Lemuel Haynes: A Hero of Faith and Freedom – Pastor Kwame

In honor of Black History Month, I would like to highlight one of my heroes in the faith: Lemuel Haynes (1753–1833). Haynes was a thoughtful and faithful preacher of God’s Word. As the first African American to be ordained as a minister, he proclaimed the gospel and led his people with conviction and a deep clarity rooted in Scripture.

Haynes believed that the gospel was not merely a social idea, but God’s revealed truth and power—worthy of both the mind and the heart. He also held that God’s holiness is the foundation of true human dignity. In his era, many professed key truths of the gospel while living in contradiction to its implications. Haynes boldly proclaimed how Scripture exposed the injustice of slavery and how true freedom is found in Christ alone.

“Liberty and freedom is an innate principle, which is unmoveably placed in the human species; and to see a man aspire after it, is not enigmatical, seeing he acts no ways incompatible with his own nature…. Liberty is a jewel which was handed down to man from the cabinet of heaven.”
— Lemuel Haynes