CARTER GODWIN TOQDSO.N
The History of the
Negro Church
By CARTER GODWIN WOODSON
THIS is a popular treatise in a neglected field compelling
the attention of those interested in the Negro and of
those pursuing the study of history in all of its phases.
No effort has been made to document this work; but
the narrative is told in such a straightforward manner and
shows so much acquaintance of the author with the general
history of the country that the story carries conviction. In one
panorama the reader sees the coming of the early missionaries,
the appearance of the Negro preacher as the result of liberal¬
izing influences, the rise of the African church, its struggles
with forces without and within, and finally its triumph as a
socializing institution around which develops the new life of
a rising race. This book may be read with profit, therefore*,
by any seeker after the truth and must be read by all desiring
to be informed as to the social forces at work in this country.
A Christianized African.
THE HISTORY OF THE
NEGRO CHURCH
BY
CARTER G. WOODSON, Ph.D.
Editor of the Journal of Negro History, author of A Century of
Negro Migration, and of the Education of the Negro
Prior to 1861
THE ASSOCIATED PUBLISHERS
WASHINGTON, D. C.
Copyright, 1921
By The Associated Publishers
To
the cherished memory of
my Mother
ANNE ELIZA WOODSON
PREFACE
The importance of the church in the life of the
Negro justifies the publication of this brief ac¬
count of the development of the institution. For
many years the various denominations have been
writing treatises bearing on their own particular
work, but hitherto there has been no effort to
study the achievements of all of these groups as
parts of the same institution and to show the evo¬
lution of it from the earliest period to the present
time. This is the objective of this volume.
Whether or not the author has done this task
well is a question which the public must decide.
This work does not represent what he desired to
make it. Many facts of the past could not be
obtained for the reason that several denomina¬
tions have failed to keep records and facts known
to persons now active in the church could not be
collected because of indifference or the failure to
understand the motives of the author. Not a few
church officers and ministers, however, gladly co¬
operated with the author in giving and seeking
information concerning theix1 denominations.
Among these were Mr. Charles H. Wesley, Prof.
J. A. Booker, and Dr. Walter H. Brooks. For
their valuable assistance the author feels deeply
grateful.
Carter G. Woodson.
Washington, D. C., September, 1921.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I.—Early Missionaries and the Negro.. 1
II.—The Dawn of the New Day 23
III.—Pioneer Negro Preachers 40
IV.—The Independent Church Movement 71
V.—Early Development 100
VI.—The Schism and the Subsequent
Situation 123
VII.—Religious Instruction Revived 148
VIII.—Preachers of Versatile Genius 167
IX.—The Civil War and the Church 185
X.—Religious Education as a Prepara¬
tion 202
XI.—The Call of Politics 220
XII.—The Conservative and Progressive.. 247
XIII.—The Negro Church Socialized 266
XIV.—The Recent Growth of the Negro
Church 286
XV.—The Negro Church of To-day 300
vii
ILLUSTRATIONS
A Christianized African Frontispiece
FACING PAGE
Directing the Wanderer in the right Way... 11
The Oldest Negro Baptist Church in the
United States 23
Lemuel Haynes 32
Andrew Bryan 40
Richard Allen 71
James Varick 82
Peter Williams 95
Christopher Rush 100
Lott Cary 123
M. C. Clayton 129
Sampson White 140
Josiah Henson 148
Noah Davis 158
Samuel R. Ward 167
Alexander Crummell 175
J. W. C. Pennington 178
Henry Highland Garnett 180
Daniel A. Payne 185
Richard DeBaptiste 190
W.H. Miles 196
Wilberforce During the Civil War 202
William J. Simmons 206
James Poindexter 210
J. C. Price 214
ix
x Illustrations
facing page
H. M. Turner 220
B. W. Arnett ^
W. B. Derrick
J. W. Hood 236
L. H. Holsey 240
Rufus L. Perry 243
Charles T. Walker 247
John Jasper 255
E. K. Love 260
W. R. Pettiford 266
M. C. B. Mason 274
George W. Lee 286
Alexander Walters 300
CHAPTER I
THE EAELY MISSIONARIES AND THE NEGRO
f\NE of the causes of the discovery of America
was the translation into action of the desire
of European zealots to extend the Catholic religion
into other parts. Columbus, we are told, was de¬
cidedly missionary in his efforts and felt that he
could not make a more significant contribution to
the church than to open new fields for Christian
endeavor. His final success in securing the equip¬
ment adequate to the adventure upon the high seas
was to some extent determined by the Christian
motives impelling the sovereigns of Spain to
finance the expedition for the reason that it might
afford an opportunity for promoting the cause of
Christ. Some of the French who came to the new
world to establish their claims by further dis¬
covery and exploration, moreover, were either ac¬
tuated by similar motives or welcomed the
cooperation of earnest workers thus interested.
The first persons proselyted by the Spanish and
French missionaries were Indians. There was not
any particular thought of the Negro. It may seem
a little strange just now to think of persons having
to be converted to faith in the possibility of the
1
2 The History of the Negro Church
salvation of the Negro, but there were among the
colonists thousands who had never considered the
Negro as belonging to the pale of Christianity.
Negroes had been generally designated as infidels;
but, in the estimation of their self-styled superiors,
they were not considered the most desirable of this
class supposedly arrayed against Christianity.
There were few Christians who did not look for¬
ward to the ultimate conversion of those infidels
approaching the Caucasian type, but hardly any
desired to make an effort in the direction of
proselyting Negroes.
When, however, that portion of this Latin ele¬
ment primarily interested in the exploitation of
the Western Hemisphere failed to find in the
Indians the substantial labor supply necessary to
their enterprises and at the suggestion of men like
las Casas imported Negroes for this purpose, the
missionaries came face to face with the question aa
to whether this new sort of heathen should receive
the same consideration as that given the Indians.
Because of the unwritten law that a Christian
could not be held a slave, the exploiting class op¬
posed any such proselyting; for, should the slaves
be liberated upon being converted, their plans for
development would fail for lack of a labor supply
subject to their orders as bondmen. The sov¬
ereigns of Europe, once inclined to adopt a sort
of humanitarian policy toward the Negroes, at
first objected to their importation into the new
world; and when under the pressure of the inter-
The Early Missionaries and the Negro 3
ests of the various countries they yielded on this
point, it was stipulated that such slaves should
have first embraced Christianity. Later, when
further concessions to the capitalists were neces¬
sary, it was provided in the royal decrees of Spain
and of France that Africans enslaved in America
should merely be early indoctrinated in the prin¬
ciples of the Christian religion.
These decrees, although having the force of law,
soon fell into desuetude. There was not among
these planters any sentiment in favor of such
humanitarian treatment of the slaves. Unlike the
missionaries, the planters were not interested in
religion and they felt that too much enlightenment
of the slaves might inspire them with the hope
of attaining the status of freemen. The laws,
therefore, were nominally accepted as just and the
functionaries in the colonies in reporting to their
home countries on the state of the plantations
made it appear that they were generally complied
with. As there was no such thing as an inspection
of these commercial outposts, moreover, no one in
Europe could easily determine exactly what atti¬
tude these men had toward carrying out the will
of the home countries with respect to the Chris-
tianization of the bondmen. From time to time,
therefore, the humanitarian world heard few
protests like that of Alfonso Sandoval in Cuba and
the two Capucin monks who were imprisoned in
Havana because of their inveighing against the
failure on the part of the planters to provide for
4 The History of the Negro Church
the religious instruction of the slaves. Being m
the minority, these upright pioneers too often
had their voices hushed in persecution, as it hap¬
pened in the case of the two monks.
It appears, however, that efforts in behalf of
Negroes elsewhere were not in vain; for the Ne¬
groes in Latin America were not only proselyted
thereafter but were given recognition among the
clergy. Such was the experience of Francisco
Xavier de Luna Victoria, son of a freedman, a
Panama charcoal burner, whose chief ambition
was to educate this young man for the priesthood.
He easily became a priest and after having served
acceptably in this capacity a number of years waa
chosen Bishop of Panama in 1751 and administered
this office eight years. He was later called to take
charge of the See of Trujillo, Peru.
In what is now the United States the Spanish
and French missionaries had very little contact
with the Negroes during the early period, as they
were found in large numbers along the Atlantic
coast only. In the West Indies, however, the Latin
policy decidedly dominated during the early co¬
lonial period, and when the unwritten law that a
Christian could not be held a slave was by special
statutes and royal decrees annulled, the planters
eventually yielded in their objection to the re¬
ligious instruction of the slaves and generally com¬
plied with the orders of the home country to this
effect.
Maryland was the only Atlantic colony in which
The Early Missionaries and the Negro 5
the Catholics had the opportunity to make an
appeal to a large group of Negroes. After some
opposition the people of that colony early met the
test of preaching the gospel to all regardless of
color. The first priests and missionaries operat¬
ing in Maryland regarded it their duty to enlighten
the slaves; and, as the instruction of the communi¬
cants of the church became more systematic to
make their preparation adequate to the proper un¬
derstanding of the church doctrine, some sort of
instruction of the Negroes attached to these estab¬
lishments was provided in keeping with the senti¬
ment expressed in the first ordinances of the
Spanish and French sovereigns and later in the
Black Code governing the bondmen in the colonies
controlled by the Latins.
Although the attitude of the Catholic pioneers
was not altogether encouraging to the movement
for the evangelization of the Negroes, still less
assistance came from the Protestants settling the
English colonies. Few, if any, of the pioneers
from Great Britain had the missionary spirit of
some of the Latins. As the English were primar¬
ily interested in founding new homes in America,
they thought of the Negroes not as objects of
Christian philanthropy but rather as tools with
which they might reach that end. It is not surpris¬
ing then that with the introduction of slavery as
an economic factor in the development of the Eng¬
lish colonies little care was taken of their
spiritual needs, and especially so when they were
6 The History of the Negro Church
confronted with the unwritten law that a Christian
conld not be held a slave.
Owing to the more noble example set by the
Latins, however, and the desirable results early
obtained by their missionaries, the English plant¬
ers permitted some sort of religious instruction of
the bondmen, after providing by royal decrees and
special statutes in the colonies that conversion to
Christianity would not work manumission. Feel¬
ing, however, that the nearer the blacks were kept
to the state of brutes that the more useful they
would be as laborers, the masters generally neg¬
lected them.
The exceptions to this rule were the efforts
of various clergymen in cooperation with the So¬
ciety for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign
Parts. This organization was established in Lon¬
don in 1701 to do missionary work among the
heathen, especially the Indians and the Negroes.
Its function was to prepare the objects of its phil¬
anthropy for a proper understanding of the church
doctrine and the relation of man to God. This
body operated through the branches of the estab¬
lished church, the ministrations of which were
first limited to a few places in Virginia, New York,
Maryland, and the cities of Boston and Philadel¬
phia. From the very beginning this society felt
that the conversion of the Negroes was as impor¬
tant as that of bringing the whites or the Indians
into the church and such distinguished churchmen
as Bishops Lowth, Fleetwood, Williams, Sander-
The Early Missionaries and the Negro 7
son, Butler, and Wilson, persistently urged this
duty upon their subordinates. In 1727 Bishop
Gibson sent out two forceful pastoral letters out¬
lining this duty of the missionaries, Bishop Seeker
preached a soul-stirring sermon thereupon in 1741,
and in 1784 Bishop Porteus published an extensive
plan for the more effectual conversion of the
slaves, contending that "despicable as they are in
the eyes of man they are, nevertheless, the crea¬
tures of God."
The first successful worker in this field was the
Rev. Samp^lThomas of Goose Creek Parish in
the colony of SouthM^arolma. The records show
that he was thus engaged as early as 1695 and that
ten years later he reported 20 black communicants
who, with several others, well understood the Eng¬
lish language. By 1705 he had brought under his
instruction as many as 1,000 slaves, "many of
whom," said he, "could read the Bible distinctly
and great numbers of them were engaged in learn¬
ing the scriptures.'' When these blacks approached
the communion table, however, some white per¬
sons seriously objected, inquiring whether it was
possible that slaves should go to heaven anyway.
But having the cooperation of a number of liberal
slaveholders in that section and working in col¬
laboration with Mrs. Haig, Mrs. Edwards, and the
Rev. E. Taylor, who baptized a number of them,
the missionaries in that colony prepared the way
for the Christianization of the Negro slaves.
Becoming interested in the thorough indoctrina-
8 The History of the Negro Church
tion of these slaves, Mr. Taylor planned for their
instruction, encouraging the slaveholders to teach
the blacks at least to the extent of learning the
Lord's Prayer. Manifesting such interest in these
unfortunate blacks, their friends easily induced
them to attend church in such large numbers that
they could not be accommodated. '' So far as the
missionaries were permitted,'' says one,11 they did
all that was possible for their evangelization, and
while so many professed Christians among the
whites were lukewarm, it pleased God to raise to
himself devout servants among the heathen, whose
faithfulness was commended by the Masters them¬
selves." In some of the congregations the Ne¬
groes constituted one-half of the communicants.
This interest in proselyting the Negroes was
extended into other parts. In 1723, Rev. Mr. Guy
of St. Andrew's Parish reported that he had bap¬
tized a Negro man and woman.. About the same
time Rev. Mr. Hunt, in charge of St. John's Par¬
ish, had among his communicants a slave, "a
sensible Negro who can read and write and come
to church, a catechumen under probation for bap¬
tism, which he desires."
A new stage in the progress of this movement
was reached in 1743 when there was established
at Charleston, South Carolina, a special school to
train Negroes for participation in this missionary
work. This school was opened by Commissary
Garden and placed in charge of Harry and An¬
drew, two young men of color, who had been thor-
The Early Missionaries and the Negro 9
oughly instructed in the rudiments of education
and in the doctrines of the church. It not only
served as the training school for missionary
workers, but directed its attention also to the
special needs of adults who studied therein during
the evenings. From this school there were sent
out from year to year numbers of youths to un¬
dertake this work in various parts of the colony
of South Carolina. After having accomplished
so much good for about a generation, however,
the school was, in 1763, closed for various reasons,
one of them being that one of the instructors died
and the other proved inefficient.
Farther upward in the colony of North Carolina,
the same difficulties were encountered. There the !
motive was the fear that, should the slaves be
converted, they would, according to the unwritten
law of Christendom, become free. Some planters,
however, were very soon thereafter persuaded to
let these missionaries continue their work. "By
much importunity," says an annalist, Mr. Ranford
of Chowan, "in 1712 we prevailed upon Mr. Mar¬
tin to let him baptize three of his Negroes, two
women and a boy. All the arguments I could
make use of," said he, "would scarce effect it till
Bishop Fleetwood's sermon in 1711 turned ye
scale.'' These workers then soon found it possible
to instruct and baptize more than forty Negroes in
one year, and not long thereafter some workers
reported as many as 15 to 24 in one month, 40 to
50 in six months and 60 to 70 in a year. Rev. Mr.
10 The History of the Negro Church
Newman, proclaiming the new day of the Gospel
in that colony, reported in 1723 that he had bap¬
tized two Negroes who could say the Creed, the
Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments and gave
good sureties for their fuller information. Ac¬
cording to the report of Rev. C. Hall, the number
of conversions there among the Negroes for eight
years was 355, including 112 adults; and "at
Edenton the blacks generally were induced to at¬
tend service at all these stations where they
behaved with great decorum."
In the middle colonies the work was given addi¬
tional impetus by the mission of Dr. Thomas
Bray. The Bishop of London sent this gentleman
to the colony of Maryland for the purpose of
devising plans to convert adult Negroes and edu¬
cate their children. Having also the influential
support of M. D 'Alone, the private secretary of
King William, who gave for its maintenance a
fund, the proceeds of which were to be used to
employ catechists, the Thomas Bray Mission de¬
cidedly encouraged these missionaries. The cate¬
chists appointed, however, failed; but the work was
well extended throughout Maryland, into neigh¬
boring colonies, and even into the settlements of
Georgia, through certain persons assuming the
title of Dr. Bray's Associates. Traveling in North
Carolina, Rev. Mr. Stewart, a missionary, found
there a school maintained by Dr. Bray's Associates
for the education of Indians and Negroes. They
were supporting such a school in Georgia in 1751;
Directing the Wanderer in the right Way.
The Early Missionaries and the Negro 11
but in 1766 the Rev. S. Frink, a missionary trying
to secure a hearing in Augusta, found that he could
neither convert the Indians nor the whites, who
seemed to be as destitute of religion as the former;
but he succeeded in converting some Negroes.
In Pennsylvania the missionary movement
among the Negroes found apparently less ob¬
stacles. There are records showing the baptism
of Negroes as early as 1712. One Mr. Yates, a
worker at Chester, was commended by the Rev.
G. Ross "for his endeavors to train up the Ne¬
groes in the knowledge of religion." Mr. Ross
himself had on one occasion at Philadelphia bap¬
tized as many as twelve adult Negroes, who were
examined before the congregation and answered
to the admiration of all who heard them. "The
like sight had never been seen before in that
church.'' Giving account of his efforts in Sussex
County in 1723, Rev. Mr. Beckett said that many
Negroes constantly attended his services, while
Rev. Mr. Bartow about the same time baptized a
Negro at West Chester. Rev. Richard Locke
christened eight Negroes in one family at Lan¬
caster in 1747 and another Negro there the fol¬
lowing year. In 1774 the Rev. Mr. Jenney ob¬
served a great and daily increase of Negroes in
this city, "who with joy attend upon the catechist
for instruction." He had baptized several but
was unable to add to his other duties.
The Society, ever ready to lend a helping hand
to such an enterprise, appointed the Rev. W. Stur-
12 The History of the Negro Church
geon as catechist for the Negroes in Philadelphia.
At the same time the Rev. Mr. Neal of Dover was
meeting with equally good results, having baptized
as many as 162 Negroes within eight months.
Now and then, however, as in the case of Rev.
Mr. Pugh, a missionary at Appoquinimmick,
Pennsylvania, the missionaries received very few
Negroes, because their masters here, as elsewhere,
were prejudiced against their being Christians.
The Society did not operate extensively in the
State of New Jersey. The Rev. Mr. Lindsay
mentions his baptizing a Negro at Allerton in 1736.
The missions of New Brunswick reported a large
number of Negroes as having become attached to
their churches, but this favorable situation was
not the rule throughout the State. The mission¬
ary spirit was not wanting, however, and the ac¬
cession of Negroes to the churches followed later
in spite of local opposition and the general apathy
as to the indoctrination of the blacks.
In those colonies further north where the Ne¬
groes were not found in large numbers, little op¬
position to their indoctrination was experienced;
and their evangelization proceeded without inter¬
ruption, whereas in most southern colonies the
proselyting of the Negroes was largely restricted
to what the ministers and missionaries could do
during their spare time. There was in New York
a special provision for the employment of 16
clergymen and 13 lay teachers for the conversion
of free Indians and Negro slaves. Elias Neau. a
The Early Missionaries and the Negro 13
worker in these ranks, established in New York
City in 1704 a catechizing school for Negro slaves.
After several years of imprisonment in France be¬
cause of his Protestant faith he had come to New
York as a trader. Upon witnessing, however, the
neglected condition of the blacks, who, according
to his words, '' were without God in the world
and of whose souls there was no manner of care
taken,'' he proposed the appointment of a cate-
chist to undertake their instruction. Finally be¬
ing prevailed upon to accept the position himself,
he obtained a license from the Governor, resigned
his position as elder in the French church, and con¬
formed to the established church of England. At
first he served from house to house but very soon
secured a regular place of instruction, after being
commended by the Society to Mr. Yesey, as a
constant communicant of the church and a most
zealous and prudent servant of Christ in proselyt¬
ing the Negroes and Indians to the Christian re¬
ligion whereby he did great service to God and his
church. There was a further expression of confi¬
dence in him in a bill to be offered to Parliament
"for the more effectual conversion of the Negroes
and other servants in the plantations, to compel
owners of slaves to cause their children to be
baptized within three months after their birth and
to permit them, when come to years of discretion,
to be instructed in the Christian religion on our
Lord's Day by the missionaries under whose min¬
istry they live."
14 The History of the Negro Church
Neau's school suffered considerably in the
Negro riot in that city in 1712, when it was closed
by local authority and an investigation of his
operations ordered. Upon learning, however, that
the slaves primarily concerned in this rising were
not connected with his school but had probably
engaged in this enterprise because of their neg¬
lected condition, the city permitted him to continue
his operations as a teacher, feeling that Christian
knowledge would not necessarily be a means of
more cunning and aptitude to wickedness. The
Governor and the Council, the Mayor, the Re¬
corder, and Chief Justice informed the Society
that Neau had "performed his work to the great
advancement of religion and particular benefit of
the free Indians, Negro slaves and other heathen
in these parts, with indefatigable zeal and
application.''
Neau died in 1722; but his work was continued
by Huddlestone, Whitmore, Colgan, Auchmutty,
and Charlton. The last mentioned had undertaken
the instruction of the blacks while at New Wind¬
sor and found it practical and convenient to throw
into one class his white and black catechumens.
Mr. Auchmutty served from 1747 to 1764 and
finally reported that there was among the Negroes
an ever-increasing desire for instruction and not
one single black '' that had been admitted by him
to the holy communion had turned out bad or been
in any way a disgrace to our holy profession."
This good work done in the city of New York
The Early Missionaries and the Negro 15
extended into other parts of the colony. We hear
of Rev. Mr. Stoupe in 1737 baptizing four black
children at New Rochelle. At New Windsor, Rev.
Charles Taylor, a school-master, kept a night
school for the instruction of the Negroes. Rev.
J. Sayre, of Newburgh, promoted the education of
the two races in four of the churches under his
charge. In 1714 Rev. T. Barclay, an earnest
worker among the slaves in Albany, reported a
great forwardness among them to embrace Chris¬
tianity and a readiness to receive instruction, al¬
though there was much opposition among some of
the masters. Sixty years later Schenectady re¬
ported among its members eleven Negroes who
were sober and serious communicants. X
These missionaries met with some opposition in
New England among the Puritans, who had no
serious objection to seeing the Negroes saved but
did not care to see them incorporated into the
church, which then being connected with the state,
would grant them political as well as religious
equality. There had been an academic interest in
the conversion of the Negroes. John Eliot had no
particular objection to slavery but regretted that
it precluded the possibility of their instruction in
the Christian doctrine and worked a loss of their
souls. Cotton Mather, taking the task of evangeli¬
zation seriously, drew up a set of rules by which
masters should be governed in the instruction
of their slaves. He had much fear of the prodigi¬
ous wickedness of deriding, neglecting and oppos-
16 The History of the Negro Church
ing all due means of bringing the poor Negroes
unto God. He did not believe that Almighty God
made so many thousand reasonable creatures for
nothing but 4 i only to serve the lusts of epicures
or the gains of mammonists." In the protest of
Jonathan Sewell set forth in his Selling of Joseph,
there was an attack on slavery because the servants
differed from those of Abraham, who commanded
his children and his household that they should
keep the way of the Lord. In this they were stand¬
ing upon the high ground taken by Richard Baxter,
an authority among the Puritans, who, denouncing
the use of the slaves as beasts for their mere com¬
modity, said, that their masters who "betray or
destroy or neglect their souls are fitter to be
called incarnate devils than Christians though
they be no Christian whom they so abuse.''
The opposition there, however, was not appar¬
ent everywhere among the ministers of other sects.
From Bristol, Rev. J. Usher of the Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, wrote
in 1730 that several Negroes desired baptism and
were able to "render a very good account of the
hope that was in them," but he was forbidden by
their masters to comply with the request. Yet
he reported the same year that among others he
had in his congregation "about 30 Negroes and
Indians," most of whom joined "in the public ser¬
vice very decently." At Newton, where greater
opposition was encountered, J. Beach seemed to
have baptized by 1733 many Indians and a few
The Early Missionaries and the Negro 17,
Negroes. Dr. Cutler, a missionary at Boston,
wrote to the Society in 1737 that among those he
had admitted to his church were four Negro slaves.
Endeavoring to do more than to effect nominal
conversions, Dr. Johnson, while at Stratford, gave
catechetical lectures during the summer months
of 1751, attended by 4'many Negroes and some
Indians, as well as whites, about 70 or 80 in all."
And said he: '4As far as I can find, where the
Dissenters have baptized two, if not three or four,
Negroes or Indians, I have four or five communi¬
cants." Dr. Macsparran conducted at Narragan-
sett a class of 70 Indians and Negroes whom he
frequently catechized and instructed before the
regular service. J. Honyman, of Newport, had in
his congregation more than 100 Negroes who
"constantly attended the Publick Worship."
The real interest in the evangelization of the
Negroes in the English colonies, however, was
manifested not by those in authority but by the
Quakers, who, being friends of all humanity, would
not neglect the Negroes. In accepting these per¬
sons of color on a basis of equality, however, the
Quakers, in denouncing the nakedness of the re¬
ligion of the other colonists at the same time,
alienated their affections and easily brought down
upon them the wrath of the public functionaries in
these plantations. Believing that such influence
would not be salutary in slaveholding communities,
many of them, as they did in Virginia, prohibited
the Quakers from taking the Negroes to their
18 The History of the Negro Church
meetings. Such opposition was but natural when
we find that their leader, George Fox, was advo¬
cating the instruction of Negroes in 1672 and
boldly entreating his coworkers to instruct and
teach the Indians and Negroes in 1679 how that
" Christ by the grace of God tasted death for every
man." When George Keith in 1693 began to pro¬
mote the religious training of the slaves as prepa¬
ration for emancipation and William Penn actu¬
ally advocated the abolition of the system to com¬
mit the whole sect to a definite scheme to return
the Negroes to Africa to Christianize that conti¬
nent, such opposition easily developed wherever
the Friends operated.
These people, however, would not be deterred
from carrying out their purpose. The results
which followed show that they were not frustrated
in the execution of their plans. John Woolman,
one of the fathers of the Quakers in America, al¬
ways bore testimony against slavery and repeat¬
edly urged that the blacks be given religious in¬
struction. We hear later of their efforts in towns
and in the colonies of Virginia and North Carolina
to teach Negroes to read and write. Such Negroes
as were accessible in the settlements of the North
came under the influence of Quakers of the type
of John Hepburn, William Burling, Elihu Cole¬
man, Ralph Sandiford, and Anthony Benezet, who
established a number of successful missions oper¬
ating among the Negroes. As the Quakers were,
because of their anti-slavery tendencies, the own-
The Early Missionaries and the Negro 19
ers of few slaves and were denied access to those
of others, what they did for the evangelization of
the whole group was little when one considers the
benighted darkness in which most Negro slaves
in America lived. The faith of the Quakers, their
religious procedure, and peculiar customs, more¬
over, could not be easily understood and appreci¬
ated by the Negroes in their undeveloped state.
Generally speaking, then, one should say that
the Negroes were neglected. The few missionaries
among them stood like shining lights after a great
darkness. They, moreover, faced numerous hand¬
icaps, among which might be mentioned the con¬
flicts of views, and especially that of the estab¬
lished church with the Catholics and later with
the evangelical sects. There were also the dif¬
ficulties resulting from dealing with a backward
pioneering people, the scarcity of workers, and the
lack of funds to sustain those who volunteered for
this service.
Some difficulty resulted too from the differences
of opinion as to what tenets of religion should be
taught the Negro and how they should be pre¬
sented. Should the Negroes be first instructed in
the rudiments of education and then taught the
doctrines of the church or should the missionaries
start with the Negro intellect as he found it on his
arrival from Africa and undertake to inculcate
doctrines which only the European mind could
comprehend? There was, of course, in the interest
of those devoted to exploitation, a tendency to
20 The History of the Negro Church
make the religious instruction of the Negroes as
nearly nominal as possible only to remove the stig¬
ma attached to those who neglected the religious
life of their servants. Such limited instruction,
however, as the slaves received when given only a
few moments on Sunday proved to be tantamount
to no instruction at all; for missionaries easily ob¬
served in the end that Christianity was a rather
difficult religion for an undeveloped mind to grasp.
As long as these efforts were restricted to the
Anglican clergy, moreover, there could be little
question among the British as to the advisability
of the procedure. When, however, upon the ex¬
pansion of the territory of the Catholics and other
sects the Negroes came under the influence of dif¬
ferent sorts of religion promoted by men of a new
thought and new method, some conflict necessarily
arose. There was another handicap in that the
Anglican clergymen in America during the seven¬
teenth and eighteenth centuries were not of the
highest order. Their establishments were main¬
tained by a tax on the colonists in keeping with the
customs and laws of England, so that their income
was assured, whether or not they wielded an influ¬
ence for good among the people. The colonial
clergy, therefore, too often became corrupt in this
independent economic position. They spent much
of their time at games and various sports, tarried
at the cup and looked upon the wine when it was
red, in fact, became so interested in the enjoyment
of the things inviting in this world that they had in
The Early Missionaries and the Negro 21
some cases little time to devote to the elevation
of the whites, to say nothing about the elevation
of the Negroes. They did not feel disposed to
undertake this work themselves and in adhering to
their rights as representatives of the established
church precluded the possibility of a more general
evangelization of the Negroes by the other sects.
One might expect from a country, the religious
affairs of which were thus administered, a num¬
ber of protests from those thus served. There was
such a general lack of culture among these back¬
ward colonists, however, that no such complaint
followed. Interest in religion must come from
the promoters of religion. If the clergymen
themselves did not manifest interest in this work,
it was out of the question to expect others to do so.
Another difficulty was the lack of workers. The
colonies were not rapidly becoming densely popu¬
lated and it was not then an easy matter to in¬
duce young clergymen to try their fortunes in
the wilderness of the western world for such re¬
muneration as the colonists in their scattered and
undeveloped economic state were able to give.
As many of the white settlements, therefore, were
neglected, it would naturally follow that the Ne¬
groes suffered likewise. Some of these workers
volunteering to toil in this field as missionaries
were, of course, supported by funds raised for that
purpose; but the difficulty in raising money for
missions is still a problem of the church. At that
time the people were generally more disinclined
22 The History of the Negro Church
to contribute to such causes than they are to-day.
That was the age of commercial expansion and
available funds were drawn into that field, much at
the expense of the higher things of life. The
intelligent Christians, therefore, with a clear un¬
derstanding of the Bible and the doctrines derived
therefrom were not legion even among the whites
prior to the American Revolution. The slaves
with the handicap of bondage, of course, could not
constitute exceptions to this rule.
CHAPTER II
THE DAWN OF THE NEW DAY
rpHE new thought at work in the minds of the
American people during the second half of
the eighteenth century, especially after the Seven
Years' War, aroused further interest in the uplift
of the groups far down. By this time the colonists
had become more conscious of their unique posi¬
tion in America, more appreciative of their worth
in the development of the new world, and more
cognizant of the necessity to take care of them¬
selves by development from within rather than
addition from without. How to rehabilitate the
weakened forces and how to minister to those who
had been neglected became a matter of concern to
all forward-looking men of that time.
The clergy thereafter considered the Negro
more seriously even in those parts where slaves
were found in large numbers. Among those di¬
recting attention to the spiritual needs of the race
were Rev. Thomas Bacon and Rev. Jonathan Bou¬
cher of the Anglican Church. The former under¬
took to arouse his people through a series of ser¬
mons addressed to masters and slaves about the
year 1750. He said: " We should make this read-
24 The History of the Negro Church
ing and studying the Holy Scriptures and the
reading and explaining of them to our children
and servants or the catechising and instructing
them in the principles of the Christian religion a
stated duty. If the grown up slaves from con¬
firmed habits of vice are hard to be reclaimed, the
children surely are in our power and may be
trained up in the way they should go, with rational
hopes that when they are old, they will not depart
from it." In 1763 Jonathan Boucher boldly said:
"It certainly is not a necessary circumstance es¬
sential to the condition of the slave that he be not
indoctrinated; yet this is the general and almost
universal lot of the slaves." He said, moreover:
"You may unfetter them from the chains of igno¬
rance, you may emancipate them from the bondage
of sin, the worse slavery to which they could be
subjected; and by thus setting at liberty those that
are bruised though they still continue to be your
slaves, they shall be delivered from the bondage of
corruption into the glorious liberty of the children
of God."
The accomplishment of the task of more thor¬
oughly proselyting the Negroes, however, belongs
to the record of other sects than the Anglican
Church. Even if the Negroes had been given the
invitation to take a part in the propagation of the
gospel as promoted by the first sects in control,
the organization of these bodies, the philosophical
foundation of their doctrines, and the controversial
atmosphere in which their protagonists lived in
The Dawn of the New Day
25
this conflict of creeds, made it impossible for per¬
sons of such limited mental development as the
slaves were permitted to experience, to participate.
The Latin ceremonies of the Catholic church and
the ritualistic conformity required by the Angli¬
cans too often baffled the Negro's understanding,
leaving him, even when he had made a profession
of faith, in a position of being compelled to accept
the spiritual blessings largely on the recommenda¬
tion of the missionary proffering them. The sim¬
plicity of the Quakers set forth as an attack on
the forms and ceremonies of the more aristocratic
churches equally taxed the undeveloped intellect of
certain Negroes who often wondered how mat¬
ters so mysterious could be reduced to such an
ordinary formula.
During the latter part of the seventeenth cen¬
tury and throughout the eighteenth, there were
rising to power in the United States two sects,
which, because of their evangelical appeal to the
untutored mind, made such inroads upon the
Negro population as to take over in a few years
thereafter the direction of the spiritual develop¬
ment of most of the Negroes throughout the United
States. These were the Methodists and Baptists.
They, together with the Scotch-Irish Presby¬
terians, imbibed more freely than other denomina¬
tions the social-compact philosophy of John Locke
and emphasized the doctrines of Coke, Milton, and
Blackstone as a means to justify the struggle for
an enlargement of the domain of political liberty,
26 The History of the Negro Church
primarily for the purpose of securing religious
freedom denied them by the adherents of the
Anglican Church.
Neither the Baptists nor the Methodists, how¬
ever, were at first especially interested in the Ne¬
gro. Whitefield in Georgia advocated the introduc¬
tion of slaves and rum for the economic improve¬
ment of the colony. He even owned slaves himself,
although Wesley, Coke, and Asbury opposed the
institution and advocated emancipation as a means
to thorough evangelization. The work of the
Methodists in behalf of the Negroes, moreover,
was still less directed toward their liberation in
the West Indies than on the continent, doubtless be¬
cause of the fact that in that section there did not
develop the struggle for the rights of man as an
attack upon the British government as it hap¬
pened in the colonies along the Atlantic. But it is
said that out of the 352,404 signatures to me¬
morials sent by Dissenters to Parliament pray¬
ing for the abolition of slavery, 229,426 were the
names of Methodists.
The missionaries, however, seemed to be trying
to stir between Scylla and Charybdis. They were
forbidden to hold slaves but they were required
to promote the moral and religious improvement
of the slaves without in the least degree, in public
or private, interfering with their civil condition.
One who served for twenty years in the West
Indies said: 4'For half a century from the com¬
mencement of Methodism the slaves never ex-
The Dawn of the New Day
27
pected freedom, and the missionaries never taught
them to expect it; and when the agitation of later
years unavoidably affected them more or less, as
they learned chiefly through the violent speeches
of their own masters or overseers what was going
on in their favor in England; it was missionary
influence that moderated their passions, kept them
in the steady course of duty, and prevented them
from sinning against God by offending against the
laws of man. Whatever outbreaks or insurrec¬
tions at any time occurred, no Methodist slave was
ever proved guilty of incendiarism or rebellion
for more than seventy years, namely, from 1760 to
1833. Ail extensive examination of their corre¬
spondence throughout that lengthened period, and
an acquaintance with their general character and
history, enables me confidently to affirm that a
more humble, laborious, zealous, and unoffending
class of Christian missionaries were never em¬
ployed by any section of the church than those sent
out by the British conference to the West India
Isles. They were eminently men of one business,
unconnected with any political party, though often
strongly suspected by the jealousies so rife in
slaveholding communities. A curious instance of
this jealousy occurred in regard to one who was
firmly believed to be a correspondent of the Anti-
Slavery Society in England. "I did not know,"
said Fowell Buxton, in the House of Commons,
"that such a man was in existence, till I heard that
he was to be hung for corresponding with me."
28 The History of the Negro Church
In what is now the United States, on the con¬
trary, there developed among the Baptists and
Methodists a number of traveling missionaries,
seemingly like the apostles of old, who in preach¬
ing to blacks and whites alike won most Negroes
by attacking all evils, among which was slavery.
Freeborn Garretson, one of the earliest Methodist
missionaries, said to his countrymen that it was
revealed to him that 4'it is not right for you to
keep your fellow creatures in bondage; you must
let the oppressed go free." He said in 1776: "It
was God, not man, that taught me the impropriety
of holding slaves: and I shall never be able to
praise him enough for it. My very heart has bled,
since that, for slaveholders, especially those who
make a profession of religion; for I believe it to
be a crying sin."
Bishop Asbury recorded in his Journal in 1776:
"I met the class and then the black people, some
of whose unhappy masters forbid their coming for
religious instruction. How will the sons of op¬
pression answer for their conduct when the great
proprietor of all shall call them to account?" In
1780 he records that he spoke to some select
friends about slave keeping but they could not
bear it. He said: "This I know. God will plead
the cause of the oppressed though it gives offense
to say so here. ... I am grieved for slavery and
the manner of keeping these poor people.''
With these missionaries attacking slavery, the
church as an organization had to take some posi-
The Dawn of the New Day
29
tion. In 1780 the church required traveling
preachers to set their slaves free, declaring at the
same time that slavery is contrary to the laws of
God, man and nature, and hurtful to society; con¬
trary to the dictates of conscience and pure re¬
ligion, and doing that which we would not that
others should do to us and ours. In 1784 the
conference took steps for the abolition of slavery,
viewing it as 11 contrary to the golden laws of God,
on which hang all the law and the prophets; and
the inalienable rights of mankind, as well as every
principle of the Revolution, to hold in the deepest
abasement in a more abject slavery, than is, per¬
haps, to be found in any part of the world, except
America, so many souls that are all capable of
the image of God." Every slaveholding member
of their society was required to liberate his bond¬
men within twelve months. A record was to be
kept of all slaves belonging to masters within the
respective circuits and further records of their
manumissions. Any person who would not com¬
ply with these regulations would have liberty
quietly to withdraw from the society within twelve
months, and, if he did not, he would be excluded at
that time.1 Persons thus withdrawing should not
lAfc a love feast conducted by Bishop Aabury at the Virginia
Conference in 1783, strong testimonials were borne in favor of
African liberty. He said in 1785, speaking of the Virginia Con¬
ference: "I found the minds of the people greatly agitated with
our rules against slavery and a proposed petition to the General
Assembly for the emancipation of the blacks. A colonel and Dr.
Coke disputed on the subject and the colonel used some threats;
next day brother O'Kelly let fly at them, and they were made
30 The History of the Negro. Church
partake of the Lord's Supper and those holding
slaves would be excluded from this same privilege.
The Methodists who had taken this advanced
position on slavery in 1784, however, soon found
that they were ahead of the majority of the local
members. Much agitation had been caused by
this discussion in the State of Virginia and in
1785 there came several petitions asking for a sus¬
pension of the resolution passed in 1784 and it
was so ordered in 1785 in the words: "It is
recommended to all our brethren to suspend the
execution of the minute on slavery till the delib¬
erations of a future conference; and that an equal
space of time be allowed to all our members for
consideration when the minute shall be put in
force." The conference declared, however, that
it held in deepest abhorrence the practice of slav¬
ery and would not cease to seek its destruction by
all wise and prudent means. These rules of 1784
were thereafter never put in effect but in 1796 the
conference took the position of requiring the Meth¬
odists to be exceedingly cautious what persons they
angry enough; we, however, came off with whole bones." Work¬
ing in this field against slavery, these Methodists waited upon
George Washington, who politely received them and gave his opin¬
ion against slavery. This conference, however, did not bring
striking results. Saying that he was much pained in mind,
Bishop Asbury asserted: "I am brought to conclude that slavery
will exist in Virginia perhaps for ages. There is not a sufficient
sense of religion nor liberty to destroy it." In Georgia in 1741
he said, "Away with the false cant that the better you use the
Negroes, the worse they will use you! Make them good; then,
teach them the fear of God, and learn to fear him yourselves, ye
masters. I understand not the doctrine of cruelty."
The Dawn of the New Day
31
admitted to official stations in the church;'' and in
case of future admission to official stations, to re¬
quire such security of those who hold slaves for
the emancipation of them immediately, or gradu¬
ally, as the laws of the States respectively and the
circumstances of the case will admit." A travel¬
ing preacher becoming the owner of a slave for¬
feited his ministerial position. No slaveholder
should be received in the society until the preacher
who has oversight of the circuit had spoken to
him freely and faithfully upon the subject of
slavery. Every member who sold a slave should
immediately after full proof be excluded from the
society, and if any member purchased a slave, the
quarterly meeting should determine the number
of years in which the slave so purchased would
wo.rk out the price of his purchase. The preachers
and other members of the society were requested
to consider the subject of Negro slavery with deep
attention and to impart to the General Conference
through the medium of yearly conferences, or
otherwise, any important thought upon the sub¬
ject. The annual conferences were directed to
draw up addresses for the gradual emancipation
of the slaves to the legislatures of those States
in which no general laws had been passed for that
purpose.
Locally the Baptists were winning more Ne¬
groes than the Methodists by their attack on
slavery during these years, but because of the
lack of organized effort the Baptists did not
32 The History of the Negro Church
exert as much antislavery influence as the early
Methodists. Through their conferences they
often influenced the local churches to do more
against slavery than they would have done for
fear that they might lose their status among their
brethren. As the Baptist church emphasized
above all things local self-government, each church
being a law unto itself, it did not as a national
body persistently attack slavery. The Baptists
reached their most advanced position as an anti-
slavery body in 1789 when they took action to the
effect41 that slavery is a violent depredation of the
rights of nature and inconsistent with a repub¬
lican government, and therefore, recommend it
to our brethren, to make use of their local missions
to extirpate this horrid evil from the land; and
pray Almighty God that our honorable legislature
may have it in their power to proclaim the great
jubilee consistent with the principles of good
policy.''
From this position most Baptists gradually
receded. Yet, although not working as an or¬
ganized body, the Baptists in certain parts of
the country were unusually outspoken and ef¬
fective in waging war on slavery. As there were
a number of disputes, owing to the fact that the
denomination as a body was far from unanimity
on this subject, some dissension in the ranks fol¬
lowed. Those who believed in the abolition of
slavery by immediate means styled themselves
the Emancipating Baptists or the Emancipating
1 \VX. I. R Mil K I, II AY N B B. A.M.
yCyi y Cf-LA^}
ri£J
The Dawn of the New Day
33
Society in contradistinction to the remaining Cal-
vinistic Baptists who desired to be silent on the
question.
