Leonard Black

Who is Leonard Black?

Leonard Black was born a slave in Anne Arundel County, Maryland and was separated from his family by the age of six. He escaped after 20 years of slavery. In 1847 he wrote The Life and Sufferings of Leonard Black: A Fugitive from Slavery. With encouragement and support, he became a Baptist minister, preaching in Boston, Providence and Nantucket before becoming minister of First Baptist Church in Petersburg.

He married the daughter of George Black, an African American Baptist minister who took him into his home after he escaped slavery and helped him become established. Leonard Black and his wife had five children.