Dan Snow's History Hit - The Extraordinary Life of James Harley

Episode Date: October 24, 2022

James Arthur Stanley Harley was a scholar, reverend, politician, and perhaps aristocrat. Born in a poor village in the Caribbean island of Antigua, he went on to attend Howard, Harvard, Yale and Oxford universities, was ordained a priest in Canterbury Cathedral and was elected to Leicestershire County Council. This remarkable career was all the more extraordinary because he was black in an age - the early twentieth century - that was institutionally racist.Pamela Roberts is an award-winning creative producer and historian. Her work as Founder and Director of Black Oxford Untold Stories has raised the profile of many black scholars from the turn of the twentieth century. Pamela joins Dan to offer insight into the Antiguan scholar, his entry by marriage to the Washington elite, and his clerical and political careers.Produced by Hannah Ward and edited by Joseph Knight.If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe to History Hit today!To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

Hi everyone, welcome to Dan Snow's History. You will not have heard of James Arthur Harley, but you should have done, because he's a remarkable figure. He's a pioneer. He's the black Edwardian intellectual that we've forgotten to celebrate and remember. But thankfully, award-winning historian and producer Pamela Roberts has remembered him for us and has now written a remarkable book. As you'll hear, she was handed a photograph of a young man of colour in Oxford University a few years back. And that was the start of an adventure that took her across continents and up to a dingy attic where in an old battered suitcase she found the archives of one of the more remarkable men to have lived and worked in the early part of the 20th century here in the UK.

James Arthur Harley, born in Antigua, educated in Harvard and some of the elite institutions of North America and completed his studies right here in the UK at Oxford University born in Antigua, educated in Harvard and some of the elite institutions of North America, and completed his studies right here in the UK at Oxford University, before being made a priest and serving communities across rural parishes in England. He was a politician, he was a thinker, he was a munitions worker during the war. He's a truly remarkable human being. And here's Pamela to tell us more about him. Enjoy! being. And here's Pamela to tell us more about him. Enjoy. Pamela, thank you very much for coming on the podcast. Thank you, Dan, for inviting me.

You've discovered an overlooked intellectual, important stuff. Where did the story of James Arthur Harley begin? The story begins by a rather strange route where a throwaway comet while I was in New Zealand led me to discover him. Long story short, I was in a place called Rotorua, and one of the tour guides explained to me about Makareti Papakora, who was the first Maori woman to study anthropology at St Anne's in Oxford. And while I went to Pitt Rivers Museum to find out about Makareti's collection, While I went to Pitt Rivers Museum to find out about Maclaretty's collection,

I was handed a photograph by the curator of manuscripts regarding my work as founder and director of Black Oxford Untold Stories. And he posed the question, do you know who the man in the photograph is? The photograph is a very iconic image of James Arthur Harley and two other students taken on the first day of their practical examination. And I didn't know who he was and thus began my quest. And he was born in Antigua? Yeah, James Arthur Harley was born the 15th of May, 1873, in the village of Orsates, Antigua. Tell me about his family. So his father was a landlord, Henry James Harley, and it's thought that his mother named

him with the father's middle name, James. The father is described as a landlord property owner. However, during the course of my research, I haven't been able to find any sugar estate or plantation linked to his father. What was the economy? What was the condition? This was only 40 years after the abolition of slavery on the island. What conditions would he have faced growing up? So the conditions James Arthur Harley would have faced in Antigua would have been extremely tough.

He was referred to as a mulatto, so in terms of a white father and a black mother. So his lighter skin may have afforded him some perceived privileges. However, in terms of at that time, black race was subjugated. The economy was very much dependent on the sugar economy, which started to take a drastic downturn. So James would grow up with his older sister, Alice Maud, and their family life would consist of looking after animals, preparing, cooking, going to school. And he went to the micro school, which was described as the best school on the island. Was there money to pay for that school? There was a fee of a penny you had to pay. Otherwise, the schooling consisted largely of Bible classes.