The most outspoken of the former was David
Barrow.2 He was a native of Virginia, where he
2 He published a pamphlet entitled Involuntary, Unmerited,
Perpetual, Absolute, Hereditary Slavery, examined on the prin¬
ciples of Nature, Reason, Justice, Policy, wad Scripture. The
work is written in grave and manly style and with nice dis¬
criminations and candid reasons set forth the claims of the
emancipating Baptists in a creditable manner.
In 1778, Mr. Barrow received an invitation to preach at the
house of a gentleman who lived on Nansemond River, near the
mouth of JfciHes River. A ministering brother accompanied him.
They were informed on their arrival, that they might expect
rough usage, and so it happened. A gang of well-dressed men
came up to the stage, which had been erected under some trees,
as soon as the hymn was given out, and sang one of their obscene
songs. They then undertook to plunge both of the preachers.
Mr. Barrow was plunged twice. They pressed him into the mud,
held him lpng under the water, and came near drowning him.
In the midst of their mocking, they asked him if he believed?
and throughout treated him with the most barbarous insolence
and outrage. His companion they plunged but once. The whole
assembly was shocked, the women shrieked, but no one durst
interfere; for about twenty stout fellows were engaged in this
horrid measure. They insulted and abused the gentleman who
invited them to preach, and every one who spoke a word in their
favor. Before these persecuted men could change their clothes,
they were dragged from the house, and driven off by these out¬
rageous churchmen. But three or four of them died in a few
weeks, in a distracted manner, and one of them wished himself
in hell before he had joined the company, &c.
In Mr. Barrow's piece against slavery, we find the following
note: "To see a man (a Christian) in the most serious period
of all his life—making his last will and testament—and in the
most solemn manner addressing the Judge of all the earth—In
the name of God, Ameru—Hearken to him—he will very shortly
appear before the Judge, where kings and slaves have equal
thrones!—He proceeds:
"Item. I give and bequeath to my son , a negro man
34
The History of the Negro Church
commenced his ministry in 1771, passing through
the period of much insolence and persecution of
the rude countrymen then denying the liberal sects
religious freedom. He early became attached to
the antislavery school and consequently emanci¬
pated his own slaves in Virginia without at first
having so very much to say against the institu¬
tion. After distinguishing himself in the State
of Virginia for his unusual piety and great ability,
he moved to Kentucky in 1798 and settled in Mont¬
gomery County. When the antislavery dispute
became very ardent soon thereafter, he carried hia
opposition to the extent of alienating the support
of his coworkers, who, sitting as an advisory
council, expelled him from the ministry for
preaching emancipation, and preferred similar
charges against him that his local church at Mount
Sterling might act accordingly. After having
named , a negro woman named with five of her
youngest children.
"Item. I give and bequeath to my daughter , a negro
man named , also a negro woman named , with
her three children.
"Item. All my other slaves, whether men, women or children,
with all my stock of horses, cattle, sheep, and hogs, I direct to
be sold to the highest bidder, and the monies arising therefrom
(after paying my just debts) to be equally divided between my
two above-named children! ! !
"The above specimen is not exaggerated; the like of it often
turns up. And what can a real lover of the rights of man say
in vindication thereof?
"Suppose for a moment, that the testator, or if the owner, dies
intestate (which is often the case), was ever so humane a person,
who can vouch for their heirs and successors? This consideration,
if nothing else, ought to make all slaveholders take heed what
they do, 'for they must give an account of themselves to God.'"
The Dawn of the New Day
35
taken this drastic step, however, the Association
at its next session voted to rescind this action;
but Barrow had then joined with the emanci¬
pators and did not desire to return. Among those
whom he found sufficiently companionable in the
new work which he had undertaken were Bev.
Donald Holmes, Carter Tarrant, Jacob Grigg,
George Smith, and numerous other ministers,
some of whom were native Americans and others
native Europeans.
These emancipators began by inquiring: '' Can
any person whose practice is friendly to perpetual
slavery be admitted a member of this meeting f"
They thought not. They inquired, moreover:
"Is there any case in which persons holding slaves
may be admitted to membership into the church
of Christ?" They said: "No, except in the case
of holding young slaves with a view to their future
emancipation when they reach the age of re¬
sponsibility, in the case of persons who have pur¬
chased slaves in their ignorance and desire to
leave it to the church to say when they may be
free, in the case of women whose husbands are
opposed to emancipation, in the case of a widow
who has it not in her power to liberate them, and
in the case when the slaves are idiots or too old
to maintain themselves." Another query was:
"Shall members in union with us be at liberty
in any case to purchase slaves?" The answer
was negative, except it was with a view to ransom
them in such a way as the church might approve.
36 The History of the Negro Church
These emancipators in Kentucky constituted
themselves some years later an organized body
and finally became known as the "Baptized Lick¬
ing-Locust AssociationIn the course of time,
however, feeling that that mode of association or
the consolidation of churches was unscriptural and
ought to be laid aside, they changed their organi¬
zation to that of an abolition society.
It is interesting to note the attitude of the Pres¬
byterians toward the amelioration of the condition
of the Negroes. In 1774 when abolition was agi¬
tated in connection with the struggle for the
rights of man, the Presbyterians were early re¬
quested to take action. A representation
from Dr. Ezra Stiles and Eev. Samuel Hop¬
kins respecting the sending of two natives of
Africa on a mission to propagate Christianity in
that land, brought before that body a discussion
of all aspects of Negro slavery. In this debate
a committee was requested to bring in a report
on Negro slavery. The Assembly concurred in
the proposal to send the missionaries to Africa,
but deferred further consideration of slavery.
The first action taken on the subject came,
after delay from year to year, in 1787. The com¬
mittee on overtures brought in a report to the
effect that the '1 Creator of the world having made
of one flesh all the children of men, it becomes
them as members of the same family, to consult
and promote each other's happiness. It is more
especially the duty of those who maintain the
The Dawn of the New Day
37
rights of humanity, and who acknowledge and
teach the obligations of Christianity, to use such
means as are in their power to extend the bless¬
ings of equal freedom to every part of the human
race.,, Convinced of these truths, and sensible
that the rights of human nature are too well
understood to admit of debate, the Synod recom¬
mended in the warmest terms to every member
of their body, and to all the churches and families
under their care, to do everything in their power
consistent with the rights of civil society, to pro¬
mote the abolition of slavery, and the instruction
of Negroes, whether bond or free.
After some consideration, however, the Synod
reached the conclusion of expressing very much
interest in the principles in favor of universal
liberty that prevailed in America and also in that
of the abolition of slavery. Yet inasmuch as it
would be difficult to change slaves from a servile
state to a participation in all the privileges of
society without proper education and previous
habits of industry, it recommended to all persons
holding slaves to give them such education as
might prepare them for <the better enjoyment
of freedom, and recommended further that in
those cases in which the masters found the slaves
disposed to make just improvement of the priv¬
ilege they should give them "a peculium or suffi¬
cient time and sufficient means for procuring their
liberty at a moderate rate."
There was some agitation of the question in
38 The History of the Negro Church
1793, when a memorial was addressed to the Gen¬
eral Assembly by Warner Mifflin, a member of
the Society of Friends; but no action of impor¬
tance was taken again until 1795, when there arose
the question as to whether the church should up¬
hold communion with slaveholders. After due
deliberation the General Assembly passed a reso¬
lution referring the memorialists to the action
that the Assembly had already taken with refer¬
ence to slavery in 1787 and 1793. As it seemed
that the Presbytery of Transylvania was pri¬
marily concerned in this affair, Mr. Rice and Dr.
Muir, ministers, and Mr. Robert Patterson, an
elder, all of that section, were appointed a com¬
mittee to draft the following pacifist letter to that
Assembly, which determined for generations
thereafter the policy of the Presbyterians with
reference to slavery:
'' To our brethren, members of the Presbyterian Church,
under the care of Transylvania Presbytery.
"Dear Friends and Brethren—The General Assembly
of the Presbyterian Church hear with concern from your
Commissioners, that differences of opinion with respect
to holding Christian communion with those possessed of
slaves, agitate the minds of some among you, and
threaten divisions which may have the most ruinous ten¬
dency. The subject of slavery has repeatedly claimed
the attention of the General Assembly, and the Com¬
missioners from the Presbytery of Transylvania are fur¬
nished with attested copies of these decisions, to be read
by the Presbytery when it shall appear to them proper,
The Dawn of the New Day
39
together with a copy of this letter, to the several
Churches under their care.
"The General Assembly have taken every step which
they deemed expedient or wise, to encourage emancipa¬
tion, and to render the state of those who are in slavery
as mild and tolerable as possible.
"Forbearance and peace are frequently inculcated
and enjoined in the New Testament. 'Blessed are the
peace-makers.' 'Let no one do anything through strife
and vainglory.' 'Let such esteem others better than
himself.' The followers of Jesus ought conscientiously
to walk worthy of their vocations, 'with all lowliness,
and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one an¬
other, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in
the bond of peace.' If every difference of opinion were
to keep men at a distance, they could subsist in no state
of society, either civil or religious. The General As¬
sembly would impress this upon the minds of their
brethren, and urge them to follow peace, and the things
which make for peace.
"The General Assembly commend our dear friends
and brethren to the grace of God, praying that the peace
of God, which passeth all understanding may possess
their hearts and minds."
CHAPTER III
PIONEER NEGRO PREACHERS
rilHE new stage reached in the development of
religious freedom in America in securing tol¬
eration for the evangelical denominations, meant
the increasing importance of the Negro in the
church. Given access to the people in all parts of
the country by virtue of this new boon resulting
from the struggle for the rights of man, the Meth¬
odists, Baptists and Presbyterians soon became
imbued with the idea of an equality of the Negro in
the church although they did not always militantly
denounce slavery. Negroes were accepted in
these congregations on this basis and when ex¬
hibiting the power of expounding the scriptures
were sometimes heard with unusual interest.
Such elevation of the blacks by these more liberal
denominations, of course, incurred the displeasure
and opposition of the aristocratic churchmen to
the extent that these liberal denominations could
not grant the Negroes as much freedom of par¬
ticipation in the church work as they were dis¬
posed to do.
In those cases in which Negroes were permitted
to preach, they found themselves confronting not
40
Andrew Bryan
Pioneer Negro Preachers
41
only the opposition of the more aristocratic sects
but violating laws of long standing, prohibiting
Negro ministers from exercising their gifts.
When their ministrations were of a local order,
and they did not seemingly stir up their fellow
men to oppose the established order of things, not
so much attention was paid to their operations.
When, however, these Negroes of unusual power
preached with such force as to excite not only the
blacks but the whites, steps were generally taken
to silence these speakers heralding the coming
of a new day. This opposition on the part of
the whites apparently grew more strenuous upon
the attainment of independence. As British sub¬
jects, they had more feeling of toleration for the
rise of the Negro in the church than they had
after the colonies became independent. While
struggling for liberty themselves, even for re¬
ligious freedom, these Americans were not will¬
ing to grant others what they themselves desired.
The attitude of most Americans then, unlike that
of some of the British, seemed to be that the good
things of this life were intended as special boons
for a particular race.
The efforts to establish the early churches of
South Carolina and Georgia are cases in evidence.
The first Negro Baptist Church in America, ac¬
cording to Dr. W. H. Brooks, was founded by one
Mr. Palmer at Silver Bluff across the river from
Augusta, Georgia, in the colony of South Caro¬
lina, some time between the years 1773 and 1775.
42 The History of the Negro Church
This group was fortunate in having the kind mas¬
ter, George Galphin, who became a patron of this
congregation. He permitted David George to be
ordained for this special work after having for¬
merly allowed George Liele to preach there during
these early years. Upon the evacuation of Savan¬
nah by the Americans in 1778, the Silver Bluff
Church was driven into exile. Called upon to de¬
cide whether they would support the American or
British cause, friend separated from friend and
sometimes master from slave. When Galphin, a
patriot, abandoned his slaves in his flight for
refuge from the British, David George and fifty
of these slaves went over to the British in Savan¬
nah where they were freed. David George re¬
turned to South Carolina and resided for a time
in Charleston, from which he went, in 1782, to
Nova Scotia, where he abode for ten years, preach¬
ing to Baptist congregations at Shelburn, Birch-
town, Ragged Island, and in St. John, New Bruns¬
wick. Because of the inhospitable climate, the
Negro slaves who had escaped with their loyal
masters crossing the Canadian border to these
points in Nova Scotia, went in 1792 to Sierra
Leone where they constituted themselves a colony,
with David George the founder of their first Bap¬
tist Church. After peace was made in 1783, the
Silver Bluff Church was revived under the direc¬
tion of the Rev. Jesse Peter who, unlike George
Liele in having departed with his master when
Pioneer Negro Preachers
43
the British evacuated Savannah in 1782, remained
as a slave here in South Carolina to carry forward
the work across the river from Augusta in South
Carolina.
According to Dr. "Walter H. Brooks, a portion
of this Silver Bluff Church brought into Savannah,
Georgia, at the time of the departure of certain
Americans to join the British in 1778, took shape
as an organized body under George Liele, who
had been the servant of a British officer. It is
highly probable that David George and Jesse
Peter, who had served these people at Silver Bluff,
did not have sufficient influence to secure a permit
to preach to them in Savannah, although they did
unite with the church there. Out of this effort of
George Liele developed what Dr. Brooks considers
the first Negro Baptist Church in the city of Sa¬
vannah, which flourished during the British oc¬
cupancy from 1779 to the year 1782. The oldest
Negro Baptist Church in this country, however,
was that of the Silver Bluff Church which, in an¬
other meeting place and under a new name, became
established at Augusta, having existed from the
year 1773 to 1793 before the time of Andrew
Bryan's organizing efforts in Savannah.
The struggles of George Liele and Andrew
Bryan throw additional light on these early ef¬
forts. George Liele was born in Virginia about
the year 1750, but soon moved with his master,
Henry Sharpe, to Burke County, Georgia, a few
44 The History of the Negro Church
years before the Revolutionary War. As his
master was a deacon of the Baptist church of
which Matthew Moore was pastor, George, upon
hearing this minister preach from time to time
when accompanying his owner, became converted
and soon thereafter was baptized by this clergy¬
man. Not long thereafter upon discovering that
he had unusual ministerial gifts, this church per¬
mitted him to preach upon the plantations along
the Savannah river and sometimes to the congre¬
gation of the white church to which he belonged.
As his master was much more liberal than most
of his kind, Liele was permitted to extend his
operations down the Savannah river as far as
Brampton, Savannah, and Yamacraw, where he
preached to the slaves.
His ministerial work became so important that
his master finally liberated him that he might
serve without interference; but his work was in¬
terrupted by the Revolutionary War, during
which his master was killed. Upon the death of
his master, moreover, some of the heirs to the
estate, not being satisfied with the manumission
of George Liele, had him thrown into prison,
hoping to reenslave him; but Colonel Kirkland,
of the British Army, then in control of Savannah,
came to his rescue by securing his release from
prison. When the British evacuated that city,
George Liele went with them to Jamaica, indent¬
uring himself to Colonel Kirkland as a servant for
the amount of money necessary to pay his trans-
Pioneer Negro Preachers 45
portation.1 Before leaving Savannah, however,
fortune brought it to pass that the vessel in which
he embarked was detained for some weeks near
Tybee Island, not far from the mouth of the
Savannah river. While waiting there he came to
the city of Savannah and baptized Andrew Bryan
and his wife Hannah, Kate Hogg, and Hagar
Simpson, who became the founders of the first
African Baptist Church in Savannah.
When George Liele landed at Kingston he was,
upon the recommendation of Colonel Kirkland to
General Campbell, the Governor of Jamaica, em¬
ployed to work out the money for which he had
been indentured. Upon discharging the debt he
obtained for himself and family a certificate of
manumission and was free in 1784 to begin his
work as a preacher. He preached first in a private
home to a small congregation and then organized a
church with four men who had emigrated from the
American colonies. Delivering with power a mes¬
sage of such telling effect as the first dissenter to
undertake the establishment of a liberal sect in
the midst of communicants of the established
church of England, he soon found his meetings
interrupted and himself cruelly persecuted. Fre¬
quently memorialized for a grant of religious
freedom, however, the Jamaica Assembly finally
permitted George Liele to proceed with his work.
i Departing under similar circumstances at the same time, went
Rev. Mr. Amos, a product of the same Christian environment,
directing his course to New Providence, Bahama Islands, British
West Indies, where he established a flourishing Baptist Church.
46 The History of the Negro Church
Within a few years he had a following of about
500 communicants, and with the help of a number
of inspired deacons and elders extended the work
far into the rural districts. In addition to his
ministerial work he administered the affairs of
these various groups, taught a free school, and
conducted a business at which he earned his living.
At first this work was largely inspirational,
stirring up the people here and there; and many
thought that it would be a movement of short
duration: but becoming convinced that this was
the real way of salvation and life, persons adher¬
ing to this new creed contributed sufficiently to
its support to give it a standing in the community.
Within a few years we hear of the purchase for
a sum of nearly 155 pounds of about three acres of
land at the east end of Kingston, on which they
built a church. When success had crowned his
efforts in Jamaica, he took steps toward the estab¬
lishment of an edifice at Spanish Town, which was
completed a few years later. The records show
too that he interested in his cause some men of
influence like Mr. Steven A. Cook, a member of
the Jamaica Assembly, who solicited funds for
him in England. Of him Mr. Cook bears this tes¬
timony: " He is a very industrious man, decent,
humble in his manners, and, I think, a good man."
Contemporaries speak of his family life as pleas¬
ant. He had a wife and four children, three boys
and a girl. He was not a well educated man, but
he found time to read some good literature.
Pioneer Negro Preachers
4:7
The unusual tact of George Liele was the key
to his success. He seemed to know how to handle
men diplomatically, but some of his policy may
be subject to criticism. Unlike so many Baptist
and Methodist missionaries who came forward
preaching freedom of body and mind and soul
to all men and thereby stirring up the slaves in
certain parts, George Liele would not receive any
slaves who did not have permission of their own¬
ers, and instead of directing attention to their
wrongs, conveyed to them the mere message of
Christ. His influence among the masters and
overseers became unusual, and the membership
of his church rapidly increased. No literature
was used and no instruction given until it had at
first been shown to the members of the legislature,
the magistrates, and the justices to secure their
permission beforehand. One of the masters,
speaking of the wholesome influence of Liele's
preaching, said that he did not need to employ
an assistant nor to make use of the whip whether
he was at home or elsewhere, as his slaves were
industrious and obedient, and lived together in
unity, brotherly love, and peace.
The next pioneer preacher of worth among the
Negroes was Andrew Bryan, George Liele's suc¬
cessor in Georgia. Andrew Bryan was born a
slave in 1737 at Goose Creek, South Carolina,
about sixteen miles from Charleston. He was
later brought to Savannah, Georgia, where, as
stated above, he came under the influence of the
48 The History of the Negro Church
preaching of George Liele. He at first commenced
by public exhortations and prayer meetings at
Brampton. Nine months after the departure of
George Liele, Bryan began to preach to congre¬
gations of black and white people at Savannah.
Moved by his convincing message, his master and
other whites encouraged him in his chosen field,
inasmuch as the influence he had upon slaves was
salutary. He was thereafter permitted to erect
on the land of Mr. Edward Davis at Yamacraw
a rough wooden building of which his group was
soon artfully dispossessed. As his ministrations
were opposed by others who did not like this sim¬
ple faith, unusual persecution soon followed.
Bryan's adherents were not permitted to hold fre¬
quent meetings, and in trying to evade this regula¬
tion by assembling in the swamps, they ran the risk
of rigid discipline. With the aid of his brother
Sampson, Andrew Bryan, however, gradually held
this group together. At first it was small; but
finally sufficiently large to receive the attention of
the Rev. Thomas Burt in 1785, and that of the Rev.
Abraham Marshall of Kioke in 1788. The latter
then baptized forty-five additional members of
this congregation, and on January 20,1788, organ¬
ized them as a church and ordained Andrew Bryan
as a minister with full authority to preach the
gospel and to administer the ordinances of the
Baptist church.
This recognition of Bryan as a minister, how¬
ever, did not solve all of his problems. The
Pioneer Negro Preachers
49
greater his influence among the slaves, the more
the masters were inclined to believe that his work
could result only in that of servile insurrection.
It became more difficult, therefore, for slaves to
attend his meetings; the patrols whipped them
sometimes even when they had passes, and finally
a large number of the members were arrested and
severely punished. The culmination was that An¬
drew Bryan, their pastor himself, and his brother,
Sampson Bryan, one of the first deacons, were
"inhumanly cut and their backs were so lacerated
that their blood ran down to the earth as they,
with uplifted hands, cried unto the Lord; but
Bryan, in the midst of his torture, declared that
he rejoiced not only to be whipped but would
freely suffer death for the cause of Jesus Christ."
Accused of sinister plans, Andrew Bryan and his
brother Sampson were, upon the complaint of
their traducers, imprisoned and dispossessed of
their meeting house. Lorenzo Dow, an eccentric
itinerant preacher appearing in Savannah about
this time, preached at Bryan's church to show not
only his compassion for Bryan's waiting congre¬
gation, but his disapproval of the persecution to
which this apostle was subjected.
Jonathan Bryan, the master of Andrew and
Sampson, insisting that they were the victims of
prejudice and wickedness, however, secured for
them a hearing. They came before the Justices of
the Inferior Court of Chatham County, Henry Os¬
borne, James Haversham, and James Montague,
50 The History of the Negro Church
who, finding no criminal intent in their efforts,
ordered that they be released. They were then
permitted by their master to resume worship in
the barn on his plantation, but persecution fol¬
lowed them even there, where they were sur¬
rounded by spies and eavesdroppers. This con¬
tinued until one of the eavesdroppers, upon listen¬
ing to what was going on among these communi¬
cants at Andrew Bryan's private home, heard this
man of God earnestly praying for the men who
had so mercilessly used him. This enlisted so
much sympathy among the people kindly disposed
that the chief justice of the court, before whom
they had been brought, granted them permission
to continue their worship of God at any time be¬
tween sunrise and sunset. They held meetings
at Brampton about two years, during which they
made a number of influential friends among the
whites, who, along with the communicants of this
group, assisted Bryan in raising funds to pur¬
chase a lot upon which to begin the erection of a
church in 1794. The first African church stood
for years on this lot on what is now known as Mill
Street, running to Indian Street Lane in Savan¬
nah.
Andrew Bryan faced another crisis upon the
death of Jonathan Bryan, his master. He suc¬
ceeded, however, in emerging as a free man, the
heirs of the estate having given him an oppor¬
tunity to purchase his freedom for fifty pounds.
Fortune prospered him thereafter to the extent
Pioneer Negro Preachers 51
that he soon bought in Yamacraw a lot on which
he built a residence not far from the place of
worship. Upon the final division of the Bryan
estate it developed that the church building was
still controlled by that family, but the worship
of these communicants continued there under the
supervision of the whites without serious inter¬
ruption. The membership had then reached 700.
Bryan soon obtained a position of influence in
spite of all of his difficulties, as is evidenced by
his own testimony in addressing his coworker,
Dr. Bippon, in 1800. He said: '1 With much
pleasure I inform you, dear sir, that I enjoy good
health, and am strong in body, at the age of sixty-
three years, and am blessed with a pious wife,
whose freedom I have obtained, and an only
daughter and child, who is married to a free man,
though she, and consequently under our laws, her
seven children, five sons and two daughters, are
slaves. By a kind Providence I am well provided
for, as to worldly comforts (though I have had
very little given me as a minister), having a house
and lot in this city, besides the land on which
several buildings stand, for which I receive a
small rent, and a fifty-acre tract of land, with all
necessary buildings, four miles in the country,
and eight slaves; for whose education and happi¬
ness I am enabled through mercy to provide."
As this congregation continued to increase, An¬
drew Bryan secured the services of his brother as
an assistant pastor. He planned, moreover, to
52 The History of the Negro Church
divide the church whenever the membership be¬
came too large for him to serve it efficiently.
This was what led to the organization of the Sec¬
ond African Baptist Church of Savannah, with
Henry Francis, a slave of Colonel Leroy Hamil¬
ton, as pastor. As the head of this congregation,
Francis manifested power of remarkable leader¬
ship, and soon thereafter purchased his freedom
to devote all of his time to his congregation.
Bryan's church was further divided upon reach¬
ing the stage of having an unwieldy number, when
there emerged from it the Third African Baptist
Church. Bryan's church, moreover, became in the
course of time the beacon light in the Negro re¬
ligious life of Georgia. From this center went
other workers into the inviting fields of that State,
as to Augusta, where a flourishing Baptist church
was established. This condition obtained until
the Negro preacher became circumscribed during
the thirties and forties by laws intended to pre¬
vent such disturbances as were caused by Nat
Turner in Southampton County, Virginia. An¬
drew Bryan, however, did not live to see this.
He passed away in 1812, respected by all who
knew him and loved by his numerous followers.
The position which he finally attained in the
esteem and the respect of the community is well
illustrated by the honor shown him by the follow¬
ing resolutions of the Savannah Baptist Associa¬
tion (white) on the occasion of his death:
Pioneer Negro Preachers
53
11 The Association is sensibly affected by the death of the
Rev. Andrew Bryan, a man of color, and pastor of the
First Colored Church in Savannah. This son of Africa,
after suffering inexpressible persecutions in the cause of
his divine Master, was at length permitted to discharge
the duties of the ministry among his colored friends in
peace and quiet, hundreds of whom, through his instru¬
mentality, were brought to a knowledge of the truth as
'it is in Jesus.' He closed his extensively useful and
amazingly luminous course in the lively exercise of faith
and in the joyful hope of a happy immortality.''
In those parts of the South where the pro-
slavery sentiment was not developed so early as
in Georgia, the Baptists were able to give their
Negro communicants more consideration. After
this denomination had won toleration in Virginia,
its leaders experienced much less difficulty in
proselyting Negroes than in the case of other com¬
municants. From 1770 to 1790 Negro preachers,
thanks to the pioneer work of a man of color, Rev.
Mr. Moses, were in charge of congregations in
Charles City, Petersburg, Williamsburg, and
Allen's Creek, in Lunenburg County. In 1801
Gowan Pamphlet of that State was the pastor of
a progressive Baptist church in Williamsburg,
some members of which could read, Write and keep
accounts. William Lemon was about this time
chosen by a white congregation to serve at the
Pettsworth or Gloucester church in that State.
In Portsmouth, Virginia, a Negro Baptist
54 The History of the Negro Church
preacher attained unusual distinction. There the
blacks and whites belonging to the same Baptist
church experienced very little difficulty in their
acceptance of each other on the basis of religious
equality. They were constituted a church by the
Association held in Isle of Wight County in 1789,
and after the service of a number of pioneer min¬
isters the church called one Thomas Armistead.
The church fell into bad hands a few years there¬
after and suffered a decline under one Frost, a
Baptist preacher, who in the propagation of the
doctrines of free will caused unusual excitement.
This did not subside until he, according to the
contemporaries, was stricken by the hand of God.
While looking out for another pastor there came
to this community, in 1795, from Northampton
County, a black preacher whose name was Josiah
Bishop. He preached with such fervor and with
such success that the whites as well as the blacks
hung, as it were, upon his words. He easily ral¬
lied the scattered forces of the church, revived
their spirits, and lifted high the banner of the
gospel. So impressed was the congregation with
his work that the church gave Josiah Bishop the
money with which to purchase his freedom and
soon thereafter bought his wife and his eldest son.
It is said that his preaching was much admired
by both saints and sinners wherever he went. "As
a stranger," say Lemuel Burkett and Jesse Reed
in their Concise History of the Kehvikee Baptist
Association, "few received equal degree of liber-
Pioneer Negro Preachers 55
ality with him." They were, therefore, advised,
"that whereas the black brethren in the church
seemed anxious for a vote in the conference that
it would be best to consider the black people as a
wing of the body, and Josiah Bishop to take over
sight of them, as this church, at that time, fellow-
shiped a number of Negroes. The black people at
first seemed pleased with the proposition, but
soon repented and came and told the deacons they
were afraid that matters might turn up disagree¬
able to them and dishonoring to God, and said
that they would be subordinate to the white
brethren, if they would let them continue as they
were, which was consented to.'' Josiah Bishop, of
course, could not long remain as the pastor of a
mixed church in the slaveholding colony of Vir¬
ginia. After toiling successfully for a short
period in that city, he moved to Baltimore, where
he helped to promote the cause of the rising Bap¬
tists in that city. When his work was well done
there, he moved to the city of New York, where
during 1810 and 1811 he served as the pastor of
the Abyssinian Baptist Church.
Pioneering in this same field in 1792 was the
famous "Uncle Jack," a full-blooded African, rec¬
ognized by the whites as a forceful preacher of
the gospel in the Baptist Church. For some years
he preached from plantation to plantation, moving
so many to repentance that the white citizens in
appreciation of his worth had him licensed to
preach and raised a fund with which they pur-
56 The History of the Negro Church
chased his freedom. They bought him a small
farm in Virginia, where for more than 40 years he
continued his ministry as an instrument in the
conversion of a large number of white people.
Contemporaneous with Uncle Jack was Henry
Evans, a free Negro of Virginia. On his way to
Charleston, South Carolina, to work at the trade
of shoemaking, Evans happened to stop at Fay-
etteville, North Carolina. Having been licensed
as a local preacher in the Methodist Church, he
tarried there to work among the people, whose de¬
plorable condition excited his sympathy. At first
he worked at his trade and preached on Sunday.
The town council, feeling that he was a public
danger, ordered him to refrain from preaching.
Whereupon he began to hold secret meetings.
His preaching became so effective, however, and
so many white persons attended his meetings*
that the official opposition yielded sufficiently to
have a regular Methodist Church organized there
in 1790. The edifice was so constructed as to pro¬
vide quarters for Evans, who remained there until
his death in 1810, although a white minister was
in actual charge of the church.
From the Methodists there emerged another
such preacher, Black Harry, who, accompanying
Mr. Asbury, learned from him to preach more
forcefully than Asbury himself. According to a
contemporary, Harry was "small, very black,
keen-eyed, possessing great volubility of tongue;
and, although illiterate so that he could not read,"
Pioneer Negro Preachers
57
was one of the most popular preachers of that age.
Upon hearing Hariy preach, Dr. Benjamin Rush
pronounced him the greatest orator in America.
Desiring Harry to accompany him in 1782, Bishop
Asbury made the request, saying that the way to
have a very large congregation was to give out
that Harry was to preach, as more would come
to hear Harry than to hear Bishop Asbury. On
one occasion in Wilmington, Delaware, where the
cause of the Methodist was unpopular, a large
number of persons came out of curiosity to hear
Bishop Asbury. But, as the auditorium was al¬
ready taxed to its fullest capacity, they could only
hear from the outside. At the conclusion of the
exercises, they said, without having seen the
speaker: "If all Methodist preachers can preach
like the Bishop, we should like to be constant
hearers.11 Some one present replied: i 1 That was
not the Bishop, but the Bishop's servant that you
heard." This, to be sure, had the desired effect,
for these inquirers concluded: "If such be the ser¬
vant, what must the master be?" "The truth
was," says John Ledman in his History of the
Rise of Methodism in America, "that Harry was
a more popular speaker than Mr. Asbury or al¬
most any one else in his day." In this same ca¬
pacity Harry accompanied and preached with not
only Mr. Asbury but with G-arretson, Watcote,
and Dr. Coke.
" After he had moved on the tide of popularity
for a number of years," says John Ledman, "he
58 The History of the Negro, Church
fell by wine, one of the strong enemies of both,
ministers and people. And now, alas! this pop¬
ular preacher was a drunken ragpicker in the
streets of Philadelphia. But we will not leave
him here. One evening Harry started down the
Neck, below Southwark, determined to remain
there until his backslidings were healed. Under
a tree he wrestled with God in prayer. Sometime
that night God restored to him the joys of his
salvation. From this time Harry continued faith¬
ful; though he could not stand before the people
with that pleasing confidence as a public speaker
that he had before his fall. About the year 1810
Harry finished his course; and, it is believed, made
a good end. An unusually large number of peo¬
ple, both white and colored, followed his body to
its last resting place, in a free burying ground in
Kensington.''
Among the pioneer Negro preachers one of the
most interesting was John Stewart. He was born
of free parents in Powhatan County, Virginia,
where he received some religious training and
attended a school during the winter, thus secur¬
ing to him so much mental development by the
time of reaching maturity that he could make
a living much more easily than some of his fel¬
lows. This early training, however, did not seem
to restrain him from certain temptations of this
life; for, in going away from home to make his
career, he fell a victim to bad habits, becoming a
dissolute drunkard, drifting here and there.
Pioneer Negro Preachers
59
Finally lie came to Marietta, Ohio, where under
the influence of the gospel as it was preached
among his lowly people in that center, he was con¬
verted and united with the Methodist Episcopal
Church. He then became a man of very regular
habits and devoted much of his time to medita¬
tion and prayer. On a certain occasion he said,
"I heard a voice like a woman's singing and prais¬
ing the Lord, while straight from the northern
sky, which was filled with a great radiance, came
a man's voice, saying,' You must declare my coun¬
sel faithfully,' and I found myself standing on my
feet speaking as to a congregation." He felt that
this was a call to preach, but at first resisted the
influence, hoping to escape therefrom. Having
fallen sick not long thereafter, however, he looked
upon this as a punishment and responded to the
voices that he heard, overcoming his fears. Hav¬
ing his mind thoroughly made up, he set off then
to preach the gospel, steering, as he said, "my
course sometimes by the road, sometimes through
the cities, until I came to Goshen, where I found
the Delaware Indians.'*
He preached and sang among these people for
a short period, and finally returned to Marietta.
He was again summoned by the voices in the night
impelling him to make another pilgrimage. This
time he drifted into a settlement of whites, to
whom he preached with much success, moving
many of them to repentance and organizing them
as a church. He then proceeded to Upper San-
60 The History of the Negro Church
dusky, the home of the Wyandot Indians, who,
having never received the gospel, although the
Roman Catholics had unsuccessfully tried to evan¬
gelize them, had fallen back into a worse state of
heathenism and especially drunkenness, resulting
from the vices imported by traders. Here he had
the opposition of William Walker, the government
agent, who did not take well to his message, but
on being converted very soon thereafter, Walker
gave Stewart less trouble in reaching the Indians.
Another great hindrance, however, was the com¬
ing of the other white traders, who prospered by
the liquor traffic that they carried on with these
Indians. At first they tried to show that Stewart
was not properly authorized as a minister and
should be denied the right to preach; but having
then the support of William Walker, the zealous
missionary succeeded in delivering his message.
Some of the Indians, too, felt that the gospel
which he preached was not intended for the In¬
dians but for the white man, although Stewart
endeavored to show that this boon was for all
nations and for all people. He persisted in hold¬
ing his position, and in the end success crowned
his efforts in bringing about the conversion of all
of the prominent chiefs of this tribe.
It is said that because of this success his ene¬
mies contrived to discourage him. They prepared
for an unusually great celebration in accordance
with the festive ideas of the Indians, trying to
bring them back to their old habits. Becoming
Pioneer Negro Preachers
61
discouraged, John Stewart preached his farewell
sermon and returned to Marietta. But he came
back to Upper Sandusky after an absence of a
few months and devoted the rest of his life to
work among the "Wyandot Indians. Fortunately
he was then filled with enthusiasm and the word
which he preached did not return void. As his
mission was then a success, he appealed for help
to the higher conference, then meeting at Urbana,
in March, 1817. J. B. Finley was chosen to work
in this field. Stewart had planned for a thor¬
ough elevation of these people, including indus¬
trial training, which centered around the erection
of a sawmill and the purchase of a farm upon
which he taught agriculture. A log structure was
soon built for school purposes, and there soon
followed Miss Harriet Stubbs, who volunteered to
teach the Indians. Subsequent reports show that
the work was in good condition in 1822. The re¬
ligion of Jesus Christ was flourishing and every¬
where the Indians were living upright lives. At
this time, however, Stewart's health had failed
him, as he had well run his course, having been
exposed to all sorts of hardships. He passed
away on the 17th of December, his hand in that
of his wife. His last words, addressed to the sor¬
rowing people about his bed, were: 'i Oh, be faith¬
ful."
Lemuel Haynes, another pioneer preacher, was
born July 18,1753, at West Hartford, Connecticut.
His father was a man of unmingled African ex-
62 The History of the Negro Church
traction and his mother a white woman of respect¬
able New England ancestry. As he was a natural
son, the mother abandoned him in infancy, but
he fortunately found asylum at the home of one
Haynes, whose name he took and with whom he
lived until at the age of five months, when he was
bound out to David Rose of Granville, Massachu¬
setts, where Lemuel grew to manhood.
Lemuel was given the rudimentary training in
the backwoods schools of the community, in which
he learned to read and write. These meager ad¬
vantages led him to seek an extension of his knowl¬
edge through the reading of good books. As these
were scarce, he had to be content with the Bible,
the Psalter, the writings of Watts and Doddridge,
and Young's Night Thoughts. Before his educa¬
tion could be completed, however, Lemuel, having
been prostrated with grief because of the loss of
the wife of his kind master, entered the conti¬
nental army, first as a minute man in 1774 and
then as a regular soldier after the battle of Lex¬
ington.
Returning from the war, Lemuel engaged in
agriculture; but he had early been given a pious
trend and soon decided to study theology in an¬
ticipation of the designs of Providence concerning
him. For some time he had been accustomed to
read the Bible and sermons of others on the occa¬
sions of conducting family prayers in the home of
David Rose. From this exercise he mustered suffi¬
cient courage to read one of his own sermons, and
Pioneer Negro Preachers
63
finally to preach before the local congregations,
which marveled at the power of his words. To
prepare himself thoroughly to preach, Haynes
once planned to attend Dartmouth College, but
shrank from it. After studying privately under
Daniel Farrand of Canaan, Connecticut, and Will¬
iam Bradford of Wintonbury, Haynes spent a
short period teaching a school for whites. He was
licensed to preach in the Congregational Church
in 1780 and was ordained soon thereafter, begin¬
ning his ministry at Middle Granville, where he
labored five years. Here Bessie Babbit, a white
woman of considerable education and piety, of¬
fered him her heart and they were married in
1783.
From this small charge Haynes was called to
Torrington, Connecticut. A leading citizen was
much displeased that the church should have a
''nigger minister," and to show his lack of respect
for the new incumbent this man went into the
church and sat with his hat on. "He had not
preached far," said the man, "when I thought I
saw the whitest man I ever knew in that pulpit,
and I tossed my hat under the pew.'' Haynes was
then called to take charge of the Congregational
Church in West Rutland. Here his usefulness
was appreciated and his efforts were extended to
other towns through his revivals", one of the most
successful of which he conducted in Pittsfield.
Having developed such power, he was employed,
in 1804, by the Connecticut Missionary Society to
64 The History of the Negro Church
labor in the destitute sections of Vermont. In 1809
he was appointed to a similar service by the Ver¬
mont Missionary Society. In 1814 he preached
extensively in Connecticut, appearing before
crowded houses, having in his audience on one
occasion President Dwight of Yale.
With such standing in the church Haynes was
expected to manifest interest in the great ques¬
tions at issue in New England. One of these was
the Stoddardian principle of admitting moral per¬
sons without credible evidences of grace, to the
Lord's Supper, and the half-way covenant by
which parents though not admitted to the Lord's
Supper were encouraged to offer their children in
baptism. In this debate Haynes, with his elo-
•quence and logic, vanquished the famous Hosea
Ballou by his powerful sermon based on the text
Ye shall not surely die. There was also a differ¬
ence of opinion with respect to the operations of
the Holy Spirit, but Haynes stood with Edwards
and Whitefield. Being thus active in dispelling
clouds of doubt, he brought many back to a more
righteous conduct.
Becoming involved in the partisan strife which
characterized the rise of political parties after
Washington's inauguration, Haynes alienated the
affections of some of his communicants by his bold
advocacy of the principle conducive to a strong
national government as administered in the be¬
ginning by George Washington, whose policies
Haynes admired. He then left West Rutland and
Pioneer Negro Preachers
65
preached a while in Manchester, Vermont, until
1822, when he accepted a call to Granville, New
York. There he spent usefully the last eleven
years of his life.
In spite of the fact that Lemuel Haynes was
working altogether among white people, however,
he was successful wherever he was stationed.
His eloquence and Christian nobility won him
much attention. "He always showed himself a
man of a feeling heart, sensibly affected by human
suffering/' says Cooley, his biographer. "At
home he was industrious, his family government
was parental. He was the embodiment of piety
and honesty." Churches and associations were
strengthened by his labors. Their membership
increased and the influence of the gospel was
extended. So lived and died one of the noblest
of the New England Congregational ministers of
a century ago. Of illegitimate birth, and of no
advantageous circumstances of family, rank or
station, he became one of the choicest instruments
of Christ. His face betrayed his race and blood,
and his life revealed his Lord.
There served as a pioneer worker for the Pres¬
byterians John Gloucester, who founded the first
African Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia in
1807. According to Gillett's History of the Pres¬
byterian Church in the United States, this church
owed its existence, and for many years its con¬
tinued support, largely to the "Evangelical So¬
ciety of Philadelphia,'' organized upon the recom-
66 The History of the Negro Church
mendation and influence of Dr. Alexander. "Its
first pastor, although never installed," says Gil-
lett, "was John Gloucester, a slave of Dr. Black¬
burn of Tennessee. He had attracted the atten¬
tion of the latter, under whose preaching he was
converted, by his piety and natural gifts, and by
him was purchased, and encouraged to study with
a view to the ministry. After having been licensed
and ordained by the Union Presbytery, he was, in
1818, received from that body by the Philadelphia
Presbytery, and, under the patronage of the
'Evangelical Society,' continued in charge of the
African Church until his death in 1822. The
house of worship, located on the corner of Ship-
pen and Seventh Streets, was completed in 1811."
