Bob Corbett's Notes on DEFENDER OF THE RACE by David Dean, a biography of James Theodore Holly

Basic biography:

• Great-grandfather: white Scot: James Theodore Holly freed his son in 1772
• Grandfather: Reuben Holly married Butler, a free mulatto moved to Washington
• Father: James Overton Holly married Jane
• born: James Theodore Holly born: 1829
• Spent 15 years in DC
• Later in Brooklyn. School. Became friend with Frederick Douglass
• Died: March 13, 1911
• Religion: born, baptised and raised a Catholic. gradually moved away from "...unscriptural ways of that church." (quote from Black Separtism essay.)
• 1852 (23) converted to Episcopal church
• Ordination: Jan. 2, 1856 became a priest. (27 years old)
• Nov. 8, 1874 He became the first Negro Episcopal Bishop and 2nd bishop of any major white Christian church
• Holly knew Sir Spencer St. John and opposed his position
• Boissard Canal gave $400 in gold to Holly to go to England to try to raise money for his church. This was because of Holly's emphasis on native black clergy and was in distinct opposition to Catholic emphasis on white European clergy
• Immigration program Aug. 3, 1855 went to Haiti. Interested in immigration program
• Haiti still under split with Vatican. p. 23. Only women went to Church in Haiti. "The men of Haiti 'gratified their religious sentiment' through the symbolism and ceremony of the Masonic lodge. ( Mason ).
• P. 91.

  "As an experienced Masonic leader and scholar, he visited the Masonic temples in Haiti to win friends among their elitist members. He was willing, as the violently anti-Masonic Roman clergy were not, to conduct Masonic burial services. He delighted in reminding the mulattos that only three public organizations in Haiti had autonomous native administrations: the government, the Masonic fraternity and the Orthodox Apostolic Church."

• Holly tried:
  1. To get Soulouque government to support immigration.
  2. To get Episcopal church to support a mission.

   

• James Redpath befriended Holly. He was a white abolitionist who favored an emigration program and worked with president Geffrard to establish conditions
• May 1861 group sailed for Haiti. Arrived June 1, 1861. Holly among them
• Dean says Haiti has changed almost not at all from 1804 to 1976. "This slowness to change can be largely traced to the country's geography." !!!!!
• Early on Holly's mother and young daughter died--and wife, I think
• July 1861 Soulouque tried to rise up against Geffrard. p. 42
• July 1863 Holy Trinity Church organized by Holly. Original property donated by Geffrard in 1866
• Black diplomat, Ebenezer Bassett was sent by Grand in 1869. Holly worked for him. They opposed Salnave, and Grant's plan to annex Santo Domingo
• 1889-1891. Holly aided Frederick Douglass
• Holly's seven devils describes his account of why Haiti is so poor p. 85.
  1. her own mulatto sons.
  2. the Roman clergy
  3. extra-officious diplomats and consuls from abroad
  4. foreign adventurers and unprincipled speculators
  5. African fetishism
  6. The unjust imposition of outside powers.
  7. the 'gross ignorance' of her masses.

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