And there's one lovely quote that I found. And in the patois, the quote is, them give we Bible and tell us and teach us about the Lord for any real education he had to pay for. And the Bibles were largely donated from beneficiaries from England in terms of educating the heathens in far-flung places. So there was education, but you had to pay. So if you paid money, you get a better level of education. He was a bright kid.

Absolutely. He was a very bright man. He studied at the micro school. He went on to study teacher training in spring gardens, and eventually became a headmaster. His life becomes perhaps a bit more unusual at this point, or does it? He left the island in 1899. He goes to America to attend a seminary of the Episcopal Church. Was it quite a mobile population? Would that have been normal to leave the island and head to North America? Absolutely. In terms of the economy, it was largely dependent on sugar production.

And sugar production started to take a downturn based on a number of factors. So the Sugar Duties Act of 1846 removed the differential tariffs that protected the market from sugar coming into Britain from the colonies. There was also a riot and 1862 saw the worst drought in 50 years, reducing production. So in terms of figures, 1862, 12,920 tonnes of sugar was reproduced. 12,920 tonnes of sugar was reproduced. And that fell to, in 1864, 2,730 tonnes. What this meant, a lot of sugar plantation owners left Antigua and came back to Britain. The black and coloured population thought this meant more opportunities for them.

This was far from the truth. The emancipation didn't bring the realised dreams and expectations that they thought it would do. Now, one of Harley's ambition was to become a priest in the Protestant church. So it's the Anglican version of the Church of England. And this was his childhood vocation, he writes. As a mulatto young man, he may have had perceived privileges because of his lighter skin. However, they were still limited, and any prospect of a professional career was out of the question. So he journeys to America to attend the General Theology Seminary. How does he fare when he gets there? Because it's no easier being a person of colour in America than is Antigua, I dare say. Absolutely. He arrives three years after

Plessy versus Ferguson, and that was the act many of your listeners may know better as the Jim Crow laws in the South. So he arrives at a time of horrific racial prejudice but he sets off to the general theology seminary when he arrives at the seminary for whatever reason and there's no mention in his archives i could find any reason through my research he is turned away. So he is immediately beset by disaster. He is turned away and sent to King's Hall. Now, Harley had no knowledge of what King's Hall was, just that he was directed to go to Washington, D.C. and to attend King's Hall. And how does it go for him? When he arrives, he finds out King's Hall is for training black clergy. Now, this is not where he wants to be.

He wanted to be at the Episcopalian Seminary. Instead of enrolling on a theology course, he enrolls in a law course. Why do you think he does that? I think, A, he didn't do theology because for him, the prestige was the General Theoretical Seminary. It was not King's Hall. And B, he writes in his archives, he wanted to embark on an academic career. So we see a slight change in his career trajectory and the route he starts to take. He marries a woman that was part of the sort of Washington DC black elite at the time. But then he does take an interesting route because he ends up going to some of the

most elite educational establishments on the planet, which would have been pioneering. Absolutely. But Dan, let me take you back to his marriage. While in Washington DC, he gains a job as a Sunday school teacher and a choir master. And this is at St. Luke's Church, which is a pinnacle church for the Washington Black elite. The Washington Black elite are a group of Black people who, through their own efforts, developed their own successful businesses. So banks, insurance companies, restaurants, churches. And they were a group of people who you had to have the right connection and historical lineage. So St. Luke's Church is where he met his wife-to-be, Josephine Lawson. And her parents were also powerhouses.

Her father, Mr. Jesse Lawson, was a legal examiner at the Afro-American Council, which was a forerunner to the NAACP. And her mother, Josephine Lawson, was very active in the National Women's Colors Association. She was also the chairwoman of the Women's Conference Movement. So Harley enters this world of the Washington Black elite, which I found totally fascinating, and the key members of the society. So just to mention a few, Miss Church Terrell, who was known as a dame of the Black elite, and she was a pioneering black woman at the time. And she would have these soirees and society parties. And they also held what were called pink tea parties.

