Amos Beman | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1812 |
| Died | 1872 |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Pastor |
| Known for | Abolitionism |
Amos Gerry Beman (1812-1872) was a 19th-century African American pastor and social activist from Connecticut. He was a prominent African American abolitionist.
Beman was born in Colchester, Connecticut, and later moved to Middletown, Connecticut. His grandfather, Cesar, earned his freedom by fighting in the Revolutionary War in place of his master. With his freedom, he took the name Beman, claiming his right to "be a man." Cesar was a shoemaker, a trade he passed down to his son Jehiel, who then passed this on to Jehiel's eldest son Leverett. [1] Unlike Leverett, Amos followed a path of study, enrolling in the Oneida Institute, and was destined to enter the ministry. Jehiel Beman, Amos' father, was the first pastor of the Cross Street AME Zion Church in Middletown, CT, and was later pastor of the Boston AME Zion Church. [2]
Amos Beman was tutored for a short time by Wesleyan University student Samuel Dole, but was driven from the university by a letter from "The Twelve of Us," which threatened his safety. Following this, Beman moved to Hartford, Connecticut, to begin his professional career. [3] Throughout his life, Beman followed in the footsteps of his father, Jehiel Beman. In addition to serving as pastor of an African-American church in Connecticut, Jehiel Beman was heavily involved in several social activist movements. His son would lead a similar life. [3]
In about 1835, Beman married Eunice Jeffrey, with whom he had three daughters and two sons: Mary, Amos, Fannie, Charles, and Emma. Their daughter Mary married Richard Mason Hancock on July 20, 1856. Mary, her new husband, and her brother Charles moved to Lockport, New York. In August of that year, Amos's wife and son Amos died of typhoid fever. Six months later, their daughter Fannie died of consumption. In 1858, Beman married Eliza Kennedy Howell, a white woman — a decision that drastically undermined his standing at the Temple Street Church. Eliza's first husband had been John William Howell, a man of color born in the West Indies, and their daughters Eliza and Catherine Romena were listed as mulatto on census records. Both daughters married ministers in 1864: on 1 November, Eliza married the Rev. Hezekiah Hunter, and on 20 December, Catherine married the Rev. Francis Lewis Cardozo, who was the pastor of Temple Street Congregational Church and would go on to become South Carolina's Secretary of State. Eliza Beman died of cancer on 5 November 1864.
Amos's son Charles served in the U.S. Army during the Civil War and died of consumption in 1875. Amos's daughter Emma lived in New Haven, Connecticut, until her death in 1910.
Amos Beman married a third time to an African American named Mary (née Allen), widow of Chester Thomas, [4] but for most of his acquaintances, it was too late for Beman to atone for his decision to marry a white woman. [3]
In 1841, Beman fulfilled his childhood dream and became pastor of the Temple Street African Church in New Haven, Connecticut. The Temple Street Church was the oldest and most respected African Church in New Haven. Unfortunately, financial difficulties plagued Beman throughout the 17 years that he served the Temple Street Church. Many years, he was unable to take a salary, and he considered resigning from his post on several occasions. Yet, despite these tribulations, Beman's church grew considerably during his time as pastor, adding well over a hundred members to the congregation. Beman was widely recognized as a highly capable pastor, and his followers praised him for his leadership and selflessness. Beman decided to resign as pastor shortly after his second marriage. [3] As pastor of the Temple Street African Church, Beman was a Temperance lecturer, anti-slavery supporter, member of the underground railroad, and an advocate for negro suffrage in Connecticut. [5]
Beman served on multiple conventions and councils that promoted anti-slavery causes and African American civil rights. Notably, Beman was a leading advocate of the African American suffrage movement in Connecticut. Yet, his efforts to grant African Americans the right to vote failed, and he subsequently increased his activity writing for Frederick Douglass' North Star and other African American publications. Beman was known for opening up his church to fugitive slaves, but as the Civil War neared, Beman began traveling around the country, lecturing on the anti-slavery movement. [3] His speeches can be found in many newspapers, including the Emancipator, [6] the Weekly Anglo-African, and the anti-slavery Bugle.
Additionally, Beman was a moral activist, highly involved in the temperance movement. He served as president of the Connecticut Society of the Negro Temperance Movement. [3] Beman was also the President of the 1855 Colored National Convention in Philadelphia, held to discuss slavery, suffrage, and moral reform. [7]
Beman kept four scrapbooks of articles documenting important moments and ideas he valued. They can be viewed at the Yale library. [8]
Reverend Leonard Bacon was an American Congregational preacher and writer. He held the pulpit of the First Church New Haven and was later professor of church history and polity at Yale College.
