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For the Swiss footballer, see Thomas Paul (footballer). For the Irish Anglican priest, see Thomas Paul (priest).
Reverend
Thomas Paul
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Portrait of Thomas Paul, by Thomas Badger, ca.1825[1]
Born
Thomas Paul

(1773-09-03)3 September 1773
Rockingham, New Hampshire, United States
Died13 April 1831(1831-04-13) (aged 57)
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
NationalityAmerican
EducationFree Will Baptist church
OccupationPastor
Known forAbolitionist, activist
SpouseCatherine Waterhouse
ChildrenAnn Catherine Paul

Susan Paul (1809)

Thomas Paul Jr.

Thomas Paul (1773–1831) was a Baptist minister in Boston, Massachusetts who became the first pastor for the First African Baptist Church, currently known as the African Meeting House. [2][3] An abolitionist, he had leadership in the black community and was an active missionary in Haiti. He helped establish a long line of black leaders, such as with one of his children, activist Susan Paul. [4]

Early life and career

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Paul was born in the town of Exeter in Rockingham County, New Hampshire on September 3, 1773. He was educated at the Free Will Society Academy with two of his brothers. [5] He then pursued higher-education for the ministry in Hollis, New Hampshire, at the Free Will Baptist Church.[6][7] Paul was baptized by Reverend S.F. Locke and ordained in West Nottingham Meetinghouse by Reverend Thomas Baldwin in 1804. He married Catherine Waterhouse from Cambridge, Massachusetts on December, 5, 1805. [5] Shortly after their marriage, they had three children and moved to Boston. [8]

First African Baptist Church

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African Meeting House, also known as the First African Baptist Church, founded by Thomas Paul and his congregation.

After moving to Boston, Paul and his family became members of the First Baptist Church. However, following various conflicts with the white members of the church, Paul and fellow black members created their own body of the church: the First African Baptist Church. Old-Time New England correspondent J. Marcus Mitchell wrote regarding this conflict, "This decision to move from the main body of the church was not an easy one for this group to make, but they were driven from God’s House by the unchristian way they were being treated by their white brothers and sisters, separated into 'Negro Pews' or in the gallery hidden from the minister’s view. The black members were not being given an equal role in church activities." [5][9]

Paul met on August 8, 1805, along with twenty other black congregational members to discuss how to organize the new of the body church. The church was built with the help of Cato Gardner and the congregation.[6][9] Shortly after its construction, on December 4, 1806, he became the first pastor for the First African Baptist Church. The church went under various names after its foundation, for it was also known as the Independence Baptist Church, Belknap or Joy Street Baptist, and "The Abolition Church" following the founding of the New England Anti-Slavery Society by William Lloyd Garrison on January 6, 1832. [5][9]

After the foundation of the First African Baptist Church in 1805, Paul also helped establish black baptist churches all across America. He helped found the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York in 1808 along with his brother, Benjamin Paul. [10] Paul earned a reputation of being an eloquent speaker, well-organized and educated. [10][11]

Educational involvement

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Paul was affiliated with the Education Society for the People of Colour. [12] Together with other black leaders, he contributed to the development of Black Liberation Theology by tying biblical teachings to social justice and the quest for African American equal acceptance in society.[13] Paul also played a key role in Boston black community as a Prince Hall Mason and opposed integrated education.[14]

Work in Haiti

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In 1815, Paul travelled with Prince Saunders to England in a delegation from the Masonic Lodge of Africans, meeting William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson. A topic raised was black emigration to Haiti.[15] With the support of the white Massachusetts Baptist Society, in May 1823, Paul left for a six-month stay in Cap-Haïtien, Haiti as a missionary. He discovered other Christian Protestants, but speaking no French, he made little impact on the Catholic population there.[16] Paul forged relationships with the Haitian President, Jean-Pierre Boyer and his Secretary General, Joseph Balthazar Inginac. In December 1823, Paul returned to Boston giving a favorable report of his work in Haiti.[17]

Final years

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Paul served the African Baptist Church from 1805 to 1829. He died two years later on April 13, 1831 from tuberculosis.[9] Following his death, Garrison wrote an obituary on The Liberator "...few men ever deserved a higher eulogy than Mr. Paul. In his manners, he was dignified, urbane and attractive;—his colloquial powers were exuberant and vigorous;—his intellect was assiduously cultivated .... As a self-made man (and, in the present age, every colored man, if made at all, must be self-made,) he was indeed a prodigy. His fame, as a preacher, is exceedingly prevalent; for his eloquence charmed the ear, and his piety commended itself to his hearers." [9][13]

