On June 24, 1797, Prince Hall delivered a speech to the African American Masonic lodge at Menotomy (now Arlington), Massachusetts, the scene of a Revolutionary War battle on April 19, 1775, as British troops returned to Boston from the battles at nearby Lexington and Concord. The lodge had been formed by former members of a British-based lodge that had admitted African American members but had removed to England at the start of the Revolutionary War. Colonial Masonic lodges did not admit African Americans, prompting Hall and others who had developed an interest in Freemasonry to form an entirely African American lodge that received its offi cial sanction from Great Britain. Hall, speaking to an audience that probably consisted of freed former slaves and indentured servants and many former Revolutionary soldiers, exhorted his free brethren to support those of African descent still held in slavery. He did so by reference primarily to scriptural passages and to the successful slave revolt that was taking place in Haiti. The speech was later printed and bound and issued as a “charge” to the lodge. A copy of the booklet is housed in the Library of Congress’s Rare Book and Special Collections Division.