"Mr. Gloucester first commenced his missionary
efforts by preaching in private houses," continues
Gillett, "but these were soon found insufficient
to accommodate his congregations. A school-
house was procured near the site of the future
edifice; but in clear weather he preached in the
open air. Possessed of a strong and musical
voice, he would take his stand on the corner of
Shippen and Seventh Streets, and while singing
a hymn would gather around him many besides
his regular hearers, and hold their attention till
he was prepared to commence his exercises. Pos¬
sessed of a stout, athletic frame, and character¬
ized by prudence, forbearance, and a fervent piety,
he labored with unremitting zeal, securing the
Pioneer Negro Preachers
67
confidence and respect of his brethren of the
Presbytery, and building up the congregation
which he had gathered. His freedom was granted
him by Dr. Blackburn, and by his own application
he secured the means in England and this country
to purchase his family. He is said to have been
a man of strong mind, mighty of prayer, and of
such fervor and energy in wrestling supplication
that persons sometimes fell under his power, con¬
victed of sin."
To this class of Negro preachers in the South
belongs John Chavis, mentioned in another con¬
nection below. Chavis was a full-blooded Negro
of dark brown color, born probably near Oxford,
Granville County, North Carolina, about 1763.
From a youth he impressed the public as a man
of unusual power and was, therefore, sent by his
friends to Princeton to see if a Negro could take
a collegiate education. Some have said that he
was never a regularly enrolled student at Prince¬
ton. The records, however, show that he was un¬
der the direction of Dr. Witherspoon, who was
soon convinced that the experiment 11 would issue
favorably." In keeping with the course of study
of that time, he was chiefly interested in the
classics. In these fields he easily took rank as a
good Latin and a fair Greek scholar. Exactly
how much work he did in the field of theology is
not known, but as the line drawn between theology
and classical studies at that time was not very
68 The History of the Negro Church
definite, he could easily lay a foundation for work
in the ministry, and especially so if his instruction
were under the direction of one man, who would
shape his course of study in keeping with his prac¬
tical needs rather than in conformity with the
formal training of the school.
Whether Chavis was sent to Princeton to make
a minister of him or not, however, he very soon
bestirred himself in that direction. From Prince¬
ton he went to Lexington, Virginia, to preach. In
the records of the Presbyterians for 1801, Chavis
is referred to as "a black man of prudence and
piety.'' "For his better direction in the discharge
of duties which are attended with many circum¬
stances of delicacy and difficulty" some prudential
instructions were issued to him by the General
Assembly, "governing himself by which the
knowledge of religion among the Negroes might
be made more and more to strengthen the order
of the society." The annals of the year 1801
report him in the service of the Hanover Presby¬
tery as a " riding missionary under the direction
of the General Assembly.'' He was very soon sta¬
tioned in Lexington as a recognized preacher of
official status working among his own people. In
1805, however, he returned to his native State,
where as a result of the close relations existing
between the whites and blacks and his power as
an expounder of the gospel, he preached to large
congregations of both races.
[Referring to his career, Paul C. Cameron, a
Pioneer Negro Preachers
69
son of Judge Duncan of North Carolina, said:
"In my boyhood life at my father's home I often
saw John Chavis, a venerable old Negro man,
recognized as a freeman and as a preacher or
clergyman of the Presbyterian Church. As such
he was received by my father and treated with
kindness and consideration, and respected as a
man of education, good sense and most estimable
character." Mr. George Wortham, a lawyer of
Granville County, said: "I have heard him read
and explain the Scriptures to my father's family
repeatedly. His English was remarkably pure,
containing no 'Negroisms'; his manner was im¬
pressive, his explanations clear and concise, and
his views, as I then thought and still think, en¬
tirely orthodox. He was said to have been an
acceptable preacher, his sermons abounding in
strong common sense views and happy illustra¬
tions, without any effort at oratory or sensational
appeals to the passions of his hearers."
In North Carolina the disastrous result of the
reaction against the Negroes handicapped Chavis
in his work. As a result of the fear of servile
insurrection among the slaves after Nat Turner's
uprising, the exercise of the gift of preaching was
prohibited to Negroes in North Carolina. Chavis
thereafter devoted himself to teaching, maintain¬
ing classical schools for white persons in Gran¬
ville, Wake, and Chatham counties. He was
patronized by the most aristocratic white people
of that State. In the end he counted among his
70 The History of the Negro Church
former Students W. P. Mangum, afterward United
States Senator; P. H. Mangum, his brother;
Archibald and John Henderson, sons of Chief
Justice Henderson; Charles Manly, later Gov¬
ernor of that commonwealth, and Dr. James L.
Wortham of Oxford, North Carolina.
Bishop Richard Allen
Founder of the A. M. E. Church.
CHAPTER IV
THE INDEPENDENT CHURCH MOVEMENT
fflHE facts set forth above easily lead to the
conclusion that the rise of the Negroes in the
church was impeded by connection with their self-
styled superiors. At first the whites had seri¬
ously objected to the evangelization of the Ne¬
groes, feeling that they could not be saved and,
when the latter had been convinced of this error,
many of them were far from the position of con¬
ceding to the blacks equality in their church or¬
ganizations. Negroes in certain parts, however,
were at first accepted in the congregations with
the whites and accorded equal privileges. During
the American Revolution when there was a ten¬
dency to give more consideration to all persons
suffering from restriction, this freedom was en¬
larged. After the reaction following the Ameri¬
can Revolution when men ceased to think so much
of individual or natural rights and thought more
frequently of means and measures for centralized
government, the Negroes, like most elements far
down, were forgotten or ignored even by the
church. In this atmosphere of superimposed re¬
ligious instruction the Negro was called upon
71
72 The History of the Negro Church
merely to heed the Word and live. Experience
soon taught, however, that it is difficult for a peo¬
ple to maintain interest in a cause with the man¬
agement of which they have nothing to do.
Having enjoyed for some time the boon of free¬
dom in the church, moreover, the Negroes were
loath to give up this liberty. The escape of a
young Negro, a slave of Thomas Jones, in Balti¬
more County in 1793 is a case in evidence. Ac¬
counting for his flight his master said: 11 He was
raised in a family of religious persons commonly
called Methodists and has lived with some of them
for years past on terms of perfect equality; the re¬
fusal to continue him on these terms gave him of¬
fense and he, therefore, absconded. He had been
accustomed to instruct and exhort his fellow crea¬
tures of all colors in matters of religious duty."
Another such Negro, named Jacob, ran away from
Thomas Gibbs of that same State in 1800, hoping
to enlarge his liberty as a Methodist minister; for
his master said in advertising him as a runaway:
i'He professed to be a Methodist and has been in
the practice of preaching of nights.'' Still another
Negro preacher of this type, named Richard, ran
away from Hugh Drummond in Anne, Arundel
County, that same year, while another called Sim-
boe escaped a little later from Henry Lockey of
Newbern, North Carolina.
This was the beginning of something more sig¬
nificant. The free Negroes in the North began to
assert themselves after the manumissions incident
The Independent Church Movement 73
to the American Revolution, as they were not nec¬
essarily obligated to follow the fortunes of the
white churches. Such self-assertion early culmi¬
nated in the protest of Richard Allen, the founder
of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Richard Allen was the very sort of man to perform
this great task. He was horn a slave of Benjamin
Chew of Philadelphia but very soon thereafter was
sold with his whole family to a planter living near
Dover, Delaware, where he grew to manhood.
Coming under Christian influence, he was con¬
verted in 1777 and began his career as a minister
three years later. Struck with the genuineness of
his piety, his master permitted him to conduct
prayers and to preach in his house, he himself
being one of the first converts of this zealous mes¬
senger of God. Feeling after his conversion that
slavery was wrong, Allen's master permitted his
bondmen to obtain their freedom. Allen and his
brother purchased themselves for $2,000 in the de¬
preciated currency of the Revolutionary War.
Richard Allen then engaged himself at such me¬
nial labor as a Negro could then find, cutting wood
and hauling, while preaching at his leisure. Rec¬
ognizing his unusual talent, Richard Watcoat on
the Baltimore circuit permitted Allen to travel
with him, and Bishop Asbury frequently gave him
assignments to preach. Coming to Philadelphia in
1786, Allen was invited to preach at the St. George
Methodist Episcopal Church and at various other
places in the city. His difficulties, however, had
74 The History of the Negro Church
just begun. Yet he could not but succeed because
he was a man of independent character, strict in¬
tegrity, business tact, and thrifty habits. When
he spoke a word, it was taken at its face value.
His rule was never to break a promise or violate
a contract.1
The special needs of his own people aroused
him to action in their behalf. He said, "I soon
saw a large field open in seeking and instructing
my African brethren who have been a long for¬
gotten people, and few of them attended public
worship." Starting a prayer meeting in Phila¬
delphia, he soon had 42 members. Encouraged
thus, he proposed to establish a separate place of
worship for the people of color, but was dissuaded
therefrom by the protest of the whites and certain
Negroes unto whom he ministered, only three of
whom approved his plan. Preaching at this
church, however, with such power as to move
his own people in a way that they had never been
affected before, he attracted them in such large
numbers that the management proposed to segre¬
gate the Negroes. When, moreover, the manage¬
ment of the church undertook to carry out this
plan so drastically even to the extent of disturbing
Richard Allen, Absalom Jones, and William White
by pulling them off their knees while they were in
i When he purchased the property for the Bethel Church on
Lombard Street near Sixth and the majority of the committee
refused to accept, Allen having given his word so to do, kept it
at a great personal loss.
The Independent Church Movement 75
the attitude of prayer, the Negroes arose and with¬
drew from the church in a body.
This was the beginning of the independent Free
African Society organized by Richard Allen and
Absalom Jones. It appeared that Jones and
Allen soon had differing plans; for the former
finally organized the African Protestant Episcopal
Church of St. Thomas, while the majority of the
persons seceding from the St. George Methodist
Episcopal Church followed the standard of Allen
in effecting the independent organization known
as Bethel Church. Allen purchased an old build¬
ing for the Bethel church and had it duly dedicated
in 1794, when he organized a Sunday school and
a day and night school, to which were sent regular
ministers by the Methodist Conference. Richard
Allen was ordained deacon by Bishop Asbury in
1799, and later attained the status of elder. Ne¬
groes of other cities followed this example, or¬
ganizing what were known as African Methodist
Episcopal churches in Baltimore; Wilmington;
Attleboro, Pennsylvania; and Salem, New Jersey.
Having maintained themselves independently
for some time, these African societies developed
sufficient leaders to effect the organization of a
national church. In Philadelphia there were in
cooperation with Richard Allen such workers as
Jacob Tapsico, Clayton Durham, James Cham¬
pion, and Thomas Webster. In Baltimore there
were Daniel Coker, Richard Williams, Henry
76 The History of the Negro Church
Harding, Stephen Hall, Edward Williamson and
Nicholson Gilliard; in Wilmington, Delaware,
Peter Spencer, the popular leader of the Union
Church of Africans, established in 1813; in Attle-
boro, Pennsylvania, Jacob Marsh, Edward Jack¬
son and William Anderson; and in Salem, New
Jersey, Peter Cuff. These met in Philadelphia on
the 9th day of April, 1816, to establish the African
Methodist Episcopal Church, the moving spirits
being Richard Allen, Daniel Coker and Stephen
Hall, an intelligent layman of Baltimore, Mary¬
land. Equally interested in the same movement
were Morris Brown, Henry Drayton, Charles
Corr, Amos Cruickshanks, Marcus Brown, Smart
Simpson, Henry Bull, John Matthews, James
Eden, London Turpin and Alexander Harper of
Charleston, who could not attend because of the
restrictions there upon the travel of Negroes and
the effort in the South to proscribe the independ¬
ent church movement among persons of color.
The most important transaction of the Phila¬
delphia meeting was the election of the bishop.
Upon taking the vote the body declared Daniel
Coker bishop-elect; but for several reasons he re¬
signed the next day in favor of Richard Allen, who
was elected on the 10th and consecrated the fol¬
lowing day by regularly ordained ministers. The
conference resolved, moreover, that the people of
Philadelphia, Baltimore, and all other places, who
might unite with them should become one body
under the name of the African Methodist Episco-
The Independent Church Movement 77
pal Church. Hoping that this national church
might have accessions from other ranks in which
the Negroes were not welcome or at best tolerated,
this conference passed a resolution to the effect
that ministers coming from another evangelical
church should be received in the same standing
which they held in the connection from which they
came. This body adopted a book of discipline with
its articles of religion and general rules just as it
had been drafted by the Wesleyans, following the
general principles of government as had been in
vogue among the Methodists already. The church
then began its career with seven itinerants and
Bishop Allen as the exponents of a new thought.
Much progress thereafter was noted. The Bal¬
timore district under the direction of Daniel Coker
reported 1,066 members in 1818, 1,388 in 1819,
1,760 in 1820, and 1,924 in 1822, while there were in
Philadelphia about 4,000. With the establishment
of the New York conference the limits of the con¬
nection extended eastward as far as New Bedford,
westward to Pittsburgh and southward to Charles¬
ton, South Carolina. Thereafter, however, there
was little hope of success in the South. The Afri¬
can Methodists had with some difficulty under the
leadership of Rev. Morris Brown established in
Charleston a church reporting 1,000 members in
1817, and increasing by 1822 to 3,000 in spite of
the intolerant laws and the police regulations mak¬
ing it difficult for slaves and free persons of color
to attend. In 1822, however, because of the spirit
78 The History of the Negro Church
of insurrection among Negroes following the for¬
tunes of Denmark Vesey, who devised well laid
plans for killing off the masters of the slaves, the
African Methodists were required to suspend
operation. Their pastor, Morris Brown, was
threatened and would have been dealt with foully,
had it not been for the interference of General
James Hamilton, who secreted Brown in his home
until he could give him safe passage to the North,
where he very soon reached a position of promi¬
nence, even that of bishop in the African Meth¬
odist Episcopal Church.
Another secession of the Methodists from the
white connection was in progress in other parts.
A number of Negroes, most of whom were mem¬
bers of the John Street Methodist Episcopal
Church, in New York City, took the first step to¬
ward separation from that connection in 1796.
They had not been disturbed in their worship to
the extent experienced by Richard Allen and his
coworkers in Philadelphia, but they had a (' desire
for the privilege of holding meetings of their own,
where they might have an opportunity to exercise
their spiritual gifts among themselves, and thereby
be more useful to one another." Such permission
was obtained from Bishop Francis Asbury by a
group of intelligent Negro Methodists, chief
among whom were Francis Jacobs, William
Brown, Peter Williams, Abraham Thompson,
June Scott, Samuel Pontier, Thomas Miller,
William Miller, James Yarick and William Ham-
The Independent Church Movement 79!
ilton. Three of these persons, Abraham Thomp¬
son, June Scott, and Thomas Miller, were at that
time recognized preachers, and William Miller
was an exhorter, all of them officiating in this ca¬
pacity as opportunities presented themselves in
their connection and under the supervision of the
white Methodists.
These workers continued in this situation until
the year 1799, when, with a further increase in the
Negro membership of the Methodist Episcopal
Church in New York City, they proposed to build
a separate house of worship rather than merely
hold separate meetings in the edifice belonging to
the white Methodists. A meeting was held soon
thereafter and arrangements were made for the
purchase of a lot in Orange Street, between Cross
and Chatham, on which after having paid the
amount of $50, they found out that the title was
involved and they thereafter purchased a site situ¬
ated at the corner of Church and Leonard Streets
and fronting on Church Street. Upon this site
they erected a building in the year 1800, naming
the edifice the African Methodist Episcopal Zion
Church. Their white friends, seeing that they
were determined to be a separate body, appointed
as their adviser Rev. John McClaskey, who in¬
structed them how to proceed in drawing up the
articles of government. A charter was secured in
1801 and bears the signatures of Peter Williams
and Francis Jacobs.
This church had not proceeded very far before
80 The History of the Negro Church
there arose some dissension in the ranks. The first
exhibition of this was the effort of two of the
founders, Abraham Thompson and June Scott,
who, '1 induced by the expectation of filthy lucre,''
tried to form a society separate from the Zion
church. In this they were aided by a white man
who desired to exercise his own spiritual gifts, the
opportunity for which he could not secure among
his own people who belonged to the Society of
Friends, from which he had been expelled. This
new organization was finally effected as the Union
Society. Very soon thereafter Abraham Thomp¬
son repented of his action and abandoned the at¬
tempt, leaving June Scott to continue the work
of the Union Society by himself. As he was un¬
able to bear the expenses thereafter the society
was consequently broken up and June Scott at¬
tached himself to another church.
Another obstacle appeared in 1813 when
Thomas Simpkins, upon being expelled from the
Zion Church, of which he had been a member and
a trustee, undertook to establish a new society.
He drew to himself William Miller, who had been
ordained deacon in the Zion Church. Obtaining
thereafter a site in Elizabeth Street, they suc¬
ceeded in persuading a number of members of
the Zion Church to unite with them to establish the
Asbury Church. Unlike the unsuccessful attempt
of Abraham Thompson and June Scott in form¬
ing the Union Society, the Asbury Church became
permanently established. Desiring, however, to
The Independent Church Movement 81
be regular in their operations, the members of the
Asbury Church found themselves compelled to
appeal to the same ecclesiastical authorities and
to accept practically the same government as that
already instituted for the Zion Church. This
church was thereafter received in the Methodist
Church. Although this was considered a very bad
omen for the Zion Church, however, it continued
to make progress in spite of expectations to the
contrary. The members of the church decidedly
increased and steps were taken for the construc¬
tion of a house with a school room underneath on
the site of the old meeting house. On the 25th of
November there began the construction of a more
suitable building which was completed by 1820.
Another disturbing factor appeared in the
scheme of William Lambert. He had been a mem¬
ber of the Zion Church and seceded with those
who formed the Asbury connection. Because the
Zion Church refused to appoint him as a minister,
and even Asbury refused to hear him preach, he
returned from Philadelphia where he had been
under the influence of Bishop Richard Allen, from
whom he had obtained a license to preach, and en¬
deavored to establish a church for Bishop Allen's
denomination. He obtained a school house in Mott
Street, and with the assistance of Rev. Mr. White,
a member and an ordained deacon, it was fitted for
a church. In the meantime Bishop Allen was in
touch with some of the official brethren in New
York City with a view to extending the jurisdic-
82 The History of the Negro Church
tion of Ms own church. The supporters of Bishop
Allen, moreover, appeared at the opportune mo¬
ment, when the Zionites were without a building
and were also without the direction that it had
formerly had from the white Methodists, inas¬
much as the latter were disturbed by a schism
resulting from differences as to church govern¬
ment.
Further disturbance was, therefore, caused
when Henry Harden entered the city of New York
in 1820 and commenced to form a society of Afri¬
can Methodists with the assistance of William
Lambert and Rev. Mr. White. The Zionists bear¬
ing it rather grievously that Bishop Allen had thus
tried to invade that field, decided that they would
neither preach for the Allenites nor permit the
Allenites to preach for them. In this resolution,
William Miller, the minister of the Asbury Church,
acquiesced and seemingly agreed thereby to con¬
nect himself closely with the Zionites. The church
of Richard Allen's connection, however, did not
displease all the persons concerned. According
to the account of Christopher Rush, who himself
became a bishop of the African Methodist Epis¬
copal Zion Church, although Richard Allen arrived
and sanctioned all that had been done by those men
who were working for the progress of his denom¬
ination, 4'his presence seemed soon to alter the
minds of the Zion preachers, for notwithstanding
their resolution to discountenance the proceedings
of the Bishop, yet some of them went to their
The Independent Church Movement 83
meetings, some of them sat in their altar, and one
of them, James Varick, opened meeting for the
Bishop on the second or third Sunday night of the
existence of that society."
During the first years of their separation the
African Methodists in New York had the cooper¬
ation of the whites and the funds necessary for the
construction of their building and the maintenance
of their ministers came from that source. In the
course of time, however, the funds contributed by
the people of color themselves increased with this
growing desire for independence. The schism in
the white church, moreover, stimulated this desire
for thorough separation from the white Methodists
inasmuch as their so-called superiors were di¬
vided in their views as to questions of polity.
These Methodists of color believed that they
should avail themselves of the opportunity to
control their own affairs. They had at first had
for pastors white Methodist preachers with the
local preachers of color serving under them. They
thereupon notified the white Methodists that they
no longer felt themselves obligated to look to them
for supplying the pulpit and that they did not de¬
sire to have their property involved in the difficul¬
ties contemplated by the proposed act of incor¬
poration which had led to the schism. The Zion-
ites were in a state of indecision, however, for the
reason that not having left the white Methodist
Church in a snarl as did the followers of Eichard
Allen, the Zionites had no particular grievance to
84 The History of the Negro Church
serve as a cohesive force. Many had thought
either of returning to the white Methodists or
joining the Allenites.
There soon came a time then when it was neces¬
sary for the Zionites to decide exactly what they
would do. This being the case, an official meeting
was held on August 11, 1820, for the purpose of
considering the serious state of the church. Two
important questions were propounded at this meet¬
ing, one being: "Shall we return to the white
people?" The answer was negative. The next
question was: "Shall we join Bishop Allen?"
The answer was also negative. They, therefore,
decided to take steps for establishing a firm church
government of their own. Several efforts have
since been made to unite the African Methodists
but to no avail.
Being desirous, however, to proceed regularly
rather than radically, these African Methodists
sought ordination and consecration through some
branch of the Christian Church. They sent a com¬
mittee to make such a request of Bishop Hobart
of the Episcopal Church, but he was unable to
serve them. They then appealed to the bishop
of the Methodist Church, but they were put off in
one way or another, with excuses of the bishop
having no power to act without the conference and
with the request that they should defer action until
the conference should have time to investigate.
They thereafter appealed to the conference in
session in Philadelphia and were encouraged by
The Independent Church Movement 85
a favorable resolution to expect that such service
would be rendered them. For some reason they
appealed to the conference in New York, which
finally refused to grant their request. The Zion-
ites were then reduced to radical measures in that
they had finally to follow in the footsteps of the
Asbury Church in ordaining its own deacons and
elder.
Becoming thus aggressive, the Zionites, like the
Allenites, had taken the offensive. They extended
their operations through missionaries into Flush¬
ing, New Haven, Long Island, and even into Phila¬
delphia, where certain persons separating from the
connection of Richard Allen, organized the Wes-
leyan Church and joined the Zionites. Under the
leadership of such men as James Varick, George
Collins, Charles Anderson, and Christopher Rush,
they drew up the doctrines and discipline of the
African Methodist Episcopal Church in America,
elected a number of elders, and finally organized in
1821 a national body, of which James Varick be¬
came the first bishop in 1822.
Before the Negro Methodists perfected their
organizations by which the influence of their
churches might be permanently extended through¬
out the country, the Baptists had been locally try¬
ing to do the same thing. The Harrison Street
Baptist Church was organized at Petersburg, Vir¬
ginia, in 1776; another Negro Baptist Church at
Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1785; the First African
Baptist Church at Savannah in 1785, with a second
86 The History of the Negro Church
Baptist Church in that city following fourteen
years later; the African Baptist Church of Lexing¬
ton, Kentucky, in 1790; and a mixed Baptist Church
in the Mound Bayou, Mississippi district, in 1805,
by Joseph Willis, a free Negro born in South Caro¬
lina in 1762.2 In the city of Philadelphia on May
14, 1809, thirteen colored members who had for
some time felt that it would be more congenial
for them to worship separately, were dismissed to
form the first African Baptist Church. On June
19, 1809, the use of the First Baptist Church
(white) was given them for the meeting at which
they were constituted an organized body. The
main trouble with the First Baptist Church (white)
seemed to be that it had suffered from having its
anti-slavery ardor dampened during the reaction
following the Revolutionary War. Whereas many
of the Baptists in other parts had become
radical emancipationists, the white Baptists
of Philadelphia after having attacked the
slave trade, tried to dodge the anti-slavery issue
with the excuse that it was a political ques¬
tion with which the church had nothing to do.
The anti-slavery sentiment was naturally sup¬
pressed during the pastorates of Holcombe,
Brantly and Cuthbert, all southern men, partly in
defense of their well-known sentiment and partly
2 A man of fair education, Willis was a power in that State as
early as 1798. We hear of him in Louisiana in 1804. Mississippi
sent two ministers to ordain him in Louisiana in 1812. He or¬
ganized later the Louisiana Baptist Association and was chosen
as its moderator in 1837.
The Independent Church Movement 87
through the sentiment of the people themselves.
Complete separation of the Negro Baptists in
this church was, therefore, deemed a necessity
during the first quarter of the nineteenth century
when there was an increasing prejudice against
free persons of color because of the rapid migra¬
tion of freedmen from the South to Pennsylvania.
When in 1809 the Negroes organized the African
Baptist Church in Philadelphia, it was placed un¬
der the oversight of Rev. Henry Cunningham, and
was directed for two years thereafter by John
King. According to another record there was
at this time in the South a slave named Burrows
who felt that he was called to preach. Many en¬
couraged him to come North to beg money to buy
his freedom. Two of his friends, free persons of
color, were so impressed with his worth and be¬
lieved so implicitly in his word as his bond that
they bound themselves in bondage for six months
while he absented himself to solicit funds through¬
out the North. In a short time this man of such
indomitable will and belief in himself and in the
future, raised the required sum of money with
which he effected his manumission and invited
these loyal friends who had been instrumental in
his liberation to come North to Philadelphia to
assist him in establishing a Baptist church. This
was the First African Baptist Church of Philadel¬
phia, which, in 1809, became one of the substantial
religious organizations of the city, having enjoyed
the services of useful and influential preachers,
88 The History of the Negro Church
four of whose long pastorates covered the whole
period of one hundred years.
When the African Baptist Church of Philadel¬
phia was being organized, the same movement was
culminating in New York City. Prior to 1809
the Baptists of color had worshiped along with
their white brethren. The church record of No¬
vember 1,1770, says: "After divine service, Han¬
nah Dunmore and Chloe, a Negro woman belong¬
ing to Mr. George Green, were received into the
church.'' Speaking about this relation, this docu¬
ment says: "Our records have many notices of
baptisms and marriages among the Negro people
and until early in the present century there was a
large group of them in this church.'' But the de¬
sire for independence and a more congenial atmos¬
phere so obsessed them that they sought to form
an organization of their own. This was finally ef¬
fected in 1809 under the leadership of the Rev.
Thomas Paul, a native of Exeter, New Hampshire,
"where," according to the Baptist Memorial, "he
was born of respectable parents on the third of
September, 1773." He experienced faith in Jesus
at an early age and was baptized in the year 1789
by the Rev. Mr. Locke; but, although impressed
with the thought that his calling was the ministry,
he was not ordained until 1805. Soon thereafter
he well organized the African Baptist Church in
Joy Street, in Boston, where he served this con¬
gregation for about twenty-five years. His labors,
however, were not restricted to that city. He fre-
The Independent Church Movement 89
quently made preaching excursions into different
parts of the country where his 11 color excited con¬
siderable curiosity, and being a person of very
pleasing and fervid address, he attracted crowds
to hear him; at this period of his ministry his
labors were greatly blessed with numerous con¬
versions in several revivals of religion commenced
in different towns under his ministration." It
was while he was pastor of the Church in Boston,
that in 1808 he organized in New York City the
congregation now known as the Abyssinian Bap¬
tist Church and served it from June to September
of that year, after which Josiah Bishop and others
had charge of this very promising work.
The beginnings of this church are interesting.
According to a contemporary, "About the year
1807, the colored brethren and sisters of the First
Baptist Church, worshipping in Gold Street, for
reasons unnecessary now to mention, respectfully
proposed to the said church the expediency of a
separation: seeing that the colored Methodists
and Episcopalians had made similar propositions
to their respective churches with success, they
humbly desired the same. But they were unsuc¬
cessful until the year 1809. In the interim the
Eev. Thomas Paul, of Boston, at their request,
visited the city, and he was well received in the
white churches, preaching to large congregations.
Encouraged by such a state of things, they re¬
solved on procuring a place of worship. The
meeting-house in Anthony Street, the property of
90 The History of the Negro Church
the Ebenezer Baptist Church, being for sale, was
purchased by them, with the cooperation of their
white brethren. The First Church, satisfied with
the competency of brother P-aul for the care and
management of the petitioners, unanimously
granted honorable letters of dismission to four
brethren and twelve sisters, who, with three
others, were constituted a gospel church on
Wednesday, the 5th of July, 1809, under the name
of the 'Abyssinian Baptist Church.' It is to be
regretted that the order of exercises at the public
recognition of this new interest cannot be found.
Blest with the faithful labors of such a gifted
man, crowded assemblies heard the word of the
Lord, and many were added to the church on a
profession of their faith in Christ."
Paul's interest in the Negro was not limited to
those in this country. In 1823 he presented to the
Baptist Missionary Society of Massachusetts a
plan for improving the moral and religious con¬
dition of the Haitians, requesting that he be sent
to these people as a missionary. His plan was re¬
ceived with considerable enthusiasm and he was
appointed as a missionary and sent to that country
for six months. President Boyer of the Republic of
Haiti and other public functionaries kindly received
this missionary, giving him permission to preach.
There he soon met with some success in edifying
a few pious people who seemed gratified beyond
measure by his ministrations. Writing home, he
frequently mentioned "the powerful precious soul
The Independent Church Movement 91
reviving seasons" which he and the few disciples
on the island enjoyed. Because of his lack of
knowledge of the French language, however, he
could not reach a large number of the inhabitants
of that island. He was, therefore, compelled to
leave Haiti with the regret that he could not do
more for its general welfare and especially its de¬
plorable moral condition.3
That the independent church movement among
Negroes should be directed toward Methodism and
Baptism requires some consideration. In those
parts of the country in which most Negroes were
found, the dominant communicants among the
whites were at first Episcopalians, the successors
3 "In all of his journeyings," says a contributor to the Baptist
Magazine, "he seemed to go among the people in the fullness of
the blessings of the Gospel of Christ. He was not indeed an
ordinary man, for without those advantages of good education in
early life, he became distinguished as a preacher. His under¬
standing was vigorous, his imagination was vivid, his personal
appearance was interesting and his elocution was grateful. We
have heard him preach to an audience of more than 1000 per¬
sons when he seemed to have the complete command of their feel¬
ings for an hour together. On baptismal occasions he was truly
eloquent. His arguments were unanswerable, and his appeals
to the heart were powerful. The slow and gentle manner in
which he placed candidates under the water, and raised them up
again, produced an indelible impression on the spectators, that
they had indeed seen the burial with Christ in baptism. Near
the close of his career in 1831 when he finally died of a painful
illness, he bore striking testimony to his faith in Jesus. His
mind being 'wonderfully sustained by the consolations of the
Gospel,' he said on one occasion to a friend, 'Since I saw you
last I have been happy in God—my sky has been without a
cloud. I know that when the earthly house of my tabernacle
is dissolved, I have a house not made with hands, eternal in the
heavens.' When asked at another time if he had a good hope
through grace, 0, said he, I am altogether unworthy, but truBt
92
The History of the Negro Church
to the rites and ceremonies of the Anglican
Church. Among some of the best friends of the
Negroes, moreover, were the Presbyterians, who
often extended the blacks the same hand of wel¬
come as did the Quakers. Whether this was due
altogether to the emotional nature of the Negroes
to which the Baptists and Methodists appealed,
to chance, or to the wisdom of the leaders of the
independent church movement among the Negroes,
is a much mooted question. Discussing this mat¬
ter, Bishop B. T. Tanner in his Apology for Afri¬
can Methodism (page 63), attributed the success
of Methodism to the foresight of Richard Allen.
The author of this work shows how Richard Allen
at first cooperated with the Free African Society
in Philadelphia until upon holding a meeting, No-
in him 'who of God is made unto me wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification and redemption.' After a short pause, he observed,
'I know in whom I have believed, and that he is able to keep
that which I have committed unto him until that day.' When
his sufferings were great, and he felt as if he were dying, he
would say in broken accents, 'Come—Lord—Jesus—come quickly.'
But he would add, 'I pray for patience.' He frequently re¬
peated, 'I know that my Redeemer liveth. Whom I shall see
for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another.' On his
daughter's observing what a fine day it was, and how calm the
water was, he said smiling, 'Just like my mind, my dear—not a
wave—unruffled.' One morning being asked how he had rested
the preceding night, he replied, 'The Lord has spared my life
one night longer; but I never longed for any thing so really, as
to die and to be with my Saviour.' Towards the close of his
last sickness, he exclaimed with emphasis and a voice stronger
than usual—'I am now ready to be offered up and the time of
my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have
finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid
up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous
Judge, shall give me at that day.'"
The Independent Church Movement 93
vember 15,1788, they adopted a report of the com¬
mittee providing for an organization of that
society as a religious body, on a basis which, ac¬
cording to Allen's opinion, would have been a
usage which prevented that freedom which the
gospel permits. Feeling that the current of re¬
ligious sentiment was not flowing in the desired
direction, Allen refused further to cooperate with
this group, which by a vote formally declared
Allen's connection severed with that society, al¬
though Eichard Allen retained the friendship of
Rev. Absalom Jones, the first rector of the St.
Thomas Church, which later developed from this
organization.
Bishop Tanner contends that Allen appreciated
the fact that, his people being undisciplined, a
sound judgment educated with their emotional
natures should not be forgotten and swallowed up
in the cold intellectual ritual. As he believed that
by blending together the emotional and intellec¬
tual, the minds of the Negroes could be better de¬
veloped along religious lines, he refused the prof¬
fered rectorship of St. Thomas, saying that he
could not be anything but a Methodist. He said,
moreover: "I was confident that there was no
religious sect or denomination which would suit
the capacity of the colored people so well as the
Methodist, for the plain, simple Gospel suits best
for any people, for the unlearned can understand,
and the learned are sure to understand; and the
reason that the Methodists are so successful in
94 The History of the Nbgro Church
the awakening and the conversion of the colored
people, is the plain doctrine which they preach
and having a good discipline.''
The Episcopal Church, moreover, could hardly,
attract Negro churchmen of very much ambition,
when it did not require very much reasoning to
reach the conclusion that inasmuch as that church
had too often neglected the poor whites, it would
hardly be inclined to proselyte Negroes. Prior to
the time that Absalom Jones was made priest, the
St. Thomas Church, according to the Protestant
Episcopal convention, was not entitled to send
clergymen or deputies thereto nor to participate in
the general government of the Episcopal Church.
In the year 1795 they declared it was only for the
present. The same position, however, was taken
in 1843 and it was adhered to throughout the
period of slavery; for the Episcopal Church per¬
sistently refused to make slavery a matter of
discipline.
It is little wonder then that Episcopal churches
among Negroes have much difficulty in their de¬
velopment, and only in a few large cities did we
have churches even so successful as that of St.
Thomas in Philadelphia. Among these may be
mentioned the St. Phillips Church in New York.
This prosperous church was organized in 1818 and
incorporated in 1820. Peter Williams, the first
Negro to be ordained as a priest in the Episcopal
Church, served as its rector until 1849. He was
a man of unusual beginnings. His father, Peter
Rev. Peter Williams
First colored Protestant Episcopal priest in the United States.
The Independent Church Movement 95
Williams, Sr., was for a number of years the sex¬
ton of tlie John Street Methodist Church, in which
position he became distinguished among the white
communicants for his fidelity and piety. He joined
with other Negroes desirous of independent
church action and established the Zion Church,
out of which emerged the African Methodist Epis¬
copal Zion Church. Peter Williams, the son, how¬
ever, became an Episcopalian, was educated for
the ministry and served for years as the rector of
St. Phillips Church. In this position he main¬
tained himself as a man of usefulness and influ¬
ence, touching the life of his people whenever the
opportunity presented itself. Bishop Daniel A.
Payne, who first came into contact with him in New
York in 1835, considered him well educated, for
his day, hospitable and generous. Bishop Payne
said: "He loved to see talented young men edu¬
cating themselves and substantially aided more
than one in his efforts. Above all he valued an
educated minister.''
In this position of subjection to a church con¬
trol in which he himself as a man of color did not
largely figure, Peter Williams was handicapped
and could not serve his race as he desired. At the
time of the intense agitation during the great crisis
when the Negroes were called upon to decide where
they would stand on the questions of colonization
and abolition, Peter Williams at first took an ac¬
tive part in pleading the cause of his people. See¬
ing, however, that this might bring the church to
96 The History of the Negro Church
the position of having to declare itself on this im¬
portant question, the bishops of the Episcopal
Church, in keeping with the custom of that denom¬
ination, silenced Peter Williams with a decree that
he should preach merely the gospel without in¬
terfering with the political affairs of the times. It
does not appear that he had that moral stamina
to impel him to renounce his connection with a
church seeking to muzzle a man praying for the
deliverance of his people. It may be, however,
that, as he was too far advanced in years to make
any radical change in his course, he followed the
orders of his superiors.
In Baltimore the Episcopalians practically pro¬
vided a separate church for Negroes known as
the St. James. This was the first Negro church
of this denomination established in slave territory.
The Negroes were given a building of their own
and one Levington was from time to time desig¬
nated as rector for this special service. Although
it appears, however, that for a time a Negro
served in this capacity, this task was generally
assigned to a rector of Caucasion blood, who fed
the people from afar with a long-handled spoon, be¬
lieving that haply they might be thereby fed. This
church in Baltimore, therefore, did not figure so
largely in the life of the Negroes as did the Negro
Episcopal churches of Philadelphia and New
York. In other places where Negroes of this faith
were found they were dependent altogether on the
ministers of whites. The records of the Protestant
The Independent Church Movement 97,
Church show here and there Negro rectors in
remote parts as in the case of one in a small town
in New York and another in Connecticut; but it is
evident that they had no employment.
The Presbyterians, who welcomed the Negroes,
moreover, were not much more successful in pros¬
elyting them. When one considers the liberality
of this sect in that its theological seminaries, in¬
cluding even Princeton, opened its doors to Ne¬
groes and that the denomination too permitted
persons of color to participate in the government
of the church to the extent that they not only spoke
and exercised the right to vote in their meetings
but also served as moderators, this disinclination
on the part of Negroes to attach themselves to the
Presbyterian Church may require much explana¬
tion. Wherever the Presbyterians had the oppor¬
tunity for proselyting the Negroes they usually
embraced it. Yet there were hardly 20,000 Ne¬
groes in the Presbyterian church prior to the Civil
War. One of the important reasons is that the
Methodists and Baptists were the first to reach
the Negro. The Methodists, moreover, had an
itinerant system serving like scouts to go out into
the wilderness to find the people and bring them in.
Then this disinclination was due also to the fact
that the Presbyterian church, somewhat like the
more aristocratic churches, disregarded the '' emo¬
tional character of experimental religion." Its
appeal was too intellectual. As Bishop Tanner
said: 4'It strove to lift up without coming down
98 The History of the Negro Church
and while the good Presbyterian parson was
writing his discourses, rounding off the sentences,
the Methodist itinerant had traveled forty miles
with his horse and saddle bags; while the parson
was adjusting his spectacles to read his manu¬
script, the itinerant had given hell and damnation
to his unrepentant hearers; while the disciple of
Calvin was waiting to have his church completed,
the disciple of Wesley took to the woods and made
them reecho with the voice of free grace, be¬
lieving with Bryant, 'The groves were God's first
temples.' "
This same appeal of the evangelical rather than
the ritualistic explains also the slow progress of
the Catholic work among Negroes. The Catholics
were early concerned with the amelioration of the
condition of the Negroes and were found among
the first to bear testimony against slavery. This
denomination opened schools to enlighten the chil¬
dren of the slaves, established missions to reclaim
the wayward, and all but granted the despised
bondmen in their circles the privileges of liberty
and equality. The success of their workers among
Negroes, however, was not phenomenal. The
Catholics did not make much impression on the
Negroes in the large cities of the North, where
they were more accessible than in the South; but
considerable good was accomplished by the prom¬
ising beginnings in and around Baltimore, Wash¬
ington, Mobile, and New Orleans. So well was the
foundation laid that the reaction in favor of slav-
The Independent Church Movement 99
ery did not altogether counteract this healthy in¬
fluence in behalf of the enlightenment of the
Negroes. Only a small percentage of the race
thereby profited, however. The proportionately
small number of Negroes now belonging to the
Catholic Church have been proselyted largely
since the Civil War.
The Congregationalists became interested in the
uplift of the Negroes with whom they came into
contact, although the number reached did not mul¬
tiply. The leaders of this denomination sympa¬
thized with the slave, aided the fugitive, and
preached to the unfortunate the principles of re¬
ligion so dear to the hearts of their communicants.
But so great was the hold of the more evangelical
sects on the Negroes that the earliest successful
effort to constitute a group of them as a working
body in the Congregational Church was the estab¬
lishment of the Dixwell Avenue Congregational
Church in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1829. The
records do not show any considerable accession of
Negroes to these ranks until after the Civil War
when the work of this denomination was popu¬
larized in various parts by that efficient worker
and organizer, the late G. W. Moore.
CHAPTER V
EARLY DEVELOPMENT
THE Negro church continued to go forward.
Eight years after the organization of the Afri¬
can Methodist Episcopal Church the member¬
ship easily reached 9,888, including 14 elders, 26
deacons, and 101 licentiates, itinerant and local.
Its expansion had been so rapid that it was soon
necessary to establish a western conference to
administer the affairs of the many churches then
rising in Ohio. Wishing further to extend its
operations, the church ordained the Rev. Scipio
Bean in 1827 to do mission work in the Island of
Haiti. The church established there had as many
as 72 members in 1828, and in 1830 it had extended
its operations into the Spanish port of the Island
and gained a foothold in the peninsula of Sa-
mana. That same year the Rev. R. Roberts was
ordained a deacon and afterward an elder for
missionary work in the same island, then under
the successful administration of President Boyer.
Although he met with some success in the begin¬
ning in answering this cry for help in a distant
land, the work undertaken there was not finally
successful.
100
Early Development 101
There was an- apparent falling off in the mem¬
bership of certain conferences after 1830, but this
did not indicate any step backward. Practically
the whole membership in South Carolina was by
the public opinion, custom, and laws of that com¬
monwealth, cut off from the church. There was
during this same period extensive progress in the
west, especially in Cincinnati. Great efforts were
made to put the church on a firm foundation. Dur¬
ing the conferences of the thirties much attention
was given to the preparation of" the ministry
through education, cleanliness in dress, high char¬
acter, and loyalty to the church. The work suf¬
fered a loss, however, in that Bishop Allen, who
had for years led this flock, passed away in 1831.
Bishop Morris Brown, who had been ordained to
the episcopacy in 1828, became then the sole bishop
and continued so until 1836 when Edward Waters
was ordained as his assistant.
