Introduction

Biography

Benjamin was the son of Hugh Tan­ner and Isa­bel­la How­ard.

He stu­died for five years at Av­ery Col­lege in Pitts­burgh, then for three years at West­ern Theo­lo­gic­al Se­mi­na­ry in Holl­and, Mi­chi­gan.

At age 25, he was ap­point­ed to Sac­ra­men­to, Ca­li­for­nia, by Am­er­ican Me­tho­dist Epis­co­pal (AME) bi­shop Da­ni­el Payne. How­ev­er, he could not af­ford to go, so he moved in­stead to Wash­ing­ton, DC, where he or­gan­ized a Sun­day School for freed slaves in the Na­vy Yard with the per­miss­ion of Ad­mir­al John A. Dahlg­ren.

In 1863, Tan­ner be­came pas­tor of a church in George­town. In 1866 he moved to a large church in Bal­ti­more, Maryland, and short­ly af­ter was be­came prin­ci­pal of the AME An­nu­al Con­fer­ence School at Fred­er­ick­town, Ma­ry­land.

In 1868, he was elect­ed chief sec­re­ta­ry of the AME Ge­ne­ral Con­fer­ence, and found­ed and be­gan ed­it­ing the church news­pa­per, the Chris­tian Re­cord­er, a task he per­formed for 16 years.

In 1870, Av­ery Col­lege award­ed Tanner an AM de­gree. In the 1870s, he re­ceived an hon­or­ary DD from Wil­ber­force Uni­ver­si­ty in Ohio.

In 1884, he be­came ed­it­or of the AME Re­view.

His works in­clude:

• Apology for Af­ri­can Me­thod­ism
• The Ne­gro’s Or­i­gin; and Is He Cursed of God
• An Out­line of Our His­to­ry and Gov­ern­ment
• The Ne­gro, Af­ri­can and Am­er­ican