Harry

Harry (died 1854) was an enslaved man, owned by Howard College president Henry Talibird. He is credited with saving many lives in a fire that destroyed the college's only building on October 15, 1854. Howard College later became Samford University.

Harry is memorialized in several ways on the Homewood campus of Samford University. A stone plaque in the pavement of the Centennial Walk memorializes him. He is also depicted on the university's 1994 mace, remembered in the name of Harry's Coffeehouse in the Ralph Waldo Beeson University Center and memorialized in the Reconciliation Memorial erected in 2020.

References

• Poole, Phillip (October 14, 2014) Samford Recalls “The Midnight Fire” Samford University press release
• Bains, David (February 13, 2019) Slavery, “Servants,” and Samford Chasing Churches
• Samford University (June 1, 2020) Reconciliation Memorial Samford University website