And the pink tea parties were for women and young women of mixed race, high colour, as they would say back then. Harley entered this world via his marriage. Tell me about his, well, the ongoing studies. He goes off and becomes, well, an extraordinary intellectual. Take me on the next stage of that journey. Harley leaves Howard University and he achieves his law degree. His dream now is to go to Harvard.

However, he applies to Harvard, but is turned down, Harvard. However, he applies to Harvard but is turned down, but is accepted to Yale University via scholarship, but is still applying to Harvard. He spends a year at Yale and then finally accepted into Harvard in 1903 to study for Somatic Languages. How common would that have been at the time for a person of colour to be studying at Harvard? For a person to be studying at Harvard in 1903 when Harley went would be extremely rare. There were other people, W.E. Du Bois, Monroe Trotter, but in terms of that journey, Harvard didn't accept its first black student until it opened its doors 226 years after his opening. And then there was objections to black students studying at the university. In fact, there was a petition by the school to have him black student at Harvard. And some of the reasons cited were

they would downgrade the university and they would cheapen the course and the study at Harvard. So there was immense resistance to black students being at Harvard. And again, when black students came to Harvard, they weren't protected by the eliteness of the institution. They faced the same racial discrimination as outside those prestigious walls. So W.E. Du Bois writes about, you knew not to go to white areas to ask them to rent you a room. So regardless you're in this educated institution, you're still perceived as less than, and back then the derogatory terminology associated with black men. And yet he succeeds.

He makes it through Harvard. He doesn't stop. He keeps going. My assumption when I was doing the research is he went to Harvard, Yale, Howard University, and I assumed he would stop and have a career in America. And he had the opportunity to do that. However, he decided to continue further studies at the University of Oxford.

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wherever you get your podcasts. To be continued... Kings and popes. Who were rarely the best of friends. Murder, rebellions. And crusades. Find out who we really were. By subscribing to Gone Medieval from History Hit. Wherever you get your podcasts. How's he paying for all this? Because this is expensive stuff. This is really intriguing. And I have to say, you have to read the book because there are some twists and turns. And Harley is very, very gifted, very loquacious. Very loquacious. And he came to Oxford University in 1907 to study theology at Jesus College.

He also studied as a first black student at Pitt Rivers Museum to undertake the diploma of anthropology. And the question you posed, how did he pay for this? And through my research, it became illuminating. And I thought, oh, right. I'm not going to let the cat out of the bag. I'm going to have your listeners read the book and find out. He then, after all of that studying, is actually ordained at Canterbury Cathedral and becomes a Church of England priest. And then he goes, tell us where he goes.

He reaches a pinnacle and he does become a priest. And he's in these rural parishes. He starts off in a place called Shepshed in Leicester. He then goes to Marshside in Kent and finally ends up in deal and while in deal we then had the start of the first world war but you but we're skipping a bit he developed quite a reputation as a preacher he's obviously an extraordinarily brilliant man and and he ran classes in not just what would we call it today probably life like wellness or something but he was doing philosophy he was doing anthropology he was running working men's clubs he was packed churches in those days when priests could become

very famous local people he was certainly one of them wasn't he absolutely he was very much a people person and his first curacy in saint butthole's church in shepshed references are in his diary and the quote is he packed the church with the scum of people from the local community. And reading between the lines, it was the novelty value. Here's this black man in 1909 in this rural village. So obviously people come for the fascination, but then they kept coming. And as said he initiated bible classes he initiated a study group for men in shakespeare how revolutionary is that at that time and his move was for people to get the meaning of life by being participating so it wasn't a case of you came to church on a Sunday and that's it he wanted that whole

involvement with the community and the community did come out and support him and if you know this part of Leicestershire anyone listening will know that this is a perhaps a strange place for this phenomenon to be taking place we got the first world war Britain declares war on Germany in August the 4th 1914 and he's doing his bit. He's officiating over weddings and burials and things in deal in Kent. How does he get involved in the war? He gets involved in the war in two ways. One, he's recruiting and he's coming back to Shepshed and he's recruiting via the cinema on Batandia Street through showing screenings of Charlie Chaplin movies. He's pitching for young men to join up. Now ordained men couldn't fight and Harley was

