William P. Newman
{{Short description|Abolitionist and Baptist minister}}
{{Infobox person
| name = William P. Newman
| image = William_P._Newman.jpg
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = 1810/15
| birth_place = Richmond, Virginia
| death_date = 1866
| death_place = Cincinnati, Ohio
| nationality = American
| other_names =
| occupation = Baptist minister, abolitionist
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| children = 6, including Lucretia Newman Coleman
}}
William P. Newman (1810/15–1866) was a fugitive slave who escaped from Virginia, moved north and obtained an education at Oberlin College. Becoming an ordained Baptist minister, he pastored for a few years at the Union Baptist Church of Cincinnati, Ohio. He made numerous mission trips to Canada, founding schools and preaching. He was known for writing on abolitionist themes. After the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 passed, he settled his family in Ontario, where they remained until 1859. Leaving Canada, he first immigrated with his family to Haiti, but came into conflict with the Catholicism he found there. After trying to immigrate again to Jamaica, he returned to the United States after the outbreak of the Civil War and re-established his pastorate at the Union Baptist Church. He died in a cholera epidemic in 1866.
Early life
William P. Newman was born as a slave in Williamsburg.{{sfn|Canada Census|1851-B}}{{sfn|Kent County Marriage Register|1859}}{{sfn|Jackson|Cooper|2014|p=107}} Virginia in the period between 1810 and 1815. He escaped and made his way north,{{sfn|Jackson|Cooper|2014|p=107}} arriving at Oberlin College in 1839. From the beginning of his studies, Newman was active in the school, working on behalf of emancipation. He was one of the chosen speakers for the black students at Oberlin and published fiery essays in the black press in favor of the abolition of slavery. He was one of six delegates selected from Lorain County to attend the 1843 State Convention in Columbus and was elected chair of the business committee. He was also said to be one of the first black voters in the county.{{sfn|Cheek|Cheek|1996|p=119}} In 1843, Newman left Oberlin{{sfn|Taylor|1993|p=63}} and the following year he married Nancy D. Brown, with whom he would have at least four children, the youngest of whom was Lucretia.{{sfn|Ohio Marriage Records|1844|p=143}}{{sfn|Penn|1891|p=384}}{{sfn|Iowa Marriage Records|1884}}
Career
When he left school in 1843, without money to his name, he intended to establish schools in Canada West. By 1844, with the support of the Ohio Ladies' Education Society,{{#tag:ref|An organization committed to the causes of abolitionism and African-American education.|group="note"}} he was lecturing in Canada, raising funds for the society, and scouting for teachers.{{sfn|Cheek|Cheek|1996|pp=119-120}} By 1848, he returned to Cincinnati to become pastor of the Union Baptist Church, succeeding Rev. Charles Satchell.{{sfn|Taylor|1993|p=63}}{{sfn|Langston|1894|p=62}} Newman remained in Cincinnati until the enactment of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, when he returned to Canada with his family.{{sfn|Jackson|Cooper|2014|p=107}}{{sfn|Canada Census|1851-A}} They lived in Chatham, Kent County, Ontario, and when Newman was not preaching and teaching, he operated a sawmill at Dawn Mills.{{sfn|Cheek|Cheek|1996|p=120}}{{sfn|Canada Census|1851-A}}{{sfn|Canada Census|1851-B}} In 1855, he helped edit the Provincial Freeman, contributing editorials on politics, the role of religion, and interracial marriage.{{sfn|Ripley|1985|pages=322-329}} Nancy appears to have died in 1859.{{#tag:ref|The records of the British-American Institute cemetery in Dresden, Ontario, show a Nancy D. Newman who died in 1859.{{sfn|Find A Grave|2009}}|group="note"}} On August 15 of that year, Newman married Sarah Clegget, who became step-mother to his children.{{sfn|Kent County Marriage Register|1859}}{{sfn|Old Third Ward Neighborhood Association|2016|p=2}}
