Scope and Content Note
The correspondence and diaries of Henry William Parsons span the years 1871-1887. Parsons's diaries comprise most of the collection, but also included are letters to his wife written in 1876 while Parsons was in North Carolina promoting temperance among African Americans. Other diaries document his life and work in England, his immigration to the United States in 1883, and his continued work in the ministry in the American Midwest.
Parsons was born and ordained a Congregationalist pastor in England. After becoming active in the temperance movement and under the sponsorship of the Independent Order of Good Templars, he sailed to the United States in 1876 to promote temperance among African Americans in North Carolina. The letters to his wife and the diary chronicle his round-trip journey and experiences in the United States including his meetings with African Methodist Episcopal clergymen Benjamin T. Tanner and Daniel A. Payne as well as numerous African-American pastors in North Carolina. He returned to England the end of December. The diary for 1878 includes his time escorting the Fisk Jubilee Singers during one of their tours of Europe. Fisk University, the historically black college in Nashville, Tennessee, formed the a'cappella singing group in 1871 and sent it on fund-raising tours. Parsons traveled with the group during the last tour using the original singers. The Fisk Jubilee Singers were instrumental in establishing the Negro Spiritual as an important genre in American choral literature.