It was about the time of removal of the Five Nations from the East to the Indian Territory that another peculiar institution rose to prominence among the displaced peoples and began to spread rapidly throughout the Indian Territory. J. Fred Latham describes this particular phenomenon in The Story of Oklahoma Masonry:
A number of the Indian Chiefs and other leaders had received their Masonic degrees in Washington, D.C., while there on official business. They, with the officers and enlisted men in the Army taking them to Indian Territory were members of the Craft. Seemingly this was the first time that any considerable number of Masons were domiciled in this area. ...The history of the Indian Territory, and indeed that of Freemasonry in the present state of Oklahoma, is so closely interwoven with that of the Five Civilized Tribes it would be difficult -- almost impossible -- and entirely undesirable to attempt to separate them. 18
The rapid spread of Freemasonry within the Indian Territory of what would become Oklahoma was a relatively novel phenomenon, but the outreach of the masonic brotherhood to the leadership of the Indian nations was as old as the country itself. When English settlers first arrived upon the shore of the New World, the philosophy and practices of Freemasonry were already a part of their cultural baggage.19 The appeal of Freemasonry in England, and its swift spread across the European continent following the establishment of the first Masonic Grand Lodge in 1717, appeared to stem from the harmony between the Masonic ideals of wisdom, strength, and beauty and the newer currents of religious and political thought of the Enlightenment.20 These ideals also appealed to Native Americans.
The first authorized lodge in America, St John's Lodge #126, was orgainized at the Bunch of Grapes Tavern in Boston in 1733. By 1776, there were nearly one hundred lodges in the United States;21 by 1800, there were Grand Lodges in all of the thirteen states. 22 Many of the founding fathers of the United States were involved in Freemasonry such as John Hancock was a Mason, as well as Benjamin Franklin, George Washington. Many of the historic documents of the United States were influenced by Masonic principles; thirteen of the signatories of the Constitution of the United States were also Freemasons.23 Freemasonry not only spread among the American colonists, but also in Jamaica (1739), Barbados (1740), Haiti (1749), and throughout the Caribbean and Latin America.24 By the beginning of the nineteenth century, Freemasonry was the most numerous non-denominational organizations in the United States.25
As reflected in the previous speech of John Marrant before African Lodge #459, nationalism is a critical part of Freemasonry. One is bound to honor and respect the highest ideals of political sovereignty. One of the "Old Charges" is that, "A Mason is a peaceable subject to the Civil Powers, wherever he resides or works, and is never to be concerned in Plots and Conspiracies against the peace and welfare of the Nation."26 The relationship between Freemasonry and nationalism is universal. Augusto Sandino of Nicaragua, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Simon Bolivar of Venezuela, Jose Marti of Cuba, Emilio Zapata and Pancho Villa of Mexico, Winston Churchill of Great Britain, and Giuseppe Mazzini of Italy were all prominent Freemasons.
Freemasonry is often understood as a "secret society," but it is better understood as a fraternal order. It is organized around selective membership, private rituals and ceremonies, and secret oaths and obligations.27 The seemingly "exclusive" and "secretive" nature of Masonry has proven a challenge to some non-Masons, who particularly dislike the exclusivity of the organization and are suspect of the goals of this "secret society." 28 With respect to the public perception of the fraternity, Freemasons respond with the following statements, "The essential qualification for admission into and continuing membership is a belief in a Supreme Being. Membership is open to men of any race or religion who can fulfill this essential qualification and are of good repute...The secrets of Freemasonry are concerned with its traditional modes of recognition. It is not a secret society, since all members are free to acknowledge their membership and will do so in response to inquiries for respectable reasons."29
When John Marrant stated that Masons should "present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God...let love be without dissimulation, abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good," he was articulating the central tenets of Freemasonry. The close associations of Masonic and Judeo-Christian traditions of morality have led some to come to see Freemasonry as a religion, though most participants claim that it is not. Though Masonry is religious, it is not a religion. It admits to membership men30 of all religious faiths; without attempting to make men perfect, it does seek to attain the greatest practical good. It is not confined to persons of one religion, for "good men are found in many religions; only by circumstance of birth are persons under the auspices of a particular religion."31