Proceeding on a sound basis, the church could
not but succeed. The membership rapidly grew,
as is evidenced by the necessity for the organiza¬
tion of two other conferences in the year 1840.
This was the conference of Canada, which was
organized by Bishop Brown at Toronto, and then
came the conference of Indianapolis as a cul¬
mination of the successful missionary labors of
William Paul Quinn who was later honored as the
fourth bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal
Church. There was an improvement in church
literature such as the Booh of Discipline and the
102 The History of the Negro Church
conference of the year 1836 decreed the publication
of a quarterly magazine for the use and benefit of
the connection, appointing George Hogarth of the
city of Brooklyn as General Book Steward.
The denomination had much difficulty in main¬
taining the Book Concern. The problem of publi¬
cation has always been a perplexing one and the
experience of this church was no exception to that
rule. The business seemed to follow the Book
Steward from one city to another. In 1847 it was
moved from Pittsburgh to New York. That same
year it was decided to publish a weekly to be called
The Christian Herald. The first copy of this pub¬
lication was issued by the Rev. A. R. Green, in
1848, then in charge of the Book Concern. In
1852, however, the name of this publication was
changed to The Christian Recorder. Its editor
declared that it would be devoted to religion, mor¬
ality, science, and literature. Some of the papers
published therein show an intelligent insight into
conditions, a deep interest in intellectual forces
effective in the uplift of the people, and a general
knowledge of the great factors which have made
the history of the world.
The development of African Methodist Episco¬
pal Zion Church was equally encouraging. After
serving his people successfully for some time
Bishop James Varick passed away in 1827. The
following year the office was filled by the election
of Christopher Rush, a man who had figured in
the organization of the Zion Church in New York
Early Development 103
in 1796. Because of his good foundation in educa¬
tion, his equipoise, reliable judgment, and Chris¬
tian piety, Christopher Rush made such a favor¬
able impression upon those with whom he came in
contact that he is often spoken of by the Zionites
as the ablest preacher of his time. He lived
throughout the crisis through which this church
had to go, enabling it to extend its territory so as
to compete favorably with the more extensive
work then being accomplished by the African
Methodist Episcopal Church. Rush served the.
connection from 1828 to 1840, a period during
which the membership of the sect increased, new
churches easily developed, and the denomination
realized strength and influence. Associated with
Bishop Rush in this effort were Elders Edward
Johnson, Durham Stevens, George Stevenson,
David Crosby, Jonathan Gibbs, Arthur Langford,
Tower Hill, John Marshall, Richard Phillips, Da¬
vid Smith, Jacob Richardson, Samuel Johnson,
Abraham Green, and David Stevens. In the New
York conference at this time there were such men
as Timothy Eato, Abraham Thompson, Charles
Anderson, William Carmen, George Tredwell,
William Miller, Levin Smith, Jacob Matthews,
Peter Van Hass, and Jehiel Beaman.1
i There appeared later between 1830 and 1840 others of much
worth. These were Charles A. Boyd, Henry Johnson, William
H. Bishop, Hosea Easton, James Simmons, Henry Drayton, David
Blake, Adam Ford, Daniel Vandevier, Francis P. Graham, John
W. Lewis, George Garnett, William Fuller, J. H. Williams, Wil¬
liam Serrington, John A. King, John Tappen, John Dungy, Rich¬
ard Noyee, Peter Ross, John Lyle, John P. Thompson, John Ches-
104 The History of the Negro Church
While the outstanding members of this group
;were those who became bishops of the Zionites,
several others who did not attain the episco¬
pacy, frequently showed exceptional power which
materially aided the development of the church.
Among these may be mentioned the Rev. S. T.
Fray, a remarkable natural orator noted for
his ability to rouse enthusiasm. He was a man of
unusual acumen, easily triumphed in debate, and
as a logician and parliamentarian could vanquish
his opponent. There was also Rev. Henry John¬
son who passed among his fellows as "Old Hick¬
ory" because of his strong force of character.
Unusually great work for the church was accom¬
plished by Rev. John A. Williams as a revivalist.
Rev. Leonard Collins was one of the reliable
pillars in the church for a number of years but
lost his standing by yielding to the temptation of
strong drink. Honorable mention may be given
Basil McKall, Abraham Cole, and especially David
Stevens for their forceful preaching which moved
multitudes to come into the church.
It does not appear that some of the bishops left
very much of an impression, although they were
men of extraordinary following. Bishop Spy-
wood, for example, was retired from his office
ter, Nathan Blunt, John N. Mars, J. B. Johnson, ThomaB James,
Edward Bishop, Thomas Jackson, Dempsey Kennedy, William
Tilmon, George Washington, Benjamin Simms, W. L. Brown,
John Wells, Samuel Serrington, George A. Spywood, Jesse Kem-
ble, Leonard Collins, Basil McKall, William Jones, John Jack¬
son, Abraham Cole, Samuel T. Gray, William McFarlan, Philip
Lum, Shadrach Golden, and Abraham Miller.
Early Development 105
because there were more bishops than were needed
for that service in the church. Bishop Moore, who
was an inspiring preacher, drawing large crowds
and moving all classes to repentance, was not at
ease as a bishop and he too was retired in 1860.
It was unfortunate, however, that in 1840 a
very disturbing factor appeared so as to arrest the
progress of this church. There arose in this con¬
nection an element desiring an assistant superin¬
tendent. It seemed that this desire came from the
friends of Rev. William Miller, a man of changing
tendencies. Although a preacher of unusual in¬
tellect and a man of general ability, he did not
show much stability of character. When he was
a deacon in the African Methodist Episcopal
Church in 1813, it appeared that he used his posi¬
tion to do the Zion Church an injury. At a later
period he, with the Asbury Church, joined the
Zionites. Yet with this same church about 1820
he united with Bishop Allen so as to form the
nucleus of the Bethel Church in New York City in
1830; but returned later to the Zion Church with a
fragment of the Asbury congregation. In spite of
this changing record, however, his friends felt that
he should be made superintendent and it was
finally done; but although an assistant superin¬
tendent, he never held a conference nor performed
an ordination. It seemed that it was a position of
honor rather than one of usefulness, but he was
known as bishop until he died in 1846.
Two years later when Rev. George Galbreth
106 The History of the Negro Church
was elected to this office, some dispute arose as to
whether he should be a full bishop or a mere as¬
sistant, but it was filially decided that he should
be an assistant only. As this did not satisfy all
concerned, the friends of Mr. Galbreth continued
the fight and in the conference of 1852 they carried
the point of placing all bishops on equality. Part
of their program too was the retirement of
Bishop Eush, who, being feeble and blind, could no
longer serve efficiently. The conference 'there¬
upon proceeded to elect Galbreth, Bishop, and Spy-
wood. Bishop Spywood was retired from this of¬
fice in 1856 because there were too many bishops
for the work to be accomplished in the field, and
during the remainder of his life he was employed
as an agent of the New England Mission Board in
which he served successfully.
It happened that soon after the election of the
three superintendents, that is, in 1853, Bishop Gal¬
breth died, leaving two bishops in the field. How
were these bishops then to stand? Was there such
a thing as a senior bishop or were they on equal¬
ity? Bishop Bishop insisted that he was the Gen¬
eral Superintendent and above and beyond his co¬
worker. As this did not satisfy both parties he was
called to trial; but, insisting that he was right, he
evaded the inquiry and caused a schism in the Zion
Church. Those adhering to the suspended bishop
held the territory north to Philadelphia, south to
Charleston and west to Pittsburgh, and called
themselves the Wesleyan Methodist Episcopal
Early Development 107
Church. The others held most of New York, New
England, and Nova Scotia, and retained the origi¬
nal name of the body, the African Methodist Epis¬
copal Zion Church. These two factions tended to
drift in different directions. In the west there was
a tendency toward Episcopalianism, whereas the
east drifted toward Congregationalism. The ques¬
tion of the church property was finally taken into
the courts, which decided in favor of those who
remained with the denomination. Steps were
thereafter taken to heal the breach which had been
produced by the stubbornness of one man and the
haste of a few others in dealing with him. In
1860 the schism was finally ended by an agreement
of the two factions to bury their differences and
unite for the good of the common church.
During these years some smaller movements
were in progress. A division of the Union Church
of Africans incorporated at Wilmington, Dela¬
ware, in 1807, resulted in the organization of the
African Union Church and the Union American
Methodist Episcopal Church in 1850. From the
Methodist Protestant Church a sufficient number
of Negroes finally withdrew to form, in 1860, the
First Colored Methodist Protestant Church.
These denominations, however, have not been able
to compete in numbers and influence with the
Allenites and Zionites.
These activities of the African Methodist de¬
nominations mentioned above would seem to in¬
dicate that the large majority of the Negroes be-
108 The History of the Negro Church
came members of these new sects, leaving merely
a few for the Baptists. As a matter of fact,
however, the contrary was true. The Negro
Methodists had national organization and in most
cases intelligent men making a systematic effort
to extend their work. The Baptists, on the other
hand, had both the disadvantages and the advan¬
tages of local self-government. In their unde¬
veloped state this unusual liberty sometimes
proved to be a handicap to the Baptists in that the
standard of the ministry and the moral tone of the
churches were not so high as in the case of the
Methodist bodies, whose conferences had power to
make local churches do the right when they were
not so inclined. This local self-government of the
Baptists, on the other hand, made possible a more
rapid increase in the number of churches estab¬
lished and the large influx of members in quest
of the liberty wherewith they believed Christ had
made them free.
What then was this peculiar feature of Baptist
policy which explains the unusual growth? In
the first place, the local Baptist Church is thor¬
oughly independent of any other organization or
church. It may become associated with other
churches in bodies meeting periodically to devise
plans for the common good of the denomination;
but it is in no sense bound by the rules and regu¬
lations of such bodies. And should an association,
moreover, exclude a church from its group, that
church is still legally constituted a Baptist church
Early Development 109
and may join another association or form one of
its own in cooperation with other churches simi¬
larly disposed. Any group of baptized believers
of not less than four, moreover, may exercise the
liberty of organizing a church under the direction
of a regularly ordained minister of the denomina¬
tion and ordination in the Baptist Church is not a
difficulty. With the tendency of so many members
to find fault, to disagree, to follow the advice of
ill-designing persons seeking personal ends, it
was a decidedly easy matter for Negro Baptist
churches under these circumstances to split and
thus multiply. While the Methodists might hesi¬
tate to establish an additional church so close to
another as to hinder its growth, the Baptists in
the heat of controversial excitement often estab¬
lished two or three churches where there were not
at first enough people to sustain one; but in the
course of time these churches, because of their
unusual liberty in the evangelical effort, would at¬
tract so many more than the other liberal churches
that they would all be filled. The Baptists finally
aggregated about as many as all other Negro
members of the various independent Negro
churches. It soon happened in the South, more¬
over, that where the blacks were freely permitted
to embrace religion the Negro Baptists outnum¬
bered the whites in mixed churches two to one and
sometimes three to one or four to one.
Detailed records of these achievements from a
national point of view are lacking for the reason
110 The History of the Negro Church
that the Negro Baptists prior to the organization
of the National Baptist Convention had no na¬
tional body of their own. During the antebellum
period they belonged largely to the white churches
in the South, occupying certain seats, the Negro
pew, or meeting in the basement of the same edi¬
fice for worship at a special hour on the Sabbath
day. In most cities in the North the independent
movement among Negroes brought about the es¬
tablishment of their own local churches; but, when
associated, they generally belonged to the white
bodies, used their literature, and followed their
doctrines. As many of the white churches and or¬
ganizations took little account of what these Negro
communicants were doing but rather considered
them as an undesirable but inevitable adjunct, no
complete records of their achievements are extant.
Here and there a writer of the history of the Bap¬
tists gave them honorable mention and now and
then a Negro Baptist preacher in a locality had
sufficient appreciation of the value of records to
leave an account.
The location and the status of some of these
Baptist churches will be interesting, especially in
the South where their development was retarded
by the restrictions of a slaveholding section living
in dread of servile insurrection. During the thir¬
ties and forties a number of Negro Baptist
churches were established in the District of Co¬
lumbia, the first one being organized by Sampson
White in 1839 and reaching its position of perma-
Early Development 111
nence some years later under William Williams,
whose flock was the largest of this sect in the city.
As it could not be associated with Negro churches
in the South, then dominated by white men in the
interest of slaveholders, it connected itself with
the Philadelphia Baptist Association. The first
Negro Baptist Church in Baltimore was organized
in 1836 and was making unusual progress under
the direction of M. C. Clayton, with a membership
of 150 in 1846. A number of other Baptist
churches in the city were soon organized there¬
after, furnishing opportunity for development to
its several useful Negro ministers, among whom
was Rev. Noah Davis of the Saratoga Street Bap¬
tist Church.
These places in Maryland, however, were not
strictly of the slaveholding attitude and so were
parts of Virginia. An extensive account of the
African Baptist Church of Richmond, established
from the white church of that faith and placed in
charge of Rev. Robert Ryland, a white man, serv¬
ing at the same time as President of Richmond
College, appears elsewhere. There had been for
some years a Negro Baptist congregation in Ports¬
mouth, mentioned above. There were elsewhere
in the State other Baptist and Methodist churches
and some of them almost entirely under the direc¬
tion of Negroes. The first African Baptist Church
in Petersburg had 664 communicants, the largest
membership in the Middle District Baptist Asso¬
ciation. The largest Baptist Church in Manches-
112 The History of the Negro Church
ter (now South Richmond) in 1846 was the Afri¬
can Baptist Church with a membership of 487.
In South Carolina the Negroes were not per¬
mitted to separate from the whites, but they so
decidedly outnumbered the latter that the
churches had the aspect of Negro congregations.
Of the 1,643 members belonging to the First Bap¬
tist Church in Charleston in 1846 all but 261 were
persons of color. In the Second Baptist Church
there were 200 white people and 312 Negroes; in
the Georgetown Baptist Church 33 white persons
and 298 Negroes. The Welsh Neck Church had 477
Negroes and only 83 whites. In the Association
to which these churches belonged the blacks out¬
numbered the whites two to one. No distinction
was made between the members of the two races in
the minutes of the Association. The Bethel Asso¬
ciation of this State, however, had for a number
of years prior to 1838 reported the Negro mem¬
bers. It then had 1,502 whites and 637 blacks; but
in 1843 the whites were 1,804 and the blacks 1,000.
The main interest in the Negro Baptists of
Georgia during this period centered around the
church established in Savannah by Andrew Bryan.
For about two years after the death of the founder
in 1812 the church remained without a pastor, hav¬
ing its pulpit supplied during this period by Rev.
Evans Great. At the end of this interregnum the
church set apart a Sabbath day to pray that the
great head of the church would direct their choice
to a worthy successor. Although Andrew Mar-
Early Development 113
shall had served as an assistant pastor under his
uncle he had upon his death become largely en¬
gaged in business. The church, however, by a ma¬
jority vote chose Andrew Marshall in preference
to Evans Great, and the former entered upon the
service with exercises auguring well for success.
Being prosperous in his ministry as well as in his
business, Andrew Marshall was respected not only
by his own people but also by the most desirable
whites.
His prosperity and his influence, however, led
to a supposed violation of the laws. After having
accumulated a goodly portion of money, he pur¬
chased from certain Negroes who had no permit
to trade or sell, some bricks with which he con¬
structed his two-story brick house. As this was
a violation of the law, his traducers seized upon
this opportunity to humiliate him, and, although
his former master interceded in his behalf and
enlisted the sympathy of the best white citizens, he
was administered a whipping as a punishment
for this so-called high crime. This crippled him
in his ministry for a while, but he soon recovered
therefrom, having the assistance of Henry Cun¬
ningham and Evans Great, who, in spite of the
fact that the latter was defeated by Andrew Mar¬
shall for the pastorate of the church, served under
him thereafter as an assistant pastor and cooper¬
ated with him loyally.
Andrew Marshall emerged from these trials but
another of more consequence awaited him. He
114 The History of the Negro Church
alienated the affection of the white people of this
denomination by preaching what they considered
false doctrines. Further trouble was caused when
he permitted Alexander Campbell, then called the
new light preacher, to speak in the African Bap¬
tist Church. The orthodox Baptist of the city
disapproved of Marshall's admitting Dr. Camp¬
bell to his pulpit and disputes in the church imme¬
diately followed. The church became hopelessly
divided and its strife was the topic of the town.
Marshall withdrew from the building with one
portion of the church, the other remaining under
the leadership of Adam Johnson. As Andrew
Marshall was much more powerful than any other
man of his connection, he carried with him then
out of this church a large majority.
The association to which this church belonged,
however, took action in his case, recommending
that Marshall be silenced indefinitely, that the
African Church be dissolved, and that measures
be taken to constitute a new body as a branch of
the white Baptist church. The Negro members in
the country, then members of the African Baptist
Church in Savannah, were to take letters of dis¬
mission and either unite themselves with the neigh¬
boring churches of the Baptist faith or be con¬
stituted as separate churches. The association
also gave its approval of the Christian deportment
of the Second African Church. This, of course,
made all of the Negro churches wards of the white
and according to the law no Negro could exercise
Early Development 115
the gift of preaching in those churches unless he
was endorsed by two or more white Baptist minis¬
ters. As the property of the First African Church
was under the trusteeship of the association, its
will had to be respected. There is no evidence,
however, that these orders of the association were
ever carried out. As most of the members of the
churches lived in the country rather than in the
city of Savannah, moreover, the dispute was one
in which the minority rather than the majority of
the members were concerned.
Marshall, however, solved his own problems with
the assistance of certain influential white men who
enabled him to purchase the old building of the
white Baptists, out of which they moved into a new
church edifice on Chippewa Square. As this was
a much larger building than the old meeting house
constructed by Andrew Bryan and Marshall
could preach with more power than any other min¬
ister in that vicinity, he had little difficulty in at¬
tracting a larger following, although most of the
official class of the First African Baptist Church
deserted him.
Upon the withdrawal of Andrew Marshall and
his supporters from the edifice of the First Afri¬
can Baptist Church and their taking over of a new
edifice, there arose a serious question which even
to-day has not been really settled. This question
was whether or not Marshall and his followers con¬
tinued the church established by Andrew Bryan or
abandoned it to the control of those who remained
116 The History of the Negro Church
and were later accepted in the Sunbury Associa¬
tion of Georgia as the Third African Baptist
Church, still later known as the First Bryan Bap¬
tist Church. The officers in the control of this
church contended that they rather than the fol¬
lowers of Marshall represented the church as it
was established by Bryan. They insist that, al¬
though in being received in the Sunbury Associa¬
tion they were designated as the Third African
Baptist Church, they, nevertheless, represented
the church as it was originally established by An¬
drew Bryan. All of the actual officers of the
original church and all of the persons who had
represented the church as it originally was in the
Sunbury Association remained to carry on the
work as it had been theretofore without any spe¬
cial organization of a new church and succeeded at
the same time to the possession of this property.
They emphasized also the fact that Andrew Mar¬
shall had never represented the church in this
association and that he himself was a member of
the Second African Church rather than of the
church of which he was pastor.
This Third African Church, later the First
Bryan Baptist Church, then extended a call to
Thomas Anderson, who served them until 1835,
when the congregation secured the services of
Steven McQueen. In 1841 the church was again
without a regular pastor but accepted the services
of John Devous, a former deacon of the Second
Early Development
111
African Church. Soon thereafter we hear of the
resignation of Mr. Devous and the installation of
Isaac Roberts, also a member of the Second Afri¬
can Church. Mr. Roberts proved to be the most
energetic of all pastors in the city after the rise of
Andrew Marshall. He improved the building, in¬
spired the members, and edified their souls. But
upon the death of Thomas Anderson, the pastor
of the Second African Church, Mr. Roberts re¬
signed to accept that pastorate, in 1849. The
church then extended a call to Bristol Lawton of
Beaufort, South Carolina, who preached for just
one year and was succeeded by Garrison Frazer,
a Baptist from the State of Virginia. Mr. Frazer
was a man of high church principles and was a
good worker in the ranks. About the time of the
outbreak of the Civil War, he resigned and the
church then had ordained for its leadership Rev.
Ulysses L. Houston, who developed much power
as a preacher. In this position he extended the in¬
fluence of the church and made himself a great
factor even among the white Baptists of the com¬
munity. He served in this capacity for some
years, laboring through the war into freedom.
Andrew Marshall continued in charge of his
church, maintaining himself with the same pres¬
tige and retaining a large following until he passed
away in 1856, when he was succeeded by Rev.
William J. Campbell. Andrew Marshall was
mourned by thousands unto whom he had minis-
118 The History of the Negro Church
tered and by tens of thousands who had observed
his good work in delivering the poor that cry and
in directing the wanderer in the right way.
Alabama also had a large number of Negro
Baptists although there did not develop as many
independent churches as there were in Georgia.
The Negro membership in the mixed churches was
a little more than one-half of the number. In the
city of Montgomery the Negroes were almost three
to one. Probably the most flourishing center was
the African Baptist Church at Mobile. This con¬
gregation had once been a part of the First Baptist
Church (white), but in 1839 the congregation was
dissolved to form two. That year the Negro
church was admitted to the Bethel Association.
The Negroes had a fine house of worship built by
themselves and had developed among them some
intelligent local preachers, among whom were cer¬
tain gentlemen known as Heard, Hunton, Hale,
Stowe, Collins, Schroebel, and Grant.
The center of interest among the Negro Baptists
in Florida was Jacksonville. There the First
Bethel Baptist Church was organized in 1838 with
four whites and two Negroes as charter members.
These were Eev. J. Jaudan and wife, Deacon
James McDonald and wife and two slaves belong¬
ing to Jaudan. They held their first meetings in
the Government Block House near the County
Court House but later purchased on Church Street,
between Hogan and Julia Streets, a lot on which
was built the first edifice. When later the whites
Early Development 119
decided to separate from the Negroes and under¬
took to dispossess them altogether the court de¬
cided that the property belonged to the Negroes
in as much as they were in the majority. Later,
however, the Bethel Baptist Church sold out this
property to the whites and purchased property on
the corner of Main and Union Streets. In our day
we have seen the Bethel Baptist Church incorpor¬
ated by the State as an institutional church which
figures as an important factor in the life of the
Negroes of Jacksonville.
In the western slave States, where the Negroes
were few, they were, nevertheless, found in consid¬
erable numbers in the Baptist Church. One-fourth
of the Baptists in Tennessee were Negroes. The
membership in Kentucky was of a much larger
proportion. The African Baptist Church of Lex¬
ington was founded by a thrifty Negro who, in
spite of the law, was permitted to remain in the
State as a worthy free Negro and as such not
only preached but as early as the thirties had
accumulated a fortune valued at $20,000. In 1846
this church under the leadership of L. Terrell was
the largest in the Elkhorn Association and was
considered "orderly and flourishing." During
these years the First African Baptist Church of
Louisville had been developing along the same line
and was the largest in its association, having 644
members. Under the pastorate of Eev. Henry
Adams, a man of considerable education and abil¬
ity to lead, it attained a position of much useful-
120 The History of the Negro Church
ness. The Negro Baptist Church of St. Louis,
founded in 1827, was, in 1848, the largest in its
connection and with the impetus given the work by-
its pastor, J. B. Meacham, it became still more
influential.
In the North the development of the Negro Bap¬
tists did not proceed so smoothly. In the first
place, neither the majority of the Negroes nor a
large percentage of the whites in that section be¬
longed to the Baptist Church. The northern Ne¬
groes, moreover, had something to conjure with.
Methodism among them was a radical independent
movement offering liberty in a sphere in which the
Negro had never freely moved. Many Negroes,
therefore, heeded the call of the African Metho¬
dists to '' come ye out from among them and work
out your own salvation with fear and trembling."
Independent Methodists in the South, however,
were more of an exception to the rule than was
the case of the Baptists in the North, for the
Negro Baptists had every opportunity so to wor¬
ship God in the North, if they desired, whereas
the independent Negro Methodists were actually
prohibited from invading most of the South.
As a matter of fact the Baptist churches were
among the first separate organizations established
in the North for Negroes, and as the free Negroes
and fugitives were in the course of time driven out
of the South by the intolerable conditions obtain¬
ing there during the reactionary period, the north¬
ern Negro Baptist churches multiplied and their
Early Development 121
membership increased. Practically all large urban
communities of the North had some Negro Bap¬
tists. Philadelphia was especially well supplied.
There was the First African Church founded by
Negroes in 1809, with a membership of 257, under
Richard Vaughn in 1846. The Union Colored
Church, with a membership of 200, was in charge
of Daniel Scott. J. Henderson was the pastor of
the Third African Baptist Church, with a member¬
ship of only 61, and William Jackson ministered to
a similar number in the so-called African Church.
Farther north the Baptists were also ma-king
progress. The Abyssinian Baptist Church of
New York City was, in 1846, doing well under the
direction of Rev. Sampson White, with a member¬
ship of 424. In Boston the African Baptist
Church had held its own, but in New England,
where the abolition sentiment was developing and
there resulted a more healthy sentiment in behalf
of fairness for the Negro, the independent move¬
ment among Negro Methodists and Baptists was
not generally considered necessary. Negroes were
accepted in white churches and heard preached and
saw practiced the principles of the brotherhood of
man and the fatherhood of God. Only in centers
of large Negro population then, as in Boston,
Providence, Newport, New Haven and Hartford,
did the Negroes tend largely to separate from the
whites.
To the west, however, where came Negroes flee¬
ing from the persecution of the southern whites,
122 The History of the Negro Church
independent churches flourished much better.
Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincin¬
nati, Detroit, and Chicago soon found Baptist as
well as Methodist churches common. Some of the
pioneers in the group of Baptists were Richard
DeBaptiste of Detroit and later of Chicago, and
James Poindexter of Columbus. These in the
course of time so rapidly increased that the Negro
Baptists finally established an independent con¬
nection, the Providence Baptist Association, the
first Negro body of the kind in the United States,
organized in Ohio in 1836. Such was the case
in Illinois where the Baptist churches of St. Clair
and Madison counties, of Shawneetown, Vandalia,
Jacksonville, Springfield, Galena, and Chicago,
representing about twelve churches, organized in
1838 the Wood Eiver Baptist Association. Feel¬
ing that there was a need for a still larger body,
the churches of these parts organized in 1853 the
Western Colored Baptist Convention.
The progress of these independent churches in
the west suffered no interruption until the passage
of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, when many
Negroes who had escaped from the South and set¬
tled in these cities had to flee to Canada for safety.
In Canada West, the various settlements saw the
influence of the Baptists and Methodists extended,
but for a long time there had been a Baptist church
in Toronto which under Rev. W. Christian was
flourishing in 1846, and the Methodists soon made
there a more systematic effort.
Rev. Lott Cary
A missionary to Africa.
CHAPTER VI
THE SCHISM AND THE SUBSEQUENT SITUATION
A N important factor in the growth of the Negro
Church was that the Negroes found the white
churches of their choice less friendly and finally
saw them withdrawn from the churches in the
North to perpetuate slavery. In the South, the
slaves and free Negroes had to accept whatever
religious privileges were allowed them; but when
the national bodies grew lukewarm on abolition,
receded from the advanced position which they
had taken in the defense of the Negro, and persist¬
ently compromised on the question to placate their
southern adherents to maintain intact their na¬
tional organizations, Negroes forgot the stigma at¬
tached to their radical religious bodies and united
freely with their brethren who during the first
years of their independence found it difficult to
secure a following.
In 1808 the general conference of the Methodists
provided that the annual conferences should
form their own regulations relative to buying and
selling slaves, thus making it possible for the body
of preachers to act efficiently in one direction
against slavery, even should the general confer-
123
124 The History of the Negro Church
ence choose wholly to refrain. This rule was abro¬
gated in 1820, however, and the only important
changes made thereafter with reference to the
Negroes were some rules adopted in 1824, one of
which provided that all preachers should prudently
"enforce upon their members," the necessity
of teaching their slaves to read the word of God,
and to allow them time to attend upon the public
worship of God on our regular days of divine ser¬
vice. Another rule provided that Negro preachers
and official members should have all the privileges
which are usual to others in the district and quar¬
terly conferences, where the usages of the country
did not forbid it, and that the presiding elder
might hold for them a separate district confer¬
ence, when the number of Negro local preachers
would justify it. The annual conferences might
employ Negro preachers to travel and preach,
where their services were judged necessary, pro¬
vided that no one should be so employed without
having been recommended according to the form
of discipline.
The Presbyterians had tried to evade the Negro
question but it was again brought up in view of
the cruelty practiced in the traffic of slaves during
the first decade of the nineteenth century. The
General Assembly was forced to take some action
again in 1815. It then referred to its previous
resolutions on the subject and expressed regret
that slavery of Africans existed, hoping too that
such measures might be taken as would secure re-
The Schism and the Subsequent Situation 125
ligious education at least to the rising generation
of slaves as a preparation for their emancipation
at some time in the future. As to the transfer of
slaves necessary in the economy of the slave States
the General Assembly regarded this as unavoid¬
able; but it denounced the buying and selling of
slaves by way of traffic and all undue cruelty
among them as inconsistent with the spirit of the
Gospel, recommending it to the presbyteries and
sessions in their care to make use of all measures
to prevent such shameful conduct. In 1818 there
came before this General Assembly a resolution to
the effect that a person who should sell as a slave
a member of the church, who should be at the time
in good standing in the church and unwilling to be
sold, acted inconsistently with the spirit of Chris¬
tianity and ought to be debarred from the com¬
munion of the church.
After considerable discussion, the subject was
submitted to a committee to prepare a report for
the adoption of the General Assembly, embracing
the object of the above resolution and also express¬
ing the opinion of the Assembly as to slavery.
This report, unanimously adopted, carried, among
other things, a declaration that the voluntary en¬
slaving of one portion of the human race by an¬
other is a gross violation of the most precious
rights of human nature, utterly inconsistent with
the law of God which requires us to love our neigh¬
bors as ourselves, and totally irreconcilable with
the spirit and principles of the gospel of Christ,
126 The History of the Negro Church
which enjoins that all things whatsoever ye would
that men should do to you, do ye even unto them.1
In another part of this report, however, the As¬
sembly seemed to undo what it had done; for it
exhorted others to forbear harsh censures, and
uncharitable reflections on their brethren, who
unhappily live among slaves whom they cannot
immediately set free, but who, at the same time,
are really using all their influence, and all their
endeavors, to bring them into a state of freedom,
1 The Assembly bore it grievously that slavery exhibits the
persons of color as dependent on the will of others, "whether they
shall know and worship the true God, whether they shall enjoy
the ordinances of the gospel; whether they shall perform the
duties and cherish the endearments of husbands and wives, par¬
ents and children, neighbors and friends; whether they shall pre¬
serve their chastity and purity, or regard the dictates of justice
and humanity." . . . "The evils to which the slave is alwayB
exposed often take place in fact, and in their very worst degree
and form; and where all of them do not take place, as we rejoice
to say in many instances, through the influence of the principles
of humanity and religion on the mind of masters, they do not—
still the slave is deprived of his natural right, degraded as a
human being, and exposed to the danger of passing into the hands
of a master who may inflict upon him all the hardships and in¬
juries which humanity and avarice may suggest.
"From this view of the consequences resulting from the prac¬
tice into which Christian people have most inconsistently fallen,
of enslaving a portion of their brethren of mankind—for 'God
hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on the face
of the earth'—it is manifestly the duty of all Christians who
enjoy the light of the present day, when the inconsistency of
slavery, both with the dictates of humanity and religion, has
been demonstrated, and is generally seen and acknowledged, to
use their honest, earnest, and unwearied endeavors, to correct the
errors of former times, and as speedily as possible to efface this
blot on our holy religion, and to obtain the complete abolition
of slavery through Christendom, and if possible throughout the
world."
The Schism and the Subsequent Situation 127
as soon as a door for it can be safely opened. It
also encouraged the members of the Society to
patronize the American Colonization Society with
a view to sending the Negroes to Africa and thus
deliver themselves and their country from the
calamity of slavery. The General Assembly
recommended the encouragement of religious in¬
struction of the slaves in the principles of the
Christian religion, granting them liberty to attend
on the preaching of the gospel, when they have op¬
portunity, by favoring the instruction of them in
the Sabbath schools wherever those schools should
be formed and by giving them all other proper
advantages for acquiring the knowledge of their
duty both to God and man. The General Assem¬
bly further recommended that it was incumbent
on all Christians to communicate religious instruc¬
tion to those who are under their authority, so that
the doing of this "in the case before us so far from
operating as some have apprehended that it might,
as an incitement to insurrection, would, on the
contrary, operate as a most powerful means for
the prevention of those evils."
In this straddling position these churches tried
to discountenance as far as possible all cruelty of
whatever kind in the treatment of slaves, espe¬
cially the cruelty of separating husband and wife,
parents and children, and that which consisted in
selling slaves to those who would either themselves
deprive these unhappy people of the blessings of
the gospel or who would transfer them to places
128 The History of the Negro ChurcH
where the gospel was not proclaimed, or where it
was forbidden to slaves to attend upon its instruc¬
tion. During the thirties most of these churches
were taking the position of evading the question,
but the abolition members therein kept the prob¬
lem before them. Postponement of the discussion
thereafter became the order of the day. One dec¬
ade later many took the position assumed by the
Presbyterian Church in 1845 when, as a result of
various memorials on slavery, the Assembly, de¬
ploring the division of the church on slavery,
passed a resolution that the church could not leg¬
islate where Christ has not legislated, that as
Christ and the Apostles admitted slaveholders as
members of the church, they could not be expected
to do otherwise. Some disclaimed, however, any
desire to deny that slavery is an evil, or to counte¬
nance the idea that masters may regard their
slaves as real property and not as human beings.
They merely intended to say that since Christ and
his Apostles did not make the holding of slaves
a bar to communion, the church organizations as
the court of Christ had no authority to do so. The
apostles of Christ sought to ameliorate the con¬
dition of the slaves, not by denouncing and excom¬
municating their masters but by teaching both
masters and slaves the glorious doctrines of the
gospel and enjoining upon each a discharge of
their relative duties. These sects rejoiced rather
that the ministers and churches of the slavehold-
ing States were awakening to a deeper sense of
Rev. M. C. Clayton
A Baptist preacher of power in Baltimore before the Civil War.
The Schism and the Subsequent Situation 129
their obligations to extend to the slave population
generally the means of grace, for many slavehold¬
ers not professedly religious favored this object.
They deplored the agitation which tended to sep¬
arate the northern from the southern portion of
the church, "a result which every good citizen
must deplore as tending to the disunion of our be¬
loved country and which every enlightened Chris¬
tian will oppose as bringing about a ruinous and
unnecessary schism between brethren who main¬
tain a common faith."
The schism, however, was impending; for the
southern members of the churches boldly defended
slavery as justified by the scriptures, while many
northerners differed from them. Ministers and
laymen wrote works setting forth these doctrines
while pseudo-scientists and philosophers under¬
took to justify the enslavement of the Negroes
on the ground of racial inferiority. Southerners
who would not go to the extent of justifying the
institution on these untenable grounds merely
deprecated it as an evil for which they were not
responsible and of which they could not rid them¬
selves. Richard Fuller, a southern Baptist of un¬
usual influence in shaping the policy of that sect in
his section, expressed this thought in the words:
"I am willing to appear in any controversy which
can even by implication place me in a false light
and odious attitude representing me as a eulogist
and abettor of slavery, and not as simply the
apologist of an institution transmitted to us by
130 The History of the Negro Church
former generations—the existence of which I la¬
ment—for the commencement of which I am not
at all responsible—for the extinction of which I
am willing to make greater sacrifices than any
abolitionist has made or would make, if the cause
of true humanity would be thus advanced.''
The outbreaks soon followed, however, in spite
of efforts to heal the breach. There came from the
Alabama State Baptist Convention a memorial
with respect to the discrimination of the Foreign
Mission Board against slaveholders in making its
appointments. The reply of the Board was con¬
ciliatory but was to the effect that a slaveholder
could not be consistently appointed as a mission¬
ary for the reason that such action would involve
an approval of slavery. This and other Baptist
conventions thereafter severed their connection
with the national body, and in 1845 organized the
Southern Baptist Convention. That same year
occurred the secession of the Southern Methodists.
That denomination had for years struggled with
this question and had undertaken to maintain the
position that slavery is an evil to be deplored and
that ministers and bishops at least should abstain
therefrom. When, in 1845, the Methodists under¬
took to discipline one of its bishops, James 0.
Andrew, charging him with holding slaves, the
southern delegates stood by him and withdrew to
organize the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
In 1857, the Presbyterians who had all but compro¬
mised sufficiently to hold their national body intact
The Schism and the Subsequent Situation 131
gave an expression of opinion on the Fugitive
Slave Law which so offended its southern mem¬
bers that they withdrew and formed the nucleus
around which the Southern Presbyterian Church
was established in 1861.
In spite of the reactionary tendencies of the
white churches, however, no such thing as the in¬
dependence of the Negro had ever been possible
in the South and could not be so after the radical
aspect which this movement assumed in the North.
In slave States, the majority of Negroes became
a decidedly neglected mass during the reaction,
although many of them were nominally members
of churches. When because of the insurrection¬
ary movement led by certain blacks like Gabriel
Prosser, Denmark Vesey and Nat Turner, it be¬
came unpopular to teach Negroes to read and
the educated white persons were not willing to
supply this lack of religious workers among the
blacks, there was no longer hope for ordinary re¬
ligious instruction. This reaction was unusually
disastrous to the Negro preacher when it was
noised abroad that Nat Turner was a minister.
The rumor attached to Negro ministers through¬
out the South the stigma of using preaching as a
means to incite their race to servile insurrection.
Some of the legislation enacted by the States
after this great upheaval will indicate the extent
to which this fear controlled the minds of the
southern people. In 1832 Virginia passed a law
to silence Negro preachers, making it impossible
132 The History of the Negro Church
for them thus to function except in compliance
with very rigid regulations and in the presence of
certain discreet white men. In 1833, Alabama
made it unlawful for slaves or free Negroes to
preach unless before five respectable slaveholders
and when authorized by some neighboring relig¬
ious society. Georgia enacted a law in 1834 pro¬
viding that neither free Negroes nor slaves might
preach or exhort an assembly of more than seven
unless licensed by justices on the certificate of
three ordained ministers. Other Southern States
soon followed the example of these, passing more
drastic laws prohibiting the assembly of Negroes
after the early hours of the night, and providing
for the expulsion of all free Negroes from such
commonwealths, so as to reduce the danger of
mischief from the spread of information by this
more enlightened class.
Thus circumscribed, the Negroes in the South
had to follow their masters in religious matters.
They continued to join the Methodist and Baptist
churches, but constituted a part of a mixed mem¬
bership worshiping under the same roof. The
masters had long since learned that coincidence
of religious belief on the part of the slave and
the owner was a necessity in the economy of the
slaveholding States. No master would look with
favor upon seeing his slave proselyted or influ¬
enced by a minister whom he would not tolerate
as his own spiritual adviser. Later there was not
much commingling of the two races in the same
The Schism and the Subsequent Situation 133
meetings. White ministers preached to the Ne¬
groes in their special meetings or provided some
Negro exhorter of power to supply that need, but
only when such Negro minister's character had
been thoroughly investigated and approved in ac¬
cordance with the law and public opinion. Where
there were not so very many Negroes in the
churches, they were segregated in the gallery or
certain pews, which they entered by a side door,
as provided in the Court of the Gentiles in the
Temple of Jehovah; but if there were many Ne¬
groes and very few whites in these congregations,
they usually provided separate buildings or used
the same edifices at different hours. The argu¬
ment in favor of this segregation was that God in
making the races different intended that they
should be kept separate and distinct.
Where there was allowed much liberty in seat¬
ing, very often grave problems arose. Such was
the case in Charleston, South Carolina, in the
Bethel Church in 1833 on an occasion when Dr.
Capers was to preach. As more whites came than
could be seated and the Negroes refused to vacate
their customary seats, a number of uncouth young
white men forcibly ejected them therefrom. Be¬
cause one of the preachers a few days thereafter
sharply criticized this action of the uncouth ele¬
ment they became unusually indignant, register¬
ing a protest against such censure. An effort was
made to settle the matter by reconciliation, but
when that failed, nine of the young men were ex-
134 The History of the Negro Church
pelled only to be followed by 150 others to form
a new organization, which established connection
with the Methodist Protestant Church.
This sort of segregation was common to all of
the denominations alike. The Presbytery of
Charleston, finding the church in that city unusu¬
ally crowded in 1850, built a structure for the
worship of the Negro membership, costing $7,700.
The edifice was of the shape of a T to provide
seats for the whites in the transepts. It had
connected with it all of the facilities for religious
instruction in the other churches with the excep¬
tion that teaching was oral. The Episcopalians
in that city, however, found it more difficult to
carry out such a policy in relieving the conges¬
tion of the Negro pews in St. Michael's and St.
Phillip's. These communicants decided to build
what was to be called the Calvary Church for the
accommodation of the blacks who were then occu¬
pying temporary quarters in Temperance Hall.
Because of certain radical action of the burial so¬
cieties among the Negro communicants, however,
the owner of Temperance Hall refused further to
accommodate the Negroes and the Calvary Church
was demolished while it was in the process of con¬
struction.
The Negroes seemed to have retained several
separate places of worship in the State of Vir¬
ginia, as in the case of Georgia. Among the
churches established for Negroes at a very early
period was that of Williamsburg, Virginia, organ-
The Schism and the Subsequent Situation 135
ized exclusively for Negroes in 1776 and admitted
as such to the Dover Baptist Association in 1791.
Upon petitioning the state legislature in 1823, how¬
ever, the Negroes were refused the permit to build
a Baptist church in Richmond, although the one
used by the whites was not sufficiently spacious to
permit their attendance. In 1841, however, when
the Baptist church was finally compelled to build
a new structure to accommodate its increasing
membership, they turned over to the Negroes for
their special place of worship the old building in
which they organized what is known as the first
African Baptist Church under the pastorate of
the Rev. Robert Ryland, a white man, who served
during the same period as president of Richmond
College. When this became unusually crowded
the Ebenezer Baptist Church was organized by
the overflow membership in 1855 and was con¬
trolled very much in the same way. There were
flourishing Negro Methodist and Baptist churches
in other parts during the forties, fifties, and six¬
ties, conducted very much on the order of the
First African Baptist Church in Richmond, or
like the Anthony Street Church in Mobile, Ala¬
bama, in charge of the Rev. Keidor Hawthorne.
