Robert S. Laws | |
---|---|
Born | Robert S. Laws c. 1837 |
Died | May 16, 1903 (aged 65–66) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
Education |
|
Occupation | Pastor |
Spouse | Patsey Williams Laws (m. 1866) |
Rev. Dr. Robert Simon Laws, a formerly enslaved person and Howard University graduate, founded two African American Baptist churches in the 19th century that have active congregations in the 21st century.
Robert Simon Laws was born on Wood Farm Plantation in Middlesex County, Virginia. [1] Laws was enslaved by Sarah "Sally" Roane, the daughter of William Roane and Sarah Daniel. She left her farm and slaves, including Robert, to her niece Polly Roane Segar, according to her 1826 will. [2] At some point Robert was sold to Richard H. Lynch of Washington County, Virginia who published a $100 (~$2,377 in 2022) reward in 1863 for the return of a runaway slave, 24-year-old Robert Laws, who was described as "5 feet 7 inches high and weighs about 175 pounds" and likely headed to Middlesex County, Virginia. [3]
Laws eventually traveled and settled in Washington, DC. He married Patsey A. Williams in Washington, DC in 1866. [4]
In 1865, the US Congress established Freedmen's Bureau to administer various camps to house formerly enslaved African Americans, including Freedman's Village, a site on General Robert E. Lee former estate in Arlington, Virginia. The village comprised approximately 50 story-and-a-half homes, divided in the middle to accommodate two families, an industrial school for education in various trades, a school for children and two places of worship. [5] Harper's Weekly reported the village also included a hospital, a "home" for the aged, and other public buildings. [6] Abolitionist and women's rights activist Sojourner Truth served as a counselor at the village for over a year. [7]
Robert Laws held various positions at Freedman's Village including employment agent, teacher and pastor. According to a report made to Congress in 1870, "…Robert S. Laws, a scholar in the Wayland Theological Seminary and who preaches at Arlington, has the supervision of this Freedman's Village school, which averages about 100 scholars." [8] Patsey Laws, his wife, was hired as a nurse for Abbott Hospital in Freedman's Village. [9]
Two churches were founded in Freedman's Village in 1866: the Little Zion Methodist Church and Mount Zion Baptist Church. The membership of the Old Bell Church grew and the congregation split into two: Mount Zion Baptist Church and Mount Olive Baptist Church. [10]
Laws was pastor of the Old Bell Church and Mount Zion Baptist Church from 1866 to 1875. In 1866, he received 90 persons into the church. [11] [12] In 1872, Laws filled the position of Justice of the Peace at Jefferson Township, Alexandria County. [13] However, he was removed from the office in January 1873. [14]
In 1875 the Mount Zion Church building collapsed during repairs. [11] Once new repairs were completed on the church, a new cornerstone was laid on Sunday, October 10, 1875 at a ceremony led by the abolitionist, Rev. William Troy, of Richmond, Virginia and Rev. Laws. [15]
In 2001, Mount Zion Baptist Church hosted a four-night revival meeting celebrating its 135th anniversary. Congregations that grew out of the Old Bell Church were also invited, according to The Washington Post. [16]
Laws graduated from the Preparatory Department at Howard University in 1875. [17]
From 1875-1891, Laws served as pastor of the Virginia Avenue Baptist (Colored) Church, later renamed Friendship Baptist Church. [18]
Laws remained active in the community. In 1883, he also worked for the Washington (DC) Bee newspaper, being in charge of the South Washington office of the paper. [19] [20] Laws was also appointed to a committee for the Freedman's Savings Bank. [21] By 1886, Laws was a "news editor" at the Washington Bee . [22]
In April 1883, Laws was one of four speakers at the 21st anniversary emancipation celebration in Washington, DC. He reviewed the emancipation parade with the honored guest and speaker Frederick Douglass as well as with Col. Milton M. Holland and Mr. W. Calvin Chase. [23]
Robert and Patsey Laws, according to the 1900 US Census, had one child who was no longer living. A newborn named Robert Laws died November 1884 and was buried in Payne's Cemetery, [24] which was located in the African American community.
Laws was associated with Mount Olive Baptist Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as early as August 1901, [25] but was not officially named pastor until November 1901. [26] In June 1902, Laws led about 100 persons in a baptism service at a local river. [27]
On Monday, September 15, 1902 a delegation of African American Baptist pastors left Pittsburgh to attend the National Baptist Convention in Birmingham, Alabama. [28] Between 5,000 and 7,000 delegates from across the country were expected. [29]
On September 20, educators Booker T. Washington of Tuskegee Institute, William Hooper Council, founder of Alabama A&M from Normal, Alabama, and Richard Robert Wright, Sr. of Savannah, Georgia were scheduled to speak at Shiloh Baptist Church, the largest African American church in Birmingham. [30] There was a physical dispute between two individuals after Booker T. Washington's speech. Someone shouted "fight" and the crowd of nearly 2,000 in the church interpreted this as "fire" and scrambled to leave the building. The stampede within Shiloh Baptist Church killed 115 convention attendees. [31]
The Pittsburgh delegation of Black pastors sustained no injuries, [32] though it took two days to confirm that Rev. Robert S. Laws was unharmed. [33]
Robert and Patsey Laws had residence at 708 19th Street, NE in Washington, DC for several years, including 1901 and 1902, according to Washington, DC City Directories. Patsey Laws did not move to Pittsburgh and took in washing to earn money. [34]
Rev. Robert S. Laws died of pneumonia on May 16, 1903, in Pittsburgh. [35] He was buried at Homewood Cemetery in Pittsburgh.