A fundamental part of Freemasonry is its system of ethics; key to this system are the "three great principles" that represent a way of achieving higher standards in life. These three great principles are, "Brotherly Love, Relief (charity), and Truth (ethical conduct)." 32 Within the "Old Charges" of Freemasonry, the dedication to these principles is unyielding; they form the core of Masonic beliefs and are among the main reasons that persons choose to be associated with the craft. In 1734, an early predecessor of Marrant spoke in similar terms to his charges, "It is true that on this side of the grave absolute perfection is hardly to be Expected, yes. Encouraged by such a multitude of good Examples, Charg'd with so many solemn Charges, and Engag'd by such Strong and Enduring obligation, Strive, I beseech you, to perservere in the Constant practice of every virtue."33
Masonry spread so rapidly in the early nineteenth century that it was perceived to be a threat to the political and religious order of the United States. By the middle of the nineteenth century, there were nearly 60,000 Freemasons, many of whom were placed in the highest positions of political authority. The fact that what many consider to be an American apostasy -- Joseph Smith's Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints -- was closely affiliated with Freemasonry further contributed to the growing suspicion of Freemasonry.34 The furor in 1826 over the supposed murder of William Morgan, who was said to have revealed Masonic "secrets," and the subsequent stonewalling of the investigation by New York political officials solidified anti-Masonic hysteria leading to the birth of the Anti-Masonic party.35 However the controversy may have reflected upon Masonry, in the years preceding the Civil War, it grew exponentially and membership tripled to nearly 200,000 brothers.36
In spite of statements of brotherhood, there was one group of people to whom the bonds of brotherhood seldom applied. From the very beginnings of African-American Freemasonry under the auspices of Prince Hall and African Lodge #459 in Boston in 1775, white Freemasons have largely refused to accept Blacks into their lodges. In addition, they refused to grant recognition to Prince Hall Freemasonry as being legitimate and equal in standing with white Freemasonry, despite the fact that African Lodge #459 was chartered by the Grand Lodge of England.
Freemasonic historian Albert Mackey ruled that African Lodge #459 was chartered legitimately, but that later jurisdictional problems and a period of dormancy during the Revolutionary War rendered the lodge "clandestine."37 When asked about the issue of Negro Freemasons, Freemasonic historian Albert Pike declared in 1875, "Prince Hall Lodge was as regular as any lodge created by competent authority and had a perfect right to establish other lodges, and make itself a mother lodge. I am not inclined to meddle in this matter. I took my obligation to white men, not Negroes. When I have to accept Negroes as brothers or leave Masonry, I shall leave it."38 The fascinating struggle for recognition and dignity of African Americans within Freemasonry parallels that of the larger struggle for human rights that has occurred within the political and social systems within the United States. It is a struggle for civil rights that continues to this day.39
The distinction that white Masons made for African-Americans was not made for Native Americans. Even before their removal to Indian Territory, Indians were initiated into the craft throughout the country. Wherever there were colonists, there were lodges. There were lodges were in Charleston, South Carolina at Saint Paul's Parish between Goose Creek and the Stono River and Governor George Oglethorpe formed a lodge in Savannah, Georgia as early as 1736.40 A lodge was also formed in North Carolina in 1754 under the auspices of the Grand Lodge of England; by 1796, the craft had spread from North Carolina to Tennessee. The first lodge in Tennessee was located in Nashville and was chartered by the North Carolina Grand Lodge.41 By the time of the removal of the Five Nations to the Indian Territory, there were Grand Lodges in every state in which the Native Americans resided.42 The progress of "civilization" among Native Americans and their initiation into Freemasonry were intimately connected from the latter eighteenth century forward.
