Description
Book SynopsisBorn in Connecticut, Lemuel Haynes was first an indentured servant, then a soldier in the Continental Army, and, in 1785, an ordained congregational minister. Haynes''s writings constitute the fullest record of a black man''s religion, social thought, and opposition to slavery in the late-18th and early-19th century. Drawing on both published and rare unpublished sourcess, John Saillant here offers the first comprehensive study of Haynes and his thought.
Trade ReviewIn Haynes we have a significant but neglected figure whose life and writings link theology, republicanism, and abolitionism in ways that challenge prevailing notions of religion and republican ideology in the revolutionary and early national period. Haynes was a free man of color, minister, and author, steeped in Edwardsean Calvinism, who came of age to the shot heard round the world and the Declaration of Independence. He forged these seemingly diverse strands into a black critique of a slaveholding society that professed liberty and inalienable rights. Saillant has done a wonderful job of making Haynes' stance understandable and compelling. * Kenneth Minkema, Executive Editor, The Works of Jonathan Edwards *