In other centers in Virginia, however, the Negroes
were proceeding almost independently. There
was then a representative Baptist congregation in
Portsmouth under the direction of the noted
builder and organizer, E. G. Corpew. Rev. Mr.
Morris, another pioneer in the work, was at this
136 The History of the Negro Church
time leading forward the Court Street Baptist
Church in Lynchburg. In 1837 and 1838 Sampson
White was reported as a successful minister in
charge of the Gillfield Baptist Church of Peters¬
burg, which as early as 1803 undertook to erect
its first structure. Sampson White then went to
Norfolk for a short stay in this inviting field, and
in 1839 came to Washington and organized the
Nineteenth Street Baptist Church.
In the District of Columbia, where, as in Mary¬
land, the restrictions on Negroes were not so rigid
as in some other parts of the South, the Negroes
had numerous churches of the Baptist and Metho¬
dist faith, and under the leadership of John F.
Cooke established, in 1843, the Fifteenth Street
Presbyterian Church.
Baltimore was no exception to this rule. As
the slave and free membership freely mingled in
that city they had, as early as 1835, ten congrega¬
tions, and by 1847 thirteen, ten of which were
Methodist. The work of the Baptists had been
largely promoted by M. C. Clayton, the preacher
of versatile genius, who founded the First Afri¬
can Church in that city in 1836, and by Noah Davis,
a leader and organizer of much ability.
This favorable condition, however, obtained in
the South only in those communities where the
authorities winked at the violation of the law by
free Negroes and where slaves enjoyed unusual
privileges because their masters* were a law unto
themselves. In 1828 the Alabama Baptist Asso-
The Schism and the Subsequent Situation 137
ciation conditionally purchased a slave named
Caesar at the cost of $625 and sent him to preach
the gospel and live among his people. He was
then made the companion of the famous white
evangelist, James McLemore, of much note in Ala¬
bama. Caesar was respected alike for piety and
his ability as a preacher. Not infrequently he
addressed audiences composed entirely of whites.
Another slave of Alabama, Doc Phillips, was a
Baptist preacher of a commanding influence
among his people. The Tuskegee Association of
that State undertook to purchase him that he
might be appointed a missionary, but he declined
to be severed from his master, who allowed him
whatever time he might desire for preaching.
So was this true of George Bentley of Giles
County, Tennessee, a slave of unusual note, hav¬
ing attained distinction as a preacher of power,
well versed in polemic theology. Out of a debate
on baptism lasting more than four days he
emerged victor over a white minister in that
county challenging him to a discussion of the
principles of baptism. He numbered among his
communicants the best white people of the com¬
munity, who paid him a salary of more than $600.
He, like Doc Phillips, refused to have his congre¬
gation purchase his freedom, as he did not care to
be separated from his kind master.
Here and there in the South, however, there
developed certain Negro preachers better known
to fame. A striking example of this class was Lott
138 The History of the Negro Church
Cary, who was born a slave in Virginia. When
quite young he was hired out and thereby came
under the influences which caused him to be a
man given to profane and intemperate habits,
although his parents were of the higher class of
slaves. In 1807, however, he was awakened by
hearing a sermon from the third chapter of John
on the interview of Nicodemus with our Saviour,
from the words: "Notwithstanding what I say un¬
to you, you must be born again." So powerful
was the preaching and so telling was the effect
on the mind of this slave that he immediately
secured a copy of the New Testament and almost
miraculously learned to read by studying that
chapter. Upon developing into a strong spiritual
man, he was made superintendent of all the labor¬
ers in the tobacco warehouse in which he was
working in Richmond. Not long thereafter he
received permission to serve as an exhorter in
the First African Baptist Church of that city,
the membership of which, then being about 2,000,
required the services of a number of assistant
pastors.
Lott Cary reached a new stage in his develop¬
ment in the fall of 1813, when Luther Rice, who
had just returned from the East, appeared in that
city preaching rousing sermons urging the Bap¬
tists to enter upon and to support the work of
missions in foreign fields. In November of that
year the Richmond Foreign Missionary Society
was organized and delegates were sent to Phila-
The Schism and the Subsequent Situation 139
delphia the following spring to participate in the
organization of the Baptist Triennial Convention.
As this new body had for one of its objects mis¬
sion work in foreign fields, the national interest
aroused therein excited also a deep interest among
the Negro members of the churches in Richmond.
Two years later, therefore, the Richmond African
Baptist Missionary Society, with Lott Carey as
the moving spirit, was formed with the sole ob¬
ject of sending the gospel into Africa. This soci¬
ety was composed of the Negro members of the
First African Baptist Church and of other
churches throughout the city. It held annual
meetings and with their small donations accu¬
mulated as much as $700 during the first four
years.
As no one volunteered to go abroad to extend
this mission work, Lott Cary himself determined
to go to Africa, accompanied by Collin Teague.
They were, therefore, duly appointed by the Board
of the Baptist Triennial Convention as mission¬
aries to Liberia. In 1821 Cary and Teague with
many others sailed from Norfolk for the land of
their fathers beyond the Atlantic. Before leaving
Richmond, Cary and wife, Teague and wife with
their son Hillary, who later became editor of the
Liberian Herald, and Joseph Sanford and his
wife, formed what is called the First Baptist
Church of Monrovia. This congregation was later
designated as the mother of the Providence Bap¬
tist Association in Liberia.
140 The History of the Negro Church
Upon arriving in Liberia, Lott Cary addressed
himself with much energy to the task of recon¬
struction and organization in this foreign field.
He easily became a leader among the communi¬
cants of that denomination and preached for years
among them* as a man representative of the power
of the gospel unto the salvation of the heathen.
Wielding such influence in the religious field, he
easily convinced others of the necessity for avail¬
ing themselves of his services in another line. He
was, therefore, made governor of one of the prov¬
inces of Liberia. After administering the affairs
of this province a short period he fell a victim
to the diseases which swept away so many others
who gave their lives as a sacrifice in this foreign
land.
His fate, too, was not unlike that of Harrison
Ellis of Alabama. In that rapidly developing
slaveholding commonwealth where men gave little
attention to things spiritual, even for the whites
themselves, Harrison Ellis rose to great emi¬
nence as a power in the church. Born a slave, he
was, of course, denied the opportunities for mental
development. He was, however, a man of such
strong character and so efficient in his work as a
blacksmith, a trade in which he excelled, that it
was possible for him to secure privileges denied
so many others of his race. He soon mastered
the rudiments of education, and building upon this
foundation, began to acquire knowledge of Latin.
Having a deep impression as to the worth of
Sampson White
A Baptist preacher in Virginia, the District of Columbia, and
New York almost a century ago.
The Schism and the Subsequent Situation 141
Christianity and the influence of the gospel as a
factor in the uplift of his people, he thought of
preparing himself for the ministry. The study
of Latin then was to some extent neglected for
a more thorough study of Greek with a view to
reading the New Testament. Some attention was
thereafter given to Hebrew to get a better grasp
of the linguistic setting of the Old Testament.
He thereafter took up the principles of theology.
A man of such unusual attainments in spite of
the various difficulties with which he had to strug¬
gle in earning a livelihood and securing instruc¬
tion, Ellis naturally impressed the people of his
community. Coming under the influence of the
Presbyterians, he was encouraged by them to
make an effort for the exercise of his gifts as a
minister. As a man of such a well developed mind
could not find in this country adequate opportun¬
ity for service in this field, he was urged to go to
Liberia. The Presbyterian synod of Alabama,
therefore, examined him with a view to testing his
efficiency. In this examination he proved himself
a good Latin and Hebrew scholar and showed still
greater proficiency in Greek. His attainments in
theology were highly satisfactory. Giving an ac¬
count of the rise of this prodigy the Eufala Shield,
an organ of that State, referred to him as a man
"courteous in manners, polite in conversation and
missionary in demeanor." Impressed with his
usefulness, the Presbyterians of Alabama finally
purchased him and his family, in 1847, at a cost
142 The History of the Negro Church
of $2,500, that they might go to Liberia and work
among their own people.
In Liberia, Harrison Ellis took np his post
under very favorable auspices. He quickly im¬
pressed those with whom he came in contact, at¬
tracted to him a sufficient number of persons to
constitute a respectable following, easily held his
own among other intelligent Negroes, and finally
became one of the most influential men in the
colony. Soon thereafter, however, like so many
others, who in that land of their fathers gave their
lives as a sacrifice for their many persecuted
brethren in the western world, he finally proved
inadequate to the demands of that climate and
passed away, admired by those who knew him and
mourned by his coworkers and friends.
These few Negro ministers, however, could not
reach the masses of their race. In their undevel¬
oped state the rural Negroes depended upon the
crumbs that fell from the white ministers' tables.
The religious experience of such Negroes, there¬
fore, was more nominal than rational. Many of
them obtained their first religious impressions in
some camp meeting during a special effort in behalf
of the lost. These meetings were looked forward
to with a great deal of anticipation and persons,
knowing of the good supposedly derived there¬
from, came from afar and remained about the
place, thus giving to such convocations the well-
known name of camp meetings. As these assem¬
blages were social as well as religious and some-
The Schism and the Subsequent Situation 143
times partook of a festive nature, the Negroes
easily became attracted to this more liberal
method of promoting the cause of Christ.
The Negroes in these meetings appealed espe¬
cially to the white ministers because of their quick
response to the appeal to come out of darkness
into light. While an Episcopal clergyman with
his ritual and prayer book had difficulty in inter¬
esting the Negroes, they flocked in large numbers
to the spontaneous exercises of the Methodists
and Baptists, who, being decidedly evangelical in
their preaching, had a sort of hypnotizing effect
upon the Negroes, causing them to be seized with
certain emotional jerks and outward expressions
of an inward movement of the spirit which made
them lose control of themselves. The program of
the day was a delivery of sermons at intervals, in¬
terspersed here and there by appeals to sinners to
come forward to be prayed for at the anxious seat,
while various members, having unusual influence
over the unconverted and in touch with God, whis¬
pered in their ears the way to find salvation and
life.
Among the Baptists, the soul-stirring reunion
was known as a protracted meeting, which differed
very little from that of the Methodist camp meet¬
ing. The preacher came forward, declaring the
dawn of a new day and the shower of blessings
that every one could receive. The burden of his
message was that he had come to set forth those
things which had been hitherto kept from the wise
144 The History of the Negro Church
and prudent but lately revealed unto fools. See¬
ing that they were made a special object of the
philanthropy of these new workers, the Negroes
became seized with hysteria because of this new
boon; and the interest in the work passing from
one to another, spread almost like a contagion,
moving communities to seek salvation. Persons
passing as sinners were made to feel that they
were wretches in the sight of God and that direful
punishments awaited them as the lot of the wicked.
Their state was awful to behold, and their oppor¬
tunities were swiftly passing away. That moment
was the accepted time; for their delay would mean
damnation. Persons fell helpless before the altar
of the church and had to be carried out to be
ministered unto, and when they emerged from
their semi-conscious state they came forward sing¬
ing the song of the redeemed who had been washed
white in the blood of the Lamb.
Statistics show, however, that such a conversion
of people who were given no opportunity for
mental development amounted to very little in the
edification of their souls. Not long after these
exciting camp meetings and protracted efforts
had passed over many of these persons, who had
been most vociferous in their praise of God for
cleansing them of their many sins, readily fell
thereafter by the wayside in engaging in what is
known as pleasurable evils. Baptists and Metho¬
dists during this period insisted that dancing was
an evil, but how could the plantation Negro resist
The Schism and the Subsequent Situation 145
the temptation when he heard the clapping of the
hands and the tune of the banjo ? It became fash¬
ionable, therefore, for a person to be converted
several seasons, sometimes once every four or five
consecutive summers before his feet could be com¬
pletely taken out of the mire and the clay and
placed upon the solid rock where the wind might
blow and the storm might rise, but none should
frighten them from the shore.
Because this wild religious excitement meant
very little in the uplift of the slaves, there were
throughout the South members of other than
Methodist and Baptist churches who still adhered
to the idea of the literary instruction of the blacks.
Although there were soon laws on the statute
books to the contrary in practically all of the
Southern States, the wives and children of min¬
isters taught their few slaves to read the Bible,
and when this was unpopular or prohibited, they
made use of the catechism in requiring the Ne¬
groes to memorize the principles of religion
and to learn formal prayers. There were some
masters who went to the extent of opening pri¬
vate schools for their slaves.
The more the Negroes were instructed by these
rather intellectual denominations, however, the
less they, as a group, seemed inclined to join their
fortunes with those persons who were disposed to
lay a foundation for an intensive spiritual devel¬
opment. When the Methodists and Baptists had
had a chance to proselyte the Negroes, the Episco-
146 The History of the Negro Church
palians and the like were almost relieved of the
necessity for any effort among them. From the
report of Alston's Parish in South Carolina, in
which there were 13,000 slaves, for example, 3,200
were Methodists and 1,500 Baptists, while only
300 belonged to the Episcopal Church. In St.
Peter's Parish of that State the Methodists had
1,335 of 6,600 in 1845. In the Parish of St.
Helena the Baptists reported 2,132 communicants,
the Methodists 314, and the Episcopalians only 52.
The Episcopalians discounted the religious benefit
derived by attendance upon the Methodist and
Baptist evangelical meetings, feeling that because
of their social and festive nature the Negroes lost
more in worldly pleasures thereby than they
gained in spiritual uplift. Many of them believed
that it would have been much better for the slaves,
had their masters kept them at home. They did
not think very well of the influence of the Negro
preachers, contending that they often did harm.
Where there was an improvement in Negro char¬
acter many insisted that it was due to the religious
and moral training given by their masters, and
still more largely by their mistresses. For this
reason it was strongly urged upon masters to
manifest more interest in the morals of their bond¬
men, as it would not only make them better men
spiritually but would increase their economic
efficiency.
From the Negroes' point of view, however,
religious experience did not result from instruc-
The Schism and the Subsequent Situation 147
tion in books. Persons known to be illiterate had
strange visions and prophesied with such success
as to move multitudes. Slaves prohibited from
attending meetings violated the law and braved
the dangerous network of the patrols enforcing
the police regulations. "When converted they made
no secret of their new experience and boldly
shouted before their masters, praising the Lord.
That they should, contrary to instructions, fre¬
quent the places of these emotional upheavals
was considered crime enough, but to appear before
their owners themselves, telling them about what
the Lord had done for their souls and at the same
time warning these aristocratic '4 Christians'' to
repent of their sins and flee from the wrath to
come, was more than the ruling class could endure.
These Negro converts were cruelly told to hush
up because they "were getting above themselves,"
and if they refused to obey, many of them were
whipped until they stood in puddles of blood
drawn by the lashes inflicted upon their bodies,
while others, stricken down with heavy blows or
subjected to mortal torture, went to their death
rather than cease to bear witness for Jesus.
CHAPTER VII
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION REVIVED
BECAUSE such religious instruction as the
Negroes received after the enactment and
the enforcement of the reactionary legislation of
the South failed to secure to them that mental de¬
velopment necessary to understand the Christian
doctrine and to connect it with the practical prob¬
lems of life, northern friends of the Negroes
forced a change in their religious instruction by
exposing the unchristian policy of preventing a
people from learning of God through the only
source of revelation, the Bible. Abolitionists like
William Jay and many northern ministers who
did not consider themselves anti-slavery, fear¬
lessly branded as sinners the so-called southern
Christians who were thus preventing the coming
of the kingdom of God. Southerners eloquently
retorted on the defensive, of course, but believed
in their hearts that the deplorable situation should
be remedied. Much effort was made thereafter
to render more thorough the oral instruction of
slaves, but without very much success. Nearer
the middle of the nineteenth century, however,
148
JOSIAH HENSON
A pioneer Methodist preacher in Canada. The Prototype of
Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Religious Instruction Revived 149
there appeared among the clergy and sympathetic
whites in the South some inclination to disregard
the custom and laws of that section that the neces¬
sary foundation for the instruction of the Negroes
in the Christian doctrine might be given.
In this work the evangelical denominations par¬
ticipated more freely than others. From the
Episcopal Church to which most of the richest
slaveholders belonged, not very much help came
because that church never considered slavery a
sin and never made it a matter of discipline. That
the bodies of the Negroes were made miserable in
this world and that their souls might be damned
were of little concern to some persons, who were
not especially interested in monopolizing heaven
even for poor whites. The gospel, moreover, as
some saw it, had little to do with the settlement
of differences between the races in this world,
since it was rather concerned with the adjustment
of affairs in the kingdom to come.
There were among the Episcopalians, however,
some striking exceptions to this rule. Among
these should be mentioned Bishop Polk of Louisi¬
ana. In 1854, he informed Frederick L. Olmsted,
who was then traveling through that country, that
he had confirmed thirty black persons near the
station assigned to the Legree estate, where the
conditions set forth in Uncle Tom's Cabin, he con¬
tended, did not obtain. Bishop Polk owned 400
slaves himself but endeavored to bring them up in
a religious manner, baptizing all of their children
150 The History of the Negro Church
and teaching them the catechism. "All without
exception," says Olmsted,'' attend the church ser¬
vice, and the chanting is creditably performed by
them in the opinion of their owner. Ninety of
them are communicants, marriages are celebrated
according to the church ritual, and the state of
morals is satisfactory. Twenty infants had been
baptized by the Bishop just before his departure
from home, and he had left his whole estate, hia
keys and the like, in the sole charge of one of his
slaves, without the slightest apprehension of loss
or damage.'' Referring further to the slavehold-
ing of this minister of the gospel, Olmsted re¬
marked that 4'in considering the position of this
Christian prelate as a slaveholder, the English
reader must bear in mind that by the laws of
Louisiana emancipation had been rendered all but
impracticable, and that if practicable it would not
necessarily be in all cases an act of mercy or of
justice.''
Taking up again the religious instruction of the
slaves, Olmsted found "that there were widely
different practices in that State." He observed
that there were some other slaveholders who, like
Bishop Polk, encouraged and even obliged their
slaves to engage in religious exercises. Yet
among the wealthier slave owners, and especially
in that section of the country where the blacks
outnumbered the whites, there was generally a
visible and often an avowed distrust of the effect
of religious exercises upon slaves and even the
Religious Instruction Revived 151
preaching of white clergymen to them was per¬
mitted by many only with reluctance. The pre¬
vailing impression among northern people with
regard to the important influence of slavery in
promoting the spread of religion among the
blacks, he contended, was erroneous. Northern
clergymen supposed as a general thing that there
was a regular daily instruction of the slaves in
the truths of Christianity. "So far as this is
from being the case," said Olmsted, "although
family prayers were held in several of the fifty
planters' houses in Mississippi and Alabama in
which I passed a night, I never in a single instance
saw a field hand attend or join in the devotions
of the family."
There should be mentioned also in this connec¬
tion the services of Bishop Meade of the Protes¬
tant Episcopal Church of Virginia. Early in his
career he addressed himself to the neglected con¬
dition of the Negroes, preaching rousing sermons,
telling them their duty toward their own group.
He was interested in the colonization movement
and hoped to secure the release of certain recap¬
tured Africans to encourage the manumission of
others who might be given a chance to establish
a nation for their race in Africa. Although there¬
after he did not emphasize the emancipation of
the slaves very much because of the reactionary
influences at work in the country, he did advocate
the thorough education of those slaves who were
to be colonized abroad. As an impetus in this di-
152 The History of the Negro Church
rection lie republished the sermons of the Rev.
Thomas Bacon, who answered every argument
presented against the religious instruction of
Negroes. He especially besought the ministers
of the gospel to take into serious consideration
a matter of which "they also will have to give
an account.'' " Did not Christ,'' said he,1* die for
these poor creatures as well as for any others, and
has he not given charge to the minister to gather
his sheep into the fold?"
The Presbyterians, much more liberal in their
attitude toward the blacks than the Episcopalians,
manifested an unfailing interest in the condition
of these people far down. Although the church
as a national body receded from its early position
of attacking slavery and thereafter compromised
with the institution, there was among these people
in the various parts of the country a continu¬
ous effort to promote the religious instruction of
the Negroes. Early manifesting interest in the
preparation of Negroes for colonization in Africa,
the Presbyterians planned to bring out of the
South Negroes liberated for expatriation that
they might be first trained in a school for this
purpose established at Parsippanny, New Jersey.
As this failed, this church finally established for
this purpose, in 1854, Ashmun Institute, now Lin¬
coln University.
In the very heart of the South, however, the
Presbyterians did not fail to aid the instruction
of Negroes wherever public opinion permitted it,
Religious Instruction Revived 153
although they had to confine themselves largely
to verbal instruction. In the mountains of Vir¬
ginia, North Carolina, and Kentucky, where the
Scotch-Irish element dominated, there was no
diminution of ardor in the religious instruction
of the Negroes. Expressions of interest came
also from the Presbyterian synods of Georgia
and Alabama, while those in the mountains openly
advocated literary instruction as a preparation
for thorough indoctrination. In the States of
Maryland, Tennessee, and Kentucky, they were not
handicapped by laws prohibiting the education of
the Negroes. They, therefore, spoke out more
boldly for the establishment of schools, and espe¬
cially Sabbath schools, which paid as much atten¬
tion to the teaching of reading as it did to the
actual instruction in the Bible.
Among the Presbyterians in the South the most
efficient worker was the Rev. C. C. Jones, who
toiled among the Negroes in Georgia. Taking the
situation as it was rather than complaining be¬
cause it was not different, Jones addressed himself
to the task of trying to convince the slave owners
as to the advisability of religious instruction. He
believed that if the circumstances of the Negroes
were changed, they would equal if not excel the
rest of the human family in religion, intellect,
purity of morals and ardor of piety. He feared
that white men would cherish a contempt for the
Negroes which would cause them to sink lower
in the scale of morality and religion. He, there-
154 The History of the Negro Church
fore, advocated the attendance of both races upon
the same services that they might learn by con¬
tact from their masters. The independent church
organization for which the Negroes contended, he
believed, would rather give them an opportunity
to deteriorate.
By a logical array of facts, moreover, he tried
to prove that Negroes who had been instructed
in the doctrines of Christianity had less tendency
toward servile insurrection than those who had
been left in heathenism. Even the Southampton
insurrection started by Nat Turner, he believed,
was due to the fact that, being unable to under¬
stand the real scheme of things, he had misguided
the slaves by his false prophecy. Those Negroes
who had been well instructed in the principles of
Christianity had never been found guilty of any
such crimes.
In this effort Jones had a very difficult task;
for the tendency during that day was rather
toward segregation in the church. Most south¬
ern men had no idea of elevating the Negroes
to the status of white men, not even in matters
of religion. The whites believed that the domes¬
tic element of the system of slavery itself afforded
adequate means for their improvement and the
natural safe and effective means of their eleva¬
tion. In other words, their instruction must be
decidedly different from that of white men, in
regard to whom the term education had widely
different significations. The best the Negro could
Religious Instruction Revived 155
hope for would be an imitation of the white man
to call into action that peculiar capacity for copy¬
ing the mental and moral habits of the superior
race.
Jones's work did not differ materially from
that of the Rev. Josiah Law of Georgia, who was
almost as successful in grappling with the same
problem. These workers, however, soon found
that there was a strenuous objection even to the
verbal instruction of Negroes for fear that the
oral exercise would inspire a desire for literary
training, which was out of harmony with the
status of the Negro in a slaveholding common¬
wealth. Thinking that it might lead to such a state
of affairs, most masters in some parts of the South
opposed all instruction of Negroes during the
thirties and forties.
Thereafter appeared occasional evidences of
further interest in the religious instruction and
the evangelization of the slaves and free people
of color, however, in spite of this opposition.
Much interest was manifested in this work by
the Presbyterians of Charleston; Union, Georgia;
Concord, South Alabama; and Mississippi. In
1825 the General Assembly went on record to the
effect that "no more honored name could be con¬
ferred on a minister of Jesus than that of Apostle
to the American slaves, and no service can be
more pleasing to the God of Heaven, or more
useful to our beloved country, than that which this
title designates.''
156 The History of the Negro Church
The minutes quoted from the report of the
Presbytery of Georgia in 1839 said: "We are
happy to say, in regard to the religious instruction
of the Negroes, that this important part of our
service has received a new impulse during the
last year. This business receives considerable
attention in many parts of our bounds. Planta¬
tions are open to all our ministers and fields
presented among this people which it is impossible
for them to occupy. Sabbath schools, for their
exclusive benefit, exist in some of our churches,
and we are happy to believe that there is an in¬
creasing interest felt on this subject. Within our
bounds there is one minister whose whole minis¬
try is devoted exclusively to this people, and
most, if not all, the several pastors and stated
supplies preach as often as once a week to this
class of our population. In Liberty County there
is at this time very considerable attention to re¬
ligion among the blacks, not less than fifty being
under serious impressions. A beloved brother
in Augusta and another in the vicinity of Natchez
are following the noble example by devoting their
whole time to this interesting work."
The Presbytery of Georgia remarked in refer¬
ring to one of their number who devoted his whole
time to this work: "During the year he has been
blessed with a revival in one part of his field of
labor. Fourteen professed conversion, and were
added to the church. Another brother, in another
Religious Instruction Revived 157
part of our bounds, reports the conversion and
reception into the church to which he ministers, of
eight colored persons." And the Presbytery of
Hopewell spoke of their churches generally as
cheerfully yielding the half of their pastor's ser¬
vices to this department of labor. It also ex¬
pressed a belief that several churches "will soon
be erected for the exclusive accommodation of
the Negroes, and that the field will be occupied
as missionary ground by at least one who is deeply
interested in the work."
The Presbytery of South Alabama said in 1847:
"Perhaps without a solitary exception our min¬
isters are devoting a considerable part of their
labors to the benefit of the colored population. It
is a field which we all hope to cultivate ; and to
some the great Head of the Church is intimating
an abundant harvest." "Most of our pastors,"
said the Presbytery of Charleston, "devote a part
of the time to the exclusive service of the blacks
and in some instances with the most pleasing suc¬
cess. A scheme is now in agitation for the full
consent of the Presbytery for establishing an Afri¬
can Church in the city of Charleston."
In 1854 the report of the General Assembly on
the instruction of the Negroes in the slave States
said that instead of abating, the interest in the re¬
ligious welfare of the Negroes was increasing.
In their houses of worship provision at once spe¬
cial and liberal was made for the accommodation
158 The History of the Negro Church
of the people of color so that they might enjoy
the privileges of the sanctuary in common with
the whites. " Besides this, nearly all of our min¬
isters hold a service in the afternoon of the Sab¬
bath, in which all exercises are particularly
adapted to their capacities and wants. In some
instances ministers are engaged in their exclusive
service . . . not ministers of inferior ability, but
such as would be an ornament and a blessing to the
intelligent, cultivated congregations of the land.
In a still larger number of instances the pastor
of a church composed of the two classes, inasmuch
as the blacks formed the more numerous portion,
devotes to them the greater share of his labors,
and finds among them the most pleasing tokens
of God's smiles upon his work. Besides the
preaching of the word to which they have free
access, in many cases a regular system of catechet¬
ical instruction for their benefit is pursued, either
on the Sabbath at the house of worship or during
the week on the plantations where they reside.
. . . The position taken by our Church with ref¬
erence to the much agitated subject of slavery
secures to us the unlimited opportunities of ac¬
cess to master and slave, and lays us under heavy
responsibilities before God and the world not to
neglect our duty to either.''
Among the Methodists who directed their at¬
tentions to mission work among Negroes no one
was more prominent than Bishop William Capers
of South Carolina. He had no idea of preparing
Noah Davis
A Baptist pi eacher in Baltimore almost a century aj*o.
Religious Instruction Revived 159
Negroes for manumission, but looked to the edi¬
fication of their souls as a preparation for the
life to come, justifying the relation of slave and
the master by the Bible in keeping with most min¬
isters of his time. He emphasized, on the other
hand, the necessity of the masters' being kind to
their bondmen and especially in providing for
their spiritual needs. After preaching a number
of sermons to this effect, he devised a scheme for
adapting the teaching of the Christian truth to the
mental condition of the slaves. He planned to
have the old Negroes instructed by preachers and
the children through catechists by the memory
method, while their minds were in a plastic state,
always remembering, however, that any minister
who did not believe in the southern religion of
the relation of master and slave as sanctioned by
his sort of Christianity should not enter upon this
work. With the support of a number of leading
men in that commonwealth Bishop Capers estab¬
lished two missions in 1829 and two additional
ones in 1833. Thereafter one or two others were
added every year until 1847, when there were
seventeen engaging the attention of twenty-five
preachers. When Bishop Capers died in 1855 he
saw his work, according to his plan, very well
done. The Methodists then had 26 missions
manned by 32 preachers, having in their churches
11,546 communicants. The cost of this religious
instruction had, during the Bishop's time, in¬
creased from $300 to $25,000 a year.
160 The History of the Negro Church
The work of the Baptists here and there was
almost as effective, but because of their lack of a
national body to concentrate the effort of the
various local churches, such good results did not
always follow. In certain communities, however,
especially in the State of Virginia, there were ob¬
tained unusually desirable results. This was the
case in the cities of Portsmouth, Norfolk, and
Petersburg; and still better success was achieved
in Richmond through the well organized work of
the First African Baptist Church, which, under
the direction of the Rev. Robert Ryland, Presi¬
dent of Richmond College, served not only to bene¬
fit the Negroes of that community, but also to
inspire other white churches to make similar pro¬
visions for the instruction of the blacks.
Lott Cary himself speaks of religious instruc¬
tion in this church at an early period. He said: 4<I
was, during the years 1815, 1816, 1817 and 1818,
engaged for the benefit of the leading colored
members of the church" (referring to the First
Baptist Church) "in a gratuitous school at the
old Baptist meeting house ... at first in connec¬
tion with Rev. David Roper . . . and subsequently
with Rev. John Bryce, co-pastor of the church.''
The work of this church, however, was largely
in the hands of the whites. The local government
was changed from the democratic to something
more Presbyterial than Congregational, because
of the belief that the Negroes were not prepared
Religious Instruction Revived 161
for democracy. The government was vested in
the pastor and thirty deacons exercising general
supervision over the church and constituting the
source of authority in the church. The instruc¬
tion, of course, was at first confined to the cate¬
chism and to the memorizing of hymns and special
passages of the Bible. Byland himself compiled
a catechism for the colored people and hoped to
add to it such books as Pilgrim's Progress, The
African Preacher, The Life of Samuel Pierce and
The Church Member's Guide.
Ryland did not share the distrust of the Ne¬
groes who might learn to read. Unlike most of
the ministers after this reactionary period, he ad¬
vocated the thorough instruction of the slaves.
He said: 4' They will make more useful servants,
if in a state of bondage, and more safe and relia¬
ble residents, if free, by having their minds im¬
bued with rational views of Christianity. How
can we expect them to develop the great principles
of the gospel in a well ordered life while they
are dependent on desultory oral instruction for
their entire knowledge? I am fully aware that
some will think that I am approaching delicate
ground, and yet with the most considerate feel¬
ings and with the admission that grave abuses
might follow, I am constrained to believe, never¬
theless, that greater benefit will accrue both to
themselves and to society by increasing their facil¬
ities to understand the gospel whose maxim is ' On
162 TJi3 History of the Negro Church
earth peace, good will toward man.' I am a
Southern mail by birth, education and habits. I
deplore the ultraism and recklessness of the
North on this subject and in the least on account
of increased restrictions which have been thus oc¬
casioned to the colored people. But I would re¬
spectfully ask Southern Christians if they are
not in danger of neglecting known, imperative
duty, because others are not disposed to mind
their own business. Let us not be led from the
path of real benevolence either by the abolitionists
of the North or by the morbid sensitiveness of the
South."
Exactly how much Ryland accomplished at the
First African Baptist Church is not known. Re¬
ferring to his communicants, Ryland recorded that
their general appearance was that of serious, in¬
telligent worship. It is certain that many Ne¬
groes, who became impressed with Christianity
and endeavored to embrace it, looked upon it as
an opportunity and a privilege to belong to this
church, and inasmuch as he emphasized consistent
Christian conduct, it certainly forced a number of
them to live more righteously than they would
have, if these rules had not been rigidly enforced.
The attitude here might be criticised in that the
church was accepting merely those who were
known to be persons of good conduct and did not
seemingly go out to stir up and reform those who
made no pretense to be Christians. When a per¬
son made a profession of faith and wanted to
Religious Instruction Revived 163
join this church he was required to present a cer¬
tificate of good conduct.1
In this work Ryland had the cooperation of
Joseph Abrams, a Negro who had been licensed
to preach and ordained but had been prohibited
from the exercise of his gifts by the hostile legis¬
lation proscribing Negro preachers after Nat
Turner's insurrection. During the days prior to
this reaction Abrams had been a preacher of much
success among the Negroes of the First Baptist
Church. Afterward he could take no more con¬
spicuous part in the Sunday exercises than to pray
a long prayer, into which he sometimes worked a
short sermon. "As he enjoyed, however, the con¬
fidence of the citizens," says a writer in the Amer¬
ican Baptist Memorial of 1853, "he was tolerated
in preaching funerals at private houses, and was
sparingly invited to close the worship in the
church by words of exhortation.'' " He was heard
with far more interest than I was," said Ryland,
*' and on this account I should have often requested
iThe following is a specimen:
Deab Sib:—My woman, Clarissa Hill, has expressed a wish to
unite herself in Christian communion with the church of which
you are the acting minister. She is a most faithful servant, and
one, of whom it affords me pleasure to say, that I believe she
endeavors to conform to the great principles of her faith, and
I believe she will be an exemplary and honorable member of your
church, should you think proper to receive her as such. She
has belonged to me for sixteen years, during which time her con¬
duct has been most unexceptionably moral, and therefore, I cheer¬
fully consent to her being baptized and admitted to your com¬
munion.
Very respectfully, etc.,
C. S. M.
164 The History of the Negro Church
him to speak but for the fear of involving him
and the church in legal trouble.'' Abrams died in
1854. From the same pulpit which he had once
occupied, his former pastor, John Bryce, delivered
to a large crowd of grieving persons within and as
many more without one of the most eloquent eulo¬
gies in keeping with the life of the man. A long
procession of hundreds of persons followed him
to his grave, over which the people erected a
beautiful monument in the form of an imposing
obelisk.
So emphatically was duty of religious instruc¬
tion urged in certain parts of the South, that not
only sympathetic clergymen and their children but
men high in official positions championed the cause
of literary instruction for the Negroes that they
might learn the principles of religion. One impor¬
tant case in evidence is that of J. B. O'Neal of
South Carolina. Discussing this matter in detail,
O'Neal observed that the extension of the instruc¬
tion of the Negroes to the extent of learning to
read the Bible would hardly do any harm. He did
not believe that the Christianization of the Ne¬
groes in a slave commonwealth would tend to lift
them above their masters and destroy the '1 legiti¬
mate distinction" in the community. General Coxe
of Fluvanna County, Virginia, had all of his slaves
taught to read the Bible in spite of the law and
public opinion to the contrary, and so did a
farmer whom Frederick Law Olmsted visited in
Mississippi. Other instances here and there may
Religious Instruction Revived 165
be mentioned. Exactly how many other persons
of the aristocratic folk of the South had the same
attitude is difficult to determine; for the white peo¬
ple of that day, like those of the present time, often
conceded privately that the Negroes should enjoy
their rights, but were unwilling to suffer the
stigma of being called the champions of their
cause.
With this new impetus given religious instruc¬
tion in many parts, however, it was very difficult to
overcome the desire for the more thorough evan¬
gelization of the Negroes. There was not only a
manifestation of interest here and there in the
South; but during the forties and fifties there
followed considerable improvement, especially
through such local organizations as those in Lib¬
erty and Macintosh counties in Georgia and in the
Presbyterian synods of Kentucky, Alabama, North
Carolina, and Tennessee. A few Negroes, who
prior to the reaction had learned to read and
write and had a rudimentary knowledge of the
Bible, were sometimes employed in the more lib¬
eral portions of the South to teach the aged and
the young to say prayers, repeat a little of the
catechism, and to memorize hymns. Here their
instruction depended entirely upon the memory.
What could not be thus done for them was neg¬
lected. Literature especially adapted to this end
prepared by churchmen safeguarding the inter¬
ests of the slaveholding South was preferably
used. Some of these works were Dr. Capers*
166 The History of the Negro Church
Short Catechism for the Use of Colored Members
on Trial in the Methodist Episcopal Church in
South Carolina, A Catechism to be Used by
Teachers in the Religious Instruction of Persons
of Color in the Episcopal Church of South Caro¬
lina, John Mines' Catechism, Dr. C. C. Jones'
Catechism of Scripture, Doctrine and Practice De¬
signed for the Original Instruction of Colored
People, Dr. Robert Ryland's The Scripture Cate¬
chism for Colored People, and E. T. Winkler's
Notes and Questions for the Oral Instruction of
Colored People with Appropriate Texts and
Hymns.
Samuel E. Ward
CHAPTER Vin
PREACHERS OF VERSATILE GENIUS
THE situation in the North, was then more en¬
couraging, though far from being ideal.
During the critical period through which the
Negroes were passing between 1830 and the
Civil "War the Negro minister had to divide his
attention so as to take care of all of the varying
interests of an oppressed race. Among the poor
it has never been considered exceptional for a
minister to work at some occupation to increase
the meager income which he receives from his
parishioners. We have already observed above
that Andrew Bryan made himself independent as
a planter, that Richard Allen at first earned his
living as a teamster, and that Andrew Marshall
with much business acumen maintained himself in
a local express business. During the critical
period from 1830 to 1860, however, the Negro
minister was not only compelled sometimes thus
to support himself, but often had to devote
part of his time to the problems of education,
abolition, colonization and the Underground
Railroad.
Education for the Negro was both a test and a
167
168 The History of the Negro Church
challenge. Few persons believed that the Negro
was capable of the mental development known to
the white man. The challenge to them, then, was:
Show that your race has possibilities in the intel¬
lectual world, bring forth proof to uproot the
argument that your race is the inferior of the
other peoples. To make the challenge more con¬
crete, can a Negro master the grammar, language,
and literature of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew? Can
he learn to think? Can he understand the sig¬
nificant things of life as expounded by mathemati¬
cians, scientists, and philosophers? A few Ne¬
groes had demonstrated here and there unusual
ability in these fields; but they were not generally
known or their achievements were accounted for
by their racial connection with the white race in
this country or with some Arabic stock of Africa,
known to be Caucasian rather than Negroid.
The greater impetus to education among Negro
ministers, however, came not so much from the
desire to meet this requirement as from the need
of it in promoting the work of the church. It is
true that the whites were subjecting the blacks
to a mental test, but it required very little logic to
show that the contention as to Negro inferiority
was a case of making desire father to the thought.
The independent church movement had to depend
on education; and the Negroes themselves, as they
made progress, required of their ministry the ser¬
vice of instructors to bring the people to a higher
Preachers of Versatile Genius 169
standard of thought. Acquiring an education
then was not always an easy task. Negroes had
no advanced schools of their own and they were
generally refused in most of those of the North.
Until the rise of the Union Literary Institute in
Indiana, Oberlin and Wilberforce in Ohio, Ashmun
Institute in Pennsylvania, and Oneida Institute in
New York, the Negro had to break his way into
whatever institution of learning he entered. Ne¬
groes who were ignorant themselves could not
always appreciate what the struggle for educa¬
tional opportunities actually meant.
The Negro ministers, moreover, were at the
same time in the midst of a life and death struggle.
During the thirties and forties the questions in¬
volving the Negroes engaged the attention of al¬
most everybody. The Negro ministers, the then
best developed leaders among their people, could
not be silent. Inasmuch as men had to be won
to the support of the cause, these apostles to the
lowly had to appear before the other race in the
North as spokesmen of an oppressed people.
Preaching was important enough, but there could
be no preaching without the liberty to preach.
Except in a few such cases as that of William
Douglass, the rector of St. Thomas Church, Phil¬
adelphia, and that of Peter Williams, the rector
of St. Phillips', in New York City, where the pro-
slavery church hierarchy hushed the Negro min¬
isters loyally speaking for their people, the Ne-
170 The History of the Negro Church
gro clergyman spoke out fearlessly for the eman¬
cipation of his race and its elevation to citizen¬
ship.
As the American Colonization Society went only
half way in carrying out this program in that it
advocated the emancipation of the Negroes for
deportation to Africa, merely to rid the country
of freemen belonging to another than the Cau¬
casian race, the Negro ministers were generally
opposed to that organization. They fearlessly
attacked the promoters of the cause, saying,'' Here
we were born, here we fought for the independ¬
ence of this country, and here we intend to die
and be buried in the soil hallowed by the blood
of our fathers shed in defense of this country."
When, however, the increasing intelligence of the
Negroes made their humiliation in this country
less and less durable, the Negro ministers became
divided among themselves on this important ques¬
tion; for a few of the leaders of that day began
to advocate colonization in some other country
than Africa.
In the meantime, moreover, almost every Negro
minister was otherwise engaged in spiriting away
fugitives from the slaveholding States through
the North into Canada. They were in touch with
men in other centers, found out what was going
on, learned what was the trend of things, and
planned to act accordingly. And well might
they be so engaged; for not a few of these
ministers were fugitives themselves, and whether
Preachers of Versatile Genius 171
or not their freedom had such origin, all Negroes
in the North were, after the passage of that un¬
constitutional drastic Fugitive Slave Law of 1850,
in danger of being apprehended and enslaved
without what civilized countries regard as due
process of law. Some of the ministers themselves
had to move for safety into Canada during this
crisis, carrying in some cases practically all of
their congregations with them.
The Negro minister easily learned also the
power of the press. Much time which they would
have under other circumstances devoted to the
edification of their flocks they had to spend in
raising funds to purchase printing plants and in
editing the publications issuing therefrom. They
could deliver their message to their congregations,
they could occasionally address thus groups of
the other race; but their message needed a wider
circulation in a more enduring form. There were,
therefore, during this crisis few Negro ministers
of literary attainments who did not either under¬
take to edit a newspaper or to contribute thereto.
If they had a message worth while, the abolition
papers would generally delight in publishing it.
If they refused and the message was a burning
one, the Negroes would establish an organ of their
own.
To bring out this idea of the minister of divided
interests serving his people in many ways, no
career is more illuminating than that of Bishop
Daniel A. Payne. Having been much better
172 The History of the Negro Church
trained than most of his coworkers, he empha¬
sized education as a necessary foundation for
thorough work in the ministry. Taking this posi¬
tion, he made himself at first more of a teacher
than a preacher, devoting most of his time to
actual classroom instruction, hoping to raise the
standard of the ministry in the African Methodist
Episcopal Church, with which he finally cast his
lot after being graduated at the Lutheran Semi¬
nary at Gettysburg. Taking this position, he had
arrayed against him all the enemies of culture.
