Unit 6 · Lodges and Orders in America

Boston in the 1770s was a busy port town. Ships came and went every day. Most people there were white. Some Black people in Boston were free. Many others were enslaved, which means they were owned by another person and forced to work.

Prince Hall was one of the free Black men of Boston. We know his name from letters, petitions and lodge records. We do not know for sure where he was born. Some writers say Barbados, but the evidence is not strong enough to be certain.

Historians are careful about facts like this. They use what the old papers show. When the papers do not agree, they say so. That is why this lesson says "we do not know" about his birthplace. Saying "we do not know" is an honest answer.

Freemasons are members of a brotherhood. They meet in a group called a lodge. A new member joins through a ceremony called an initiation. Masons use builders’ tools, like the square, as symbols of good living.

In Boston, the Masons’ lodges did not welcome Black men. So Prince Hall found another door. A British army regiment was in Boston. Its soldiers had their own lodge, called Lodge No. 441. A soldier named Sergeant John Batt belonged to it.

The usual date given is March 6, 1775. On that day, Prince Hall and fourteen other free Black men were made Masons in that army lodge. Fifteen men joined together. It was the start of a Black Masonic tradition that still lives today.

The army lodge did not stay in Boston for long. Soldiers move where their army sends them. When the regiment left, its lodge went too. Prince Hall and his brothers stayed behind. They still wanted to meet as Masons. They called their group African Lodge.

But a lodge needs a charter. A charter is an official paper from a bigger Masonic body, called a grand lodge. It says a lodge is allowed to meet and to make new members. Without one, a lodge can do only part of its work.

African Lodge met anyway, with the limited permission it had. The members helped each other and kept records. They waited and hoped. Prince Hall decided to ask for a charter from far across the ocean.

Prince Hall wrote to the Grand Lodge of England in London. Letters went by sailing ship. Each trip across the Atlantic Ocean took weeks. Answers were slow. Prince Hall kept writing anyway.

At last, the Grand Lodge agreed. It signed a charter dated September 29, 1784. The paper named the group African Lodge No. 459. The number showed its place on the Grand Lodge’s list of lodges.

Then the charter had to travel. It did not reach Boston until April 29, 1787. A ship captain named James Scott brought it. That is almost three years after it was signed. Prince Hall’s patience had paid off.

For a long time, Prince Hall Masons have given the date March 6, 1775. It is printed in many lodge histories. Many people celebrate it. But history is not frozen. New study can raise new questions.

In February 2026, a historian named Oscar Alleyne shared a paper in London. He studied Sergeant John Batt, the soldier who led the ceremony. Alleyne argues that the evidence points to March 6, 1778. That is three years later than the usual date.

Other historians will now look closely at his evidence. Some may agree. Some may not. For now, careful writers say "1775, though one historian now argues 1778." This is how history gets revised, or changed after new study.

In 1776, the Declaration of Independence said people have a right to liberty. Prince Hall heard those words. He saw that many Black people were still enslaved in Massachusetts. The words and the facts did not match.

So Prince Hall and other Black men wrote a petition. It was dated January 13, 1777. They sent it to the legislature, the group that makes a state’s laws. They said Black people had a natural right to freedom, the same as everyone else.

The lawmakers did not end slavery that year. But the fight went on. In the early 1780s, Massachusetts courts ruled that slavery went against the state’s new constitution. The petition is one early step in that long story.

Black families in Boston paid taxes, just like white families. Taxes are money people pay to the government. Some of that money paid for free public schools. But Black children were kept out of those schools.

On October 17, 1787, Prince Hall and others sent a petition about this. They asked for schools their children could attend. The lawmakers said no. The families were paying for schools their children could not use.

So the community acted on its own. In 1798, an African School opened in the home of Primus Hall, Prince Hall’s son. In 1803 it moved to a shop on Belknap Street. Families built what the town would not give them.

In early 1788, three free Black men from Boston were hired to work on a ship. Then they were locked below deck. The ship sailed away. The plan was to sell them into slavery. Their families were afraid.