Many of the traditional leaders of the Native Americans were Freemasons. Tecumseh, a Shawnee prophet who reportedly "was made a Mason while on a visit to Philadelphia," was the leader of a Pan-Indian movement to resist white encroachment in the late eighteenth century. Alexander McGillivray, a mixed blood leader of the Muskogee, and Joseph Brant, a mixed blood leader of the Mohawk, were skilled political leaders.Brant was reportedly America's first Native American Freemason when he was raised by an English Grand Lodge. Red Jacket, famous orator of the Seneca and leader of the traditionalist resistance among the Iroquois, was a Freemason. His nephew, General Ely S. Parker, was General U.S. Grant's Adjutant and drew up the conditions of surrender at Appomattox. William Augustus Bowles, leader of a Creek/Seminole/African-American resistance movement in Florida, was made a Freemason in the Bahamas. Pushmataha, a Choctaw leader who encouraged friendship with the whites and resisted Tecumseh, was also a Freemason.43
J. Fred Latham, in The Story of Oklahoma Masonry, reports that not only were Native "chiefs" made Masons in the East, but that because both the Native American leaders and the military officers who removed them during the "Trail of Tears" were Masons, it made the process of removal "more orderly."44 General Winfield Scott, a Freemason, who presided over the removal of the Cherokee, gave explicit orders to pursue this distasteful activity with civility, "Every possible kindness...must therefore be shown by the troops, and if, in the ranks, a despicable individual should be found capable of inflicting a wanton injury or insult on any Cherokee man, woman, or child, it is hereby made the special duty of the nearest good officer or man, instantly to interpose, and to seize and consign the guilty wretch to the severest penalty of the laws.45 When asked by the leaders of the Cherokee Nation to postpone removal because of drought and sickness among the Cherokee, General Scott again showed compassion for his fraternal brothers. Negotiating with General Scott was Chief John Ross, a Master Mason in good standing with the Olive Branch Lodge of the Free and Accepted Masons in Jasper, Tennessee.46
Finally, when it appeared that his troops could not handle the process of removal as well as the Cherokee themselves, Scott agreed to a plea from Chief John Ross to allow the Cherokee to manage removal themselves. When Andrew Jackson, Former Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Tennessee, heard of Scott's brotherly relief, he wrote, "I am so feeble I can scarcely wield my pen, but friendship dictates it and the subject excites me. Why is it that the scamp Ross is not banished from the notice of this administration?"47
Upon arrival in the new territory, former members of the Freemasonic lodges from the East began to organize the craft in their new home. A number of the ministers, merchants and military personnel were members of the craft. Along with the many Indians inducted into the craft, they began to have meetings throughout the Indian Territory. These meetings moved from very informal social groupings into fellowship meetings where Masons met and enjoyed fraternal discussions. Applications for authority to organize lodges in several places were made, but urgent domestic problems prevented the satisfactory organization of lodges. According to J. Fred Latham, members of the craft took an active part in the stabilization of the community through the organization of law enforcement and through their activity in the political affairs of the Five Nations.48
In 1848, a group of Cherokee Freemasons made application to Grand Master R.H. Pulliam of the Grand Lodge of Arkansas and were granted a dispensation to formulate a "blue lodge" in the Cherokee capital 49 Brother George Moser, Secretary and Historian of the Cherokee lodge presents the information as follows, "Facts as taken from the proceedings of the Grand Lodge Free and Accepted Masons of Arkansas show that the Committee on Charters and Dispensations did, on November 7, 1848 at the hour of 9:00 a.m., recommend that a charter be granted to `Cherokee Lodge' at Tahlequah, Cherokee Nation, and that it be given the number `21'".50 The officers were sworn in at Supreme Court Headquarters on Keetoowah Street on July 12, 1849; it was the first lodge of Indian Freemasons established in the United States.51
In 1852, the Cherokee National Council donated several lots in Tahlequah to be used jointly by the Masonic Lodge and the Sons of Temperance for the construction of a building to house their respective organizations. The building was erected in 1853, and owned jointly by the two organizations; the Sons of Temperance 52 occupied the first floor and Cherokee Lodge #21 occupied the second floor. The lodge building was used for a number of community services, including lodge meetings, temperance meetings, educational instruction, and church meetings; later, because of the noise, both organizations used the upper floor, leaving the lower floor for church services and public meetings.53
Freemasonry flourished among the Native Americans in Indian Territory, leading the Grand Master of Arkansas to comment upon his "red brethren" in 1855:
All over the length and breadth of our state the (Masonic) Order is flourishing, and amongst our red Brethren, in the Indian Territory, it is taking deep hold, and now embraces a goodly number of Lodges and Brethren. The members of these Lodges compare very favorably with their pale-face neighbors. In fact, it is reported of them that they exemplify practically the Masonic teachings and ritual by living in the constant discharge of those charities and moral virtues so forcibly inculcated in our lectures, thereby demonstrating to all that Masonry is not only speculative, but that it is a living practical reality; of great utility to the human race, and of eminent service to a social community.54
Freemasonry was indeed "taking deep hold." Fort Gibson Lodge #35 was chartered by the Arkansas Grand Lodge on November 6, 1850; Choctaw Lodge #52, near Fort Wichita, was granted its charter on November 5, 1852; Flint Lodge #74 was chartered at Flint Station (Pea vine) on November 9, 1853; Muskogee Lodge #93 in the Mvskoke Nation was the last to be chartered, on November 9, 1855.
