Prince Hall

Prince Hall (c. 1735 - December 4, 1807) rose from bondage to become the founding father of Black Freemasonry and one of the most consequential leaders of free-Black Boston in the Revolutionary era. His earliest years are shadowed in uncertainty: reference works place his birth around 1735, some naming Barbados, while other scholars judge him a native of New England. His birth year, birthplace, and parentage remain genuinely unsettled in the record.

What is firmly known begins in Boston. Hall was associated with the household of William Hall, a Massachusetts leather-dresser, and a certificate dated April 1770 declared him "no longer Reckoned a slave, but always accounted as a free man." A free and literate man, he made his living as a leatherworker, peddler, and caterer, keeping a leather shop; in 1777 he crafted five drumheads for a Boston artillery regiment.

Barred with fourteen other free Black men from the white St. John's Lodge, Hall was initiated into Freemasonry in 1775 by a lodge attached to the British army. He founded African Lodge and, after a formal charter was granted in 1784 (African Lodge No. 459), served as its Grand Master until his death — establishing the first Black Masonic tradition in America, later named Prince Hall Freemasonry in his honor.

Beyond the lodge, Hall was a tireless advocate: he helped promote a 1777 petition to end slavery in Massachusetts, pressed the state to protect free Black residents from kidnapping, and campaigned for the education of Black children, helping found a school. He died in Boston on December 4, 1807, and rests in Copp's Hill Burying Ground. May his name endure as a builder of freedom and a keeper of his people's dignity.