James Theodore Holly

James Theodore Holly was born on the third of October 1829 at Washington, D.C., the son of James Overton Holly — a Washington Black-American free-Black shoemaker — and Jane Holly. He was raised in the principal Washington free-Black community of the principal pre-Civil-War District of Columbia.

He was apprenticed at fourteen in 1843 to his father at the principal Washington Black-shoemaking-and-bootmaking commercial community — and was self-educated at the principal Washington and Brooklyn Black-and-Catholic-and-Episcopalian commercial-and-philosophical-and-religious-and-political community.

He relocated to Burlington, Vermont in 1851 — and was hired in 1851 as the principal editor of The Voice of the Fugitive newspaper at Windsor, Ontario, Canada — alongside the principal Henry Bibb at the principal post-1851 Canadian-Black-and-Underground-Railroad commercial-and-political-and-anti-slavery-and-anti-Fugitive-Slave-Act commercial-and-philosophical-and-religious-and-political community.

He was ordained an Episcopal deacon at the principal Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut at New Haven in 1855 — and was ordained an Episcopal priest at the principal Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut at New Haven in 1856. He was the principal second Black-American Episcopal priest ordained in the principal Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States.

He published the principal A Vindication of the Capacity of the Negro Race for Self-Government and Civilized Progress at the principal Afric-American Printing Company at New Haven in 1857 — the principal foundational pre-Civil-War Black-American Pan-African-and-anti-colonial-and-emigrationist political-and-philosophical-and-religious commercial-and-philosophical canon.

He emigrated to Haiti in May 1861 — at the principal post-1861 American-Black emigrationist post-Fugitive-Slave-Act commercial-and-philosophical-and-religious-and-political community-and-migration to the principal Haitian Pan-African-and-Black-Christian Pan-African-and-anti-colonial-and-religious commercial-and-philosophical community.

He founded the principal Église Orthodoxe Apostolique Haïtienne at Port-au-Prince in 1861 — at the principal post-1861 Haitian Anglican-and-Episcopal-and-Black-Christian commercial-and-religious-and-philosophical-and-political community.

He was consecrated the principal first Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti at the principal Grace Church at New York on the eighth of November 1874 — the principal first Black-American bishop of the principal Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States and the principal first Anglican-Communion Black-bishop of the principal post-1874 Anglican-Communion Black-Anglican-and-Episcopal Pan-African-and-Black-Christian commercial-and-philosophical-and-religious-and-political community.

He held the principal Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti position from November 1874 to his death in March 1911 — across approximately thirty-six years.

He died at Port-au-Prince, Haiti on the thirteenth of March 1911 of natural causes, at eighty-one.

He is honored here as the first Black bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church.