Family

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Paul was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, and was the eldest of six brothers. Paul married Catherine Waterhouse on December 5, 1805, and they had three children shortly after: Ann Catherine, Susan, and Thomas, Jr.[8] Susan Paul became a prominent writer and published the first biography of an African American in the United States. Thomas, Jr. worked as a teacher at the Abiel Smith School after studying at the short-lived Noyes Institute. [10]

Two of his brothers, Nathaniel Paul and Benjamin Paul, also became Baptist preachers. Nathaniel was a minister at Albany, NY, and founder of the Providence's United African Society in the 1820s. Benjamin was minister of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York along with Paul. Paul was the uncle of poet James Monroe Whitfield through his sister Nancy. By his sister Rhoda, he was the brother-in-law of noted Black Revolutionary War soldier, Jude Hall. [18][19]

See Also

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  • Horton, James Oliver. "Generations of Protest: Black Families and Social Reform in Ante-Bellum Boston." New England Quarterly, Vol. 49, No. 2 (Jun., 1976): 242–256.
  • Kachun, Mitch. "Antebellum African Americans, Public Commemoration, and the Haitian Revolution: a problem of historical mythmaking." Journal of the Early Republic Vol. 26, No. 2 (Summer, 2006):249–273.
  • White, Arthur O. "Antebellum School Reform in Boston: Integrationists and Separatists." Phylon Vol. 34, No. 2 (2nd Qtr., 1973): 203–217.

References

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  1. ^ http://www.npg.si.edu/cexh/brush/index/portraits/paul.htm Retrieved 05-21-2010
  2. ^ Christian Herald v.4, no.15, Jan. 3, 1818.
  3. ^ Winchel. Concord Gazette, Jan. 19, 1819.
  4. ^ Lois Brown. Out of the Mouths of Babes: The Abolitionist Campaign of Susan Paul and the Juvenile Choir of Boston. New England Quarterly, Vol. 75, No. 1 (Mar., 2002), pp. 52-79.
  5. ^ a b c d Mitchell, Marcus J. “The Paul Family .” Old-Time New England, 1973. https://hne-rs.s3.amazonaws.com/filestore/1/2/8/3/3_a6d0a6bca8697fb/12833_a3f973761350ffc.pdf
  6. ^ a b Nathan Aaseng, African-American Religious Leaders (2003), p. 168–9.
  7. ^ Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery page.
  8. ^ a b Yee, Shirley. "Paul, Thomas, Sr. (1773-1831)". Blackpast.org. Retrieved May 22, 2014.
  9. ^ a b c d e “African Meeting House - NPS History.” Accessed October 16, 2021. http://www.npshistory.com/publications/boaf/nr-african-meeting-house.pdf.
  10. ^ a b c Charles Eric Lincoln, Lawrence H. Mamiya, The Black Church in the African-American Experience (1990), p. 25; Google Books.
  11. ^ Suttington, Joanne M. “Financial Literacy and Accountability Within Black Baptist Churches”. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2017. https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2711&context=doctoral&httpsredir=1&referer=
  12. ^ Boston Directory. 1807, 1818, 1823.
  13. ^ a b Hinks, Peter Pringle (1993). "We must and shall be free": David Walker, Evangelicalism, and the Problem of Antebellum Black Resistance. Thesis (Ph. D.)--Yale University. pp. 115–117. OCLC 36055006.
  14. ^ Grover, Kathryn; da Silva, Janine V. (December 31, 2002). "Historic Resource Study Boston African American National Historic Site": 5. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.174.1345. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  15. ^ Léon Dénius Pamphile, Haitians and African Americans: a heritage of tragedy and hope (2001), p. 38; Google Books.
  16. ^ Nathan Aaseng, African-American Religious Leaders (2003), p. 168–9.
  17. ^ Armstrong, Samuel T. (April 1824). "Hayti". The Missionary Herald. 20 (4): 127.
  18. ^ Nathan Aaseng, African-American Religious Leaders (2003), p. 168–9.
  19. ^ Robert Steven Levine, Ivy G. Wilson (editors), The Works of James M. Whitfield: America and other writings by a nineteenth-century African American poet (2011), p. 7; Google Books.

Planned Work

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Biography

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I want to organize Thomas Paul’s page by making it more comprehensive and layered. This Biography section will include all the sub-sections for each stage of his life: Early life, First African Baptist Church, Abyssinian Baptist Church, Black Liberation Theology, Prince Hall Mason, and Work in Haiti. I intend to further elaborate each of these subsections to increase the quality of the article.

Early life

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Early Life will cover Thomas Paul’s education before founding the First African Baptist Church. I still have to find some information regarding this part of his life, and I believe it will be slightly short as much of the information available regarding Thomas Paul is after his foundation of the Baptist church.

