The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Garnet, Henry Highland

GARNET, Henry Highland, Afro-American clergyman: b. New Market, Md., 1815; d. 1882. He was born in slavery and at the age of 10 was brought to New York by his parents, who effected their escape from slavery. He received his education at Canaan Academy and at Oneida Institute. He was made pastor of a Presbyterian Church in Troy, N. Y. in 1842. He became prominent among the Abolitionists and for many years edited the Clarion, a weekly periodical advocating the abolition of slavery. He lectured on slavery in Great Britain in 1850-53 and for the next two years was missionary in Jamaica under the protection of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland. From 1855 to 1865 and again from 1869 to 1881 he was pastor of Shiloh Presbyterian Church in New York. In 1865-69 he held a pastorate in Washington, D. C. In 1881 he was made Minister and Counsel-General to Liberia, and died within a few months after his arrival in that republic.