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"Black Harry" Henry Hosier
Born 1750? ?near Fayetteville NC
Died ?May 1806 Philadelphia PA

SPOUSE	CHILDREN
Harry was probably born to slaves near Fayetteville NC and eventually sold to a plantation possibly owned by a Harry Gough in Baltimore MD [wikipedia, website].
After Harry was freed, he began preaching among Methodists in Virginia and the Upper South [Wigger, p. 177].
In 1780 or 1781, possibly during a trip through the mountain town of Todd NC, Francis Asbury met the freedman Henry "Black Harry" Hosier, a meeting the minister believed "providentially arranged". Hosier served as his driver and guide and, though illiterate, memorized long passages of the Bible as Asbury read them aloud during their travels. Hosier eventually became a famous preacher in his own right, the first African American to preach directly to a white congregation in the United States [wikipedia].
Todd NC is located near the New River between West Jefferson and Boone NC. The area around the earliest white settlement of the town was part of Burke Co., created in 1777, and then Watauga Co., created in 1849. It is about 33 miles northeast of Grandfather Mountain and the intersection of Route 221 and Holloway Mountain Road. Bishop Asbury apparently travelled through there, as he wrote in his journal in Oct 1799 describing a "laborious ride" to the home of William White, "the most influential Methodist in the Blue Ridge Mountains" [Clarke, Journal entry Oct 22, 1799].
In 1781, Harry's first sermon, "The Barren Fig Tree" concerning Luke 13:6–9 to the black Methodist congregation at Adams's Chapel in Fairfax Co., VA. "The white people looked on with attention" even at the first performance. subsequently, they would often be moved to tears [wikipedia].
Harry's sermon at Thomas Chapel in Chapeltown, Delaware, in 1784 was the first to be delivered by a black to a white congregation. His sermons called on Methodists to reject slavery and champion the common working man [wikipedia].
About 1795, George Holloway was converted to Methodism by Rev. Jesse Lee (1758-1816) who travelled with Bishop Asbury from about 1797-1800 "through the whole length of the country" [Moore]. George was licensed as a lay preacher about 1801. He founded a Methodist group that produced a manuscript titled Class Papers for Holloway's Society, 1810-1821, which had been saved by ancestors.
On Aug 10, 1795 "Absolom Hooper" deeded to "Bishop Asbury" one half acre "adj. Charles Parker line" with Joseph Hooper [son] and Samuel Hollis witnesses. The deed was recorded Oct 13, 1795. There is no mention in his journal that the Bishop ever travelled to this area of Middle Tennessee that used to be part of the Cumberland Settlement of Washington Co. NC [Davidson Co. [Tennessee] Deeds, Book C, page 431].
Washington Co., previously Washington District, was formed by North Carolina in 1777 and extended west to the Mississippi River, mostly containing land inhabited by five different tribes of Native Americans, but mostly Cherokee. In 1779, the Cumberland Settlement was created by the granting of land by the NC government. In 1783 this settlement was mostly contained in the newly formed Davidson Co. and surrounded by Indian Lands, and Virginia and Kentucky to the North. Map of the Cumberland Settlement in 1780 showing the location of Forts, known as Stations, Whites Creek, and the Stump Distillery near Absalom's land.
The land that Absalom Hooper claimed in the Cumberland Settlement in Washington Co. NC, was on the same land that John Holloway attempted to claim with a James Scott in 1779 on Long ("Glady") Creek (shown on Map) appears to be the same as Whites Creek which ran through the lands claimed by Frederick Stump, William White, Joshua Howard and Absalom Hooper, before flowing into the Cumberland River. See Topographical Map showing early land claims in the Whites Creek area [Drake, p. 23 and map E7]. James Scott did receive a land grant but John Holloway never did.
In the 1790's, Bishop Asbury made annual stops at the Burke Co. NC home of William White (1730-1818), uncle of George Holloway (1766-1851). In his journal entry for Oct 22, 1799, Bishop Asbury wrote: "We had a serious ride of thirty miles to William White's, Esquire, upon Johns River, Burke County ... Our quarterly meeting was held at William White's, Esquire, and grand patriarch of this settlement, whose family of children, grandchildren etc are numerous and extensively established here" [Clarke, et al., p. ].
Map of Burke Co. NC from 1777 to 1799 showing where the White and Holloway families settled.
Portrait and Biography of "Black Harry" Hosier. Likely never ordained nor presiding over his own church, his sermons were praised by preachers and political figures alike, one saying a sermon of his was the best he had heard, another rating his sermon "better than a bishop" [Wigger, pp. 176-7].
In 1803 Harry preached in Delaware. Between 1804 and his death, Harry was preaching in Philadelphia PA [Wigger, p. 177].
Bishop Asbury was buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery, in Baltimore MD.
Sources: Clarke, Elmer T., Manning Potts, T., Payton, Jacob S., Eds., The Journal and Letters of Francis Asbury, Vols. 1-3, Nashville TN, Abington Press, and London, Epworth Press, 1958. Davidson Co. [Tennessee] Deed Book C, page 431. Drake, Doug, Jack Masters and Bill Puryear, Founding of the Cumberland Settlements, The First Atlas, 1779-1804, Warioto Press, 2009, pp. 23, map E7. Holloway, George, record keeper, "Holloway Society Papers," 1810,&c,; publ. in Wm Wiseman & the Davenports, Pioneers Of Old Burke County, North Carolina Volume II, by M.L. Vineyard & E.M. Wiseman, Genealogy Publ. Service, Franklin NC, 1997, pp.113-128. Moore, M.H, Pioneers of Methodism in North Carolina and Virginia, Nashville, 1884. Smith, Jessie C., Black Firsts: 4,000 Ground-Breaking and Pioneering Historical Events, 3rd ed., pp. 1820–1821. "Methodists: 1781". Canton, MI, Visible Ink Press, 2013. Wigger, John H., "'Black Harry' Hosier" in Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895, ed. Paul Finkelman, Oxford Univ. Press, 2006, pp. 176-7.