Prince Hall Biography

Prince Hall

Hall established the African Lodge of the Honorable Society of Free and Accepted Masons of Boston in 1775. It was the first lodge of Black Freemasons in the world. The lodge received a permanent charter from the Grand Lodge of England in 1784. The secret fraternity, which still exists, promoted brotherly love and social, political, and economic improvement for its members.

Hall arrived in Boston in 1765 and was a slave for William Hall. He was freed in 1770, shortly after the Boston Massacre, and worked at a variety of jobs, including as a leather worker for the Boston Regiment of Artillery. He was one of a few Black men who fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill.

Hall became a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and advocated Black rights and the abolition of slavery. He opened a school for Black children in his home.