Newell Houston Ensley
American minister, activist, and professor
Newell Houston Ensley (August 23, 1852 – May 23, 1888) was an American Baptist minister and civil rights activist. He was a professor at Shaw University, Howard University, and Alcorn University.
Early life
Newell Houston Ensley was born a slave in Nashville, Tennessee on August 23, 1852 to George and Clara Ensley. His family was owned by his mother's father and Ensley was allowed to play with the white children on the farm and was taught to read and write. Both of his parents were also literate. He was a buggy boy, servant, and rent collector to his grandfather. While still a child during the American Civil War (1861–1865), Ensley ran away and hid in Union Army camps that were nearby until the Army moved on and he returned to the farm where he received a whipping. In spite of this, Ensley remained on the farm after the war was over and the abolition of slavery.
After the Civil War, he was a paid worker for his grandfather, until the grandfather's death in 1866. His mother was established in a cabin on 30 acres in that year.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q27468347. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1852, 1888, 1861 and 1865.
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This entry incorporates text from “Newell Houston Ensley” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.