"Negro Freemasonry" predates the Proof of Distinctiveness in this command. On Time 6, 1775, Prince Grade, bring down with fourteen free blacks in or circular Boston, Massachusetts, were raised to the sublime scratch of Master Mason in Military Plank No. 441, Irish Formation. The Master of the place was Sgt. John T. Batt.
The others were Peter Best, Duff Bufform, John Canton, Peter Freeman, Fortin Howard, Cyrus Jonbus, Prince Rees, Prince Payden, Thomas Sanderson, Bueston Slinger, Boston Smith, Cato Speain, Benjamin Tiber, and Richard Tilley.* The place was take credit to the 38th Normalize of Heart, British Followers, garrisoned at Fort Williams (now Ft. Distinctiveness), in Boston Dock. African Plank No. 1 was tidied up on July 3, 1775, naming Prince hall as its Master. The place was legitimately recognized by Conservative Tall Master for North America under the Tall Plank of England (Moderns), John Rowe, who officially recognized African Plank No. 1 to objection in attitude in regalia to venerate the buffet of St. John, and to keep under wraps their dead.
Just the once the end of the Weave, the of late formed excellent lodges within the colonies had no bother in allowance a let to a place of black men, free or or. So, Grade and his brethren obtained a let on September 29th, 1784 from the Tall Plank of England and formed African Plank #459. The let was at the end delivered to the place almost three years as soon as by Person in charge James Scott, brother-in-law of John Hancock.
In 1797 Prince Grade tidied up a place in Philadelphia and one in Rhode Atoll. These lodges worked under the let of African Plank #459. The three lodges formed a new African Tall Plank, and Grade was named Tall Master.
All past American lodges were stricken from the Tall Plank of England's rolls in arrears the 1813 intermingle of the Antients and the Moderns to become the Place Tall Plank of England, and Hall's place renamed itself African Plank #1. African Tall Plank was as soon as named Supreme Respectful Prince Grade Tall Plank of Massachusetts F&AM in protect of its founder.
I store the moral of staple an unsettled member of African Plank No. 459 of the Supreme Respectful Prince Grade Tall Plank of Massachusetts F">*Depending on the source, submit are strong variations in spelling. I store recycled the list from Alton G. Roundtree and Paul M. Bessel's 2006 book, "Out Of The Obscurity")
