely identifying with the church,Henry supported the temperance movement and became a strong advocate of political antislavery.
He later returned to New York City,where 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 (,New York."Upon the conclusion of the Negro National Convention of 1843,Henry led a state convention of Negroes assembled in Rochester.These conventions by African American activists were called to work for abolition and equal rights. Henry said that slaves should act for themselves to achieve total emancipation. He promoted an armed rebellion as the most effective way to end slavery.Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison,along with man abolitionist both black and white,Henry's ideas were too radical could damage the cause by arousing too much fear and resistance among whites.Henry supported the Liberty Party,a party of reform that was eventually absorbed into the Republican Party.Henry disagreed with with the later Republicans.
Women's participation in the abolitionist movement was highly contentious at this time,which led to a split in the American Anti-Slavery Society.This led to the founding of American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (AFAS) by Arthur Tappan,Lewis Tappan, "and a group of African Americans ministers, including Henry.The American and Anti-Slavery Society " was committed to political abolitionism and to male leadership at the top levels.
By 1849 Henry began to support emigration of African Americans to Mexico,Liberia,or the West Indies,where he through they would have more opportunities.In support of this,he founded the African Civilization Society.Similar to the British African Aid Society,it sought establish a West African colony in Yoruba (present-day Nigeria).Henry advocated a kind of African American nationalism in the United States,which included establishing separate sections of the nation to be African American colonies.
In 1850,he went to Great Britain at the invitation of the Free Labor Movement,which opposed by rejecting the use of products produced by slave labor.He was a popular lecturer,and spent two and half years lecturing.In 1852 Henry was sent to Kingston,Kingston,as a missionary.He spent three years there,until his health forced him back to the United States.
When the Civil War started,Henry's hope ended for emigration as a solution for African Americans.He worked to found African Americans army units to aid the Union cause.In the three-day New York draft riots of July 1863,mobs attacked African Americans and African American owned buildings.Henry and his family escaped attack when his daughter quickly chopped their nameplate of their door before the mobs found them.
When the federal government approved creating African Americans units,Henry helped with recruiting United States Colored Troops.He moved with his family to Washington,DC so that he could support the African American soldiers and the war effort. He preached to many of them while serving as pastor of the Liberty (Fifteenth) Street Presbyterian Church from 1864-1866.During this time,he was the first African American minister to preach to the House of Representatives,addressing them on February 12 1865 about the end of slavery.
After the war in 1868,Henry was appointed president of Avery College in Pittsburgh,Pennsylvania.Later he returned to New York City as pastor at the Shiloh Presbyterian Church (formerly the First Colored Presbyterian Church,and now St.James Presbyterian Church in Harlem).
His first wife Julia died.In 1879,Henry married Sarah Smith Tompkins,who was a New York teacher and school principal,suffragist,and community organizer.
Henry's last wish was to go to Liberia to live,even for a few weeks,and to die there.He was appointed as the U.S. Minister to Liberia in late 1881,and died in Africa two months later.He was given a state funeral by the Liberian government and was buried at Palm Grove Cemetery in Monrovia.Frederick Douglass,who had not been on speaking terms with Henry for many years because of their differences,still mourned Henry's passing and noted his achievements.
By 1849 Henry began to support emigration of African Americans to Mexico,Liberia,or the West Indies,where he through they would have more opportunities.In support of this,he founded the African Civilization Society.Similar to the British African Aid Society,it sought establish a West African colony in Yoruba (present-day Nigeria).Henry advocated a kind of African American nationalism in the United States,which included establishing separate sections of the nation to be African American colonies.
In 1850,he went to Great Britain at the invitation of the Free Labor Movement,which opposed by rejecting the use of products produced by slave labor.He was a popular lecturer,and spent two and half years lecturing.In 1852 Henry was sent to Kingston,Kingston,as a missionary.He spent three years there,until his health forced him back to the United States.
When the Civil War started,Henry's hope ended for emigration as a solution for African Americans.He worked to found African Americans army units to aid the Union cause.In the three-day New York draft riots of July 1863,mobs attacked African Americans and African American owned buildings.Henry and his family escaped attack when his daughter quickly chopped their nameplate of their door before the mobs found them.
When the federal government approved creating African Americans units,Henry helped with recruiting United States Colored Troops.He moved with his family to Washington,DC so that he could support the African American soldiers and the war effort. He preached to many of them while serving as pastor of the Liberty (Fifteenth) Street Presbyterian Church from 1864-1866.During this time,he was the first African American minister to preach to the House of Representatives,addressing them on February 12 1865 about the end of slavery.
After the war in 1868,Henry was appointed president of Avery College in Pittsburgh,Pennsylvania.Later he returned to New York City as pastor at the Shiloh Presbyterian Church (formerly the First Colored Presbyterian Church,and now St.James Presbyterian Church in Harlem).
His first wife Julia died.In 1879,Henry married Sarah Smith Tompkins,who was a New York teacher and school principal,suffragist,and community organizer.
Henry's last wish was to go to Liberia to live,even for a few weeks,and to die there.He was appointed as the U.S. Minister to Liberia in late 1881,and died in Africa two months later.He was given a state funeral by the Liberian government and was buried at Palm Grove Cemetery in Monrovia.Frederick Douglass,who had not been on speaking terms with Henry for many years because of their differences,still mourned Henry's passing and noted his achievements.
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