page_title: Patrick H. Reason
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Patrick H. Reason / Career
caption_attribution_description: Engraving of a chained female slave by Patrick H. Reason. Often circulated with the caption "Am I not a woman and a sister?"
context_page_description: Patrick Henry Reason, first named Patrice Rison, was one of the earliest African-American engravers and lithographers in the United States. He was active as an abolitionist. He was a leader in a fraternal order, gaining recognition for Hamilton Lodge No. 710, New York, as part of the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows in America.
context_section_description: Reason set up his own shop, where he engraved portraits and other images for anti-slavery and other books and journals, as well as for individuals.  His engravings include an 1835 version of the kneeling female slave, an 1840 portrait of United States Senator Benjamin Tappan (R-Ohio), and the frontispiece portrait for the 1849 autobiography of Henry Bibb, a fugitive from slavery who became  an abolitionist lecturer. An 1840 lithograph portrait of Bibb has also been attributed to Reason.
  As a member of the New York Philomathean Society, Reason and others petitioned but were refused inclusion in an American fraternal organization, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. They won recognition from the British-based Grand United Order of Odd Fellows as Philomathean Lodge No. 646 (which in turn instituted Hamilton Lodge No. 710), New York.  Reason designed the membership certificate, at one point served as the lodge's grand master, and in 1858 composed the Ruth degree, the first to be conferred upon female members.
  In 1869, Reason moved with his family to Cleveland, Ohio. There he joined the firm of Sylvester Hogan, where he created jewelry and made plate engravings until his death in 1898.
caption: Engraving of a kneeling slave, 1835, Patrick H. Reason
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