Prince Hall wrote a petition about the men. Other people in Boston spoke up too. On March 26, 1788, Massachusetts passed a law against the slave trade. The law also offered help to families of people taken this way. Speaking up had made a difference.

Years later, in June 1797, Prince Hall gave a speech to his lodge. It is called a Charge. He spoke about the insults his brothers faced on Boston’s streets. He also shared hope, from news that enslaved people on the island now called Haiti had won their freedom.

In 1813, the Grand Lodges of England joined into one. African Lodge was left off the new list of lodges. Its members kept meeting. In 1827, African Lodge said it was independent. It would lead itself.

New Black lodges grew from this start. In time, people called them Prince Hall Masonry, to honor the founder. Lodges spread from Boston to other states. Each state came to have its own Prince Hall grand lodge.

Illinois is part of this story. North Star Lodge No. 12 was set up in Chicago in 1852. Lodges followed in Alton and Springfield. In 1867, the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Illinois was formed at Springfield.

For a long time, most white grand lodges in America would not recognize Prince Hall Masons. To recognize means to accept another group as true members. Some even called Prince Hall lodges fake. Race was a big reason.

That began to change in 1989. The Grand Lodge of Connecticut became the first mainstream grand lodge in the United States to recognize Prince Hall Masonry. Since then, most other state grand lodges have done the same.

Prince Hall lodges did much more than wait. Scholars such as Theda Skocpol show they trained leaders. Members learned to run meetings and manage money. Many lodges also helped pay for the fight for civil rights. Women joined Prince Hall Eastern Star chapters, starting in 1874.

On South Halsted Street in Chicago stands the Woodson Regional Library. It is part of the Chicago Public Library. Inside is the Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection. It is one of the largest collections on Black history and culture in the Midwest.

One part of it is the Prince Hall Freemasonry Archives. An archive is a place that keeps old papers safe. This one fills 16 boxes. The papers run from 1902 to 2006. Two men gave them to the library in April 1997.

The papers show Black lodge life in Chicago in the 1900s. There are no special limits on who can study them. A student with a question can use real primary sources, just as historians do.

Walk down a main street in an American town around 1900. You might see a lodge hall above the bank. You might see a sign for the Odd Fellows, the Masons or the Woodmen. Almost every town had several lodges. Big cities had hundreds.

Historian David Beito studied these groups. He estimates that about one in three adult men belonged to a lodge around 1910. He says that number is probably low. Many men belonged to more than one order. An order is a large club with many local lodges.

These groups had secret handshakes and ceremonies. But the lodges themselves were not hidden. They printed their names in newspapers. They marched in parades. They carved their names on buildings. The ritual was private, but the group was public.

In 1890, most workers had no sick pay. If a worker got hurt, the paychecks stopped. If he died, his family could lose their home. There was no Social Security yet. Few families could buy insurance from a company.

Lodges filled this gap with mutual aid. Mutual aid means members help each other. Each member paid small dues. The lodge saved the money. When a member was sick, the lodge paid him. When he died, the lodge helped pay for the funeral.

Some orders went further and sold life insurance. In 1868, the Ancient Order of United Workmen began in Meadville, Pennsylvania. Historians call it the first fraternal life insurance order. Many other orders soon copied the idea.

On April 26, 1819, five men met at the Seven Stars Tavern in Baltimore, Maryland. Their leader was Thomas Wildey. He had come from England, where Odd Fellows lodges already met. The five men started the first Odd Fellows lodge in America.

The Odd Fellows promised to visit the sick, help people in trouble, bury the dead and teach orphans. Their symbol is three links of a chain. The links stand for Friendship, Love and Truth. You can still see the three links on old buildings.

In 1851, the Odd Fellows added the Rebekah degree for women. Schuyler Colfax, who later became Vice President, pushed for it. A degree is a level of membership with its own ceremony. Women now had their own place in the order.