One writer charged him with branding the minis¬
try with infamy and with reckless slander on the
general character of his own denomination. There
was great fear that there might follow discord
and dissolution between the ignorant and the in¬
telligent portion of the church. Preaching to his
congregation, the ignorant minister would often
boast of having not rubbed his head against the
college walls, whereupon the congregation would
respond: "Amen." Sometimes one would say:
"I did not write out my sermon." With equal
fervor the audience would cry out: "Praise ye the
Lord." Working zealously, however, Bishop
Payne committed the denomination to the policy
of thorough education for the ministry, a position
from which the African Methodist Episcopal
Church has never departed, and to which it owes
not a few of the advantages that it now enjoys
in having so many intelligent men in its ministry.
While Bishop Payne as a churchman did not
Preachers of Versatile Genius 173
become altogether involved in the anti-slavery
movement, so many distinguished men in the
church did. John N. Marrs of the African Metho¬
dist Episcopal Zion Church was more of an anti-
slavery lecturer than a preacher. Thomas James
of the same denomination was equally as effective
as an anti-slavery lecturer. He was much readier
to fight than to preach when he thought of the
enormities of slavery. Another Zionite, Dempsey
Kennedy, a pioneer preacher of remarkable skill
in stirring up audiences, rendered as much service
as an abolitionist as he did as a minister.
One of the best examples of this type is Charles
Bennett Ray, born in Falmouth, Massachusetts,
December 28,1807. He was educated at the Wes-
leyan Academy of Wilbraham, Massachusetts, and
later at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Con¬
necticut. After studying theology he became a
Congregational minister. For twenty years he
was the pastor of the Bethesda Church in New
York City, where many learned to wait upon his
ministry. He is better known to fame, however,
by the work which he did outside of his chosen
field in connection with the anti-slavery move¬
ment, the Underground Railroad, and The Colored
American, which he creditably edited from 1839
to 1843.
Ray aided the cause of liberty by lending prac¬
tical aid which men in high places often had
neither the time nor the patience to give, using
his home as a mecca for the meetings of such
174 The History of the Negro Church
men as Lewis Tappan, Simeon S. Josselyn, Ger-
rit Smith, the land philanthropist, and James
Sturge, the celebrated English philanthropist, in¬
terested in the abolition of slavery. In coopera¬
tion with wealthy abolitionists he assisted many a
slave to the light of freedom, especially through
the aid of Henry Ward Beecher of the Plymouth
Church in Brooklyn. Ray found himself cooperat¬
ing also with the group of radical free people of
color meeting in Philadelphia and in other cities
of the North from 1830 until the Civil War. When
one reads of his participation in this work with
James Forten, a business man, and Charles B.
Purvis, another layman, he is inclined to forget
that Charles B. Ray was a minister, as his name
appears in the records of practically all of these
conventions of the free people of color and his
work stands out as an important factor contribut¬
ing to the success with which these aggressive Ne¬
groes kept their case before the world and gradu¬
ally hastened the dawn of their freedom. In all
of his various employments, however, Ray did
not lose interest in and did not necessarily neglect
his mission to promote the moral uplift of his
fellows. A contemporary, William Wells Brown,
paying him a tribute as a terse, vigorous writer
and an able and eloquent speaker, well informed
upon all subjects of the day, says also that he
was ''blameless in his family relations, guided
by the highest moral rectitude, a true friend of
Alexander Crummell
Preachers of Versatile Genius 175
everything that tends to better the moral, social,
religious and political condition of man.''
In the class with Ray should be mentioned
Henry Highland Garnett, another minister of the
Presbyterian Church, devoting most of his time
to the many movements which attracted the atten¬
tion of his colaborers. Having escaped from
Maryland to the North in 1822, Garnett experi¬
enced sufficient mental development to ask for
admission to the Canaan Academy, where he,
along with Alexander Crummell and others,
caused the school to be broken up by a mob array¬
ing itself against the idea of permitting persons
of color to enjoy such privileges in that com¬
munity. Proceeding, however, to the Oneida In¬
stitute in New York, he succeeded in laying a
foundation for his work under the noble-hearted
friend of man, Beriah Green. Here Garnett at¬
tained the reputation of an accomplished man, an
able and eloquent debater and a good writer. He
soon developed into a preacher of power of the
evangelical type, whose discourses showed much
thought and careful study. He had complete
command of his voice and used it with skill, never
failing to fill the largest hall. Soon there was a
demand for him as a preacher. He was sent as a
missionary to the Island of Jamaica. He later
spent some time in Washington as the pastor of
the Presbyterian Church and served at another
time at the Shiloh Church in New York City.
176 The History of the Negro Church
Garnett, however, was soon more than a
preacher. From the time he made his first public
appearance in New York City in 1837 he secured
for himself a standing among first-class orators.
In 1843 he delivered before the National Conven¬
tion of Colored Americans at Buffalo, New York,
one of the most remarkable addresses ever uttered
by man. His contemporary says:i 1 None but those
who heard that speech have the slightest idea of
the tremendous influence which he exercised over
the assembly.'' For forty years thereafter he was
an advocate of the rights of his race, a forcible
and daring speaker wherever he had an oppor¬
tunity to present his cause. Visiting England in
1850, he was well received as an orator. Garnett,
moreover, served much of his time as an educator,
having been President of Avery College, where
he passed as a man of learning.
In this group of enterprising clergymen of this
period should be mentioned Alexander Crummell,
although his more important service to the race
belongs to the two generations following the Civil
War. Crummell was a native of New York, but
a descendant of a Timanee chief in West Africa.
Early in his career he attended a Quaker school
with Thomas S. Sidney and Henry Highland Gar¬
nett in New York, and later experienced with the
latter, as mentioned above, the humiliation of see¬
ing the Academy of Canaan, New Hampshire,
broken up because of the admission of Negroes.
Crummell then studied three years under Beriah
Preachers of Versatile Genius 177
Green at the Oneida Institute. Having then the
aspiration to enter the ministry of the Episcopal
Church, he applied for admission to the General
Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal
Church of New York, which, in keeping with its
hostile attitude toward the Negro, refused to
accept him.
Thus barred from entering upon his life's work,
Crummell could not then influence the public to
the same extent as Negro leaders laboring in the
more inviting fields. Presenting his case to the
clergy in Boston in 1842, he was ordained deacon
by Bishop Griswold. After studying two years
under Dr. A. H. Vinton of Providence, Ehode
Island, Crummell was ordained priest by Bishop
Lee of Delaware at St. Paul's Church in Phila¬
delphia, and engaged to work in a barren field.
Here poverty and ill health overtook him and
rendered his circumstances all but intolerable.
To earn a livelihood he conducted for four men
a private school, which, after having a promis¬
ing beginning, proved inadequate to his support.
He then went to England, where he was well
received as a preacher and given the opportunity
to prosecute further his studies at Queen's Col¬
lege, Cambridge University, from which he ob¬
tained the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1853.
Crummell then began his career as a missionary
and educator, working in Liberia and Sierra Leone
for about twenty years. He returned to the
United States in 1873 and entered upon his work
178 The History of the Negro Church
as an Episcopal priest in Washington, where, as
the rector of St. Mary's, and as the founder of the
American Negro Academy, he experienced the cul¬
mination of his usefulness as a scholar, a clergy¬
man, and a champion of the rights of his people.
Among these workers should be mentioned also
James W. C. Pennington, another minister of the
Presbyterian Church. Pennington was born a
slave on a farm in Maryland and there became
a blacksmith by trade. Upon reaching maturity
he escaped to the North, where he early embraced
the opportunities for learning. He developed into
an unusually bright scholar in Greek, Latin, and
German; and soon manifested an inclination for
the study of theology, in which he showed much
proficiency. Impressed with his worth as an edu¬
cated man well trained for the ministry, the Pres¬
byterians ordained him to preach and stationed
him at Hartford, Connecticut, where he served
some years. He later became the pastor of the
Shiloh Church in New York City.
While Dr. Pennington did not drift so far from
the ministry as many of his colaborers, he was at
once in demand for work in various other fields.
He went to Europe three times in the capacity of
a lecturer. His second visit was the occasion on
which he remained for four years, preaching, lec¬
turing and attending the Peace Congresses held
at Paris, Brussels, and London. While at Paris
in 1849 he was invited to conduct divine services
at the Protestant Church, which on that occasion
J. W. C. Pennington
Preachers of Versatile Genius 179
was visited by the American and English dele¬
gates. His sermon was an elegant production,
left a marked impression upon his hearers, and
above all made a more logical case for the Negro.
"While in Germany the degree of Doctor of Divin¬
ity was conferred upon him by the University of
Heidelberg. Returning to this country, he labored
zealously and successfully for the education and
the moral, social, and religious elevation of the
race, until he went to Jamaica, where he died.
Rev. E. Payson Rogers, another Presbyterian
preacher stationed as pastor of a church at
Newark, New Jersey, divided his time between
writing and preachings He was a man of educa¬
tion, research, and literary ability. Although not
a fluent and easy speaker, he was logical and spoke
with a degree of refinement seldom observed.
Possessing the inclination to write verse to ex¬
press the thought and feeling of a struggling
people, he wrote a poem on the Missouri Com¬
promise which he read in many of the New Eng¬
land cities and towns in 1856. This poem con¬
tained brilliant thought and amusing sugges¬
tions. Anxious to benefit his race, he visited
Africa in 1861, where he was attacked by a fever
and died in a few days.
J. Theodore Holly was another minister of
versatile genius. He acquired a good education
through studious habits and contact with men of
culture. Although he became a clergyman of
the Protestant Episcopal Church and was for
180 The History of the Negro Church
several years pastor at New Haven, where lie sus¬
tained the reputation of being an interesting and
eloquent preacher, he set about to establish what
he called Negro nationality. He was not primarily
interested in African colonization, but believed
that the redemption of Africa could be effected
through Haitian emigration. In the Anglo-Afri¬
can, a magazine published in 1859, he contributed
a dissertation setting forth these facts. Im¬
pressed with the idea that Haiti might be used
as an asylum for free persons of color, he raised
a colony in keeping with the resolution passed
by the Convention of Free Persons of Color in
Rochester in 1853 and sailed for Haiti in 1861.
As the location which he selected was infelicitous,
most of those who went with him, including his
own family, died, and he returned to the United
States, where he finally rendered greater service
and from which he was later commissioned as
Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in
Haiti.
One of the most interesting men of this type
was Leonard A. Grimes, a Baptist minister, born
in Leesburg, Loudoun County, Virginia, in 1815.
Although he was a man of free parentage he was
subjected to all of the disabilities that his race
had to endure in the South except that of an
actual slave. He spent his youth working at the
butcher's trade and at an apothecary's estab¬
lishment in Washington but subsequently hired
himself out to a slaveholder whose confidence he
Henry Highland Garnett
182 The History of the Negro Church
with pride. As a preacher lie was a man
of power, though not an easy speaker. He
manifested great amiability of character and
always had a pleasant word for those with
whom he came into contact. Although pri¬
marily engaged in the work of the ministry dur¬
ing the great crisis in this country, he never
abandoned entirely the anti-slavery cause, in spite
of the fact that many of his denomination were
trying to defend that institution. He passed away
in 1873, after having experienced some of the
freedom for which he struggled.
Among the prominent Negro ministers who
lived through this critical period no one exhibited
more versatility than Samuel R. Ward. Im¬
pressed with the superior gifts with which he was
endowed, Gerrit Smith enabled him to secure a
liberal education. Ward then entered upon the
ministry in the Presbyterian Church. For several
years he was settled over a white church at South
Butler, New York, where, according to William
Wells Brown, Ward ('preached with great accept¬
ance and was highly respected.'' Coming to the
aid of his race during the trying days of the aboli¬
tion agitation, Ward took the platform and from
1840 to the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law
of 1850 preached or lectured in every church, hall,
or schoolhouse in Western and Central New York.
*1 Standing about six feet in height, possessing a
strong voice, and energetic in his gestures,
Ward," says his biographer, "always impressed
Preachers of Versatile Genius 183
his highly finished and logical speeches upon his
hearers."
Ward became more of a platform orator than
a preacher. His aim seemed to be not so much to
preach the gospel of heaven as to preach the
gospel of this world that men calling themselves
Christians might learn to respect the natural and
political rights of their fellows. In the interest
of this cause he traveled through much of this
country, visited England in 1852, and then went
to Jamaica, where he finally resided until he died
at an early age. Referring to the death of R. B.
Elliot, Frederick Douglass, Ward's most famous
contemporary, remarked: "I have known but one
other black man to be compared with Elliot, and
that was Samuel R. Ward, .who, like Elliot, died
in the midst of his years. The thought of both
men makes me sad. We are not over rich with
such men, and we may well mourn when one such
has falien.''
No better example of the varying interests of
the Negro can be mentioned than that of Hiram
R. Revells, who after the Civil War became one
of the two Negroes who have served in the United
States Senate. Revells was born a free man at
Fayetteville, North Carolina, in 1822. There he
passed his boyhood and then went to Indiana, be¬
cause the laws of North Carolina in 1835 forbade
the establishment of schools for persons of color.
He had experienced some educational develop¬
ment by private instruction and was prepared to
184 The History of the Negro^ Church
profit by the advanced training received in a
Quaker school in Indiana. He then moved to
Darke County, Ohio, where he remained for some
time. He was subsequently graduated at Knox
College, Galesburg, Illinois. Re veils then entered
the ministry as a preacher of the African Metho¬
dist Church at the age of twenty-five, holding his
first charge in Indiana. He filled important posts
in Missouri, Maryland, Kentucky, and Kansas, but
did not succeed so well in St. Louis, where the
church developed into a turmoil, resulting in the
resignation of the pastor.
Upon the outbreak of the war, Revells directed
his attention to other matters. He assisted in
raising the first Negro regiment in Maryland and
the first one in Missouri. He then returned to
Mississippi in 1864, settling at Vicksburg and
later at Jackson, where he had charge of congre¬
gations. He also assisted in the extension of the
work of the African Methodist Episcopal Church
in other parts and in establishing a school system.
His health having failed, however, he returned to
the North after the close of hostilities and re¬
mained there eighteen months, at the expiration
of which he again came to Natchez, Mississippi,
where he preached regularly to large audiences.
Entering politics, he was appointed alderman by
General Ames, who was then military governor
there. In 1869 he was elected to the State Senate
and the following year to the United States
Senate,
Bishop Daniel A. Payne
CHAPTER IX
THE CIVIL WAR AND THE CHURCH
THE outbreak of the Civil War was also an out¬
break in the church. The versatile ministei
then proclaimed war and sometimes donned the
uniform. One half of the nation had preached that
God hath made of one blood all nations that dwell
upon the face of the earth; the other half insisted
that the plan of the Creator was a caste system
by which one element of the population should be
made hewers of wood and drawers of water for
the other. The ordeal of battle was then on, and
it was believed that the exhibition of the greater
force on one of the two sides would determine
the will of God. Men of both sections fought for
what they believed to be right. Sermons re¬
sounded with the ring of freedom, the Bible was
quoted to strengthen the belief in a just war,
and songs of a militant tone made the welkin ring
with that enthusiasm with which the Christian boy
was inspired to give his life as a sacrifice, fighting
for freedom or defending his section from the in¬
vasion of the ruthless foe. God was here; God
was there; in fact, he was, as the participants
would have it, fighting the battles of all.
185
186 The History of the Negro Church
Negroes realized that the Christianity of Amer¬
ica was being subjected to a test. They had en¬
tered the church themselves but only with the
belief that this liberal doctrine of the power of
God to free a man's soul from sin meant also
that such power would eventually be adequate
to free the body. They had borne the burden in
the heat of the day, even walked through the
flames of that fiery ordeal of death; but they
had never lost faith in God. Here and there an
old hero in the midst of his martyrdom had
prophesied upon his dying bed that God would
deliver his people from the hands of the oppres¬
sors; a heroine of vision had dreamed that her
Maker had poured healing oils upon her lacerated
back, assuaged her excruciating pain, and made
her free. Patience had been the watchword of
the Negro. God was moving in a mysterious way
to perform wonders which in the near future
would make all things plain. Stand still, there¬
fore, and see the salvation of the Lord.
Would these dreams come true? Evidently they
would, the Negroes thought, when they heard of
churchmen denouncing slavery in no uncertain
terms, memorializing the State legislatures and
Congress for its abolition, and assuring the nation
of their heartiest support in the suppression of
the rebellion occasioned by the effort to save the
tottering institution. The Negroes could not fail
to see the hand of God in the declaration of these
churchmen that our national sorrows and calam-
The Civil War and the Church 187
ities had resulted from our forgetfulness of God
and the oppression of our fellowmen. Chas¬
tened by the affliction of the Civil War, many like
the Methodists hoped that the nation might hum¬
bly repent of its sins, lay aside its haughty pride,
honor God in all her future legislation, and render
justice to all who had been wronged. They hon¬
ored Lincoln for his proclamation of freedom and
rejoiced in the enactment of the measures de¬
signed to reach this end. And so impressed with
this militant service of the church, Lincoln had to
say in reply to this denomination:'' The Methodist
Episcopal Church, not less devoted than the best,
is, by its greater numbers the most important of
all. It is no fault in others that the Methodist
Church sends more soldiers to the field, more
nurses to the hospitals, more prayers to Heaven,
than any. God bless the Methodist Church! Bless
all the Churches! And blessed be God, who, in
this our great trial, giveth us the churches!''
Because of this militant attitude of the church,
the Negroes thought more of fighting for free¬
dom than they did of saving souls. The slaves
breathed the spirit of the song:
"Oh, freedom! Freedom over me!
Before I'd be a slave,
I'd be buried in my grave
And go home to my Lord and be free!''
Negroes known to be pious gladly donned the
uniform and some ministers of the gospel aban-
188 The History of the Negro Church
doned their charges to recruit men to fight for the
cause. The friends of the Negroes, moreover,
were militantly arrayed against their former
brethren in the South. The abolition churches of
the North received the anathemas of the churches
of the South and vice versa. The war was relig¬
ious as well as political, causing wounds which
having not yet been healed even unto this day
seriously affect church work among Negroes in
the South.
The Civil "War as a social and political upheaval
made necessary some readjustments in the church.
The Negroes in the South were no longer bond¬
men to be circumscribed in -keeping with the reg¬
ulations of a slave commonwealth and the Negroes
in the North might then exercise more liberty with¬
out the fear of incurring the displeasure of those
having the impression that the Negroes should in
religious as well as in other matters be subject to
men who enjoy a superior social position. It was
then, moreover, a different question from what it
was before. Prior to the Civil War one had in¬
quired as to what should be done for the Negro.
It was then a question as to what the Negro would
do for himself. Things for which he had long
asked theretofore were thereafter readily given or
taken.
For example, during the period intervening be¬
tween the separation of the northern and southern
wings of the church in 1844 and the Civil War,
the Negro members of the Methodist Episcopal
The Civil War and the Church 189
Church in the North asked for separate confer¬
ences, a more general recognition of their local
preachers, and a larger participation in the affairs
of the church. The reason given was that the Afri¬
can Methodists, holding up to these Negro commu¬
nicants the contempt with which they had been
treated by their white superiors, caused large
numbers of Negro Methodists to join the independ¬
ent African churches. The policy of the Metho¬
dist Church was not to grant such recognition, de¬
ciding, as it did in 1848, that such separate con¬
ferences were inexpedient. Some encouragement
was given the employment of Negro local preach¬
ers. In 1852, in reply to an urgent request of
this sort from the Negro Methodists of the Phila¬
delphia and New Jersey conferences, where they
were losing many to the African Methodists, a
sort of annual meeting of the Negro Methodist
pastors was allowed, if the bishop of the diocese
concerned found it practicable. The Methodist
Church held this position, however, despite the
fact that on this account it lost not less than one-
fourth of the membership of its churches from the
year 1844 to the time when the annual conference
of the Negro pastors was provided for in 1866.
These white Methodists, however, consecrated
Francis Burns for the service as Bishop of Africa
in 1858 and in 1866 thus elevated to the episcopacy
John W. Roberts, another man of color. As the
appeal for the Negro conference was still more
urgent this time not only from the Negroes of the
190 The History of the Negro Church
Philadelphia and New Jersey conferences but
from that of Baltimore, the General Conference
had to take more definite action than merely to say
that such a step was inexpedient.
The reasons for this action were many and com¬
plicated. In the first place, even after the seces¬
sion of those in the South, there were in the Meth¬
odist Episcopal Church a number of members who,
wishing to get rid of the Negroes, thought that a
refusal to grant this request would alienate their
affections to the extent that they would secede as
the other African Methodists had done. Some of
these communicants actually encouraged the Ne¬
groes in saying that, should the blacks go out and
establish themselves independently of the whites,
the latter would have more respect for them be¬
cause of this exhibition of their self-reliance. To
impress this on the Negro, some white Methodists
went so far as to invite to their pulpits the minis¬
ters of the African Methodist Churches, whereas
the Negro ministers in the Methodist Church itself
were ignored. When this method of trying to con¬
vince the Negro that he was an intruder failed, the
busy-bodies would often say that the white man¬
agement of the Methodist Church was merely
using the Negro members as tools.
Some then thought that, because of love for the
Negroes, the Methodist Church did not want to
see them go. Others believed that a majority felt
that the Negroes should have their own choice
whether for separate organization or to unite with
Rev. Richard DeBaptxste
A preacher of the Word in Chicago.
The Civil War and the Church 191
one of the African Methodist Churches but that,
should such action be taken, the public would get
the impression that the Methodists had organized
another Negro church to break the other two down.
It was thought wise, moreover, to defer action of
such far-reaching effects until the Negro question
then so intensely agitated should approach nearer
a definite settlement. A Negro national church,
furthermore, could not minister to the wants of
all Negroes inasmuch as the one proposed, like
the other two already in the field, could not have
prior to emancipation operated among the Negro
Methodists in the South. The Methodist Church
was neutral, if anything, during the Civil War
period. It did not try to get rid of its Negro mem¬
bership and it made no particular effort to in¬
crease it. Wherever one of the two African Meth¬
odist Churches was in a position to minister to
the spiritual needs of the Negroes, the Methodists
made no effort to proselyte such Negroes, although
Negroes desiring admission to the Methodist
churches were not refused.
This question was further agitated and had to
be given serious consideration in 1864. The con¬
ference after discussing the memorials from the
Negro membership took the position that it must
retain oversight of the Negroes to give them effi¬
cient supervision. The conference, however, en¬
couraged colored pastorates for colored people
wherever practicable. It authorized the organiza¬
tion of mission conferences. These separate con-
192 The History of the Negro Church
ferences, however, were not to impair the existing
rights of the colored members nor yet to forbid
the transfer of white ministers to such confer¬
ences where it might be deemed practicable and
necessary. The Negroes in the Methodist Church
had at last received some right to share in the
management of their own pastorates, which, how¬
ever, were still subject to the supervision of the
white bishops. The African Methodists still made
inroads on the Negro membership, therefore, be¬
cause they could point with pride to men in au¬
thority in their church and the Negro members of
the white connection usually conceded their point
as well taken in that they received the bishops
of the African Methodists in their homes and
churches and gave them every possible consider¬
ation.
Some less numerous Negro communicants of
white denominations were at this time severing
their connection with their former coworkers. In
1865 the Negro members of the white Primitive
Baptist Churches of the South organized at Co¬
lumbia, Tennessee, the Colored Primitive Baptists
in America. In 1866 the African Union First Col¬
ored Methodist Protestant Church of America and
elsewhere was established by merging the African
Union Church with the First Colored Methodist
Protestant Church. In 1869 the General Assembly
of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church organ¬
ized its Negro membership as the Colored Cum¬
berland Presbyterian Church.
The Civil War and the Church 193
The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, with a
much larger number of Negro members than all
of these denominations easily solved the problem
of Negro membership, as the Cumberland Presby¬
terians had done. While the Methodists in the
North reluctantly loosed their hold on the Negro
membership by granting the people of color active
participation in their affairs through an annual
conference, the Methodist Church, South, almost
voluntarily agreed to organize its Negro constit¬
uency as a separate organization known as the
Colored Methodist Episcopal Church. Whether
the southern Methodists did this to eliminate the
Negroes or because they thought that the Negroes
in their new status as freemen could do their own
work better than white men, is a much mooted
question. It is clear that many of the slavehold-
ing type of Christians would want to get rid of the
Negro members since they could no longer deter¬
mine their faith and how it should be exercised.
The only reason there was for the Negro to belong
to the same church as that of his master was to
control the exercise of his religious belief. As
this was no longer necessary, the Negroes, so far
as one element was concerned, could then easily go.
Desiring to attach to this branch of the Metho¬
dist Church the stigma of their having been once
connected with their oppressors, some Negroes
themselves have referred to these Colored Metho¬
dists as '' seceders'' and'1 a Democratic Rebel con¬
cern" intended to lead the Negroes back into slav-
194 The History of the Negro Church
ery. Such statements are most uncharitable and
they not only do the Negroes concerned an injustice
but question the good motives of a number of
benevolent southern men who took this step, feel¬
ing that it was the best Way for the Negroes to
develop their religious life after emancipation.
There were many masters who believed that, since
the Negroes had finally become free, they should
have every encouragement to learn how to take
care of themselves.
It would be most uncharitable, moreover, to
suffer any stigma to attach to the Colored Metho¬
dists on this account. The Negroes who consti¬
tuted this church went with the southern wing
of that denomination at the time of its secession
because they were compelled so to do. The inde¬
pendent African Methodists were by law and pub¬
lic opinion prohibited from extensive proselyting
in the South and prior to the Civil War they had
with the exception of their establishments in the
liberal border States hardly touched the large
body of the black population south of the Mason
and Dixon line. The free Negroes in the South
were, as in the case of Morris Brown and his fol¬
lowers in 1822, cut off from their brethren in the
North and the slaves were compelled to worship
according to the rigid regulations set forth above
and in the same churches to which their masters
belonged.
The separation of the Negro membership from
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, came after
The Civil War and the Church 195
the Civil War. In 1866 the conference meeting
that year in New Orleans made provision for the
organization of the Negro members in separate
congregations and for district and annual con¬
ferences, if the Negroes so desired. It was further
provided on this occasion that if it were acceptable
to the Negroes and it met the approval of the
bishops of the church, the freedmen might have a
general conference like that of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, according to the regula¬
tions of which the Negro deacons, elders, and
bishops, if necessary, should be ordained to con¬
duct this work among their own people. It was
further determined that should the time arrive
when the Negro members should be so set apart,
all the property intended for the use of such mem¬
bers, held by the trustees of the Methodist Epis¬
copal Church, South, should be transferred to
duly qualified trustees of the new organization.
At the next conference of the Methodist Epis¬
copal Church, South, meeting in Memphis in 1870,
it was reported that the Negro membership had
organized five annual conferences and unanimously
desired to be organized as a distinct body. The
Memphis Conference thereupon agreed to comply
with this request. Delegates were then elected
to the first general conference which assembled in
Jackson, Tennessee, October 15, 1870. From the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, there were
sent as representatives Bishops Robert Paine and
H. N. McTyeire; and as ministers, A. L. P. Green,
The Civil War and the Church 197
to what recognition should be allowed the Negroes
or whether they should be set apart as a separate
body, the Negro Baptists were realizing upon their
new freedom which made possible the enjoyment
of greater democracy in the church. Every man
was to be equal to every other man and no power
without had authority to interfere.
This situation in the Baptist Church appealed
very strongly to the then recently enfranchised
Negro in the reconstructed States. As the white
man of the South had over emphasized politics and
the professions to the extent that these avenues in
that section were overmanned, the Negro in his
undeveloped state accordingly made the same mis¬
take in trying to escape drudgery. A rather hard
row to hoe, or an unusually heavy burden was too
often abandoned on hearing a call to the ministry,
and the devotee thus impressed had practically no
difficulty in securing a hearing in this locally dem¬
ocratic Baptist Church. The grade of intellect
possessed by the novice in this ministerial service
had little to do with his acceptability; for there
were all sorts of degrees of mental development
among the freedmen and every man preferred to
follow the one who saw the spiritual world from
his own particular angle and explained its mys¬
teries in the dialect and in the manner in which
he could understand it. If in delivering the gospel
message the verb might not every time agree with
the subject, that had little to do with the power
to start a soul on the way to glory.
198 The History of the Negro, Church
Operating on this basis, local churches sprang
up here and there as Baptist preachers, a law unto
themselves, went abroad seeking a following. Out
of some of these efforts came several good results.
Many of the churches thus established have in our
day developed into beacon lights. And so was it
true of some of those churches which branched
off from or drew out of the old Baptist Churches
of long standing established years before the Civil
War. There were not so many such African Bap¬
tist churches in the South during that period. Be¬
cause of fear of servile insurrection the whites
would not permit many Negro churches to have an
independent existence. The pressure once re¬
moved, however, groups of Negroes long waiting
for religious freedom found adequate opportunity
for exercising it in the organization of numerous
Baptist churches. This was not in all cases
abruptly effected, for the Negroes had no church
buildings of their own and could not easily pur¬
chase them; but in their poverty they made un¬
usual sacrifices to meet this emergency and whites
liberally inclined assisted them in the rapid pro¬
motion of this work. Yet this movement did not
reach its climax until some years later; for the lure
of politics presented another field of so much inter¬
est to the Negroes that even the preachers of long
standing too often abandoned their posts alto¬
gether. After the Reconstruction, moreover, when
the Negro in the South had been removed from
politics, a much larger number of bankrupt lead-
The Civil War and the Church 199
ers entered the ministry or devised schemes to
make use of the various churches.
An impetus toward improvement came from
mutual associations. The Baptist churches were
not obligated to unite to form associations and
when formed did not necessarily have to be bound
by the action of these annual meetings; but imme¬
diately after the war Negro Baptist churches,
which in the South had formerly been coolly re¬
ceived by white bodies and were not permitted to
form associations of their own, readily united for
mutual benefit in the exercise of their new free¬
dom. In those meetings the uninformed heard of
the urgent need to educate the masses, the duty of
the ministry to elevate the laity, and the call upon
all to Christianize the heathen. The periodical
visits of white churchmen, interested either in the
Negro or in exploiting them, brought new light
as to what was going on in the other bodies con¬
ducted by men of higher attainments.
As the Negro Baptists, however, did not soon
effect more potential organizations than the dis¬
trict Baptist Associations then composed of a few
churches, they never had a national policy;
and their local democracy would have furnished
no machinery to carry out such a policy, if they
had adopted one. To the State groups, then,
must the reader look for the signs of progress and
thanks to the genius of the Negro, such evidence
was not long wanting.
The Negro Baptists of North Carolina organ-
200 The History of the Negro Church
ized the first State Convention in 1866. Alabama
and Virginia followed in 1867, and very soon there¬
after came Arkansas, Kentucky, and finally all of
the States in the South. Immediately thereafter
they began to affiliate with larger national bodies.
The first of these larger groups was the North¬
western and Southern Baptist Convention, organ¬
ized in 1864. In 1866 there was held an important
convention in Richmond, when it was determined
to consolidate all of the general interests of the
Negro Baptists, the Missionary, the Northwestern
and Southern conventions as one large body, to be
called the Consolidated American Baptist Mis¬
sionary Convention.1
This convention operated largely in the South
and tended to decline. In 1873 the West revived
its organization under the name of the Baptist
Association of the Western States and Terri¬
tories, while the northern churches adhered to
another organization called the New England Mis¬
sionary Convention, organized in 1875. In the
course of time these two bodies so expanded as to
embrace the whole country, yet in 1880 certain
Baptists here and there formed a national body to
do work in foreign lands, designating it the Baptist
i Three years later this convention sent six missionaries to
Africa. These were J. H. Pressly, W. W. Cooley together with
their wives, J. J. Coles and H. McKinney. The National Con¬
vention was organized in 1880, out of a protest against the at¬
titude of certain whites toward the Negroes and they have since
continued as a separate body having a publishing house of their
own rather than patronize the American Baptist Publication
Society.
The Civil War and the Church 201
Foreign Mission Convention of the United States.
The feeling, however, that there should be a con¬
centration of the efforts of all Baptists directed
through one national body to a particular point of
attack led to a more significant national meeting of
the Negro Baptists held in St. Louis in 1886. The
work of the Baptist Foreign Mission Convention
was later so modified that all of the national and
international church work of the denomination
was unified through the organization of the Na¬
tional Baptist Convention.
That these Baptists despite their excess of lib¬
erty succeeded as well as they did, was due in a
measure to the fact that they exercised the good
judgment in not immediately getting too far from
their friends. The Negroes used the same polity,
the same literature, and sometimes the same na¬
tional agencies as the white Baptists. The south¬
ern Baptists were then less interested in these
communicants whom, some say, they gladly got
rid of when they could no longer dictate their
spiritual development as the master did that of
the slave; but the northern Baptists felt obligated
to send their missionaries among the freedmen.
These apostles to the lowly brought words of good
cheer, expounded the gospel, established new
churches, and distributed books for the enlighten¬
ment of the masses. Among some of these lowly
people these men were received as apostles of old,
welcomed to a new harvest which had long been
waiting, for the laborers among the lowly were few.
CHAPTER X
BELl&lOTJS EDUCATION AS A PREPARATION
THE separation of the Negro churchmen from
the white organizations, however, was not
necessarily a declaration of war. Most Negroes
regarded this as the right step toward doing for
themselves what others had hitherto done for
them and.some whites so considered it. As a mat¬
ter of fact, the ties which have bound the Negro
church organization to the whites were not such as
could be severed by a mere change in the manage¬
ment of church affairs. The Negroes had already
been divided from the whites by an unwritten law.
The upheaval of the Civil War merely furnished
the occasion for the separation. There still re¬
mained among the northern whites numerous
philanthropists who desired to help them in the
promotion of religion and morality. From this
group, therefore, came numerous Christian work¬
ers supported by funds freely contributed to de¬
liver the captive and proclaim the year of jubilee.
These Christian workers, however, cared not so
much about proselyting as they did about educa¬
tion, the greatest need of the freedmen. The Bap-
202
WlLBERFORCE UNIVERSITY DURING THE ClVIL WAR.
Religious Education as a Preparation 203
tists, Methodists, and Presbyterians, who had con¬
siderable communicants among the Negroes prior
to the Civil War, took the lead in this movement,
establishing at strategic points schools which they
believed would become centers of culture for the
whole race. The Baptists established Shaw Uni¬
versity at Raleigh in 1865; Roger Williams at
Nashville and Morehouse at Atlanta in 1867; Le-
land at New Orleans and Benedict at Columbia in
1871. The Free-will Baptists founded Storer Col¬
lege at Harpers Ferry in 1867. The Methodists,
who were no less active, established Walden at
Nashville in 1865, Rust at Holly Springs in 1866,
Morgan at Baltimore in 1867, Haven Academy at
Waynesboro in 1868, Claflin at Orangeburg in
1869, and Clark at Atlanta in 1870. The Presby¬
terians, who could not compete with the Baptists
and Methodists in proselyting Negroes, largely re¬
stricted their efforts to the establishment of Biddle
at Charlotte in 1867 and to the promotion of the
work begun at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania,
established as Ashmun Institute in 1854. The
Episcopal Church showing the tender mercy of
the wicked, established St. Augustine at Raleigh
in 1867. The American Missionary Association,
an agency of the Congregational Church, estab¬
lished Avery Institute at Charleston, Ballard Nor¬
mal School at Macon, and Washburn at Beaufort,
North Carolina, in 1865; Trinity at Athens, Ala¬
bama, Gregory at Wilmington, North Carolina,
and Fisk at Nashville in 1866; Talladega in Ala-
204 The History of the Negro Church
bama, Emerson at Mobile, Storrs at Atlanta, and
Beach at Savannah in 1867; Hampton Institute in
Virginia, Knox at Athens, Burwell at Selma, now
at Florence; Ely Normal in Louisville in 1868;
Straight University at New Orleans, Tougaloo in
Mississippi, Le Moyne at Memphis, and Lincoln
at Marion, Alabama, in 1869; Dorchester Academy
at Mcintosh, and the Albany Normal in Georgia
in 1870. The Congregationalists, moreover, fig¬
ured in the establishment of Howard University,
which was chartered by the United States Govern¬
ment in 1867 with provision for the education of
all persons regardless of race.
Some other less effective forces were at work
during this period accomplishing here and there
results seemingly unimportant but in the end pro¬
ductive of much good. In 1862 Miss Towne and
Miss Murray, members of the Society of Friends,
established the Penn School on St. Helena Island.
Cornelia Hancock, a Philadelphia woman of the
same sect, founded the Laing School at Mount
Pleasant, near Charleston, South Carolina.
Martha Schofield, another Friend of Pennsylvania,
opened at Aiken in 1865 the Schofield Industrial
School. In 1864 Alida Clark, supported by
Friends in Indiana, engaged in relief work among
Negro orphans in Helena, Arkansas, and in 1869
established near that city what is now known as
Southland College. The Reformed Presbyterians
maintained a school at Natchez between 1864 and
1866, and in 1874 established Knox Academy at
Religious Education as a Preparation 205
Selma, Alabama. The United Presbyterians
opened a sort of clandestine school in Nashville in
1863, and in 1875 established Knoxville College
as a center for a group of schools for Negroes in
Eastern Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, and
Northern Alabama. Franklinton Christian Col¬
lege, maintained by the American Christian Con¬
vention, was opened in 1878 and chartered in 1890.
Stillman Institute was established by the southern
Presbyterians at Tuscaloosa in 1876. Paine Col¬
lege was founded at Augusta in 1884.
With these striking examples of sacrifice in be¬
half of the education of their race, the Negro
churches themselves began to participate in the
extension of education as a means to spread the
gospel through an intelligent ministry and to en¬
able the laity to appreciate it as the great leverage
in the uplift of the man far down. The African
Methodists had through the efforts of Bishop
Payne already undertaken the establishment of
Union Seminary near Columbus, which was finally
merged with Wilberforce, established by the Meth¬
odists in 1858 near Xenia, Ohio. The African
Methodists also established Western University
in Kansas. To extend their educational work in
the South, however, this same denomination estab¬
lished Allen University at Columbia in 1881; Mor¬
ris Brown at Atlanta in 1885; and later other
schools at Waco, Texas; Jackson, Mississippi; and
Selma, Alabama. The Zion Methodist Churdh
too was planning the establishment of Living-
206 The History of the Negro Church
stone College in 1879 and removed to the present
site of Salisbury in 1882, was popularized exten¬
sively by the eloquent J. C. Price. Early empha¬
sizing education, the Colored Methodist Church
opened Lane College at Jackson, Tennessee, in 1882
and later established other schools at Birmingham,
Alabama, Holly Springs, Mississippi, and Tyler,
Texas. With the support of the American Bap¬
tist Home Mission Society the Negro Baptists have
done likewise and, moreover, have established in¬
dependently of the whites other such schools as the
Virginia Theological Seminary and College at
Lynchburg, largely developed by the talented
Gregory W. Hayes; the William J. Simmons Uni¬
versity of Louisville; the Arkansas Baptist Col¬
lege, now under the direction of the efficient J. A.
Booker; and the National Training School for
Girls in Washington, D. C., an institution so well
managed by the noted orator and indefatigable
worker, Nannie H. Burroughs.
To make proper use of the schools various or¬
ganizations cooperating under the name of Freed-
men's Aid Societies sent workers into the South to
meet every need of the Negro. These efforts were
not altogether those of the church, but so many
churchmen were connected therewith that the story
of the Negro church would be incomplete without
it. Cooperating with these agencies, the American
Missionary Association had in 1868 as many as
532 missionaries and teachers working among the
Negroes, spending as much as $400,000 a year.
Dr. William J. Simmons
Religious Education as a Preparation 207
Then there came the National Freedmen's Relief
Association of New York with 14 teachers and
funds amounting to $400,000 and $250,000 in sup¬
plies; the Pennsylvania Freedmen's Relief Asso¬
ciation or Philadelphia Society with a force of 60
teachers and a fund of $250,000 in 1865; the West¬
ern Freedmen's Aid Commission with receipts ag¬
gregating $227,000 to support teachers in the
South in 1865; the Northwestern Freedmen's Aid
Commission sending to the South in 1865 as many
as 50 teachers. In the District of Columbia,
among the Negroes themselves, there were organ-
ized and operated the National Freedmen's Re¬
lief Association and the National Association for
the Relief of Destitute Colored women and chil¬
dren, the latter being supported by funds appro¬
priated by Congress.
The Friends, a distinctly religious body, early
participated in the same work through various
local agencies. Among the first was the Friends
Association of Philadelphia and its vicinity for the
Relief of Colored Freedmen, which between 1863
and 1867 expended $210,500 among the freedmen
in Virginia and North Carolina. More interested
in education and religion, the Friends' Associa¬
tion for the Aid and Elevation of the Freedmen
worked among the Negroes of Virginia and South
Carolina, where between 1862 and 1869 they main¬
tained 14 schools with 732 students and expended
for schools, seeds, supplies, donations to asylums,
and 50,000 copies of the New Testament, $57,500.
208 The History of the Negro Church
The New England Friends began work among the
freedmen in 1864 in Washington, D. C., operating
there a store at cost prices and conducting day,
evening, and Sunday schools. Finally there coop¬
erated with the New England Friends those of
Maryland organized in 1864 as the Baltimore As¬
sociation for the Moral and Educational Improve¬
ment of the Colored People. This society was for¬
tunate in receiving annually for some time a sub¬
sidy from the city of Baltimore to the amount of
$20,000.
Foreign friends of the race were equally active
in promoting education and religion among the
freedmen. In 1863, members of the Society of
Friends in England contributed to this relief work
£3,000. The following year £5,000 came from this
source in England and £1,500 from Ireland. That
same year there came through the New England
Society $2,100 from the London Freedmen's Aid
Society, smaller sums from France and Ireland,
and $1,313 from five Parsee firms in London. Sim¬
ilar contributions were secured from abroad by
other relief societies organized in the United
States. According to facts obtained by the Freed-
man's Bureau the English aid societies contrib¬
uted to the relief of the Negroes between 1865 and
1869 at least $500,000. Dr. J. L. M. Curry believed
that the total receipts in money and supplies
reached $1,000,000.