Later in 1859, Newman, with his wife and six children, left Canada{{#tag:ref|He sold his farm the next year to Thomas Hughes, an Anglican minister recently arrived in Dresden.{{sfn|Reid-Maroney|2013|page=38}}|group="note"}} and went to Haiti in an attempt to find missionaries interested in working in Africa.{{sfn|Taylor|1993|p=63}}{{sfn|Fisher|1933|p=73}} Clashing with the Catholic Church in Haiti, Newman moved on to Jamaica before returning to Cincinnati in 1863. In 1864 he served as a delegate to the National Black Convention in Syracuse, New York, and by the end of the year, returned to his pastorate at Union Baptist.{{sfn|Cheek|Cheek|1996|p=120}}
Death and legacy
Newman died in a cholera epidemic in 1866. The church erected a monument to his memory in their new cemetery and gave $1000 to his widow to establish a home near her relatives in Appleton, Wisconsin.{{sfn|Cheek|Cheek|1996|p=120}}{{sfn|Old Third Ward Neighborhood Association|2016|p=2}}
Notes
{{reflist|group=note}}
References
=Citations=
{{Reflist|30em}}
=Bibliography=
{{refbegin|30em}}
- {{cite book|last1=Cheek|first1=William F.|last2=Cheek|first2=Aimee Lee|title=John Mercer Langston and the Fight for Black Freedom, 1829-65|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RbvS4GUA7mMC&pg=PA119|year=1996|publisher=University of Illinois Press|location=Urbana, Illinois|isbn=978-0-252-06591-0}}
- {{cite book|last=Fisher|first=Miles Mark|title=A short history of the Baptist denomination|url=https://archive.org/stream/shorthistoryofba00fish#page/72/mode/2up/search/Newman|year=1933|publisher=Sunday School Publishing Board|location=Nashville, Tennessee|oclc=2002496}}
- {{cite book|last1=Jackson|first1=Eric R.|last2=Cooper|first2=Richard|title=Cincinnati's Underground Railroad|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vj1oBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA107|year=2014|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|location=Charleston, South Carolina|isbn=978-1-4396-4461-4}}
- {{cite book|last=Langston|first=John Mercer|title=From the Virginia plantation to the national capitol; or, The first and only Negro representative in Congress from the Old Dominion|url=https://archive.org/stream/fromvirginiaplan00lang#page/62/mode/2up|year=1894|publisher=American Publishing Company|location=Hartford, Connecticut|oclc=252297072}}
- {{cite book|last=Penn|first=Irvine Garland|author-link=Irvine Garland Penn|title=The Afro-American press and its editors|url=https://archive.org/details/afroamericanpre00penngoog|year=1891|publisher=Willey & Company|location=Springfield, Massachusetts|oclc=503673564}}
- {{cite book |title=The Reverend Jennie Johnson and African-Canadian History, 1868-1967 |last=Reid-Maroney |first=Nina |publisher=University of Rochester Press |location=Rochester, NY |date=2013 |isbn=978-1-580-46447-5 |oclc=805048370 |jstor=10.7722/j.ctt2jbm4t.7 |id={{Project MUSE|73659|type=book}} |url={{GBurl|_ZGJN8qkqpwC|p=34}} |chapter=Chapter 2: 'As Lively Stones' : Abolitionist Culture in Johnson's Dresden}}
- {{cite book|last=Taylor|first=Henry Louis|title=Race and the City: Work, Community, and Protest in Cincinnati, 1820-1970|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9l_e3Adl7n0C&pg=PA63|year=1993|publisher=University of Illinois Press|location=Urbana, Illinois|isbn=978-0-252-01986-9}}
- {{cite web|ref={{harvid|Canada Census|1851-A}}|author=|title=1851 Canada Census, Chatham, Kent County, Canada West (Ontario)|url=https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MWTW-N79|website=FamilySearch|publisher=Library and Archives Canada|access-date=26 February 2017|location=Toronto, Ontario, Canada|date=1851}}
