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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.

Early life

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, Laws was sold to Richard H. Lynch of Washington County, Virginia, who published a $100 (~$2,475 in 2023) 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, D.C.. In 1866, he married Patsey A. Williams in Washington, D.C.[4]

Freedman's Village

A July 1865 plan for Freedman's Village near Arlington Heights Historic District
Freedman's Village-Greene Heights in Arlington County, Virginia

In 1865, the U.S. 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 County, 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]

Laws held various positions at Freedman's Village, including employment agent, teacher and pastor. According to an 1870 report to Congress, "...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 in Jefferson Township in Alexandria County, Virginia.[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 October 10, 1875 at a ceremony led by the abolitionist, Rev. William Troy, of Richmond, Virginia, and Rev. Laws.[15]

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 an August 16, 2001 articles in The Washington Post.[16]

Virginia Avenue Baptist Church

Friendship Baptist Church in Washington D.C. in 2022; the church was founded 1875 as Virginia Avenue Baptist Church

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]

In 1883, Laws also worked for the Washington Bee newspaper in Washington, D.C., where he managed one of its offices covering the southeast and southwest sections of the city.[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, D.C. 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]

According to the 1900 census, Robert and Patsey Laws had one child, who was then no longer living. A newborn named Robert Laws died November 1884 and was buried in Payne's Cemetery.[24]

Mount Olive Baptist Church

Laws was associated with Mount Olive Baptist Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania since at least 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 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]

Death

Robert and Patsey Laws resided at 708 19th Street, NE in Washington, D.C. for several years, including in 1901 and 1902, according to Washington, D.C. city directories. Patsey Laws did not move to Pittsburgh, and washed clothes to earn money.[34]

Laws contracted pneumonia and died in Pittsburgh on May 16, 1903.[35] He was buried at Homewood Cemetery in Pittsburgh.

References

  1. ^ "United States, Freedman's Bank Records, 1865-1874, citing bank District of Columbia, US, NARA microfilm, M816". FamilySearch. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  2. ^ "Virginia Memory: Chancery Records Index". www.lva.virginia.gov. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  3. ^ "Robert Laws run away". The Abingdon Virginian. 9 October 1863. p. 3. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  4. ^ Sluby, Paul Edwards Sr.; Wormley, Stanton L. Blacks in the marriage records of the District of Columbia, Dec. 23, 1811 - June 16, 1870. p. 17. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  5. ^ Freedman's Village: Arlington's first free neighborhood | WorldCat.org. Black Heritage Museum of Arlington County (Va) and Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and Public Policy. 2002. pp. 1–2. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  6. ^ "Freeman's Village, Arlington, Virginia". Harper's Weekly. May 7, 1864.
  7. ^ Schildt, Roberta (Oct 1984). "Freedman's Village: Arlington, VA, 1863-1900". The Arlington Historical Magazine. 7 (4): 12.
  8. ^ Executive Documents of The House of Representatives during the two sessions of the Forty-First Congress 1869-1870, "Schools of the Colored Population". pp. 244–245. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  9. ^ "U.S. Freedman's Bureau Records, 1865-1878 for Patsey Laws". www.ancestry.com. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  10. ^ BESTEBREURTJE, LINDSEY (2018). "Beyond the Plantation: Freedmen, Social Experimentation, and African American Community Development in Freedman's Village, 1863–1900". The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. 126 (3): 346. ISSN 0042-6636. JSTOR 26478281.
  11. ^ a b Liebertz, John (2016). A Guide to the African American Heritage of Arlington County Virginia (PDF). Department of Community Planning, Housing and Development, Historic Preservation Program, Arlington, VA. p. 30. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  12. ^ Schildt, Roberta (Oct 1984). "Freedman's Village: Arlington, VA, 1863-1900". The Arlington Historical Magazine. 7 (4): 16.
  13. ^ "Local News, Arlington Township, Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, May 20, 1872, Image 3". 20 May 1872. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  14. ^ "Local News, Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, January 06, 1873, Image 3". 6 January 1873. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  15. ^ "Mount Zion Baptist Church, Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, October 09, 1875, Image 3". 9 October 1875. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  16. ^ Masters, Brooke A. (16 August 2001). "At 135, Mount Zion Is Still Full of Life". Washington Post. ProQuest 1965274273.
  17. ^ Alumni Catalogue of Howard University 1867-1896 (PDF). Washington, DC. 1896. p. 38. Retrieved 30 October 2022.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  18. ^ "Old Friendship Baptist Church, African American Heritage Trail - www.culturaltourism.org". www.culturaltourismdc.org. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  19. ^ "The Bee Publishing Co". Newspapers.com. The Washington Bee. Aug 4, 1883. p. 2. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  20. ^ "Special Notice". Newspapers.com. The Washington Bee. 8 Sep 1883. p. 3. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  21. ^ "Committees Appointed". Newspapers.com. The Washington Bee. 22 Dec 1883. p. 2. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  22. ^ "South Washington". Newspapers.com. The Washington Bee. 18 Dec 1886. p. 3.
  23. ^ "The Emancipation Celebration". Newspapers.com. The Washington Bee. 21 Apr 1883. p. 1. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  24. ^ "District of Columbia Deaths, 1874-1961". familysearch.org. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  25. ^ "R. S. Laws serves communion at Mount Olive, Aug 1901". The Pittsburgh Press. 31 August 1901. p. 9. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  26. ^ "Details of installation at Mt. Olive Baptist Church". The Pittsburgh Press. 24 November 1901. p. 26. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  27. ^ "Rev. Laws leads public baptism. 100 people go to the river, 15 converts". The Pittsburgh Press. 16 June 1902. p. 3. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  28. ^ "Notes on the Afro-American". Newspapers.com. The Pittsburgh Press. 14 Sep 1902. p. 36. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  29. ^ "Negro Baptist Convene". Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania: The Times Leader. 17 Sep 1902. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  30. ^ "80 Lives Were Lost in a Colored Church Caused by Stampede. BTW speaker. 20 Sept 1902". Wilkes-Barre Times. 20 September 1902. p. 1.
  31. ^ Hundred Fifteen Killed, Boston Evening Transcript, September 20, 1902, retrieved October 30, 2022
  32. ^ "Pittsburgers in Birmingham". Newspapers.com. The Pittsburgh Press. 21 Sep 1902. p. 22. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  33. ^ "Local Delegates Escape". Pittsburgh Daily Post. 25 September 1902. p. 2. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  34. ^ U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995, Washington, DC for 1902. p. 705.
  35. ^ "Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh City Deaths, 1870-1905". FamilySearch.org. Retrieved 30 October 2022.

External links

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_S._Laws