Robert Purvis was an American abolitionist in the United States. He was born in Charleston, South Carolina, and was likely educated at Amherst Academy, a secondary school in Amherst, Massachusetts. He spent most of his life in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1833 he helped found the American Anti-Slavery Society and the Library Company of Colored People. From 1845 to 1850 he served as president of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society and also traveled to Britain to gain support for the movement.
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Francis Lewis Cardozo was an American clergyman, politician, and educator. When elected in South Carolina as Secretary of State in 1868, he was the first African American to hold a statewide office in the United States.
Charles Bennett Ray was a prominent African-American minister and abolitionist who owned and edited the weekly newspaper The Colored American. Born in Massachusetts, he spent most of his career and life in New York City.
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The Mary and Eliza Freeman Houses are historic residences in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The simple, clapboard-covered dwellings were built in 1848 in what became known as Little Liberia, a neighborhood settled by free blacks starting in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. As the last surviving houses of this neighborhood on their original foundations, these were added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 22, 1999. The houses are the oldest remaining houses in Connecticut built by free blacks, before the state completed its gradual abolition of slavery in 1848. The homes and nearby Walter's Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church are also listed sites on the Connecticut Freedom Trail.
Hosea Easton (1798–1837) was an American Congregationalist and Methodist minister, abolitionist activist, and author. He was one of the leaders of the convention movement in New England.
Simeon Jocelyn was an American minister, abolitionist, and activist known for promoting educational opportunities and civil and political rights for African Americans in New Haven, Connecticut, during the 19th century. He is also known for his attempt to establish the United States' first college for African Americans in New Haven, and for his role in the Amistad affair.
The history of Methodism in the United States dates back to the mid-18th century with the ministries of early Methodist preachers such as Laurence Coughlan and Robert Strawbridge. Following the American Revolution most of the Anglican clergy who had been in America came back to England. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, sent Thomas Coke to America where he and Francis Asbury founded the Methodist Episcopal Church, which was to later establish itself as the largest denomination in America during the 19th century.
Amos A. (Augustus) Phelps (1805–1847) was an American minister and abolitionist.
Richard Mason Hancock was a carpenter and shop foreman and civil rights activist in the American Northeast and Chicago. He was one of few African-American iron works shop foremen during his era.
Hester C. Jeffrey, néeWhitehurst was an African-American activist, suffragist, and community organizer in Rochester, N.Y., and New York City. She is known for her involvement with the Political Equality Club, the Women's Christian Temperance Union, and the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs.
Amos Parker Wilder was an American journalist and diplomat who served as United States Consul General to Hong Kong and Shanghai in the early 20th century.
Abbie K. Mason was a Black American suffragist. She was known as the president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and taught the lessons of Frederick Douglass at the Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church of Rochester, New York.
James Mars was an American slave narrative author and political activist. Born into slavery in Canaan, Connecticut, he gained his freedom in 1811. In 1864, he published his memoir A Life of James Mars, a Slave Born and Sold in Connecticut, Written by Himself—a notable example of the slave narrative genre. His grave is a stop on the Connecticut Freedom Trail. In 2021, Governor Ned Lamont declared May 1 to be James Mars Day in Connecticut.
Bishop Singleton T. Jones was a religious leader in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. When he was ten years old, he was apprenticed to a lawyer and worked for him for four years, after which he found positions at an inn, as a hod carrier, and on a riverboat on the Ohio River. He became a pastor in the 1840s, serving churches throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. Although he had little education, he taught himself to be an articulate orator. Besides being a pastor to churches, he also edited AME Zion publications, the Zion's Standard and Weekly Review and the Discipline.
Jehiel C. Beman (1791–1858) was an African-American 19th-century minister and abolitionist. He was a leader for suffrage and temperance, and he was an agent for the Underground Railroad in Connecticut. His son Amos Beman was also a prominent abolitionist.
Greensbury Washington Offley was an American slave narrative author and minister. Born into slavery in Maryland and eventually freed, Offley wrote A Narrative of the Life and Labors of the Rev. G. W. Offley, a Colored Man, Local Preacher and Missionary (1859), one of only six slave narratives published in Connecticut.
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