{{Short description|American evangelist (1829–1913)}} {{Infobox person | name = Harriet Baker | image = American evangelist Harriet Baker (1829–1913), sketch published in 1892.png | caption = Baker in 1892 | birth_name = Harriet Ann Cole | birth_date = {{birth date text|1829}} | birth_place = Havre de Grace, Maryland, US | death_date = {{death date and age|1913|03|01|1829}} | death_place = Allentown, Pennsylvania, US | resting_place = Greenwood Cemetery<br />Allentown, Pennsylvania, US | occupation = Evangelist | organization = African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME Church) | known_for = One of the first Black women authorized to preach in the US | spouse = {{marriage|William Baker|1845}} }}
'''Harriet Ann Baker''' ({{née}} '''Cole'''; 1829 – March 1, 1913) was an American evangelist and one of the first African American women to serve as a preacher, in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1914, her mission in Allentown, Pennsylvania, became the home of the St. James AME Zion Church, built in 1936.
== Biography == Harriet Ann Cole was born into freedom in Havre de Grace, Maryland, in 1829. She was one of seven children born to William Cole and Harriet Eskins. Her parents were emancipated slaves, and throughout Baker's childhood, the family lived in fear of being forcibly returned to slavery. In 1842 at the age of 13, she became an evangelical Christian, converting at a women's prayer meeting.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Williams |first=Jeane B. |date=Winter 1996 |title=Loose the Woman and Let Her Go! Pennsylvania's African American Women Preachers |url=http://paheritage.wpengine.com/article/loose-woman-let-her-go-pennsylvanias-african-american-women-preachers/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240515122239/http://paheritage.wpengine.com/article/loose-woman-let-her-go-pennsylvanias-african-american-women-preachers/ |archive-date=2024-05-15 |access-date=2024-05-15 |website=Pennsylvania Heritage Magazine |language=en-US}}</ref> In October 1845, she married an enslaved man, William Baker. In 1847, they fled the slave state of Maryland for Columbia, Pennsylvania, walking 48 miles to freedom while carrying their 7-week-old daughter. Tracked down by slave catchers, the Bakers resisted, and Harriet was knocked unconscious in the struggle. She recalled that the attackers aimed pistols at her and pulled the triggers, but the pistols all misfired. Put on trial in Philadelphia, her husband was confirmed to be a fugitive slave, but abolitionists raised funds to pay for his freedom.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Chesser |first=Casandra |date=2024-05-07 |title=Rev. Harriet A. Baker: A Pioneering Black Female Preacher with Ties to Lebanon City |url=https://lebtown.com/2024/05/07/rev-harriet-a-baker-a-pioneering-black-female-preacher-with-ties-to-lebanon-city/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240515122247/https://lebtown.com/2024/05/07/rev-harriet-a-baker-a-pioneering-black-female-preacher-with-ties-to-lebanon-city/ |archive-date=2024-05-15 |access-date=2024-05-15 |website=LebTown |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=Jessie Carney |url=http://archive.org/details/notableblackamer00jess |title=Notable Black American Women |date=1996 |publisher=Gale Research |isbn=978-0-8103-9177-2 |location=New York |pages=24–26 |language=en-US}}</ref>
== Preaching == While living quietly with her family in Columbia in 1872, Baker felt called to become a preacher. The African Methodist Episcopal Church did not permit female preachers at the time, and her husband and community members initially disapproved of her decision to preach. Nevertheless, she persisted, learned to read and write, and traveled to communities around Pennsylvania, preaching to racially mixed congregations. She preached in Columbia and Lebanon and gradually gained acceptance from congregations and clergy alike. Baker received an official appointment as a pastor of the St. Paul's AME Church on South 10th Street in Lebanon in 1889.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Franklin |first=Norman |date=2023-03-15 |title=Behold the Man, She Preached |url=https://www.somerset-kentucky.com/opinion/behold-the-man-she-preached/article_451a580e-c2a1-11ed-bfdc-ebf497953d3d.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240515122633/https://www.somerset-kentucky.com/opinion/behold-the-man-she-preached/article_451a580e-c2a1-11ed-bfdc-ebf497953d3d.html |archive-date=2024-05-15 |access-date=2024-05-15 |website=Commonwealth Journal |language=en}}</ref> She received authority to preach from AME bishops John M. Brown, Richard H. Cain, Jabez P. Campbell, T. M. D. Ward, and Henry McNeal Turner. Five years after her husband's death in Lebanon in 1892, Baker moved to Allentown, Pennsylvania, where she founded the Bethel Mission and preached there from 1900 to 1913. Her mission became the first home of St. James A.M.E. Zion Church, built in 1936. She made 5,000 converts and is one of the first African American woman preachers.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />
== Death and legacy == Baker died in Allentown on March 1, 1913, at the age of 84. She is buried in Allentown's Greenwood Cemetery.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite news |date=1913-03-05 |title=Death notice of Harriet A. Baker |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-morning-call-death-notice-of-harriet/147417259/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240515122658/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-morning-call-death-notice-of-harriet/147417259/ |archive-date=2024-05-15 |access-date=2024-05-15 |work=The Morning Call |pages=3}}</ref> ''The Colored Lady Evangelist: Being the Life, Labors, and Experiences of Mrs. Harriet A. Baker'' by the Rev. John H. Acornley was privately published in Brooklyn in 1892.<ref name=":2" /> On May 4, 1990, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission dedicated a historical marker in her honor at the St. James A.M.E. Zion Church in Allentown.<ref>{{Cite web |title=PHMC Marker Search |url=https://share.phmc.pa.gov/markers/ |access-date=2024-05-15 |website=Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission}}</ref>
== References == {{reflist}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baker, Harriet}} Category:1829 births Category:1913 deaths Category:19th-century African-American women Category:19th-century American Methodist ministers Category:African Methodist Episcopal Church clergy Category:Methodists from Pennsylvania Category:African-American people with free status before 1865 Category:People from Columbia, Pennsylvania Category:People from Havre de Grace, Maryland Category:Religious leaders from Allentown, Pennsylvania Category:Women Christian clergy Category:Women evangelists Category:Women Protestant religious leaders