That is not to say that the only "lodges" in the area could have been chartered by the Arkansas Grand Lodge. Even a conservative estimate of the black population in the Cherokee Nation in the mid 1850's amounts to fifteen to twenty percent of the overall population.55 It is not unreasonable to consider that, among the African-American population of the Cherokee Nation, there were secret societies, including Freemasonry. In 1847, when the Prince Hall Grand Lodge was founded, there were subordinate lodges in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, California, Maryland, Delaware, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, and Virginia.56 There is also evidence that there were lodges west of the Mississippi. A.G. Clark in Clark's History of Prince Hall Freemasonry mentions that there were three Prince Hall lodges in St. Louis as early as 1851. The fact that Prince Hall lodges did not receive their official charters until immediately after the Civil War does not rule out the possibility of ante-bellum Prince Hall lodges west of the Mississippi.57
With respect to the spread of Prince Hall, it is also important to realize the deep relationship between black Freemasonry and black denominationalism; Richard Allen and Absolom Jones were both members of the Philadelphia lodge of Prince Hall. The Free African Society of Philadelphia, founded by Allen and Jones as a mutual aid society, was dedicated to the promotion of racial solidarity and the abolition of slavery. Throughout the South, the African Methodist Episcopal Church and, to a lesser extent, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church were closely related to the Prince Hall lodges. As many of the founders of the A.M.E. Church, as well as many of the senior officials, were Freemasons, the spread of the church throughout the South was closely affiliated with the spread of Prince Hall Freemasonry.58
Many of the members of the A.M.E. Church in Charleston, South Carolina participated in the 1822 slave insurrection led by Denmark Vesey.59 By 1860, there were at least four A.M.E. churches in New Orleans -- three of which were led by "slave preachers;" as early as 1823 free blacks had built a church for "African Methodists" in St. Louis, Missouri.60 If, as William Muraskin notes in his Middle Class Blacks in a White Society, there was a close affinity between the A.M.E. Church and Prince Hall Freemasonry, it is safe to assume that the two coexisted in the west as well as in the east.
In 1851, the Grand Lodge of Ohio granted a warrant to sixteen Master Masons from the Caribbean to form a Lodge in New Orleans; shortly thereafter there were three more Prince Hall lodges formed in the Crescent City.61 Many of the slaves that came into the Indian Territory in the years preceding the Civil War came from New Orleans. Slave traders within the Cherokee Nation, as well as wealthy Cherokee citizens, would go to the slave markets in New Orleans to acquire slaves.62 Many of the slaves coming into the Cherokee Nation came through the Caribbean, where Freemasonry had been organized in the early to middle eighteenth century. There is even some implication that Cherokee chiefs, as followers of the enigmatic Tory William Augustus Bowles, had attempted to play a part in the slave insurrection in Haiti led by Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Toussaint L'Ouverture (both Freemasons), "...these men [Bowles and five Cherokee and Creek followers] were intended to take part, as chiefs, in the projected operations against Santo Domingo and that they would soon leave...During the month of June following I wrote from London to M. de Montmorin that the six Cheerokoes had left and that the conspiracy against Santo Domingo no doubt would not be delayed in execution."63
William Augustus Bowles was born in Maryland in 1763 and joined the British forces at the age of thirteen. When he was fifteen, he fled the British Army and went to live among the African/Mvskoke/Seminole people of Southern Florida. He became the war leader of a Five Nation Confederacy entitled "the nation of Muscogee" and engaged in military struggles against the Floridians. Fleeing pursuit once again, he fled to the Bahamas in 1786 where he sought initiation into the Freemasonic order for a second time (the first time was in Philadelphia in 1783); this time he was admitted. Bowles returned to the United States and in 1790, he and several Beloved Men (including the Cherokee GoingSnake and the Mvskoke Tuskeniah, an associate of Tecumseh) went to England where they were accepted into the Prince of Wales Lodge #259. Bowles was introduced as "a Chief of the Creek Nation, whose love of Masonry has induced him to wish it may be introduced into the interior part of America, whereby the cause of humanity and brotherly love will go hand in hand with the native courage of the Indians, and by the union lead them on to the highest title that can be conferred on man."
