William Wadé Harris

HARRIS, William Wadé. b. 1860 (?); d. 1929. Born in Liberia, Harris joined the Methodist Church at age twelve, although he subsequently worked as a teacher for the Protestant Episcopal Church. He was an early advocate of independence from the Americo-Liberian colonial rule, and was arrested for treason and twice imprisoned by the administration in Liberia over a two-year period, 1909-1910. During his second imprisonment he had a vision of the Archangel Gabriel, who declared him a prophet sent to prepare the way for Jesus Christ, and who ordered him to exchange his European clothes for African ones. In 1913 he began an extraordinary preaching journey and evangelistic campaign, one of the...


Cite this article