Who was Prince Hall?
by Charles H. Wesley Ph.D. Black Americans have added cause to join in the celebration of their Nation’s Bicentennial, for it marks the two-hundred and first anniversary of a major step forward in American brotherhood, under the leadership of the distinguished black patriot Prince Hall. Prince Hall’s story is intertwined with the Revolutionary period’s struggle for freedom the freedom of the new nation from British tyranny, and the freedom of himself and other black Americans from bigotry, discrimination, and slavery. Prince Hall is thought to have been born in Barbados, although no documentation to that effect has been found. The earliest records concerning him show that he learned the leather trade in Boston from William Hall, who manumitted him on April 9, 1770, stating that while he had been a slave in the Hall family for twenty one years, he was “no longer to be reckoned as a slave,” and had “always been accounted as freeman by us, as he has served us faithfully.” ABOLITIONIST Wor
Every regular and well govern lodge within Prince Hall should take the bold initiative to have some form of a New Master Mason orientation process. Too many times we raise brothers to this degree and leave them clueless to understanding their work within the third degree. It should be the business of the lodge to begin educating them on the structure of government of the lodge and Grand lodge, how the business of the lodge should be conducted according to the constitution and by-laws, review the several committees which the lodge has operating, knowing Masonic protocol, how to properly investigate prospective candidates, and knowing the importance of being financial within the lodge and making new brothers apprentices to jobs carried out by well seasoned brothers. Educating our brothers on the ritual, history and business of the lodge will be an investment in the future prosperity of the lodge. Education through participation and mentoring are the best methods, which one can bring out
The version of his biography that is most often quoted and accepted is as follows: “Hall was born on September 12, 1748 at Bridgetown, Barbados, British West Indies. His father, Thomas Prince Hall, was an Englishman and his mother of French descent. He was apprenticed as a leather worker—-came to the United States in 1765 at the age of 17-applied himself industriously to common labor during the day and studied privately at night. Upon reaching the age of 27, he had acquired the fundamentals of an education. Saving his earnings, he had accumulated sufficient funds to buy a piece of property. He joined the Methodist Church in which he passed as an eloquent preacher. His first church was located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The author of this biography was William H. Grimshaw, a Past Grand Master (1907) of the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Washington, District of Columbia. It was included in his “Official History of Free Masonry Among the Colored People in North America”, published in 1903