In 1795, the records of the Grand Lodge of England showed Bowles as the duly accredited provincial Grandmaster of the Five Nations.64 In 1799, Bowles returned to the United States and tried to finance a revolution in order to set up a free and independent Muscogee State along the frontier of the colonial United States; in so doing Bowles freely associated with Indians and their African cohorts of the Seminole Nation. (Cotterill, 127-130) J. Leitch Wright credits Bowles with having spread the abolitionist message among the Upper Creek and Chickamaguan Cherokee in the eighteenth century through the use of black interpreters. Both Chief Bowlegs of the Seminole Nation and Chief Bowl of the Cherokee Nation are supposed descendants of William Augustus Bowles. 65
Among the French speaking nations, Freemasonry and abolition were also closely affiliated. The relationship stretches back to France's Victor Schoelcher, a junior minister for the navy under the Second Republic, that was instrumental in obtaining the final abolition of slavery in 1848 after its restoration by Napoleon I.66 French Freemasons from New Orleans, in addition to those from Haiti, not only admitted Blacks into the brotherhood but actively worked to oppose the interests of slavery and slaveholders, " As a consequence, when, before the Civil War, the Scottish Rite Masons in New Orleans, many of whom were Frenchmen, avowed abolitionists, and enemies of the Roman Church, adopted a resolution to admit free Negroes as members on terms of absolute equality and brotherhood, a number of free men of color forsook Catholicism for Freemasonry. Their descendants in some cases followed their footsteps." 67
In fact, there was a strong protest tradition formed among Afro-Creoles and a small group of white, French-speaking radicals in New Orleans that had its roots in the traditions of Nineteenth-century literary Romanticism, French Freemasonry, and mid-nineteenth century spiritualism. This movement championed material and moral progress, human perfectibility, and universal freedom. This protest tradition reached its fruition during the Civil War, to which many of the Afro-Creoles ascribed apocalyptic significance.68
In addition to formal society, there is also a mysterious relationship between Freemasonry and the practice of Voudon in Haiti as well as in its more malleable cousin, New Orleans's Voodoo. The imagery of Voudon, its art and ritual, is pervaded with Freemasonic symbolism, clothing, and secret doctrine.69 The voodoo religion encompasses many aspects of Freemasonry.70 In its rituals, Voudon applies principles of esoteric religion and often deals with mysteries and aspects associated with the Knights Templar order.71 The first Freemasonic lodges in Haiti were founded in the early eighteenth century at a time when Voudon had its period of greatest growth. Voudon itself has been described as a mixture of Yoruba, Catholicism, and Freemasonry. If traditional African religion found expression in "Voodoo" and if it spread from Haiti to New Orleans and among the slaves of the Southeastern United States, it is possible that Freemasonry spread along similar routes.
