Methodist History Between the Posts: Harry Hosier, the Preacher Who Outdrew the Bishop

October 22, 2026

Harry Hosier, often called “Black Harry” in historical records, was born enslaved around 1750 and became one of early American Methodism’s most powerful preachers. He traveled with Bishop Francis Asbury and preached to Black and white audiences during a time when many white Christians denied Black people education, authority, and freedom.

Hosier was reportedly illiterate, but listeners remembered his preaching as eloquent, compelling, and theologically alive. Methodist leader Thomas Coke praised him as one of the greatest preachers in the world. At some gatherings, Hosier attracted a larger and more enthusiastic audience than the white bishop with whom he traveled.

Hosier and Richard Allen attended the 1784 Christmas Conference at which the Methodist Episcopal Church was organized, but they were not given votes. That contradiction belongs in the story: white Methodism benefited from Black preaching while denying Black leaders equal institutional power.

Hosier later helped establish African Zoar Methodist Church in Philadelphia, the oldest Black congregation with a continuous history in the United Methodist tradition. His life reminds us that the people institutions place at the edges may already be carrying the movement’s greatest gifts.

Learn more: Harry Hosier: America’s First Black Methodist Preacher.