- {{cite web|ref={{harvid|Canada Census|1851-B}}|author=|title=1851 Canada Census, Chatham, Kent County, Canada West (Ontario)|url=https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MWTW-N7M|website=FamilySearch|publisher=Library and Archives Canada|access-date=26 February 2017|location=Toronto, Ontario, Canada|date=1851}}
- {{cite web|ref={{harvid|Iowa Marriage Records|1884}}|author=|title=Iowa, County Marriages, 1838-1934|url=https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XJF5-QJM|website=FamilySearch|publisher=The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints|access-date=26 February 2017|location=Salt Lake City, Utah|date=July 3, 1884|id=GS Film #001014766}}
- {{cite web|ref={{harvid|Kent County Marriage Register|1859}}|author=|title=Kent County marriage register, 1858-1869|volume=23|url=https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS7D-16JZ?mode=g&cc=2568642|website=FamilySearch|publisher=The Archives of Ontario|access-date=26 February 2017|location=Toronto, Ontario, Canada|date=1859|id=Archives of Ontario film #MS 248, reel 8}}
- {{cite journal|ref={{harvid|Old Third Ward Neighborhood Association|2016}}|author=|title=Lucretia H. Newman Coleman|journal=Neighborhood News|date=Winter 2016|url=http://www.focol.org/oldthirdward/newsletter-2016-winter.pdf|access-date=26 February 2017|publisher=Old Third Ward Neighborhood Association|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160721233407/http://www.focol.org///oldthirdward/newsletter-2016-winter.pdf|archive-date=July 21, 2016|location=Appleton, Wisconsin}}
- {{cite web|ref={{harvid|Find A Grave|2009}}|author=|title=Nancy D. Newman|url=https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=39610883|website=Find A Grave|access-date=26 February 2017|date=July 18, 2009|postscript=. Only photograph of tombstone being used as reference.}}
- {{cite web|ref={{harvid|Ohio Marriage Records|1844}}|author=|title=Ohio, Hamilton County Marriages, 1789-2013|volume=A/13-14|url=https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9392-913K-HT?mode=g&i=142&cc=1614804|website=FamilySearch|publisher=Hamilton County Courthouse|access-date=26 February 2017|location=Cincinnati, Ohio|date=August 7, 1844|id=FHL microfilm #344457}}
- Provincial Freeman (Chatham, Ontario), 22 September, 10 & 17 November 1855: reprinted in {{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/blackabolitionis0000unse/page/322/mode/1up?view=theater |url-access=registration |title=The Black Abolitionist Papers: Vol. II: Canada, 1830-1865 |editor-last=Ripley |editor-first=C. Peter |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |location=Chapel Hill |via=Internet Archive |date=1985 |access-date=12 March 2024}}
{{refend}}
Additional Sources
- {{cite thesis |last=Bentley |first=Marvin Jarnis |date=1979 |title=William P. Newman, black Baptist Abolitionist (1815-1866)|type=Masters |publisher=Union Theological Seminary|oclc=10246094 |location=New York City, New York}}
- {{cite book |title=The Blacks in Canada: A History |last=Winks |first=Robin W. |author-link=Robin Winks |chapter=Chapter 7. The Canadian Canaan, 1842–1870|pages=178–232 |publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press |location=Montreal & Kingston|isbn=978-0-228-00789-0 |oclc=1202439639 |edition=3rd |year=2021 |orig-date=1971}} An overview of missionary activities and communitarian efforts in Canada West during Newman's sojourns there.
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Newman, William P.}}
Category:19th-century American slaves
Category:African-American abolitionists
Category:American abolitionists
Category:African-American writers
Category:Baptist abolitionists
Category:Baptists from Virginia
Category:Baptist missionaries from the United States
Category:Baptist missionaries in Canada
Category:American missionaries in Canada