Secret societies were also a critical part of the African traditions that persisted within the slave community in spite of attempts at Christianization. Mutual benefit societies, voluntary associations, and assorted "lodges" often rivaled the "invisible institution" of the nascent African-American churches as the grounds for leadership development and social action.72 Organizations such as the True Reformers, the Galilean Fisherman, the Mosaic Templars of America, the Brown Fellowship Society, and the Oddfellows flourished among African-Americans, especially free Blacks, in areas such as Charleston, New Orleans, and Richmond. Yet, they did not just exist in the populated areas, many rural African Americans belonged to "secret societies."73
In 1846, twelve black men from throughout the South led by Moses Dickson, future Grandmaster of Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Missouri,74 gathered in St. Louis and formed a secret society entitled the Twelve Knights of Tabor. They dedicated themselves to establishing an army, the "Knights of Liberty, " for the sole purpose of "aiding in breaking the bonds of our slavery."75 The members then spread out throughout the South and spent the next ten years organizing their "guerrilla force"76 wherever they went. Reverend Moses Dickson, of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, traveled up and down the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers from New Orleans to Wisconsin, spreading his militant gospel of abolition.77 By 1856, the Knights of Liberty had enrolled nearly fifty thousand soldiers in their secret organization, "It was absolutely a secret organized body. We know of the failure of Nat Turner and the others, the Abolitionist in the North and East. The underground railroad was in good running order, and the Knights of Liberty sent many passengers over the road to freedom. We feel that we have said enough on this subject. If the War of the Rebellion had not occurred just at the time that it did, the Knights of Liberty would have made public history."78
These "Sons of Liberty" were, once again, part of a larger struggle. By the middle of the eighteen fifties, the United States was being ripped apart by the issue of slavery: the forming of the Republican Party in 1854 incited new hopes for freedom; the Kansas-Nebraska Act opened the west to "popular sovereignty" but led to fisticuffs in the Senate; John Brown's first assault led to the massacre of five pro-slavery men in Kansas, and the Dred Scott decision of 1857 ruled that Blacks had no rights which whites were bound to respect. In the midst of these overt political struggles, a secret campaign waged by organizations such as the Knights of Liberty and the Knights of the Golden Circle was being fought for the hearts and minds of the Southern people. As the Cherokee Nation was bound culturally and geographically to the Old South, it could not help being caught up in the impending drama.
18 J. Fred Latham, The Story of Oklahoma Masonry (Oklahoma City: Grand Lodge of Oklahoma, 1957), 8. 19 Allen Roberts, Freemasonry in American History (Richmond: MacCoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company, 1985), 6-8. 20 Steven C. Bullock, The Ancient and Honorable Society: Freemasonry in America, 1730-1830 (Ph. D. diss., Brown University, 1986), 8-9; Lynn Dumenil, Freemasonry in American Culture 1880-1930 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984), 4; Mark Carnes, Secret Ritual and Manhood in Victorian America (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989), 22-25. 21 Alexander Platigorsky, Who's Afraid of Freemasons: The Phenomenon of Freemasonry (London: The Harvill Press, 1997), 165. 22 Roberts, 24. 23 "Famous Masons," Freemasonry.org, revised 06/19/95. See also Bernard Vincent, "Masons As Builders Of The Republic: The Role Of Freemasonry In The American Revolution,. European Contributions to American Studies [Netherlands] 1988 14: 132-150. 24 William H. Grimshaw, Official History of Freemasonry Among the Colored People in North America (New York: Negro Universities Press, 1921), 52-54. The following countries established Masonic Lodges which accepted "colored Masons: " Martinique (1738), Antigua (1739), Virgin Islands (1760), Bermuda (1761), Nicaragua (1763), Honduras (1763), Granada (1764), Dominica (1773), Bahamas (1785), St. Thomas (1792), Trinidad (1798), Cuba (1804), Mexico (1810). 25 Platigorsky, 167. 26 Catholic Encyclopedia, "Freemasonry," (Encyclopedia Press, Inc. Electronic version, 1998). 27 William Muraskin, Middle Class Blacks in a White Society: Prince Hall Freemasonry in America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975), 23. 28 Muraskin, 162; Dumenil, 7-8. 29 Board of General Purposes of the United Grand Lodge of England, "What is Freemasonry?" on A Page about Freemasonry, October 12, 1998, ( http://thelonious.mit.edu/Masonry/Essays/ugl-whatis.html). 