Prince Saunders was a proponent of black emigration to Haiti, where he became a naturalized citizen.
16 Facts About Prince Saunders
Prince Saunders lived his last days in Port-au-Prince, where he died in 1839.
In 1784, Prince Saunders was baptized as a Christian, which is the only glimpse we have into his childhood.
Prince Saunders grew up in the home of George Oramel Hinckley, a prominent white lawyer in New England.
From 1807 until 1808, Prince Saunders attended Dartmouth College, in Hanover, New Hampshire under the sponsorship of Hinckley.
Wheelock suggested that Prince Saunders should become a school teacher at the free African American school in Boston.
Around the same time that he began teaching in Boston, Prince Saunders became involved in Masonic lodges.
In 1809, Prince Saunders was initiated into the African Masonic Lodge in Boston.
In 1815, Prince Saunders furthered African American education in Boston, when he successfully persuaded a white, merchant, philanthropist, Abiel Smith, into issuing a grant to help support his education cause.
Prince Saunders was able to get Smith to bestow revenue of stocks for the education of African Americans in reading, writing and arithmetic.
In London Prince Saunders met the renown abolitionist duo, William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson with whom he developed a life-long friendship.
Prince Saunders impressed the king by his striking "Negro" features, manners, and remarkable education.
Prince Saunders made several trips back and forth between Haiti and London.
On those trips, Prince Saunders brought back smallpox vaccination, in addition to four Lancastrian teachers that helped in creating the Royal College of Haiti, in Cape Henry.
Prince Saunders authored the Haytian Papers for the British people, who had a negative view of Haiti, "in order to give them some more correct information" of the Haitian government and to throw light on the new and much improved condition of all classes of society in that kingdom.
Prince Saunders believed it was only fair and necessary that the feelings of the Haitians should be made evident.