Born:
April 15, 1818 in Philadelphia, PA to enslaved
parents. Samuel and his mother were given their
freedom 3 years later.
Age
17 – felt a strong calling into the ministry while
working for his uncle as an apprentice
shoemaker. He had an equally strong desire to
educate himself to fulfill that calling. He traveled to Peterboro, NY to begin his education under Gerrit Smith. Gerrit Smith shortly afterwards sent him to Ohio to continue his education.
Age 18
– began attending Western Reserve College and
Prepatory School (now known as Western Reserve
Academy) in Hudson, Ohio from 1836 -1839.
Age
22 – married his childhood sweetheart & later
moved to Newark NJ to operate a shoe shop while training as a
minister under the tutelage of a former pastor of the
1st Congregational Church.
Age
32 (in 1850) – moved to Pittsfield to become the
1st pastor of the 2nd Congregational
Church that was founded 4 years earlier in 1846 and located 2
blocks from the current site of Over the Rainbow
restaurant.
Age
34 – purchased a building lot for $50 and had this
house built 7 years later at a cost of $300;
borrowing $50 from each of 3 abolitionist friends and
securing a $150 mortgage from what is now
Berkshire Bank. One of the 3 abolitionist
friends was George Nixon Briggs, the Governor of Massachusetts
from 1844-1851. Here Samuel Harrison lived
with his wife Ellen and their 6 surviving
children.
Age
44 – Resigned as pastor of the 2nd
Congregational Church and was employed as an advocate and
fundraiser for the National Freedmen’s Relief Society to aid
the Freedmen of the sea islands of SC.
Age
45 (Aug 1863) – Mass Gov John A Andrew arrived by
train from Boston to visit the widow of Colonel Robert Shaw
who died during the assault on Fort Wagner near Charleston
SC. Colonel Shaw led the 1st and
most famous all black infantry to fight in the Civil War, the
54th Mass Infantry that was immortalized in the 1989 Academy
Award winning film “Glory”. During the
Gov’s visit he called upon Rev Harrison and asked him to go to
SC to express the sympathy of the Commonwealth over the tragic
death of Colonel Shaw and that of nearly half the members of
the regiment who died during the disastrous assault on Fort
Wagner. Just 2 days before the tragedy a
letter was sent from Gov Andrew’s Military Sec’y to Colonel
Shaw citing a “strong and unanimous” endorsement by the
Governor of Mass, the President of Williams College, and
highly respected clergy and laymen of Western Mass for Rev
Harrison as the 1st Chaplain of the Mass
54th. Rev Harrsion reported for
commissioning and duty at Morris Island, SC and states in his
autobiography that he was treated “in all respects…same as
other chaplains of a fairer hue.” But when
payday came around “the paymaster refused to pay the men of
the regiment the same amount paid to white troops because they
were of African descent”. Harrison wrote,
“Three months passed and no pay. I knew
that my family’s means were nearly used up… My wife and six
children, a debt of three hundred dollars on my house, and
grocery bills. I had a hard burden to
carry.” Chaplain Harrison filed a formal
complaint to his superior officers, but to no
avail. Harrison wrote, “I grew sick under
the pressure.” So sick was he that he
requested and received a medical discharge during his
4th month of service. He
thereupon complained to Mass Gov Andrew at being declined
equal pay on account of his African ancestry.
Gov Andrew vigorously and repeatedly petitioned
President Lincoln to honor Harrison’s claim for equal pay and
that of all servicemen of African descent serving under an
enlistment contract issued by the Sec of War acting under the
orders of the President of the United States. In June 1864
legislation requiring equal pay, retroactive to Jan 1864, was
passed in the army appropriations bill.
Harrison states in his autobiography that it was
suggested during his brief military service that he was “the
victim” upon whom the whole matter of equal pay would turn
and, as a consequence of the relationships he’d established
with men of influence, that indeed was the case (At the bottom of this page
are links to documents concerning the case of equal pay
located at the Library of
Congress).
Age 48
(1866) – Rev Harrison filled the pulpit of the
Sanford Street Free Church (now St. John's Congregational Church) in Springfield, MA. Rev Harrison
served there as pastor until 1870.
Age
54 (1872) – Rev Harrison returned to pastor the
2nd Congregational Church where he continued to
serve faithfully until the time of his death in
1900.
Age 64 (1882) - Rev Harrison
began serving as Chaplain of the W.W. Rockwell Post of the
Grand Army of the Republic. He served until
1884.
Died:
August 11, 1900 in Pittsfield, MA
Rev. Samuel Harrison's
Publications
The following works
of Samuel Harrison are available at the Berkshire Athenaeum in Pittsfield,
MA.
"Pittsfield Twenty-Five Years Ago; A Sermon
Delivered in the Second Congregational Church".
January 11th and 18th, 1874.
"Shall a Nation Be Born at Once?" - A
Centennial Sermon Delivered in the Chapel of the Methodist
Episcopal Church." July 2, 1876. Also available for
online viewing at the Library of Congress, Washington,
D.C.
"An Appeal of a Colored Man to His
Fellow-Citizens of a Fairer Hue, in the United
States." 1877.
"Rev. Samuel Harrison: His Life Story, as
Told by Himself."
1899. |