too old. So he did answer Kitchener's call but on the home front and he trained as a skilled munitions worker at the University of London, King's College. So he's a recruiter and he's also a munitions worker as well. Absolutely, yes. I like to see as him not wanting others to do what he was not expected to do himself. So again, we see this passion, the love for people coming through him, through his works, very action-orientated. And you can see that through what he was doing. He was involved in that war effort. He obviously liked Leicestershire. I like Leicestershire.

I'm not saying bad about that, but he settled there and he became a local councillor and a publisher. He did. So he returns to Shepshed. He becomes involved in local politics first through the general strike, and he was writing what were called penny poems for the miners' effort. He also accompanied a group of miners to the Guardian Board for Aid. So as a loquacious speaker, an educated man. I like to see him as a local, what we'll call today, system advised bureau. This was a person who the local people could come and go to.

And in the references in newspapers, they said he would help school children, he had advised them, local people. So he goes with a group of miners to argue for funds during the miners' strike. So that starts his political journey of becoming a local councillor under Shepshed District Council. He must have just been a local phenomenon by this stage. He must have just been a local phenomenon by this stage. Harley is elected in 1926.

And one of his first motion, I thought, was so surprising as the only black councillors amongst a sea of white faces. And this is the motion he proposed. In view of the unfair competition, undue influence, sly bribery and insidious corruption, therefore tainting the atmosphere of so many local government bodies in nearly every nook and cranny in England, who works for trade with a counsellor at any time to ignore the disgraceful practice of the present, to remember the excellent customs of the past and to resign his office of counsellor, rather than remain in the council to grab all he can for himself while in office, by his office and through his office surreptitiously. by his office and through his office surreptitiously.

And I just thought, wow, that's amazing at that time. So here was Carly saying to all these group of counsellors, basically, you're all corrupt, you know, sling your hook, get gone. But in a much more elegant way, as he talks about the backhanding, dealing, what he refers to as the hush-hush policy. And in order to combat this, he starts his own weekly newspaper, which is printed in the back of his shed. He's a one-man self-promotion magazine journalist. And he uses this as a vehicle to communicate with the resident, but also to hold a council to account as a scrutineer.

He was obviously a force of nature. I can imagine he made enemies. Can you imagine this person of colour coming in, having had all his training in Harvard and Oxford and then landing in that rural district and just unbelievable, calling people out. He died during the Second World War, aged 70. Where were you able to find this evidence? Where were you able to resurrect his story from? I was able to resurrect his story from locating his archive in a battered suitcase in Shepshent, Leicester. And how that came about, while he was a member of the council, the chairman of the council at that time was a man called Michael Worthy. And it's Michael's son who, when I started first to do the research and made inquiries, contacted me.

And he said, I understand you're looking for a man called Harley. And he responded, so you want to know about old Harley, do you? And I thought, okay. And he invited me to his home, him and his lovely wife, Margaret, and he explained how he came across Harley's archive by his father. So 50 years later, this suitcase is up in the loft. Fast forward to a black woman making inquiries. And then when I arrived at the house, the suitcase is there,

the original battered suitcase. And Michael opened it, and it was like a magician. This paper's coming out, it's half a degree, law, a certificate from Oxford University, the Diploma of Anthropology. And it was like literally coloured scars. And all Michael kept saying is, is this of interest to you? And my brain couldn't process it quick enough. And as I said, I've spent the last five years following in Harley's footsteps. Well, thank you so much, Pamela, for following in those footsteps. How can people find out more by reading your book? What's it called?

So the book's called The Adventures of a Black Edwardian Intellectual, The Story of James Arthur Harley, and it's available on Amazon, published by Signal Books, and it's out on the 20th of October. Pamela Roberts, thank you very much for coming on. Thank you so much, Dan, for inviting me. you