American negro clergyman, born, in slavery, in Kent County, MA, in 1815. He taught school in Troy, NY, was licensed to preach in 1842, and then was pastor of a Presbyterian church in Troy for nearly ten years. In 1850–53 he lectured on slavery in Europe, and then went to Jamaica as a missionary for the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, but returned to the United States on account of failing health. In 1855 he became pastor of Shiloh Presbyterian Church, in New York City, and in 1865 accepted a call to a church in Washington, DC. In 1869 he was chosen president of Avery College, but resigned soon afterward and returned to Shiloh Church. In 1881 President Garfield appointed him minister and consul-general to Liberia, and in November he sailed for Africa. A few months after his arrival he succumbed to the climate, at Monrovia, on the 14th of February 1882.
