ABSTRACT
Henry Beard Delany was born a slave on February 5, 1858 in Saint Mary’s, Georgia, the son of Thomas Delany, a ship and house carpenter, and Sarah, a house slave on the rock plantation. During his childhood, the family moved to Fernandina, Florida, where he worked on his father’s farm, learned bricklaying and plastering, and attended a school supported by the Freedmen’s Bureau. Henry Delany and his brothers all learned a trade. Following in the shoes of one of his older brothers, he became a mason. Henry Delany enrolled at Saint Augustine’s School in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1881, where he studied theology and graduated from the academic course in 1885. He remained at Saint Augustine’s as a faculty member until 1908, teaching music and religion; he was also chaplain, vice principal (1889-1908), and supervisor of building projects.