Arlington County is a county in the U.S. state of Virginia. The county is located in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from Washington, D.C. The county is coextensive with the U.S. Census Bureau's census-designated place of Arlington. Arlington County is the second-largest city in the Washington metropolitan area, although it does not have the legal designation of an independent city or incorporated town under Virginia state law.
Georgetown is a historic neighborhood and commercial district of Washington, D.C., in Northwest D.C., situated along the Potomac River. Founded in 1751 in the Province of Maryland, the port of Georgetown predated the establishment of the federal district and the City of Washington by 40 years. Incorporated into the District of Columbia, Georgetown remained a separate municipality until 1871 when the United States Congress created a new consolidated government for the whole District. A separate act, passed in 1895, specifically repealed Georgetown's remaining local ordinances and renamed Georgetown's streets to conform with those in the City of Washington.
The George Washington Memorial Parkway, colloquially the G.W. Parkway, is a 25-mile-long (40 km) parkway that runs along the south bank of the Potomac River from Mount Vernon, Virginia, northwest to McLean, Virginia, and is maintained by the National Park Service (NPS). It is located almost entirely within Virginia, except for a short portion of the parkway northwest of the Arlington Memorial Bridge that passes over Columbia Island within the District of Columbia.
George Washington Parke Custis was an American plantation owner, antiquarian, author, and playwright. His father John Parke Custis was a stepson of George Washington. He and his sister Eleanor grew up at Mount Vernon and in the Washington presidential household.
Aldie is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located between Chantilly and Middleburg in Loudoun County, Virginia, United States. The historic village of Aldie is located on the John Mosby Highway in a gap between the Catoctin Mountains and Bull Run Mountains, through which the Little River flows. Aldie traditionally serves as the gateway to the Loudoun Valley and beyond.
The Northern Virginia trolleys were the network of electric passenger rails that moved people around the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., from 1892 to 1941. They consisted of six lines operated by as many as three separate companies connecting Rosslyn, Great Falls, Bluemont, Mount Vernon, Fairfax City, Camp Humphries and Nauck across the Potomac River to the District of Columbia.
Gardner Calvin Taylor was an American Baptist preacher. He became known as "the dean of American preaching".
Luke E. Torian is an American politician. Since 2010 he has served in the Virginia House of Delegates, representing the 52nd district in the Prince William County suburbs of Washington, D.C. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
Leonard N. Smith was the senior pastor of Mount Zion Baptist Church in Arlington, Virginia, with a congregation exceeding 2,000. Mount Zion Baptist Church, founded in 1866, is the oldest Black congregation in Arlington, Virginia.
Nauck is a neighborhood in the southern part of Arlington County, Virginia, known locally as Green Valley. It is bordered by Four Mile Run and Shirlington to the south, Douglas Park to the west, I-395 to the east, and Columbia Heights and the Army-Navy Country Club to the north. The southeastern corner of the neighborhood borders the City of Alexandria.
The Reverend William Troy was a Baptist minister and writer associated with the Underground Railroad.
Elizabeth Stumm better known by her pen name Mrs. C. C. Stumm (1857-?) was an African-American teacher and journalist. As her husband was involved in missionary service, the couple moved often, but Stumm was able to work as a writer and teacher. She wrote for many newspapers and journals in the black press and was noted by numerous compilers of her day as an influential and effective journalist.
Saint Joseph Catholic Church is a predominantly Black Catholic church located at 711 N. Columbus St in historic Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. It was founded in 1916 to provide African-American parishioners of the local St. Mary's Roman Catholic Parish with their own church, freed from the customary restrictions that segregation imposed on them.
William Gibbons, was a formerly enslaved servant, who became a highly successful Baptist minister in Charlottesville and Washington, D.C. He was married to Isabella Gibbons.
Robert H. Robinson (1824–1909) was a minister and an activist for the rights of African Americans during the Antebellum period in Arlington, Virginia. He was born into slavery, but through the negotiation by his grandmother, Caroline Branham, he was freed at age 21 after an eleven-year apprenticeship. He was a minister at Roberts Chapel, an African Methodist Episcopal Church. He established a night school and debate team for black freedman. The Robert H. Robinson Library was named in his honor.
William Syphax was born into slavery but manumitted when he was about one year old, along with his mother Maria Carter Syphax and sister. As a young man, he became a U.S. government civil servant in Republican administrations, and built a network in the capital city.
Frank Lyon was an American lawyer, newspaper publisher and land developer in Arlington County, Virginia. He developed the land in modern-day Clarendon, Virginia, Lyon Park and Lyon Village.
Shiloh Baptist Church is a predominantly Black Baptist Church at 1401 Duke Street in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. At the time of its dedication in 1893, the historic building had a great bell tower, eight stained glass windows, modern circular oak pews, and a large reflector with glass prisms. While this historic building continues to be used as a youth center, the church has expanded to a large new sanctuary across Duke Street.
Mount Zion Baptist Church, established in 1866, is the oldest African American church in Arlington, Virginia. The church is a member of the National Baptist Convention USA and the Progressive National Baptist Convention.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)