30 The fact that modern "masculine" Freemasonic lodges prefer to keep a gender specific nature does not mean that Freemasonry is or has been specifically for men. There have been women Freemasons in the "blue lodge" as far back as the seventeenth century and mixed gender lodges exist throughout the world. The American Federation of the International Order of Co-Freemasonry, Le Droit Humain, is the oldest Masonic organization admitting women and men equally, having been founded in Paris in 1893 and introduced to America in 1904. 31 Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of North Carolina, "All Sons of One Father" (Raleigh, N.C.: Grand Lodge of North Carolina, 1986), 3. 32 Board of General Purposes of the United Grand Lodge of England, "What is Freemasonry?" on A Page about Freemasonry, October 12, 1998, ( http://thelonious.mit.edu/Masonry/Essays/ugl-whatis.html). 33 Bullock, 64. 34 The Mormon Temple was founded in the belief that God had given King Solomon the secrets of a holy priesthood, but gradually the rituals--as kept by Freemasonry--had been corrupted. The rites of the Mormon Temple were considered the actual perfected rituals as Solomon had received them. (Carnes, Secret Ritual and Manhood in Victorian America, 7). See also Michael W. Homer, " `Similarity Of Priesthood In Masonry': The Relationship Between Freemasonry And Mormonism," Dialogue 1994 27(3): 1-113. 35 Ronald P. Formisano, " Antimasonry And Masonry: The Genesis Of Protest, 1826-1827," American Quarterly 1977 29(2): 139-165. 36 Dumenil, 4-6. 37 Albert Mackey, Encyclopedia of Freemasonry (Philadelphia: L.H. Everts & Co., 1889), 526-527. 38 See Harry E. Davis, A History of Freemasonry Among Negroes in America (N.Y.: United Supreme Council, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite Freemasonry, Northern Jurisdiction, U.S.A., 1946), 177-179. Interestingly enough, in spite of Pike's public statements such as the one above, he was very supportive of a segregated Freemasonry and participated in and made significant contributions to the growth of Negro Scottish Rites Freemasonry. He personally donated his own works on Freemasonry to the Southern Jurisdiction of the Scottish Rites and they have served as the basis for work and practice of the Prince Hall Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rites. The contributions are greatly valued and still in the possession of the Southern Jurisdiction. 39 Thirty-four (out of a total of fifty-one) U.S. Grand Lodges have adopted resolutions that say Prince Hall Masonry is "regular." Some have adopted "full recognition," in the same sense they recognize any other Grand Lodge,some have granted "recognition" to the extent of permitting intervisitation but not dual memberships, and somehave adopted resolutions supporting Prince Hall Masonry but making recognition subject to something such as adoption of similar action by Prince Hall Masonry. [Paul M. Bessel, "Prince Hall Masonry Recognition Details," http://www.bessel.org/pha.htm, (January 1, 2002)}. 40 Roberts, 33-39. 41 Grimshaw, 53-54. 42 Roberts, 33ff. 43 William R Denslow, Freemasonry and the American Indian (St Louis: Missouri Lodge of Research, 1956. 44 Latham, 2. 45 Winfield Scott quoted in Grace Steele Woodward, The Cherokees (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963), 204. 46 Woodward, 214. 47 John P. Brown, Old Frontiers (Kingsport: Tennessee, 1938), 511. 48 Latham, 5. 49 Albert Mackey describes a "blue lodge" as: "A symbolic Lodge, in which the first three degrees are conferred, is so called from the color of its decorations." A "blue lodge" is the common determination for this lodge as opposed to lodges that grant higher degrees such as the Scottish Rites or York Rites. (Mackey, 120) 50 George Moser, quoted in Latham, 6. 51 T.L. Ballenger, History of Cherokee Lodge #10, T.L. Ballenger Papers, Ayer Collection, Newberry Library, Chicago, IL., 5; J. Fred Latham, The Story of Oklahoma Masonry (Oklahoma City: Grand Lodge of Oklahoma, 1978) 5- 8. 52 The Sons of Temperance modeled its constitution on those of the Freemasons and Odd Fellows and based their organization around simple initiation rituals. As time progressed, the Sons of Temperance and organizations such as it developed increasingly complicated rituals even further aligned with those of the Freemasons. (Carnes, 8) 53 Ballenger, 6. It is important to note that the Cherokee Indian Baptist Association, consisting of six "colored churches" held its first organizational meeting in the Cherokee Masonic Lodge in 1870. [J.M. Gaskins, History of Black Baptists in Oklahoma (Oklahoma City: Messenger Press, 1992), 118)] 54 Ballenger, 5. 55 Russell Thornton, The Cherokees: A Population History (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990), 87; Michael Doran, "Population Statistics of Nineteenth Century Indian Territory" in The Chronicles of Oklahoma 53 (Winter, 1975-1976): 492-515. 