Before recorded voice and electronic media, talented orators were celebrities. Harry Hoosier, a former slave who gained his freedom, was called by a signer of the Declaration of Independence (Dr. Benjamin Rush) the greatest orator of his time.
About 1780, Harry met Bishop Francis Asbury of the American Methodist Church and started working for him. Though illiterate, he had a talent for memorizing. The bishop read the Bible to him aloud while they traveled together, and then they were preaching sermons together - to audiences of both whites and blacks.
Dr. Rush heard Hoosier's first sermon and called it the best he'd ever heard. Hoosier became an "itinerant" preacher traveling on horseback throughout Appalachia and into the Indiana territory of today. Some say that the "Hoosiers" nickname of Indianans referred at first to people influenced by this great evangelist.
from Wikipedia
For an article on America's first black leaders please visit: https://www.francisasburytriptych.com/strong-roots-can-buckle-the-pavement-the-earth-moving-efforts-and-effects-of-americas-first-black-leaders/.
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