A. H. (Alexander Herritage) Newton

Born in 1837, Alexander Herritage Newton was an African American minister, Civil War veteran, and memoirist best known for Out of the Briars, published in 1910. Library of Congress records describe the book as an autobiography and a history of the Twenty-ninth Regiment, Connecticut Volunteers, and Newton presents it as a work drawn from his own life, wartime experience, and ministry.

Newton served in the Union army with the 29th Connecticut Volunteers, a Black regiment, and later became a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Sources about his life connect him with North Carolina, Brooklyn, and later New Jersey, tracing a path from antebellum America through the war and into decades of church leadership.

What makes Newton especially memorable is the way he writes across several worlds at once: personal memory, military history, preaching, and public argument. Out of the Briars stands as a valuable firsthand account of Black life in the 19th century, told by someone who lived through slavery’s era, fought for the Union, and spent much of his later life serving the church.