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The subject of this sketch first saw the light on the 4th day of July, 1853, in Lauderdale County, Alabama. His mother was a slave, and the fetters of bondage held him during the first eleven years of his life; but so great was his horror of servitude, that he ran away twice before he attained the age of twelve. Cruel treatment and his extreme hatred of slavery caused him to renew his efforts to obtain freedom, and in 1864 he succeeded in finding refuge with his father and mother.

At the age of thirteen he became an orphan, and grew up under the most adverse circumstances, with few advantages, being in one of the most benighted regions of the state. At the age of twenty this child of misfortuuemisfortune [sic] was unable to write his name; but, with the strong determination "to find a way or make one," he, by the assistance of a paid instructor, soon learned to write legibly.

In course of time he entered Le Moyne Institute, at Memphis, Tenn., and by close application was, in a short time, enabled to pass a creditable examination. He began teaching, which calling he followed for several years, with great benefit to his pupils, as well as credit to himself and to his profession. In 1878, he joined the A. M. E. Conference, and has had some of the best appointments in Alabama.

His first journalistic effort was as editor of The Christian Era, in 1887. Though occupying the position of associate editor of the paper, he was regarded by many as being the actual editor-in-chief. The Era was first published exclusively as a religious journal; but owing to the failure of other Afro-American papers to discuss boldly the issues of the day, Mr. Coffee entered the arena of controversy, and his keen and polished shafts of logic and sarcasm arrested the attention of the leading dailies of the state. After a time