Henry Highland Garnet, born December 23, 1815 in New Market, Maryland, was a slave, who escaped from slavery in Maryland with his family, and grew up in New York. He attended African Free School until 1828, when he went to sea as a cabin boy, a cook, and a steward, for a year. He returned to New York City, but had to flee to Long Island when slave catchers tried to capture him.
He began attending Sunday school at the First Colored Presbyterian Church and was baptized. In 1842, he became pastor of the Liberty Street Presbyterian church in Troy, New York. Garnet and his friend William G. Allen, published the National Watchman, an abolitionist newspaper, and became an advocate for abolishing slavery.
He began speaking at abolitionist conferences, where he said that slaves should act for themselves to achieve emancipation. In 1861, he secured secured a US passport from Secretary of State William Seward, declaring him a citizen of the US.
During the Civil War, he helped the federal government with recruiting US Colored Troops. He moved his family to Washington, DC to support black soldiers and the war effort.
On February 12, 1865, he preached to the US House of Representatives about the end of slavery, on occasion of the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment. Although the House was not in session, he was the first black minister to preach to them.
He continued his advocacy throughout his life, until he passed away in February 1882 of malaria in Liberia.
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