The facts set forth above well represent the
activities of the Friends and of the Congregation-
Religious Education as a Preparation 209
alists, Free Will Baptists, Wesleyans, Methodists,
and Reformed Dutch, for whom the American Mis¬
sionary Association served as an agent; but there
were in the field several churches working inde¬
pendently. Among these were the Methodists,
Baptists and Presbyterians. To systematize its
efforts the Methodists organized in 1866 "The
Freedmen Aid Society of the Methodist Church."
The first efforts of this society were directed to¬
ward primary, normal, and higher education. In
1868 the Methodists had then established through
this agency 29 schools with 51 teachers and 5,000
students in Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missis¬
sippi, Louisiana, Alabama, and Georgia. By the
end of the sixth year of its existence the receipts
of the society amounted to $315,100.
During these years the American Baptist Home
Missionary Association supported by Presby¬
terians and United Brethren in Christ, was sending
workers right in the wake of the Union armies in¬
vading the Mississippi Valley. The Baptists had
opened a school for Negroes in Alexandria in 1862,
and by 1864 had sent missionaries into the District
of Columbia, Virginia, the Carolinas, Tennessee,
and Louisiana. Because of the freedom exercised
by the Baptists locally, there was among them
much duplication of effort which resulted in con¬
fusion; but the American Baptist Home Mission¬
ary Association finally emerged as a unifying fac¬
tor among these workers. This society had made
such rapid strides by 1867 that it had in the field
210 The History of the Negro Church
50 ordained ministers and a large number of Ne¬
gro students in training for the work. The Free-
Will Baptists while cooperating with the American
Home Missionary Association made some efforts
by themselves. They carried on some work in the
Shenandoah Valley and in the West with 40 mis¬
sionaries and teachers and 3,467 students.
The Presbyterians also took this work seriously.
The General Assembly in session at Pittsburg in
1865 appointed a special committee on freedmen,
with 18 members, two of whom were designated as
secretary and treasurer. As there were already
in the field 36 teachers as missionaries supported
by local societies, this general bureau took over
their work. The following year there were in the
field 55 missionaries, reporting 3,256 day pupils,
2,043 Sunday School scholars, and six churches
with 526 members, in Tennessee, Alabama, North
Carolina, and Kansas. The income for this work
was $25,350 in 1865, together with 30 or 40 boxes
of clothing; but between 1865 and 1870 this de¬
nomination expended $244,700 to maintain their
workers, who in 1820 had increased to 157, of
whom 105 were Negroes. The Old School and
United Presbyterians did not accomplish so much
but they had a few missions here and there. In
1864, there were in Washington five schools with
174 students supported by the Reformed Presby¬
terian Board of Missions with an expenditure of
$3,000 a year.
Some other sporadic efforts in behalf of the
Dr. James Poindexter
Pioneer Baptist preacher in Ohio.
Religious Education as a Preparation 211
freedmen deserve at least casual mention. The
Protestant Episcopal Freedmen's Commission was
organized in 1865 to engage in this work, but with
the exception of some physical relief extended the
unfortunate it accomplished very little. From The
Massachusetts Episcopal Association for the Pro¬
motion of Christian Knowledge among the Freed¬
men and other Colored Persons of the South and
Southwest, organized that same year, still less as¬
sistance came. The American Bible Society up to
1868, however, distributed a million copies of
scriptural and religious works among the freed¬
men. The American Tract Society also sent out
such works, opened some schools, and conducted
church services in Washington.
The Negroes, although poor in the goods of this
world, soon made sufficient sacrifice materially to
give impetus to the relief work among themselves.
The Negroes in Maryland gave $23,371 to aid the
relief work promoted by the Baltimore Association
for the Moral and Educational Improvement of
the Colored People. They organized bodies of
their own, moreover, to participate directly in this
uplift work. In 1864 there was established in
Brooklyn "The African Civilization Society,"
which gradually extended its work through
churches and schools into the District of Columbia,
the Carolinas, Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, Mis¬
sissippi, and Louisiana. The reports of this or¬
ganization show that in 1868 it employed 129
teachers instructing 8,000 students at an expense
212 The History of the Negro Church
of $53,700. For some years the society operated
in Brooklyn an orphan asylum with the aid of the
Freedmen's Bureau, but in 1869 the management
found itself embarrassed for lack of funds. From
1864 to 1868 the African Methodists so extended
its mission and school work as to have 40,000 Sun¬
day school pupils and 39,000 volumes in school
libraries.
It will be interesting to mention some of the
men in the North, who constituted the manage¬
ment of the home'offices of these aid societies and
who used their time and influence in raising the
necessary funds. Among the officers of the Ameri¬
can Freedmen's Aid Commission, a sort of gen¬
eral agency in New York for several relief socie¬
ties, were William Lloyd Garrison, the famous
abolitionist, as vice-president; Frederick Law
Olmsted, the noted traveler through the South
prior to the war, serving as general secretary;
and, as directors, John G. Whittier, the anti-
slavery poet, Francis Gr. Shaw, another abolition¬
ist, and Henry Ward Beecher, the true and tried
friend of the Negro. Lyman Abbott became gen¬
eral secretary of the combined organizations. The
American Freedmen's Aid Commission and The
American Union Commission added to their staff
William Cullen Bryant, Phillip Brooks, Bellamy
Storer, and Edward L. Pierce, who had done so
much for the contrabands in South Carolina prior
to the close of the war. When most of these so¬
cieties in a convention in Cleveland united under
Religious Education as a Preparation 213
the name of the American Freedmen's Union Com¬
mission, they had for president Chief Justice
Chase, who not only by word but by actual sac¬
rifice of his means did much to promote the Chris¬
tian education of the freedmen.
Among the supporters of the New England So¬
ciety there appeared many workers known before
as friends of the Negro. The Rev. Edward Everett
Hale and J. M. Manning were most active in Bos¬
ton in raising funds and finding teachers and mis¬
sionaries to work in Negro schools. Gov. John A.
Andrew served as the first president of the New
England Freedmen's Aid Society, Edward Atkin¬
son as secretary, and James Freeman Clarke as
vice-president. And from New England came
scores of workers, following up the work com¬
menced by those gallant soldiers, Thomas Went-
worth Higginson, and Robert Gould Shaw.
Southern people were not exactly neutral on
the enlightenment of the Negro. They did not, as
a whole, seriously object to it and in the course
of time there appeared among them men of their
own group fearlessly advocating Negro education.
Dr. A. G. Haygood, a distinguished churchman
among the Methodists, deserves here some men¬
tion. He represented in a large measure the best
thought in the South concerning the Negro. He
came forward to impress upon the South the
claims of the Negro on the "sympathy and help¬
fulness of all who were more fortunate, especially
those who called themselves the followers of Jesus
214 The History of the Negro Church
Christ." This sentiment he set forth in a book,
entitled Our Brother in Black, which struck the
North with agreeable surprise and led the South
to think more seriously of another solution of the
so-called Negro problem. Invited to be the Di¬
rector of the John F. Slater Fund established soon
thereafter, Dr. Haygood had an opportunity to
spend nine years translating into action the theory
set forth in his book.
Less interested in Christian education but nev¬
ertheless effective in promoting generally the
cause which made the situation of the Negro church
so much better in the South was Dr. J. L. M.
Curry, a lawyer and congressman, representative
of the Southern Confederacy. His work as Di¬
rector of the Peabody Fund, easily connected with
the systematic efforts of Dr. Amory Dwight
Mayo, a northern man, who investigated the Negro
schools in the South, set forth methods for their
improvement and kept the North and the South
well informed as to the forces at work among Ne¬
groes for the good of all. The southern churches
as a whole during this period, however, did not so
quickly forget their prejudices as to do anything
of consequence for the good of the Negroes. The
Negro had been begrudgingly granted his free¬
dom and the northern teacher and missionary
seemed like interlopers to be tolerated but not
worthy of cooperation. The South, moreover,
could not have done very much for Negro mis¬
sions for the reason that immediately after the war
J. C. Price
An orator and educator in the church.
Religious Education as a Preparation 215
it was decidedly impoverished; for many of the
aid societies which assisted the Negroes minis¬
tered also to the whites in the desolated areas.
These missionary teachers came with a de¬
termination to do something like that of Francis
Xavier, Henry Martyn, and Adoniram Judson,
who bore the religious message to the Orient.
They came to change the character of the freedmen
through an intelligent religion based upon actual
knowledge of God as revealed in the Bible. Among
these workers one should mention Rev. D. L. John¬
son, a teacher of refugees in Washington; Solo¬
mon Peck, a volunteer teacher of the contrabands
at Beaufort, South Carolina, in 1862; Horace Bum-
stead, afterward President of Atlanta University;
and Gen. 0. 0. Howard, President of Howard
University.
The sort of education promoted by these workers
will further explain the significance of the move¬
ment. All of the church aid societies and many
of those beyond the control of churchmen had for
their purpose the industrial, social, intellectual,
and religious improvement of the freedmen. The
capstone of the structure they would build then
had its foundation in moral and religious instruc¬
tion. Most workers, therefore, were chosen with
regard to their* fitness to function in these posi¬
tions as missionaries in the school room. Few
persons volunteering to do such work at that time
could be devoid of a sympathetic nature, but more
than this was required to build in these new citi-
216 The History of the Negro Church
zens that Christian character which would make
them helpful to their fellows and useful in the
work of the Master. While education was neces¬
sary for the Negroes as for all other persons, the
chief need of the Negro, as most of these workers
observed it, was religion.
Acting upon this idea, therefore, almost every
Negro school provided in some way for religious
instruction. If the course of study were not suf¬
ficiently broad to base thereupon a more advanced
course, there was usually provided some instruc¬
tion in the English Bible. In case the course of
study became so pretentious as to style itself a
college curriculum, there was usually added the
regular course in theology, which, in spite of the
fact that it was the only professional work in which
such institutions engaged, was sufficient for them
to take over the title of university. Although lack¬
ing adequate understanding sometimes, however,
these institutions had so much of the right spirit
that they accomplished all but wonders. While
they did not always hold the students long enough
to impart all that a college graduate or a profes¬
sional man should know, they so inspired the youth
with the love of study that the habit once formed
led them into fields of research and endeavor
which men much better trained often failed to
reach.
The emphasis of the northern churches upon
instruction rather than upon mere proselyting im¬
mediately after the war, therefore, was not mis-
Religious Education as a Preparation 217
placed. They no doubt wrought more wisely than
they thought. The Negro already had his predi¬
lections toward the Methodists and the Baptists
and the mere contest for the increase of church
membership to be recruited among a people, the
masses of whom could not then serve God intelli¬
gently would have been love's labor lost. Northern
denominations wisely cooperated with one another
regardless of sectarian lines to do whatever was
needful whether or not the largest contributor to
the success of the enterprise received credit for
it. Negroes who went from these schools had,
of course, the impress of the respective denomina¬
tions to which they owed their education, but very
often, as it was in the case of the Presbyterians,
the denomination lost to the others of a more pop¬
ular appeal most of the men which it trained.
Lincoln and Biddle Universities have by their
training of men who, on leaving school joined the
Methodists or Baptists, contributed to the success
of these denominations. When one thinks of
Walter H. Brooks, the popular Baptist minister
in Washington, and of Joseph C. Price, the idol
of the Zion Church, as graduates of Lincoln Uni¬
versity, this contention becomes convincing.
With all of these workers in the field promoting
religious education without regard to creed, the
Negro churches soon had a much larger number
of men equipped to extend their work. The min¬
ister who could neither read nor write became an
exception to the rule and when still ambitious in
218 The History of the Negro Church
spite of such shortcomings lie sometimes ceased
to have a following. Preaching became more of
an appeal to the intellect than an effort to stir
one's emotions. Sermons were made as an effort
to minister to a need observed by careful con¬
sideration of the circumstances of the persons
served, hymns in keeping with the thought of the
discourse harmonized therewith, and prayers be¬
came the occasion of thanksgiving for blessings
which the intelligent pastor could lead his congre¬
gation to appreciate and of a petition for God's
help to live more righteously. In fact, the tone of
worship in the Negro church had been as a result
of the post bellum efforts in education very much
changed as early as 1875 and decidedly so by 1885.
Given such an impetus the work of the Christian
church among Negroes was rapidly carried for¬
ward. "Within a few years the neglected masses of
the freedmen unto whom the gospel had never
been successfully preached were generally evan¬
gelized and provided with some sort of facilities
for religious instruction. Publication societies
sold through colporters and missionaries religious
literature adapted to the special needs of the
freedmen and religious workers organized in
churches circles devoted to the study of Christian
doctrine and the Bible. As the church thus lib¬
eralized offered the Negroes a much better oppor¬
tunity for development than the other institutions,
many of which for years after emancipation were
regarded as spheres which the Negro should not
Religious Education as a Preparation 219
enter, the freedmen specialized in the study of
this one concern thrown open to them, mastering
in a few years the principles of the Christian re¬
ligion and the story of the Bible to the extent that
their friends and enemies were all but startled.
As a result, therefore, Negroes of to-day have a
much more thorough knowledge of these funda¬
mentals than most white men.
CHAPTER XI
THE CALL OF POLITICS
THIS favorable beginning, however, was not in¬
dicative of a straightforward attack on the
tents of wickedness. Many Negroes who were
trained for the ministry never entered thereupon
because of the lure of politics during the days of
Reconstruction. Some who had engaged in this
Christian work found out that in spite of the most
thorough training by pious men, they were not
fitted for such a calling and abandoned it for the
political arena. Others who were seemingly suc¬
cessful in the ministry divided their time between
their profession and politics, either because of the
exigencies of the situation or the desire to attain
positions of prominence in keeping with the tra¬
ditions of the white people of the South, who have
emphasized unduly the status of the professional
class.
There were during the Reconstruction period,
moreover, so many other necessities with which
the Negroes had to be supplied that the Negro
preacher, often the only one in a community
usually sufficiently well developed to lead the peo¬
ple, had to devote his time not only to church work
220
Bishop H. M. Turner
The Call of Politics
221
but to every matter of concern to the race. In
some respects, the Negroes after the war were
not far removed from the conditions obtaining in
the North before the war. Many of their former
problems still confronted them. The chief differ¬
ence was that after the war the Negroes had
fighting ground on which to stand to wage a battle
for those things which, having been begrudgingly
granted, were being gradually taken away.
That the Negro preacher should continue a man
of so many interests was but a natural conse¬
quence of the trend in the development of the
race in this country. Up to this time the Negroes
had established and maintained only one institu¬
tion of their own. That was their church. When
the time came for them to exercise other functions
in society this one institution had to be over¬
worked to supply the needs of others. Inasmuch
as the church then became the center of so many
activities the minister in charge often had to take
the lead in shaping the policy of his people that
they might advance in the right way. Ministers
who abandoned their pulpits for the political world
may be condemned as deserting their post of duty;
but when one considers the call of their race in
the situation in which it was and the valuable ser¬
vices some of them rendered, he cannot hastily
conclude that the race thereby lost more than it
gained. History should be studied sympatheti¬
cally. The devotee to the faith should not de¬
nounce these men as recreant to Christianity and
222 The History of the Negro Church
the student of politics must not dub them as inter¬
lopers in a forbidden field. Never before had a
race been liberated under such circumstances.
Never before had a group in such an undeveloped
state been called upon to do so many things in
such a short time. That the procedure of the race
in this infinitely complex situation differed some¬
what from that of others who had centuries to do
what the Negroes were required to accomplish in
a day, should be no cause of surprise.
In this respect, moreover, the Negroes did not
differ widely from the whites. It is true that there
has not been any period in the history of the whites
when such a large percentage of the ministry
freely participated in matters of the world, but
the Negro minister found in the record of the
whites precedents for all of his deviation from
the customary course of the preacher of the Word.
In their frontier condition the pioneering whites
had often been reduced to the necessity of follow¬
ing the leadership of the versatile minister just
as the Negroes were during the Reconstruction
period. Among them the minister was sometimes
the man of all work. He had a farm or business
from which he obtained most of his means of sub¬
sistence; he of necessity often studied law and
practiced in the local courts; he not infrequently
aspired to office and, if successful, sometimes for¬
got his beginnings. And even within the memory
of the living, examples are not wanting. Ex-
Governor Atkinson of West Virginia was a minis-
The Call of Politics
223
ter in the Methodist Church and, like the Negro
during these trying days, answered the call of his
constituents. James A. Garfield, who attained the
presidency of the United States, abandoned this
exalted profession for the more interesting role of
politics.
The salient facts of the careers of some of these
ministers thus allured are more than interesting.
Dr. William J. Simmons after being educated and
engaged in the Baptist ministry for some time
entered politics in Florida about 1874. Well re¬
ceived by his neighbors, he soon became county
clerk and then county commissioner. He served
as chairman of the county campaign committee
and a member of the district congressional com¬
mittee. In the campaign of Hayes and Tilden,
Simmons was a conspicuous figure. He stumped
the State for the Republican candidates with such
success as materially to aid the cause in that he
helped to raise the Republican majority of his
county from 525 to 986 when the whole State gave
Hayes a majority of only 147. Dr. Simmons later
settled in Louisville, where he distinguished him¬
self as a minister and as the founder of what is
now known as the William J. Simmons University.
Dr. James Poindexter's career shows how diffi¬
cult it was for the Negro ministers to avoid poli¬
tics. Coming from Virginia, as a pioneer among
those who sought better opportunities in the
Northwest, he was at once a serious leader. He
became a minister in the Baptist Church even be-
224 The History of the Negro Church
fore the Civil War and never actually sought an
official position, hoping rather to maintain himself
as a fearless speaker and writer in behalf of his
oppressed people. Yet he too was to some extent
attracted to politics in self-defense. He was the
first man of color in Ohio nominated for the House
of Delegates, but was defeated. We find him some
years later serving as the foreman of a grand
jury. He was appointed a trustee of the Ohio
University at Athens but the Democratic Senate
of the State would not confirm him. He was for
four years a member of the City Council of Co¬
lumbus, serving that body as vice-president. Later
he was appointed to fill a vacancy on the School
Board of Columbus, was elected to the position at
the expiration of the term, and reelected against
great odds over a Democratic opponent in 1887.
Poindexter's position in this case, like that of so
many others, may be stated in his own words.
Addressing an audience on the "Pulpit and Poli¬
tics," he said: "Nor can a preacher more than
any other citizen plead his religious work or the
sacredness of that work as an exemption from
duty. Going to the Bible to learn the relation of
the pulpit to politics, and accepting the prophets,
Christ, and apostles, and the pulpit of their times,
and their precepts and examples as the guide of
the pulpit to-day, I think that their conclusion will
be that wherever there is a sin to be rebuked, no
matter by whom committed, and ill to be averted
The Call of Politics
225
or good to be achieved by our country or mankind,
there is a place for the pulpit to make itself felt
and heard. The truth is, all the help the preachers
and all other good and worthy citizens can give by
taking hold of politics is needed in order to keep
the government out of bad hands and secure the
ends for which governments are formed.''
Dr. J. T. White, another preacher of the Re¬
construction period, attained much distinction in
this field. Fortunate in having acquired a funda¬
mental education in Indianapolis prior to the war,
he easily made an impression at the Consolidated
Baptist Convention in St. Louis in 1865 when he
received a call to a small Baptist Church of Hel¬
ena, Arkansas. Among these communicants he
toiled successfully without concern as to other
affairs until 1868, when the reconstruction of the
State was begun. He was induced to present him¬
self as a candidate for delegate to the constitu¬
tional convention and was elected. He figured con¬
spicuously in framing the constitution and can¬
vassed the State to secure its ratification. He
then became a part of the restored State govern¬
ment, serving his fellow citizens as a member of
the House of Delegates, to which he was twice re¬
elected. He was chosen to serve one term in the
State Senate, after which he was appointed by the
Governor, Commissioner of Public Works and
Internal Improvements. During this same period,
however, he was doing his best work in building
226 The History of the Negro Church
and edifying churches at Helena and Little Rock,
and extending Baptist influence throughout the
State and nation.
G. W. Gayles, a Mississippian of this type, ac¬
quired before his emancipation enough education
to read intelligently. Having an inclination to
study the Bible, he aspired to the ministry, for
which he was set apart by a council of reputable
Baptist ministers of Greenville in 1867. Going to
Bolivar county to find a more inviting field, he be¬
came the pastor of the Kindling Altar Church in
which he made an honorable record. He soon be-
/
came involved in public affairs, however, as is
evidenced by his appointment as member of the
Board of Police for a district in Bolivar County
by Governor A. Ames. The following year he
was appointed Justice of the Peace in that county
by Governor J. L. Alcorn, but later in that same
month he was made a supervisor of another dis¬
trict in that county. He was then elected a mem¬
ber of the Mississippi Legislature, serving a term
of two years in the lower house and then as State
Senator from the 28th district, beginning 1877 and
continuing into the eighties, when there had been
no other Negro in that body since 1875.
In spite of his political activities, however,
Gayles did not abandon religious work. Begin¬
ning in 1872, he served for many years as mis¬
sionary for the counties of Bolivar and Sunflower
and then in that capacity for Coahoma. Appre¬
ciating his worth, the Baptist State Missionary
Bishop B. W. Arnett
The Call of Politics
227
Convention made him its corresponding secretary
in 1874 and president in 1876, with the power to
edit a denominational organ known as The Baptist
Signal, by which he showed himself a national as
well as a State character.
Jesse Freeman Boulden was forced into politics
against his will. In Philadelphia he acquired an
elementary education. He later embraced religion
in Maryland, and in 1853 connected himself with
the Union Baptist Church in Philadelphia. He
then became pastor of the Zion Baptist Church
in Chicago, where he was succeeded by Richard
DeBaptiste as pastor of the combined Olivet Bap¬
tist Church in 1863. As the war was then turning
out favorable to the Union forces, Boulden called
together at Brooklyn, Illinois, in 1864, a group of
Illinois Baptist churches known as the Wood River
Association to consider the importance of follow¬
ing the army and looking after the interests of the
denomination in the South. This work then en¬
gaged the attention of Mr. Boulden to the extent
that he gave up his church in 1865 and settled at
Natchez, Mississippi. This was in many respects
the turning point of his career. He immediately
plunged into political matters as a leader to the
manner born. He presented to Congress the first
petition of that State praying that Negroes be
granted the right of franchise. Boulden held the
first emancipation celebration in 1866, and began
to lecture to Negroes on the duty of the hour.
Thus interested, he was made a factor in the or-
228 The History of the Negro Church
ganization of the Republican party in the north¬
eastern part of the State. He made the first Re¬
publican speech in the court house at Columbus
and was a member of the first Mississippi Repub¬
lican State Convention in 1867.
In all of this, however, he was not seeking per¬
sonal gain; for brought out against his will as a
candidate for the lower house, of the legislature,
he once thought of declining, but finally yielded,
thinking that he might be able to do some good.
In this position he took the lead in piloting through
the legislature the election of Hiram Revells as
United States Senator, and, after helping B. K.
Bruce to become Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate,
used his influence to make him also a member of
the upper national body. He, like many others of
his time, however, never deserted the ministry
altogether for politics. After serving various
churches and editing The Baptist Reflector of
Columbus, Mississippi, he rendered his most valu¬
able service as general agent of the American
Baptist Home Mission Society for the State of
New York.
P. H. A. Braxton, pastor of the Calvary Baptist
Church in Baltimore, and the Rev. D. F. Rivers,
once a member of the Tennessee Legislature,
seemed to have had their day in politics and then
entered upon the ministry in contradistinction to
most men of their time. Leaving the farm on
which he was born a slave in Virginia, Braxton
went into the stave business. Entering politics in
The Call of Politics
229
King William county soon thereafter, however, he
became constable in 1872, acquitting himself with
honor. In the meantime he studied law with some
degree of success. He then went to Washington,
D. C., where he received an appointment in the cus¬
tom house service in which he was converted in
1875. It seems that he lost the desire for politics
thereafter. He was commissioned to preach in
1875, and appointed general agent of the consoli¬
dated American Baptist Missionary Convention in
1878. He took charge of the Calvary Baptist
Church in Baltimore in 1879 and there made a
record for himself and his denomination as a
forceful preacher, successful organizer, and radi¬
cal reformer. Rev. Mr. Rivers, after toiling in the
West, came to Washington where he is still an ac¬
tive pastor.
Allen Allensworth prepared for the ministry at
the Ely Normal School and at Roger Williams
University. He rose rapidly in the denomination,
serving the Kentucky Baptists as their financial
agent, the pastor of churches at Elizabethtown,
Franklin, Louisville, Bowling Green, and Cincin¬
nati, and as a missionary in the employ of the
American Baptist Publication Society. During
these years, however, he was equally active as a
leader in politics. The Republicans of Kentucky
made much use of him as a campaigner, as he was
a speaker of well-known power. By this party he
was chosen to serve as an elector for the State-at-
large on the Garfield-Arthur ticket in 1880 and
230 The History of the Negro Church
was sent as delegate from that State to the Na¬
tional Republican Convention which met in Chi¬
cago in 1884. No one knows how far his political
activity would have gone, had he not entered the
army as chaplain before the Negro political or¬
ganization in the South had collapsed.
Christopher H. Payne, who with the possible
exception of Mordecai W. Johnson, has been the
most intelligent preacher of color to toil in West
Virginia, shows in his career how the political
world finally absorbed some Negro ministers alto¬
gether. He began as a teacher in "West Virginia,
where by dint of energy he mastered the funda¬
mentals of education. He then became converted
and on realizing a call to the ministry, entered
the Richmond Institute where he distinguished
himself as a promising scholar. After serving the
American Baptist Publication Society as a Sun¬
day school missionary and as pastor of churches
in Virginia and West Virginia, he became inter¬
ested in politics in which he participated not only
as a speaker but as an editor. He spent some time
reading law, secured admission to the bar, and
practiced in the local courts. In the course of
time, he became more widely known as a figure in
politics than as a churchman, although he was at
the same time serving as pastor of some church
and presiding over Baptist Associations and for
years the Baptist State Convention of West Vir¬
ginia. In 1896, he was elected a member of the
West Virginia Legislature, the first Negro to be so
Bishop W. B. Derrick
The Call of Politics
231
honored in that State. He was later appointed a
deputy Collector of Internal Revenue under Na¬
than B. Scott, and in 1903 was appointed Consul to
the Virgin Islands, where he served fourteen
years. Since the recent purchase of these posses¬
sions by the United States he has remained there
to practice law.
Bishop W. B. Derrick of the African Methodist
Episcopal Church also had a political career.
From a brief career on the high seas he enlisted
in the United States Navy during the Civil War
and upon being converted entered the ministry of
the African Methodist Church, serving with dis¬
tinction in the Virginia Conference. Having by
the end of the seventies attained this position of
influence, he was induced to take an active part in
the politics of that State at the time when one of
the local parties desired to readjust the State debt.
He allied himself with the "Funders," the party
in favor of paying the debt as it was contracted,
since he believed that his attitude was in harmony
with the principles of the National Republican
Party. Thinking that his people were about to be
made tools in the hands of ambitious and unscru¬
pulous men, Dr. Derrick fearlessly denounced the
"Readjustee" as a clique seeking to repudiate
the payment of an honest debt. As this contest
developed into a vindictive political battle engen¬
dering much local strife out of which the " Read¬
justee '' emerged victors, Dr. Derrick, deeming it
best to leave Virginia, resigned his charge and
232 The History of the Negro Church
spent some time visiting his relatives in the West
Indies. He returned to this country to resume his
ministry in which he so rapidly developed that
he became a popular bishop of his church.
Bishop H. M. Turner, one of the outstanding
men of the Negro race, had his day also in politics.
He equipped himself for the ministry by private
instruction obtained under adverse circumstances,
joined the Methodist Church in 1848, and trans¬
ferred to the African Methodists in 1867, rising
rapidly in this last-mentioned connection from the
position of an itinerant preacher in St. Louis to
an eldership in Washington, and a chaplaincy in
the United States Army. During these years,
however, he was most active in politics. In 1867
he was appointed by the National Republican Com¬
mittee to superintend the organization of the Ne¬
groes in Georgia. In this capacity he stumped the
State and wrote many articles which he spread
broadcast to direct his people in his way. That
year he was elected a member of the State Consti¬
tutional Convention. He was next chosen a mem¬
ber of the legislature the following year and re¬
elected in 1870, when he was expelled on account
of his color. President Grant appointed him post¬
master of Macon in 1869; but he had to resign on
account of persecution. He was afterward ap¬
pointed Coast Inspector of Customs and United
States Government Detective, but after holding
the position a few years he resigned it to meet
the demands of the church whose cause, in spite of
The Call of Politics
233
his political activities, he had never abandoned,
and whose good judgment made him the influential
bishop of the denomination.
Speaking of his career himself, he said on an
occasion: '1 And my labors have not stopped in
the religious sphere, but it is well known to every
one that I have done more work in the political
field than any five men in the State, if you will take
out Colonel Bryant. I first organized the Republi¬
can party in this State, and have worked for its
maintenance and perpetuity as no other man in
the State has. I have put more men in the field,
made more speeches, organized more union
leagues, political associations, clubs, and have
written more campaign documents, that received
larger circulation, than any other man in the State.
Why, one campaign document I wrote alone was
so acceptable that it took four million copies to
satisfy the public. And as you are well aware,
these labors have not been performed amid sun¬
shine and prosperity. I have been the constant
target of Democratic abuse and venom, and white
Republican jealousy. The newspapers have
teemed with all kind of slander, accusing me of
every crime in the catalogue of villainy; I have
been arrested and tried on some of the wildest
charges and most groundless accusations ever dis¬
tilled from the laboratory of hell. Witnesses have
been paid as high as four thousand dollars to swear
me into the penitentiary; white preachers have
sworn that I tried to get up insurrections, etc., a
234: The History of the Negro Church
crime punishable with death; and all such deviltry
has been resorted to for the purpose of breaking
me down, and with all they have not hurt a hair of
my head, nor even bothered my brain longer than
they were going through the farce of adjudica¬
tion. ... I invariably let them say their say and
do their do; while they were studying against me,
I was studying for the interest of the church, and
working for the success of my party."
Richard Harvey Cain, converted in 1841 and
installed as a preacher in the African Methodist
Episcopal Church in 1844, saw himself rising to a
position of usefulness after his training at Wilber-
force, followed by his pastoral work in the New
York and South Carolina Conferences. Although
he had unusually extended his field of labor by
successful efforts at Summerville, Lincolnville,
Georgetown, Marion, and Sumter, he had too much
energy to be confined altogether to the church.
Interesting himself in whatever touched the life of
his people, he edited a Republican newspaper in
1868. He secured his election as a member of the
Reconstruction constitutional convention in South
Carolina and played an important role in rebuild¬
ing the government of that State along liberal
lines. He served two years as State Senator from
the Charleston District. In 1879 he was given a
much more honorable recognition in being elected
a member of the Forty-third Congress. He was
again thus honored in being elected to the Forty-
fifth Congress in 1881 and "served with distinc-
The Call of Politics
235
tion and marked ability," making most eloquent
speeches in the advocacy of civil rights for the
Negro.
His close connection with the church, however,
was still maintained, for he was elected bishop
in 1880 and assigned to the Louisiana and Texas
district. Speaking of him as a man remarkable
for uniting these two fields, Bishop Derrick said:
''He surely could be considered a captain of the
hosts, one of the kindliest and pleasantest of
Christian statesmen and a man of clear good
judgment blended with a strong resolution and
firmness, which made him the master of many
difficult situations in the active and political ca¬
reer which marked his statesmanship with bril¬
liant success."
Bishop B. W. Arnett, one of the most popular
men who have hitherto risen in the African Meth¬
odist Church, served his people also in these two
ways. When political opportunities were first of¬
fered the Negroes in the South he had already
served as a teacher and had passed through the
gradations of the ministry to a position of influ¬
ence in his denomination in Ohio. The need was
too urgent and the call too imperative for him
not to participate in the affairs of his State and
nation. Once in politics, he easily became a com¬
manding figure even in Ohio, where because of
the small black population a Negro could not
secure the following easily obtained at that time
in the Southern States. In 1885 he was elected
236 The History of the Negro Church
to the Ohio Legislature from Greene County, thus
securing the opportunity to fight for the repeal
of the nefarious "Black Laws" which disgraced
the statute books of Ohio prior to the Civil War.
Arnett piloted through the lower house the bill
to this effect and with Senator Ely supporting it in
the Senate, the feat was triumphantly accom¬
plished. Never did a Negro serve his people to
better advantage. At the same time he was
using his influence to correct national abuses and
was earnestly laboring for the extension of his
church, which he honorably served as financial
secretary, statistician, and finally as bishop.
Bishop James W. Hood, of the African Metho¬
dist Episcopal Zion Church, in his day one
of the most influential men of color in the
United States, found himself also in. the
political world. He began as a preacher in
Nova Scotia in 1860, served later at Bridge¬
port, Connecticut, and then went to North Caro¬
lina, where his successful work exalted him to
the bishopric in 1872. His very going to North
Carolina, however, had a political setting. He
went to Newbern as a missionary under General
Butler's invitation to the churches to send mis¬
sionaries, even while the place was under the fire
of the Confederate forces. When the war in that
area was cleared up and Reconstruction was un¬
dertaken Bishop Hood was among the first to
participate therein. He was elected president of
the convention of Negroes assembled at Raleigh in
Bishop J. W. Hood
The Call of Politics
237
October, 1865, one of the first, if not the first, polit¬
ical convocation of this sort ever assembled in
the South. On this occasion he so fearlessly advo¬
cated equal rights for the Negro that he was
Warned T)y the people around that his life would
be in danger, if he did not desist therefrom. In
1867 he was elected as delegate to the constitu¬
tional convention of North Carolina, in which he
took such an active part in framing the funda¬
mental law, incorporating into it such liberal pro¬
visions for homesteads and public schools, that it
was spoken of by the reactionaries as Hood's con¬
stitution until it was amended in 1875. He served
as a magistrate under the provisional government
in North Carolina and later became a deputy Col¬
lector of Internal Revenue for the United States.
In 1868 he was appointed an agent of the State
Board of Education and Assistant Superintend¬
ent of Public Instruction, receiving a salary of
$1,500 a year; but he did not abandon his church
work, having built up a large congregation at
Charlotte during the three years he served in these
positions. He traveled also in the interest of the
Freedmen's Bureau in the capacity of an Assist¬
ant Superintendent. Thus in a position to help his
people, Bishop Hood had in 1870 as many as 49,000
Negro children in school. He had established for
Negroes a department for the deaf, dumb, and
blind and had about sixty inmates under care and
instruction at the expense of the State. He hoped
to establish a State university, but the undoing
238 The History of the Negro Church
of Reconstruction prevented him from reaching
that end. He was named in 1872 by the Republi¬
can caucus as their candidate for Secretary of
State, but he declined the honor. He served that
year as delegate at large to the National Repub¬
lican Convention, which nominated Grant the sec¬
ond time. In 1876 he was chosen temporary chair¬
man of the Republican State Convention, which
he served with much satisfaction.
This account of the Negro in politics, however,
does not establish the fact that either the majority
or even the best prepared of the Negro ministry
devoted all of their time to politics. There were
many striking examples to the contrary. Bishop
Daniel Payne lived long after the Civil War to
promote education and religion, and when he died
was regarded by many as the most useful man
of the race. Bishop Lee, as President of Wilber-
force University and a functionary of the African
Methodist Episcopal Church, rendered his race
constructive service. Dr. Alexander Crummell
took no active part in politics, although he fear¬
lessly spoke out for the political and civil rights
of his race. Dr. J. Sella Martin, prominent in
the ministry before and after the Civil War, at¬
tained the distinction of one of the most eloquent
men of his race without permitting politics to
consume much of his time. Bishop Grant, one of
the most useful men of his denomination, did not
find it necessary to seek honors beyond the limits
of the church. John Jasper, known to fame as
The Call of Politics
239
the Baptist preacher of the Sun-Moving theory,
established for himself throughout Virginia and
adjacent States a reputation for piety and sin¬
cerity, which, without political influence, made him
a power in the country.
Among these consecrated churchmen, more¬
over, none can be considered a better example
than Bishop B. T. Tanner, a well-educated man,
who became distinguished in the services of his
church years before the emancipation. His ad¬
dresses exhibited learning and mature thought
and the several works which he published entitled
him to the distinction of being one of the most
scholarly Negroes of his time. Among these
works may be mentioned his Apology for African
Methodism, The Negro's Origin, An Outline of
Our History and Government; The Negro, African
and American. In 1884 he was made editor of
the African Biblical Review, which he so popu¬
larized that he was soon chosen bishop by his
denomination.
Bishop L. H. Holsey of the C. M. E. Church
distinguished himself by a career equally as hon¬
orable. After rendering faithful service as a
minister in the church he was elevated to the epis¬
copacy at a time when the church needed the
guidance of a master hand. The manner in which
he addressed himself to his task and the good
results which he obtained soon convinced his com¬
municants that the selection was not a mistake.
That during his day the Colored Methodists did
240 The History of the Negro Church
their task so well was due in a measure, of course,
to the numerous sacrifices made by other faith¬
ful churchmen of his denomination. Among these
should be mentioned Bishops Elias Cottrell, Isaac
Lane, R. S. Williams, N. C. Cleaves, R. A. Carter
and C. H. Phillips, who still stand as the respect¬
able and trustworthy leaders of their denomina¬
tion.
Deserving of honorable mention in this connec¬
tion are many distinguished Negroes who im¬
pressed the world as preachers of power. They
not only built imposing edifices and pastored
large congregations, but went from place to place
in the State and country impressing the world
with the power of God unto salvation. So gener¬
ally did they ingratiate themselves into the favor
of the public that they passed among the people as
seers and prophets of a former period. Among
these should be mentioned Dr. "W. Bishop Johnson
and Dr. C. M. Tanner of the District of Columbia;
Dr. Harvey Johnson of Baltimore; E. K. Love
and W. J. White of Georgia; Daniel Stratton,
Nelson Barnett, and R. J. Perkins of West
Virginia; and J. J. Worlds and L. W. Boone of
North Carolina. There were also James Holmes,
for years the pastor of the First Baptist Church
of Richmond, Virginia; Dr. Richard Wells, the
pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in the same
city; Anthony Binga, a churchman of scholarly
bearing, who wrote important dissertations of a
theological nature while pastoring the leading
Bishop IIolsey,
of the C. M. E. Church.
The Call of Politics
241
Baptist Church in Manchester, Virginia; and Dr.
William H. Stokes, a worker of much influence in
Richmond, still speaking fearlessly in behalf of
his people.
Identified with this serious group was Richard
DeBaptiste, who migrated with his free parents of
color from Fredericksburg, Virginia, to the North¬
west after the restrictions placed upon the Ne¬
groes of this class in Virginia became intolerable.
His first important work was that of teaching a
public school for colored youth in the Springfield
township at Mt. Pleasant, Ohio, where he later
organized and pastored a Baptist Church from
1860 to 1863. He then became pastor of the Olivet
Baptist Church in Chicago, a charge which he held
until 1882. Serving in this capacity, he purchased
two building sites at a cost of $16,000 and built
two brick church edifices costing respectively
$15,000 and $18,000.
His work as a minister, however, was in no
sense local. He was elected corresponding secre¬
tary of the Wood River Association in 1864, was
a prominent figure and officer in the Northwestern
and Southern Baptist Convention organized in
1865, and was chosen president of the American
Baptist Missionary Convention in Nashville, Ten¬
nessee, serving it consecutively for four years.
He was thereafter elected president at intervals
and remained a commanding figure in the conven¬
tion because of his power and influence in the
church. Manifesting further interest in the work
242 The History of the Negro Church
of the denomination, lie contributed to the church
literature through the Chicago Conservator, the
Western Herald, and the National Monitor. In
fact, in his day he was not only the outstanding
minister of his denomination in the West, but one
of the most influential men of his race.;
One of the most prominent ministers of the Re¬
construction period who were not deterred from
their course by politics was Rufus L. Perry. Born
a slave in Nashville, Tennessee, where because of
the liberal attitude of the whites toward the Ne¬
groes, he, in spite of his condition, was permitted
to attend a free school for Negroes, Perry had,
even before the Civil War, laid a foundation upon
which he well built thereafter. He escaped from
slavery in 1852 and entered upon the study of
theology at the Kalamazoo (Michigan)' Seminary,
graduating with the class of 1861, when fie was or¬
dained as pastor of the Baptist Church' at Ann
Arbor, Michigan. He later served as a pastor at
St. Catherine's, Ontario, and at Buffalo and
Brooklyn, New York. He had then convinced the
world that he was ''very logical, a clear reasoner,
close and active debater, deep thinker, and excel¬
lent writer," "a man of splendid natural abili¬
ties, " who "goes at once to the bottom of any
subject that he undertakes."
Upon the dawn of freedom he entered upon the
larger duties in the service of the Negroes, doing
at first missionary and educational work among
the freedmen, endeavoring to evangelize and ele-
Dr. Rttfus L. Perry
The Call of Politics
243
vate the race through the system of religious edu¬
cation. Seeing the need for an organ through
which his people and his denomination could speak
to the world, he edited The Sunbeam, served as co-
editor of the American Baptist, and later edited
The People's Journal and The National Monitor.
His articles always showed his interest in his de¬
nomination, his knowledge of general literature,
and his grasp of men and things. For ten years
he served as corresponding secretary of the Con¬
solidated American Baptist Missionary Conven¬
tion and was later made corresponding secretary
of the American Educational Association and of
the American Baptist Free Mission Society.
Having given much attention to the study of
ethnology and the classics, he doubtless impressed
the world most by writing a book entitled The
Cushites; or the Children of Ham as seen by the
Ancient Historians and Poets. In this work he
showed remarkable ability for research and exten¬
sive knowledge of the social sciences. He under¬
took to refute the statement that the Ethiopians
and the Egyptians were not black persons, en¬
deavored to disabuse the public mind of the im¬
propriety of a contemptuous attitude to the
Negroes because of their bondage, inasmuch as all
races have at times been enslaved, and eloquently
produced historical facts to convince thinking men
as to the important achievements of the Negroes
in their more fortunate ages in the past. He cer¬
tainly made the impression of being one of the
244 The History of the Negro Church
ablest men in the United States, and will long be
remembered as a scholar making for the race a
defense which many of his contemporaries were
not prepared to appreciate.
The ministry was sufficiently attractive also to
Dr. George W. Lee, who began his career in North
Carolina. After having distinguished himself by
efficient service in that State, he was, in 1885,
called to the pastorate of the Vermont Avenue
Baptist Church to succeed the Rev. J. H. Brooks,
its founder, who passed away the previous year.
