"We Have a Right to Live in This Country": Reverend Moses Broyles and the Struggle for Social Justice and Racial Equality in Nineteenth-Century Indiana

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Rev. Moses Broyles (1826–1882) ranks as a leading figure in Indiana's African American religious, political, racial, educational, and legal history. Born a slave in Maryland, he was sold as a child to John Broyles of Paducah, Kentucky, from whom he purchased his freedom in 1854. Thence he moved to Lancaster, Indiana, where he enrolled at the Eleutherian Institute. In 1857, he relocated to Indianapolis and joined the Second Baptist Church. Recognizing his oratorical skills and spiritual leadership, its members soon called Broyles as their pastor. As a bi-vocational minister, Rev. Broyles also taught at a private school for African American children and helped integrate Indianapolis High School. He was a fierce opponent of slavery who demanded equal rights and privileges for African Americans as U.S. citizens. Later, he served as a statewide leader in the Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant even as he challenged Indiana's anti-Black laws.