In the winter of 1849 to 1850, Rob Morris lived in Mississippi. He was a Mason. He wrote a ceremony for the wives, daughters, mothers and sisters of Masons. It became the start of the Order of the Eastern Star.

The order’s symbol is a star with five points. Each point honors a heroine, a woman admired for her goodness. Most come from Bible stories, such as Ruth and Esther. Their stories teach values like loyalty and faith. Women and Masons join together in a chapter.

In November 1876, chapters met in Indianapolis and formed one national body. Its first leader was Elizabeth Butler of Illinois. Its ceremony book from 1890 was printed for members. Anyone can read it online today. Secret often meant private, not hidden.

In the 1880s, Father Michael McGivney was a young priest at St. Mary’s Church in New Haven, Connecticut. Many people in his church worked hard jobs for low pay. When a father died, his family could fall into deep trouble fast.

Catholics had few lodges of their own. The Catholic Church told its members not to join the Masons. Many other orders felt Protestant in their prayers and customs. So Catholic men were often left out of the help that lodges gave.

Father McGivney had an idea. Catholic men could form their own order. They could pay dues and protect each other’s families. They could also share their faith. In October 1881, a small group of men met with him to begin.

On March 29, 1882, the Connecticut legislature gave the new group a charter. Now it was official. The men named it the Knights of Columbus, after Christopher Columbus. They wanted to show that Catholics had long been part of America’s story.

The order sold life insurance to its members. If a Knight died, his widow received money. Members also did charity, which means giving help to people in need. Each local group of Knights is called a council.

The order grew fast. In 1896, Chicago Council No. 182 became the first council in Illinois. Councils later spread to many other countries. Today Knights of Columbus councils still meet in parishes across the United States.

Walk through an old cemetery in the Midwest or South. You may find a gravestone carved to look like a cut tree stump. It may show an axe or a log. Many of these stones belonged to members of the Woodmen of the World.

Joseph Cullen Root started the Woodmen of the World in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1890. It was a fraternal insurance order. Members paid dues. When a member died, the order paid his family. It also gave a gravestone, called a marker.

At first the tree-stump markers were free. Later, members had to pay extra, about $100, to get one. The program stopped in the 1920s. Many stones carry the Latin motto Dum Tacet Clamat. It means "Though silent, he speaks."

On November 6, 1890, a parade marched through downtown Chicago. Masons came to lay the cornerstone of a new building. A cornerstone is a special first stone set in a public ceremony. The building rose at State and Randolph streets.

The Masonic Temple was finished in 1892. The architects were Burnham and Root. It stood about 302 feet tall, with about 21 stories. Shops filled the lower floors. Offices filled the middle. Lodge rooms were near the top.

People at the time called it the tallest building in the world. That claim is disputed. A New York building was taller if you count its tower. But the Masonic Temple became Chicago’s tallest in 1895. It was torn down in 1939.

The Shriners are an order whose members are also Masons. They are known for parades, bright red hats called fezzes and fun. In Chicago, their group was called Medinah Temple.

In 1912, the Chicago Shriners finished a grand building at 600 North Wabash Avenue. It was also called Medinah Temple. It had domes and fancy brick patterns. Its hall held about 4,200 people. In 2000, Chicago named it an official city landmark.

The Shriners also cared about children. In 1926, a Shriners hospital for children opened in Chicago. Members of Medinah Temple had decided to build it. The first Shriners hospital had opened in Shreveport, Louisiana, in 1922.

Not everyone liked lodges. In 1868, a group called the National Christian Association began. Jonathan Blanchard of Wheaton College in Illinois was a leader. He and other critics said secret oaths did not fit with their Christian faith. Their newspaper was printed in Chicago.

Lodge members saw things differently. They said their oaths were promises of friendship and help. Both sides were sincere. You can read what each side wrote and decide for yourself.

Later, a different change came. After the 1950s, far fewer Americans joined lodges. Political scientist Robert Putnam counted this decline. He argued people were joining fewer groups. Other scholars say people found new ways to meet and help.