56 Grimshaw, 191. 57 A. G. Clark, Clark's History of Prince Hall Freemasonry (Des Moines, Iowa: Bystander Publications, 1947), 48. 58 Muraskin, 38-39. 59 C. Eric Lincoln and Lawrence H. Mamiya, The Black Church in the African-American Experience (Durham: Duke University Press, 1993), 52. 60 Albert Raboteau, Slave Religion: The "Invisible Institution" in the Antebellum South (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978), 205. 61 Grimshaw, 233. 62 Rudi Halliburton, Red Over Black: Black Slavery Among the Cherokee Indians (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1977), 40; Baker, 343 - 372. 63 Unsigned document quoted by William Sturtevant, "The Cherokee Frontiers, the French Revolution, and William Augustus Bowles" in Duane King, ed. The Cherokee Indian Nation: A Troubled History (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1979), 61. Further reading of this article as well as subsequent readings of related materials have failed to elucidate this connection. 64 Denslow, 127-129. 65 Wright, Creeks and Seminoles, 58 ff; Lyle N. McAlister, "William Augustus Bowles And The State Of Muskogee," Florida Historical Quarterly 1962 40(4): 317-328. 66 The fact that a Freemason helped abolish the institution of slavery in the Fench colonies explains the high incidence of masonry in the West Indies. [Claude Wauthier, "Africa's Freemasons, A Strange Inheritance," in Africa News Articles, ( http://chss2.montclair.edu/sorac/_AfricaNews/00000009.htm), June 22, 2000. 67 Charles Barthelemy Rousseve, The Negro in Louisiana: Aspects of His History and His Literature (New Orleans: Xavier University Press, 1937), 41. 68 Caryn Cosse Bell, Revolution, Romanticism, and the Afro-Creole Protest Tradition in Louisiana: 1718-1868 (Baton Rouge and London: Louisiana State University Press, 1997). 69 Laennec Hurbon, Voodoo: Search for the Spirit (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1995), 31-41; Verena Dobnik, "Voodoo Exhibit Taps Spirit Of Haitians' Struggle For Freedom," Bergen Record, October 9, 1998. 70 "The white Cubans charge the Negroes with still maintaining in their midst the dark Vudu or Hudu mysteries of West Africa. There seems to be no doubt that the black people of Cuba (not the mulattoes) do belong, to a number of secret or Masonic societies, the most widely-heard-of being the Nyannego; and it is possible that these confraternities or clubs are associated with immoral purposes. They originated in a league of defence against the tyranny of the masters in the old slavery days." [Harry H. Johnston, The Negro in the New World, New York: Johnson Reprint Corp., 1969., 193] 71 Douchan Gersi, Faces in the Smoke, (New York: St. Martins Press, 1991), 127-128. 72 William Brawley, A Social History of the American Negro (New York: Macmillan Company, 1921), 241; Walter B. Weare, "Black Fraternal Orders" in Charles Reagon Wilson and William Ferris, eds., Encyclopedia of Southern Culture (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989), 159; Carter G. Woodson, The African Background Outlined: or Handbook for the Study of the Negro (Washington, D.C.: Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, Inc., 1936) 169-170. 73 "Although it was unlawful for Negroes to assemble without the presence of a white man, and so unlawful to allow a congregation of slaves on a plantation without the consent of the master, these organizations existed and held these meetings on the "lots" of some of the law-makers themselves.... The president of such a society was usually a privileged slave who had the confidence of his or her master and could go and come at will. Thus a form of communication could be kept up with all members." [Hampton Conference Report, Number 8, quoted in Brawley, 73]. 74 Muraskin, 53. Muraskin also notes as prominent Prince Hall Freemasons who were active in the abolitionist movement as being Peter Ray, Lewis Hayden, Absolum Jones, Patrick Reason, James T. Hilton, James Forten, and Major Martin Delaney. 75 Moses Dickson, "Manual of the International Order of Twelve of Knights and Daughters of Tabor, containing general laws, regulations, ceremonies, drill and landmarks" in Herbert Aptheker, ed., A Documentary History of the Negro People in the United States from Colonial Times through the Civil War (Secaucus: The Citadel Press, 1973), 378. 76 Vincent Harding, There is a River: The Black Struggle for Freedom in America (New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, Publishers, 1981), 198. 77 Booker T. Washington, The Story of the Negro: The Rise of the Race from Slavery, Vol. II (New York: Doubleday, Page, and Company, 1909), 155; E. Franklin Frazier, The Negro in the United States (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1949), 371-372. 78 Dickson in Aptheker, 379.