  • References
  1. “Black Abolitionist Archive: THOMAS PAUL.” Black Abolitionist Archive | Thomas Paul: UDM Libraries / Instructional Design Studio, libraries.udmercy.edu/archives/special-collections/index.php?collectionCode=baa&record_id=2395&item_id=2797.
  2. “African Meeting House .” Museum of Afro American History African Meeting House. http://npshistory.com/brochures/boaf/african-meeting-house.pdf

First African Baptist Church

[edit]

This subsection will cover Thomas Paul’s efforts in founding the first African Baptist Church and his accomplishments as the first baptist minister. This will include finances, challenges, among others. There was probably racial tensions during this time which are not mentioned at all in the article; however, I have to find some more information on this to consider whether or not to make it its own subsection. Most likely, I will mention the racial tensions during this time period in this subsection.

  • References
    1. Egemonye, Uche N. “First: A History of First African Baptist Church, the Oldest Continuous Black Baptist Church in North America, 1788–1939”. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2003.
    2. Harvey, Paul. Through the Storm, through the Night: A History of African American Christianity. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publ, 2013.
    3. Horton, James Oliver. "Generations of Protest: Black Families and Social Reform in Ante-Bellum Boston." New England Quarterly, Vol. 49, No. 2 (Jun., 1976): 240–260.
    4. Suttington, Joanne M. “Financial Literacy and Accountability Within Black Baptist Churches”. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2017.
    5. “Black Organizational Life before 1830 (Part i) - African American Literature in Transition, 1800–1830.” Cambridge Core, Cambridge University Press,www.cambridge.org/core/books/african-american-literature-in-transition-18001830/black-organizational-life-before-1830/D30E1E05061833751139FCEE449BDFE.

Abyssinian Baptist Church

[edit]

This subsection will talk about Thomas Paul’s work with the Abyssinian Baptist Church which he also founded. It is unclear what his involvement was in this church, so hopefully I find more information regarding his work.  

  • References
    1. King, Ronnie C. “Past, Present, Future: A Biblical Succession Module for Pastors in the Black Baptist Church”. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2017.
    2. Mitchell, Henry H. Black Church Beginnings: The LONG-HIDDEN Realities of the First Years.Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2005.
    3. Suttington, Joanne M. “Financial Literacy and Accountability Within Black Baptist Churches”. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2017.

Black Liberation Theology

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One of Thomas Paul’s most famous works is his collaboration with other black leaders to create the Black Liberation theology, tying in the bible to social justice and equal acceptance of blacks.

  • References
    1. Whelchel, L. H. The History & Heritage of AFRICAN-AMERICAN CHURCHES: A Way out of No Way. St. Paul: Minn., 2011.
    2. MiRaboteau, Albert J. Slave Religion: The "INVISIBLE Institution" in the Antebellum South. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
    3. White, Arthur O. "Antebellum School Reform in Boston: Integrationists and Separatists." Phylon Vol. 34, No. 2 (2nd Qtr., 1973): 200–220. https://www.jstor.org/stable/273828

Prince Hall Mason

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As Prince Hall Mason, Thomas Paul was instrumental in leading the black community. I do need to research A LOT more about this area of Thomas Paul’s life, however, as I do not have any information regarding this stage. There is one citation on Wikipedia which links to his tasks as Prince Hall Mason, but that link does not work so I will consider just removing this information altogether if I cannot find accurate information on this.

  • References
    1. Need to do more research and obtain references for this section; if I cannot find any I will just delete it

Work in Haiti

[edit]

I intend to further elaborate the section on Thomas Paul’s work in Haiti. This will include specifying whether or not his missionary work was a success in Haiti, and including more regarding his conversation with the Haitian president at the time.

  • References
    1. Christopher Cameron. 2014.  To Plead Our Own Cause: African Americans in Massachusetts in the Making of the Antislavery Movement.
    2. L​​éon Dénius Pamphile, Haitians and African Americans: a heritage of tragedy and hope (2001), p. 38; Google Books.
    3. Armstrong, Samuel T. (April 1824). "Hayti". The Missionary Herald. 20 (4): 127.

Relatives

[edit]

There is a section about Thomas Paul’s family members at the beginning of the article which is a really odd place to locate them in so I will move them after all his biographical information and try to get some more information about them -- although I will not really focus on doing so.

  • References
    1. Nathan Aaseng, African-American Religious Leaders(2003), p. 168–9.
    2. Robert Steven Levine, Ivy G. Wilson (editors), The Works of James M. Whitfield: America and other writings by a nineteenth-century African American poet (2011), p. 7; Google Books.
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