(ca. 1826-Aug. 31, 1882). Broyles was born an enslaved person near Centerville, Maryland. At the age of four, he was separated from his parents and sold to a Kentucky planter named John Broyles. While still enslaved, he began preaching in Paducah, and helped build the first Colored Baptist meeting house there. In 1851 he purchased his freedom and soon after moved to Indiana to attend Eleutherian College in Jefferson County.
Broyles left college and moved to Indianapolis in 1857 to teach at one of the city’s first schools for African American children. The city provided a building in the 4th Ward (bounded by White River to the west; 10th Street to the north; West Street, Indiana Avenue, and Senate Avenue to the east) for the subscription school, funded by student tuition or subscriptions, in response to school superintendent ’s plea for education for African Americans in the city.
Broyles served as teacher and principal of the school for 12 years. In 1872 he was partly responsible for integrating the only high school in Indianapolis at the time.
Broyles joined the of Indianapolis and became its ordained minister in 1857. He rescued the church from debt during his ministry and saw his African American congregation multiply into the hundreds. Broyles ordained many local African American ministers and helped to found several other Indianapolis congregations. In 1876 he wrote The History of Second Baptist Church.
Throughout his pastorate he was a vocal and active Republican, allowing many political meetings at the church. Broyles also encouraged the Indianapolis African American community to be politically active through his preachings, such as his sermon responses to the Dred Scott decision of the U.S. Supreme Court (1857) and the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment (1869). He also helped organize the Indiana Association of Negro Baptist Churches (1858).
Help improve this entry
Contribute information, offer corrections, suggest images.
You can also recommend new entries related to this topic.
