The Paul Family By J. MARCUS MITCHELL* HOMAS Paul, a black minister, Thomas Paul professed his belief in and a small band of twenty per- Christ and was baptized by the Rev. S. T sons gathered in Master Vinal’s F. Locke. The New Hampshire Histori- schoolhouse in Boston on August 8, cal Society statesthat he was ordained in 1805 for the purpose of organizing the West Nottingham by the Rev. Thomas first black church in the city. Baldwin of Boston in 1804. Rev. This decision to move from the main Thomas Paul married Catherine Water- body of the church was not an easy one house of Cambridge, Massachusetts on for this group to make, but they were December 5, 1805. The same Rev. driven from God’s House by the unchris- Baldwin was listed as the minister that tian way they were being treated by their performed the ceremony. white brothers and sisters,separated into The Pa& moved to Boston and be- “Negro Pews” or in the gallery hidden came members of the First Baptist from the minister’s view. The black Church. Rev. Paul was reported to be an members were not being given an equal eloquent speaker and was invited to role in church activities. The removal of preach in many New England churches. Absalom Jones and Richard Allen from An account from the New Hampshire prayer in a church in Philadelphia had Historical Society states that he preached reached the ears of the black community at Ware in 1802. Another historical on Beacon Hill’s North Slope. sketch of the Baptist Church reports that Thomas Paul and his members moved “On Oct. 27, 1803, Brother Thomas to provide a new institution at Smith Paul, a Baptist minister of color, preached Court, The First African Baptist here from John 14, 27.” Church-“A Haven from the Loft.” With the help of Cato Gardner and This dedicated and pious leader, Paul, the congregation, a building was com- was born free in the town of Exeter, pleted and Thomas Paul was installed as county of Rockingham, in the state of the first pastor of the First African Bap- New Hampshire, on September 3, 1773. tist Church on December 4, 1806. He attended the Free Will Society Acad- (Fig.) He had begun the movement to emy with two of his six brothers. The establish independent black Baptist Free Will Baptist Church in 1793 churches in the United States. In 1809 operated this academy for those students he aided in the founding of an African seeking higher education in Hollis, New Baptist Society in New York that be- Hampshire. came the large Abyssinian Baptist Church. * Mr. Mitchell is Curator of the Museum The Massachusetts Baptist Society of Afro-American Historv. Boston. This article sponsored his trips to England in 1815 was originally given as a paper at a symposium and his six-month stay in Haiti. Prince on Negro family history hosted by the Afro- American Studies Program, Boston University, Saunders, a teacher, accompanied him on March, 1972. the Haitian mission. Paul met with Presi- 73 74 Old-Time New England dent Boyer, who was encouraging black and named Abiel Smith School for its people of the United States to migrate to white benefactor. the young black nation. Rev. Paul’s in- The diary of William Bentley, D.D. ability to communicate in French lim- provides information of the times: August ited his effectiveness as a missionary there. 9, 1807 entry-“In Boston they had The school for African children that their dedication last week of the third THE AFRICAN MEETING HOUSE, 1804, SMITH COURT, BOSTON. ATTRIBUTED TO ASHER BENJAMIN Photograph by Arthur Haskell in S.P.N.E.A. Collection. started in the home of Primus Hall, West Baptist Church, for they do not reckon Cedar and Revere Streets, was moved to the third, Mr. Paul’s Negro Baptist, tho’ the basement of the meetinghouse. The entitled to some rank among them.” overcrowded and unhealthy condition of May 25, 1818 he states-“Having Mr. the basement forced the move for a new Prince Saunders so much with me I school. The funds were provided by the thought I would go & hear Mr. Paul. will of Abiel Smith and the city to make He impressed the audience with a regard this move possible. A school was con- to his sincerety & many with a sense of structed at Joy and Smith Court in 1834 his talents. His person is good & much The Paul Family 75 beyond that of Prince Saunders who is Rev. Nathaniel Paul, brother of still the superior man.” Thomas, was the pastor of the Union Rev. Thomas Paul served as Chaplin Street Baptist Church in Albany, New of the African Grand Lodge No. 459 York. He was a noted abolitionist and is (forerunner of the Prince Hall Grand listed in William Lloyd Garrison’s Mem- Lodge) and on many important com- oirs. Rev. Nathaniel Paul addressed the mittees. First African Society in Albany, July 5, City document No. 128 lists Thomas 1827. He visited Bristol, England in Paul in the last meeting of the inhabitants 1833. His opposition to colonization under the town form of government, plans is recorded in The Ricqhtsof All, April I, 1822, called the last town meet- which was delivered in New York on ing. The new city government was September 18, 1829. He died Septem- formed on May I, I 822 with John Phil- ber 18, 1839 in Albany, New York. lips serving as first major. The Boston Rev. Shadrack Paul, brother of Directory of 1830 in the “People of Thomas, was also a Baptist minister (all Color” section lists Rev. Thomas Paul seven Paul brothers were said to have as living at 26 George Street. been Baptist ministers). He was em- He served the African Baptist Church ployed as a “circuit rider” at Epping, from I 805 to I 829 as their pastor. Near New Hampshire, to cover towns in the close of his life, April 13, I 831, he Rockingham county for the New Hamp- said to a friend, “since I last saw you, I shire Domestic Mission Society, estab- have been happy in God . my sky has lished in I 8 I 9 (Epping is located in the been without a cloud. I know that when northwestern part of Exeter). the earthly home of my tabernacle is dis- Thomas Paul, Jr. was listed as the solved. I have a house not made with first black graduate of Dartmouth Col- hands, eternal in the heavens.” lege. He married Miss Eusebia Louella The church founded by Rev. Thomas Moss. He was the headmaster of the Abiel Paul was to become known as the Inde- Smith School during the fight to end the pendence Baptist Church, Belknap or Joy segregated school and integrate the Street Baptist, the Abolition Church schools of Boston. The children of (William Lloyd Garrison organized the Thomas Jr. and Eusebia were Kate New England Anti-Slavery Society Euseba, Emma Louella, and Thomas. there on January 6, 1832), and St. Paul Susan Paul, the second oldest child of before the move to the South End of Rev. Thomas Paul, was an antislavery Boston. lecturer, and was present when a mob The edifice became a haven for the set fire to Pennsylvania Hall in Philadel- Jewish community that replaced the phia in 1838. Abolitionists had built the black community. The meetinghouse hall as a meeting place. Proslavery forces remained a synagogue from 1904 to from the north moved to end their exis- 1972. (Cover.) It is now listed on the tence. Susan Paul never married. National Historic Register as a shrine to The oldest child of Rev. Thomas the Rev. Thomas Paul and all the people Paul and Catherine, Anne Catherine, who labored to build and maintain it. It was married to Elijah Smith of Philadel- presently houses the Museum of Afro- phia by her uncle, the Rev. Benjamin American History. Paul of Albany, New York in 1824. 76 Old-Time New England Elijah Smith had moved to Boston in the The third child of Anne Paul and antebellum days. He was a musical com- Elijah was Susan Paul, born September poser and traveled with the famous 19, 1838 in Boston. Her mother, Anne, “Frank Johnson’s Band.” Elijah and died at an early age, and Susan was Anne were active abolitionists. Their reared by her maternal grandmother, children were Thomas Paul Smith, Catherine Paul. Susan graduated at six- Elijah W., Jr., Susan Paul Smith, and teen with valedictorian honors from a John Boyer Smith. private Somerville schooland then moved The oldest child of Anne Paul and to Pittsburg on the death of her grand- Elijah, Thomas Paul Smith, married mother. She served as an assistantteacher Elizabeth Roberts. He died March 18, and met and married Professor George 1889. B. Vashon on February 17, 1857. The Elijah William Smith, Jr. was born Vashons had seven children. Professor on December 29, 1830, at the house on Vashon had taught at Port au Prince, the corner of what is now West Cedar Haiti and New York Central College. and Revere Streets, Beacon Hill, Boston. He was the son of John B. Vashon, an He attended the Abiel Smith School, Joy abolitionist. Mrs. Susan Paul Vashon lost Street. Thomas served his apprenticeship her husband on October 5, 1878. There- as a printer with William Lloyd Garrison after she taught school in Washington, on The Liberator. He was employed as a D. C. and then moved to St. Louis where headwaiter at Young’s Hotel and con- she died, November 27, 1912.