Dr. Lee was noted especially for three significant
elements of character. He was a promoter of
African missions, was always disposed to help
the under-man in a struggle, and made himself a
patron of the youth aspiring to leadership. His
pastorate was characterized by important achieve¬
ments bearing on the progress of not only his con¬
gregation but that of his denomination. Noted
for his originality and ability to master a situa¬
tion, he soon attracted a large following and in¬
creased the membership of his church almost to
4,000. He easily became a man of national repu¬
tation, and in his travels abroad so impressed the
people wherever he went that he passed as an
international character.
With the possible exception of Dr. C. A. Tindley,
the talented Methodist minister of Philadelphia,
probably the greatest preacher of power devel¬
oped during the last generation has been Dr. C.
T. Walker. Coming under the influence of Chris-
The Call of Politics
245
tian missionaries and of the Atlanta Baptist
College, he had his beginnings determined in an
atmosphere of religious education. For forty
years, excepting five years when he had charge
of the Mt. Olivet Baptist Church, New York
City, he was pastor of the Tabernacle Bap¬
tist Church of Augusta, Georgia. His church in
Augusta was attended not only by thousands of
his own race, but by hundreds of winter tourists,
who heard him with unusual satisfaction. Among
these were former President Taft, John D. Rocke¬
feller, Gen. Rush C. Hawkins, Dr. David Gregg
and Lyman B. Goff. With the support of such a
large number this church undertook to supply the
needs of the community, developing into an insti¬
tutional enterprise with all of the activities of a
social welfare agency. This expansion necessi¬
tated a new building, which he erected at a cost
of $185,000.
Dr. Walker was interested in all things promot¬
ing the uplift of the race. He was the founder of
the now spacious 135th Street Branch, Young
Men's Christian Association, New York City, and
figured largely in the establishment of a similar
branch for his people in Augusta, Georgia. He
was one of the prominent figures of the National
Baptist Convention of the United States, being
vice-president of the organization when he died,
as well as vice-president of the Georgia Baptist
State Convention and moderator of the Walker
Association. He traveled extensively in Europe
246 The History of the Negro Church
and the Holy Land and was the author of a num¬
ber of books of travel and also of sermons. His
main work at home and abroad, however, was that
of an evangelist whose fame as such so rapidly
extended that he was one of the most popular
speakers in the country, attracting larger crowds
than any other Negro of his time.
Dr. C. T. Wat.ker
CHAPTER XII
THE CONSERVATIVE AND PROGRESSIVE
T T is clear from the account set forth above that
•■• the Negro church as such had some difficulty
infinding itself. There was still a question as to
what its functions and ideals should be, and this
very question all but divided the church into con¬
servative and progressive groups. The conserva¬
tive element in control became so, dogmatic in its
.treatment of the rising progressive minority that
the>ii^ti^tion^ a number of years lost groined
among the talented tenth: For this reason the min¬
istry ,6iice, became decidedly uninviting "to young
men. You^rig (people so rapidly lost interest in
the church .that" the- Sunday sermon denouncing
the . waywardness ■ of the wicked generation was
generally expected; and, if a special discourse of
;this vitriolic nature did not periodically follow,
pastors "availed .themselves of the opportunity ;to
digress from the discussion of the hardships of
slavery, hell, and the grave to express their deep
regret that the intellectual youth were disinclined
to walk in the footsteps of their fathers. Such
sermons frightened some into repentance, but
247
248 The History of the Negro Church
drove as many away from contact with the Chris¬
tian element of the community.
The waywardness of the youth, however, was
not so much a wickedness as it was a divergence
in the Negro social mind. The ex-slaves had re¬
mained conservative. The old-time religion was
good enough for them. They rejoiced to be able
to sing in freedom the songs of their fathers, and
deemed it a privilege to testify in "their experi¬
ence or class meetings'' and to offer at their Sun¬
day services long drawn out invocations which
afforded them the once forbidden exercise of the
outpouring of a pent-up soul. Preachers who
came down from that well-fought age appreciated,
of course, the unique position which they then
occupied. For all a new world had been created,
so to speak, and what they needed then was only
to enjoy the new boon vouchsafed to the lowly.
The Negroes should thank God for their freedom,
and the only way to express that gratitude was
through vociferous praise and stentorian thanks¬
giving within the courts of the Lord. God had
brought the Negro up out of Egypt through
Sodom and Gomorrah, and to show his gratitude
the chief concern of the Negro should then be
"to be ready to walk into Jerusalem just like
John."
The Negroes then under the instruction of well-
enlightened missionaries from the North could
not long remain in this backward state. Although
not taught radical doctrines but, on the contrary,
The Conservative and the Progressive 249
influenced by conservative religious teachers, the
educational process itself had to work some
changes in the young Negro's point of view, inas¬
much as he was taught not what to think but how
to think. The young Negroes, therefore, had not
attended school very long or moved very much
among persons mentally developed before they
found themselves far removed from the members
of their race less favorably circumstanced. They
developed an inquiring disposition which leveled
shafts at the strongholds of churchmen whose
chief protection lay in their unfortunate plight
of being embalmed in their ignorance along with
a majority constituency hopelessly lost to the
"eternal truths" coming into the mind of the
Negro youth by "natural light."
During the last quarter of the nineteenth cen¬
tury, therefore, the conservative and progressive
elements in the church unconsciously drifted far
apart. In the course of time it was no longer a
struggle between the old and young. The differ¬
ence in age ceased to be the line of cleavage. It
was rather a difference of ideas. These groups
were widely differing in their interpretation of
religion, in their ideas as to the importance of
the church in the life of the community, in their
attitudes as to the relation of the church to the
individual, and in their standards of public con¬
duct. On the whole, there was an effort to stand
together; but in spite of themselves the line of
cleavage had to be recognized and dealt with as
250 The History of the Negro Church
a fact. As poverty is jealous of opulence, so is
ignorance jealous of intelligence; and in this case
the jealousy all but developed into caste hate.
The progressive element commonly dubbed by
the conservatives as the educated Negroes could
not accept the crude notions of Biblical interpre¬
tation nor the grotesque vision of the hereafter
as portrayed by the illiterate ministers of the
church. This developed mind found itself unwill¬
ingly at war with such extravagant claims and
seeking a hearing for a new idea. Religion to
the progressives became a Christian experience
rather than the wild notions of revelation, which
among some of the uninformeditoo often bordered
on superstition and voodooism of the middle age;
after the restraint of slavery, had been removed
and the Negroes as groups exercising religious
freedom could indulge their fancy at will.
The educated Negro, moreover, no longer
thought of religion as the panacea for all the ills
of the race. Along with religion he would insist
that education should go as its handmaiden^ inas¬
much as there can be little revelation of . Grod
where there is arrested mental development; The
very example of Christ himself, as understood by
the progressive Negro, furnished no evidence as. to
the virtue of unrestrained emotion resulting from
a lack of understanding and'from an unwillingness
to search the Scriptures for the real revelation of
God.
. Being weak on the intellectual side, the con-
The Conservative and the Progressive 251
servative Negro churchman could not fail to decry
the educated communicants as a growing menace
to the church. The church militant was ordered
forward to attack the strongholds of this unbelief
lest the institution might be shaken from its very
foundation. The toleration of such views might
bring upon this generation the wrath of God, who
would visit the race with condign affliction. The
educated class had information, not judgment;
and the principles of religion, moreover, must be
accepted as they are without question. The effort
here was to crush the scion because it was pro¬
ducing a more vigorous species than the root from
which it sprang, to destroy life because in the new
generation it meant living too abundantly.
The churchmen of the conservative order ob¬
served with regret, moreover, that the talented
Negro had a differing conception as to the relation
of the church to the individual. Among the con¬
servatives, the church, the only institution in which
they could participate in the days of slavery, en¬
gaged their undivided attention with the exception
of politics in self-defense during the Reconstruc¬
tion period. The conservatives believed that the
individual should sacrifice all for* the church. On
Sunday, they would come from afar to swell the
chorus of the faithful, and there they would re¬
main during the day, leaving their net earnings in
the hands of the management, given at the cost of
a sacrifice placed on a common altar. The edu¬
cated Negro, on the other hand, thought of the
252 The History of the Negro Church
church as existing for the good of the individual.
It was to him a means for making the bad good,
and if the institution were defective it might be
so reshaped and reorganized as to serve the useful
purposes of man.
The church, moreover, as the progressive Negro
saw it, was not necessarily Christlike unless the
persons composing it were of such character
themselves. As there were too often found here
and there impostors serving as important func¬
tionaries in churches in which they masqueraded
as Christians, the educated Negro insisted upon
a new interpretation of Christian doctrine, boldly
asserting new principles as to the relation of man
to his fellowman and man to God. Religion, the
progressive element insisted, is a social virtue
not an individual boon. Man cannot by his pro¬
fessed periodical baring of his soul to God set
himself aright when his conduct has not been in
conformity with the teachings of Jesus. Since an
individual is what he does, an institution composed
of individuals, too often shamed with ignorance
and vice, could not be the ideal Christian organi¬
zation to which Christ looked as his representa¬
tive following here on earth.
The Negro in freedom, moreover, when given
an opportunity for mental development, gradually
became assimilated to the white man's standard
of conduct. The educated Negro began to see
little harm in dancing and card playing when rep¬
resentative white churches abrogated such pro-
The Conservative and the Progressive 253
hibitions or suffered them to fall into desuetude.
Taunted as to the evil desire for the ways of the
world, the talented man usually retorted that while
his conduct was questioned by his own people it
was in keeping with the ethics of the most enlight¬
ened of the land, whereas the conservatives tended
to follow the policy of practicing almost any sort
of vice clandestinely and to masquerade as Chris¬
tians until exposed.
This argument was of little worth; for many of
the so-called vices of the Negro members of the
church could be reduced largely to unconfirmed
reports and indulgences of the imagination of per¬
sons having foul minds. While the writer offers
no brief for the religious workers of long ago,
he must insist that we have no evidence to justify
the sweeping generalization that the Negro Chris¬
tians of the conservative order were, as a rule,
morally corrupt or that they generally harbored
unclean persons in their group. Their record
rather shows a most healthy attitude toward main¬
taining a high standard of morality. The adul¬
terer, the gambler, the thief, and the like, were
usually summarily expelled from the church as
undesirables, who should not sit in the congrega¬
tion of the righteous. In fact, had it not been
for the hold of Christianity on these freedmen,
their standards of morality would have be'en so
much lower; for they saw for emulation little of
the righteous in the white people with whom they
came into contact when these generally imposed
254 The History of the Negro Church
upon the blacks by lying and stealing and openly
sought Negro women with whom the flower of
southern families lived in open adultery. The con¬
servatives stood for the right, although they were
often too narrow to overlook the so-called vices
which supplied to those of talent the harmless
pleasures of this world.
The progressive element seriously objected to
church management. Negro ministers and the
governing bodies of the churches often manifested
more zeal than tact in the conduct of church af¬
fairs. They too frequently built rather costly edi¬
fices, paid their pastors disproportionately large
salaries, and lavished unduly upon them and
their families gifts which the poor of their con¬
gregations could ill afford. The Negroes wanted
a well-groomed leader in a heaven on earth to lead
them to the heaven beyond. The management
then incurred debts of such magnitude that the
church too often developed into a money raising
machine dominated from without by white spec¬
ulators who profited by this folly. The progres¬
sive element militantly arrayed itself against this
outlay made at the expense of the moral and re¬
ligious life of the community. In their zeal they
too often denounced the conservatives in control
as tricksters and grafters, when, as a matter of
fact, the management lost more by inefficient ad¬
ministration than it acquired by so-called cor¬
ruption.
The progressive Negroes boldly advocated a
John Jasper
A conservative Virginia preacher.
The Conservative and the Progressive 255
change in the worship. From the more advanced
white churches they had learned to appreciate the
value of serious and classical music, of intelligent
sermonizing, and of collecting offerings in the
pews. The old-time plaintive plantation hymns,
they insisted, should give place to music of a re¬
fined order, supported by the piano, organ, or
other instruments; the tiresome minister, cover¬
ing air things in creation in his discourse, should
yield to a man prepared to preach to the point at
issue; and instead of the dress-parade lifting of
collections the raising of funds to support the
church should be reduced to a business transaction
conducted without ostentation. The conserva¬
tives, however, would not have in their churches
the musical instruments used in theaters and dance
halls, would not even listen to an attack on their
backward ministry, and scoffed at the proposal to
supplant time-honored customs by innovations
taken from the practices of their former cruel
oppressors.
' The general result was that in many communi¬
ties a much larger number of intelligent people
were driven from the church or rendered ineffi¬
cient therein than were saved to it. There was
little chance for cooperation so long as the con¬
servatives were unyielding; and the progressives,
unable to treat the conservatives diplomatically,
failed to put aside complaint to begin with the
masses where they were that they might carry
them where they should be. Some of the progres-
256 The History of the Negro Church
sive element left their names on the church books
only to forfeit membership by non-attendance or
the failure to pay required dues. Others saw
themselves excluded for violation of the sacred
rules of the congregation proscribing participa¬
tion in the worldly joys. A few who felt compunc¬
tion of conscience on realizing how disgraceful
in the eyes of the community it seemed to put
one's hand to the plow and then turn back, had
their backsliding healed and returned to the fold.
Those who left the conservative churches were
often received by the Congregationalists, the
Presbyterians, the Episcopalians, and the Cath¬
olics, who, having a more flexible attitude toward
the pleasures of the world, offered asylum to the
outcasts driven from the former sanctuaries. This
separation included not only laymen but in some
cases ministers, who, on connecting themselves
with some other denominations, served their peo¬
ple in churches differing widely from those which
were so handicapped by unprogressive elements
that they had no hope to toil upward therein. The
large majority of the members of these smaller
denominations were once members of Baptist or
Methodist churches or were the children of per¬
sons who were once thus connected.
It was not necessary, however, for a large num¬
ber of Baptists thus to be lost to that denomina¬
tion. Unlike the Methodists, who are restrained
by episcopal government, the Baptists needed
only to exercise the privileges of democracy guar-
The Conservative and the Progressive 257
anteed in that church. A dissatisfied group of the
"upper crust" in a Baptist Church could at any¬
time organize another Baptist Church without any
restraint except that of the fear of the failure of
the enterprise from the economic point of view.
Schismatic churches or exclusively aristocratic
congregations, therefore, followed in large cities
where a sufficient number of the malcontents in
the various denominations could unite for this
common purpose.
This schismatic movement was followed by both
good and bad results. The separation of the pro¬
gressive and the conservative elements in the
church made it impossible for the unprogressive
to learn by example from those with whom they
came into contact. Each remained happier in the
new state so long as the results of this divergence
were not strikingly apparent. The conservatives
could better remain what they were and the pro¬
gressives could more easily become what they
wanted to be. The cessation of hostilities, how¬
ever, did not always follow; for both churches
representing different points of view made their
appeals to the same community, endeavoring to
secure financial and moral support. In small com¬
munities what was done for the one could not be
done for the other for the reason that the com¬
munity had so much and no more to spare. The
success or failure of the one or the other, there¬
fore, too often meant grudge or ill will.
This contest between the progressive and con-
258 The History of the Negro Chvrch
servative, however, has been more than local.
There have arisen serious situations, some of
which have been handled so diplomatically as to
avoid outbreaks in the ranks, and others which
have led to radical changes. For example, the
progressive Negro in the Methodist Episcopal
Church for a number of years bore it grievously
that, although the members of the race constituted
an important element in this denomination, they
were not allowed freely to participate in its man¬
agement. The objective was to make a Negro
one of the regular bishops, but conservative whites
insisted that the time had not come for such a
radical step.
During this long struggle in the Methodist
Church the progressive group became very impa¬
tient. It was in favor of separation from the
white connection either to establish an independent
church or to join one of the African Methodist
churches already in the making. The conservative
element frowned down upon any such proposal as
a suicidal scheme, believing that in cooperating
with the whites the Negroes had much more to
gain than to lose. The advocacy of continued
union with the whites under the prevailing circum¬
stances, however, was dubbed by the progressive
Negroes a manifestation of the spirit of servility
resulting from a slavish attachment to their for¬
mer masters. The counsel of the conservative
prevailed, however, and although the Negro mem-
The Conservative and the Progressive 259
bership does not enjoy exactly the same privileges
as the white, it has steadily gained ground.
The best example of a situation which could
not be thus handled is that of the repudiation of
the white Baptists by the progressive Negro ele¬
ment of this church. The white Baptists, of
course, had no actual control of the Negro com¬
municants, but had some very strong moral claims
on them. White missionaries of this denomination
had distributed literature, organized churches,
constructed edifices, and established schools
among Negroes; and the boards supporting the
missionaries had supplied some of the funds by
which most of these institutions were maintained.
To say anything derogatory to the policies of the
management directing this beneficent work, there¬
fore, seemed to the conservative Negroes all but
blasphemous.
The progressive Baptist element, however, had
a different attitude. Thousands of Negro teach¬
ers and preachers whom these Baptist schools
had trained had entered upon their life's work
with the hope that they would figure conspicuously
in the life of their people. When they faced the
stern realities of the situation they too often found
their way was blocked. White men, to be sure,
did not aspire to the pastorate of Negro churches;
but they undertook to dictate* the policy of asso¬
ciations and conventions to retain their hold on
the Negro Baptists. The conflict came when Ne-
260 The History of the Negro Church
groes after being refused the privilege of par¬
ticipating in the management of the American
Baptist Home Mission Society began to question
the motives of its official staff. More fuel was
furnished for the flames when, after having all
but agreed to accept contributions of Negroes to
its Sunday school literature, the American Baptist
Publication Society, upon protest from Southern
churchmen, receded from that position. The issue
was then joined. The National Baptist Conven¬
tion, a union of the Negro Baptists, was effected
in 1886, and as the struggle grew more intense
every effort was made so to extend it as to destroy
the influence of white national bodies among
Negroes.
The Negroes had a just cause for complaint. If
under the leadership of the white Baptists their
way to promotion would be blocked and their lit¬
erary aspirations crushed, what hope was there
for the race to rise and of what benefit would
education be to the Negro, if it did not equip him
to do for himself what the white man at first had
to do for him? How could the motives of the
white Baptists be lofty, moreover, if they did not
believe that Negroes should rise in the church and
school? To this the whites replied that they
looked forward with the most pleasant anticipa¬
tion to the day when the Negroes would be prepared
to enjoy the good things for which they clamored,
but that the time for the Negroes to dispense with
the leadership of the whites had not then come.
I)r. E. K. Love
A popular minister in Savannah, Georgia
The Conservative and the Progressive 261
Many years of education and social uplift were
still necessary before the Negroes could success¬
fully set out to do for themselves.
This argument had little weight with the pro¬
gressive Negroes and they were not wanting in
logical speakers to place their case before the
world. There was that courageous leader, Dr.
Harvey Johnson, of Baltimore, who belabored his
former friends as enemies of the race. Equally
effective, too, was the eloquent Dr. Walter H.
Brooks of Washington, who fearlessly took up the
cudgel and dealt the white Baptists many a blow
from which they never recovered. With the Na¬
tional Baptist Convention emerging as a common
concern of Negroes under the organizing hand of
Dr. E. C. Morris, and the National Baptist Pub¬
lishing House extending the circulation of elemen¬
tary literature throughout the country under the
direction of the efficient Dr. R. H. Boyd, this self-
assertion of the Negro Baptists became a factor
to be reckoned with.
All problems, however, were not immediately
solved. The progressive Negroes had the right
spirit, but did not every time have adequate un¬
derstanding. They had had no experience in ed¬
iting literature and practically none in raising
sums of money necessary for the maintenance of
educational establishments and missionary enter¬
prise. The majority of the Negro Baptist minis¬
try trained in the schools of the American Baptist
Home Mission Society at first adhered to this
262 The History of the Negro Church
organization and persisted in using the Sunday
school literature of the American Baptist Publi¬
cation Society, deriding the publication efforts of
the Negro Baptists as the greatest travesty on
Biblical literature. This criticism was most un¬
charitable, but nevertheless effective, for the rea¬
son that some who at first wished the movement
well made the mistake of despising the day of
small things.
The struggle was most intense in the Southeast.
The influence of Shaw University in North Caro¬
lina and Virginia Union University in Richmond
had given the white Baptists an all but firm hold
on the Negroes in these and adjacent States. The
presidents of these institutions and the white
agents of the denomination attended the Negro
associations and conventions, hoping to dictate
their policies; but this interference only widened
the breach. Under the leadership of that forceful
orator and successful leader, Gregory W. Hayes,
a large number at first and finally a majority of
the Baptists of Virginia disclaimed connection
with these white friends and concentrated their
efforts on supporting the Virginia Theological
Seminary and College through the Baptist State
Convention of that commonwealth. The leading
Baptists of North Carolina, however, still adhered
in large numbers to the American Baptist Home
Mission Society, cooperating therewith through
the local associations, their State conventions, and
the conservative national body known as the Lott
The Conservative and the Progressive 263
Cary Convention, which had also many adherents
in Virginia and scattered followers throughout ad¬
jacent States. In other parts, the factions about
equally divided, except in the southwestern sec¬
tion of the country, where the Negroes have tended
to break away from the white Baptists.
As to which faction was right, history alone will
tell. Even at the present, however, one can see
a decided advantage in the independent Negro
movement. Every one will admit that the Negro
must eventually rely solely upon himself, and that
not until he emerges from a state of dependency
can he hope to secure the recognition of the other
groups. The white man is rapidly tiring of car¬
rying the so-called burdens of the Negro. The
Negro home, church, and school must, as fast as
possible, become sufficient unto themselves. The
sooner they attain this stage in their develop¬
ment, the better will it be for the race. The
Negro institutions which during the turbulent
period have, in separating from the whites,
learned to supply their own needs, have made a
step far in advance of those dependent on the
whites. In this day, when the northern philan¬
thropists are either withholding their donations
to Negro schools or restricting them to Hampton
and Tuskegee, it is difficult for some of these es¬
tablishments to eke out a subsistence, while the
independent Negro schools, having had years of
experience in developing a following, find their
prospects growing brighter from year to year.
264 The History of the Negro Church
The National Training School for Girls, founded
and successfully directed by the noted Nannie H.
Burroughs, obtains practically all of its funds
from Negroes. The Virginia Theological Semi¬
nary and College, under the direction of the effi¬
cient Dr. R. C. Woods, depends for its support al¬
together upon Negroes, who contribute to it annu¬
ally about $60,000.00. There is not in this coun¬
try a Negro institution dominated by whites that
can raise half of this sum in this way. A few
years ago when Wilberforce University was heav¬
ily indebted and it seemed that it needed some
one to rescue it, the State of Ohio proposed to
buy the church portion of the institution; but the
trustees, with the spirit of the progressive Negro,
emphatically replied that the whole State of Ohio
did not have enough money to buy Wilberforce.
Rallying under the leadership of Bishop Joshua
H. Jones, the African Methodists raised $50,000 in
one year and cleared the institution of debt.
In this changing order, moreover, when the
white administrators of Negro schools find them¬
selves deprived of the former financial support
received from the North, they veer around to
the position of southern white people, accepting
and sometimes enforcing in Negro institutions
themselves the unwritten laws of caste that the
white management may curry favor with the prej¬
udiced community. As these administrators must
under such circumstances lose the support of the
The Conservative and the Progressive 265
Negroes and experience has not yet shown that
many southern white men will make sacrifices for
Negro education, the institutions in the hands of
such misguided white friends of the Negro will
probably suffer.
CHAPTER XIII
THE NEGRO CHURCH SOCIALIZED
THE Negro church as a social force in the life
of the race is nothing new. Prior to emanci¬
pation the church was the only institution which
the Negro, in a few places in the South and
throughout the North, was permitted to maintain
for his own peculiar needs. Offering the only ave¬
nue for the expressional activities of the race, the
church answered many a social purpose for which
this institution among other groups differently cir¬
cumstanced had never before been required to
serve. It was, in the first place, a center at which
friend looked forward to meeting friend, contact
with whom was denied by the rigorous demands of
slavery. It was then a place of enlightenment
through the information disseminating from the
better informed or by actual teaching in the Sun¬
day school. It served often as an outlet for ex¬
pression of the Negro social mind, now for a
renewed determination to break their chains
through prayer, then to resort to concerted action
on the basis that he who would be free must him¬
self first strike the blow.
After the emancipation, moreover, the Negro
266
Dr. W. R. Pettiford
A business-like minister in Alabama.
The Negro Church Socialized 267
church developed a social atmosphere which some¬
what strengthened its hold on the youth about to
go astray. Not only education found its basis in
the church, but fraternal associations developed
therefrom. Business enterprises accepted the
church as an ally, and professional men to some
extent often became dependent thereupon. Most
movements among the Negroes, moreover, have
owed their success to the leadership of Negroes
prominent in the church. No better examples can
be mentioned than W. W. Browne, a minister who
organized the True Reformers fraternity; W. R.
Pettiford, another preacher, who became one of
the pioneer Negro bankers; John R. Hawkins, the
Financial Secretary of the African Methodist
Episcopal Church, who in applying efficiency to
the business of his office secured for his denom¬
ination an unusually large income, and Dr. W. F.
Graham, who in addition to his significant achieve¬
ments in the church, has well invaded various
businesses, in which he has exhibited evidence of
unusual ability.
Since the Civil War, the Negro church as a
factor in general uplift has become what the op¬
pressed Negro longed to make it prior to that
conflict. In the first place, Negroes regularly at¬
tend church whether Christians or sinners. They
have not yet accumulated wealth adequate to the
construction of clubhouses, amusement parks,
and theaters, although dance halls have attracted
many. Whether they derive any particular joy
268 The History of the Negro Church
therefrom or not, the Negroes must go to church,
to see their friends, as they are barred from
social centers open to whites. They must attend
church, moreover, to find out what is going on;
for the race has not sufficient interests to maintain
in every locality a newspaper of its own, and the
white dailies generally mention Negroes only when
they happen to commit crimes against white per¬
sons. The young Negro must go to church to meet
his sweetheart, to impress her with his worth and
woo her in marriage, the Negro farmer to find
out the developments in the business world, the
Negro mechanic to learn the needs of his com¬
munity and how he may supply them.
Attached to the church is the Sunday school.
Many a Negro had in attending it learned clan¬
destinely to read and write before the war. Now
they without fear of punishment eagerly studied
in the churches on Sunday, learned the alphabet,
the spelling of words with one, two and three syl¬
lables, and finally to read the Bible, that they
might know for themselves the truths hitherto
kept from their fathers but now revealed to their
children in freedom. Education here was de¬
cidedly easy, the motive actuating the student be¬
ing the immediate results in the form of a better
knowledge of one's Christian duty and the reward
awaiting the faithful. Many of these Negroes
often learned more on a single Sunday than the
average student acquired in a day school during
a week. In these Sunday schools, not a few Ne-
The Negro Church Socialized 269
groes laid the foundation for the more liberal
education which they thereafter obtained in the
schools established by the religious and philan¬
thropic friends of the Negroes working in the
South immediately after the Civil War.
The church not only promoted education
through the pulpit and Sunday school, but through
its emphasis on the Bible unconsciously stimu¬
lated the efforts toward self-education. Whether
a Negro attended Sunday school or not, he heard
read to him from the Bible two or three times a
week dramatic history, philosophical essays,
charming poetry, and beautiful oratory. Hearing
these repeated again and again and under circum¬
stances securing undivided attention, he had many
of these precious passages sink into his heart like
seed planted in fertile ground to bring forth fruit
fourfold. Under the continuous instruction of
the Negro preacher, who in expounding the Bible
drew such striking figures and portrayed life,
death, and the beyond in a dramatic fashion, the
youth not only experienced the emotion so charac¬
teristic of the Negro communicant but had his
intellectual appetite whetted with the desire to
seek after the mysteries.
The majority of Negroes, therefore, became
Bible readers. Reading the Bible, they not only
found what a minister of limited education^ could
point out, but facts drawn from the best thought
of the ancient world. And it was not mere read¬
ing; for many of themj committed to memory
270 The History of the Negro Church
choice passages of the Scriptures. Hundreds of
them could recite accurately chapter after chapter
of the treasures of Holy Writ; almost as many
could give a crude but logical exposition of these
literary treasures. From the study of the Bible
the Negro developed, moreover, a desire for Bibli¬
cal literature. He heard the moral appeal and
gladly accepted the message to those in quest of
the higher life in Christ.
This influence of the Bible, moreover, did more
than lead to the reading of literature of a kindred
nature. Some read books on ancient and medieval
history, and finally works on the history of mod¬
ern Europe. Others more seriously concerned
were by this mere exposition of the Scriptures led
to study collaterally commentaries on the Bible
and to take up theology. In this they exhibited the
power of self-education which with a strong spirit¬
uality combined with unusual imagination made
so many Negroes preach with success. They had
no more formal education than to read, and that
was often picked up in the Sunday school; but
they had the experience of a seeker, the light of
the Bible, and the guidance of men who eloquently
expounded it to the waiting multitude. These they
freely drew on and from them they obtained help
abundantly. Crude sometimes as the language
might be, the thought of this self-made philoso¬
pher was original and few heard one preach with¬
out wondering how men of limited opportunities
could speak so fluently and wisely.
The Negro Church Socialized 271
Equally helpful was the socialized church as a
?orum for the Negro. The older members devel¬
oped an unusually valuable and sometimes a
troublesome knowledge of parliamentary practice
by participating in the debates on the business
centering around communications received, reso¬
lutions voicing the sentiment of the body, and pol¬
icies shaping the destinies of the local church.
Here, then, was a constructive field which to the
Negro seemed like an invitation to enter the cre¬
ative world. He entered it and freely partici¬
pated. True enough the formal procedure too
often overshadowed the actual program to the
extent that no plan at all could sometimes be car¬
ried out, because of unnecessary debate and con¬
tention; but the training thereafter served many
a Negro in good stead in preventing his race
from being imposed upon or in doing something
constructive in politics, in the school, and in the
church.
The church through the literary societies at¬
tached thereto supplied a similar need of the
younger Negro. Having more formal education
than the older Negroes, the youth were more easily
interested in the live questions of the day, the
desire to discuss which usually resulted in the
organization of a literary society. The declama¬
tions and recitations were not always highly liter¬
ary and sometimes the questions discussed could
not be thus dignified when we observe such de¬
bates as whether the dog is more useful than the
272 The History of the Negro Church
gun,, or whether water is more destructive than
fire; but the scale ascends a little in the discussion
as to whether the pen is mightier than the sword.
It matters little, however, whether or not the
procedure was in keeping with that of the best
literary circles, these Negroes were thereby under¬
going training which resulted in valuable disci¬
pline. Not any of them knew very much, but one
learned from the other. They developed the
power to think and to think on their feet, to ex¬
press that" thought and to express it so eloquently
as to make a lasting impression. The church,
then, has been a training school for the Negro
orators who have impressed the world as the in¬
spired spokesmen of a persecuted people.
The Negro church, in short, has served as a
clearing house for the community. It has not
only afforded opportunities for the evangelical
minister coming with an inspiring message to re¬
vive the lukewarm, but every public man has had
to reach the Negro through his church. The lec¬
turer on "men, women, children and things in
general'' asks for a hearing there; the phrenolo¬
gist holds his seances in this sanctuary; the spuri¬
ous "foreigner" in quest of a collection seeks
there the opportunity to tell a credulous people
about wonders*of other lands; and the race leader
demands this rostrum from which he, like a watch¬
man on the wall, sounds the alarm for an advance
against the bold enemy who, if not checked, will
The Negro Church Socialized 273
fix upon the race disabilities and burdens until
all the hopes of liberty will be lost.
The latest development in the socialized church
is its service as a welfare agency. The Negro in
his religious development has not yet gone so far
as the white man in divesting Christian duty of
spiritual ministration and reducing it to a mere
service for social uplift; but he has gradually
realized the necessity for connecting the church
more closely with the things of this world to make
it a decent place to live in. In other words, if
man is his brother's keeper, the church, the im¬
portant institution in the community, must be the
keeper of other institutions. If it would build in
men Christian character, it must influence the
more or less direct control of the forces in the
community which prevent the attainment of such
an end. If men are to be saved, they must be
saved for service, not merely for their refuge at
the last hour. The church, then, must not let a
man destroy himself and accept him when he is
no longer useful because of the loss of physical
and mental power through depravity, but it must
by preaching the gospel or prevention save a man
from himself.
The coming of the church to this position, how¬
ever, has not been effected without much diffi¬
culty. The conservative element for many years
looked upon the participation of churches in cer¬
tain sorts of social welfare work as compromising
274 The History of the Negro Church
with the devil. The more conservative idea was
that man should be meditative and seclusive, that
he should withdraw himself altogether from the
pleasures of this world and work out his salvation
with his eye 4' single to the honor and glory of
God." The Young Men's Christian Association
and the Young Women's Christian Association
with a different point of view were, therefore, for
a number of years unwelcome among some Negro
churches.
During the last generation, however, the Negro
church has decidedly changed in its attitude
toward this work, as is evidenced by the fact that
wherever these social welfare agencies have suc¬
ceeded in carrying out their program they have
done so largely with the aid of Negro churchmen.
In the midst of the health crusades and the com¬
munity service organizations favorably impress¬
ing the public, the Negro church in many urban
centers where it might have continued conserva¬
tive, found itself facing the alternative of either
responding to these social needs of the member¬
ship or seeing its constituency gradually drawn
away by agencies which would. In case some social
uplift agency failed to attract the youth, they too
often drifted to the dance halls or places where
their needs were supplied in the midst of vices.
Many churches have, therefore, modified their pro¬
gram. Seeing that the young Negro is decidedly
social and hoping to save him, they have done what
many formerly questioned. The Negro church,
Dr. M. C. B. Mason
A pulpit orator in the Methodist Church.
The Negro Church Socialized 275
moreover, has become in many respects a social
welfare agency itself, doing in several communities
so much of this work that it has been unnecessary
for the national agencies to invade some of their
parishes with an intensive program.
The form this social work of the church takes
in our day varies from that of a mere church
club or so with a precarious existence to that of
an organization almost like that of the Young
Men's Christian Association. The beginnings of
this work appear first in such as the men's forum,
the women's league, the girls' club, or the boys'
athletic association. When these clubs tend to
endure they finally work toward the natural end
of constituting themselves branches of an organ¬
ization directed by one trusted worker assisted by
those in charge of the various activities.
A church on this order takes the name of the
institutional church. At the head of this body, of
course, is the pastor of the church; but in charge
of this work sometimes is a director well trained in
the social sciences and with the modern method of
attacking the problems of to-day. The work
scheduled is more than the mere supervision of
clubs voluntarily organized. The director has a
program which that particular community needs,
and he is there to show the people how to work
out their social salvation. If he is wise in pre¬
senting the case, he usually secures the cooperation
necessary to organize the community for the pur¬
pose of self-education. The community is given
276 The History of the Negro Church
an introduction to itself. Every talent lying dor¬
mant is here given an opportunity to be helpful in
some way. What the individual from afar may
bring for the good of a few through this well-
organized community service becomes the heritage
of all. No club can be large enough to accommo¬
date the large membership in a city, but what the
clubs of one church acquire is communicated to
similar groups in another through such friendly
rivalry as athletic contests, debates, periodical re¬
ports, and conferences. Many of the persons par¬
ticipating in this work are not in the beginning
spiritually inclined, but the experience of the
church in working with such groups has shown
that the church has a better chance for success
in making its evangelical appeal to persons under
its control than in the case of delivering its mes¬
sage to those who have not been to any great ex¬
tent influenced by Christian contact.
Churches which have undertaken this work have
had varied experiences. The Institutional Church
in Chicago under Dr. R. C. Ransom helped to blaze
the way in this new field of endeavor. Under Dr.
J. Milton Waldron and later under Dr. J. E. Ford,
the Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Florida, made
itself, through its clubs and Bible Institute, an
effective community center. Dr. H. H. Proctor, a
Congregational minister of Atlanta, practically
converted his church into an organization of such
groups as the day nursery, kindergarten, gymna-
The Negro Church Socialized 277
sium, school of music, employment bureau, and
Bible school.
Dr. "W. N. DeBerry, the pastor of a Congrega¬
tional church in Springfield, Massachusetts, has
probably solved the problem about as well as any
of these workers. In the first place, the church
has a well-equipped modern plant so beautifully
located and managed as to attract large numbers.
It has, moreover, a parish home for working girls
and a branch church at Amherst, Massachusetts.
In the main plant are maintained a free employ¬
ment bureau, a women's welfare league, a night
school of domestic training, a girls' and a boys'
club emphasizing the handicrafts, music, and ath¬
letics. This church has solved the problem of
supplying the needs of the people during the week
as well as their spiritual needs on Sunday, by em¬
phasizing some life activity for every day in the
week.
Other ministers of the gospel, who have not
seen fit to carry out in their parishes in such de¬
tail the establishment of social welfare work, have
nevertheless done much along special lines to so¬
cialize their churches. One hears of that indefati¬
gable worker, the Bev. Mr. Bradby, of Detroit; R.
W. Bagnall, the rector of the Episcopal Church of
the same city; the fearless George Frazier Miller,
an Episcopal rector of Brooklyn; the talented
leader, Dr. W. H. Brooks of New York City; the
popular western worker, Dr. S. W. Bacote of Kan-
278 The History of the Negro Church
sas City; Dr. J. M. Riddle of Pasadena, Califor¬
nia; and Dr. W. H. Jernagin, of "Washington, D.
C. Others of this group are Dr. Richard Carroll
of Greenville, South Carolina; Bishop Sampson
Brooks, as pastor of the Bethel Methodist Episco¬
pal Church in Baltimore; Dr. W. D. Johnson of
Plains, Georgia, now a bishop of his denomina¬
tion; the picturesque pulpit orator and beautiful
word painter, Dr. Peter James Bryant, of Atlanta,
Georgia; and that popular preacher of the social
gospel, Dr. W. W. Browne, of the Metropolitan
Baptist Church in New York City.
Dr. L. K. Williams, pastor of the Olivet Bap¬
tist Church in Chicago, has doubtless surpassed
all in this group. Under his direction the church
conducts forty-two departments and auxiliaries
with 512 officers, among whom are twenty-four
paid workers. The membership of both church
and Sunday School enormously increased through
these agencies, that of the former being 8,743 and
of the latter 3,100. This church has two edifices
and five assistant pastors. During 1919 it col¬
lected $56,209 and disbursed $54,959. In an
eighty-day rally it raised $29,235 in cash. In fact,
so effective has been the socializing influence of
this church that the community, in consideration
of its inestimable value, gladly responds to any
call it makes.
The Negro ambitious to rule, moreover, finds
in the church about the only institution in which
he may freely exercise authority. Fortunately
The Negro Church Socialized 279
here the Church and State are no longer con¬
nected. In the extension of the boon of toleration,
the Negroes in countries in which they have been
found in large numbers, have been permitted to
conduct their spiritual affairs as they like. There
are in the South to-day, however, white men who
regret that immediately after the Civil War they
permitted the Negroes to establish their separate
churches. As these bodies are to-day being used
to promote truths and foster movements which
are prejudicial to the interest of the Southern
restriction program for the Negro, the heirs of
the former master class now rue the day when
their fathers permitted these Negro churchmen
to get from under their control. They complain
that, whereas formerly they could learn from
their Negro servants exactly what was going on
in their group, the development the Negro church
has in our day produced a reticent Negro loathe
to disclose the forces operating in their churches.
No one understands this better than the Negro
himself. The law of the South otherwise inter¬
preted to the detriment of the Negro vouchsafes to
him a little protection in the exercise of religion
and in most parts public opinion has not become
so unhealthy as to warrant action to the contrary.
The Negro preacher, therefore, is granted more
freedom of speech and permitted to exercise more
influence than any other Negro in his community.
Some fearless Negro ministers, like Bishop Lamp-
ton, have been driven out of the South because of
280 The History of the Negro Church
utterances which enraged the whites, who have
considered the exercise of free speech among Ne¬
groes an attack on their social laws; but, as a
rule, the Negro minister may in criticism of the
white race and in the defense of his people say
things which other Negroes of good standing in
the South would not dare to utter. Although the
State may chide an outspoken minister here and
there, it will hardly be so unwise so to restrict the
Negro church as to interfere materially with its
development as the South has done in the case of
the Negro school in making Negro education alto¬
gether industrial. The church serves as a moral
force, a power acting as a restraint upon the bad
and stimulating the good to further moral achieve¬
ment. Among the Negroes its valuable service is
readily apparent when one considers the fact that
this race, oppressed as it has been by the gov¬
ernment of the State and nation, is at heart re¬
bellious, while the church, as outspoken as it may
seem, is not radical. Coming under the influence
of the church, the safety valve in the South, the
race has been dissuaded from any rash action
by the patient and long suffering ministry reiter¬
ating the admonition that "vengeance is mine, I
will repay."
Yet some men, like the sanguine and prophetic
Kelly Miller, see in the Negro church of to-day
the opportunity to become the unbridled servant
of the people. The support of the Negro preacher
comes from the people and he can fearlessly speak
The Negro Church Socialized 281
for them within the limits of public opinion. The
Negro teacher or politician must be careful as to
what he says; for, inasmuch as his support comes
through the white race, he must proceed cautiously
lest he be deprived of his position. As a rule, their
lips are forever sealed on the rights of the Negro.
As social proscription has retarded the develop¬
ment of the Negro lawyer, the impetus toward the
uplift of the race must come from its ministry,
and with the entrance of a larger number of in¬
telligent men upon this work the masses of the
Negro race will be willing to have them lead
the way.
The ministry too is more attractive among Ne¬
groes than among whites. The white minister has
only one important function to perform in his
group, that of spiritual leadership. To the Negro
community the preacher is this and besides the
walking encyclopedia, the counselor of the unwise,
the friend of the unfortunate, the social welfare
organizer, and the interpreter of the signs of the
times. No man is properly introduced to the Ne¬
gro community unless he comes through the min¬
ister, and no movement can expect success there
unless it has his cooperation or endorsement.
The rise of the Negro physician has during re¬
cent years comparatively diminished the influence
of the Negro preacher, but the latter is still the
greater force in the community and will remain
so unless the Negro learns to imitate the white
people in substituting in their faith the doing of
282 The History of the Negro Church
the will of their race for that of doing the revealed
will of God.
The importance of the position of the Negro
minister is apparent when one considers the large
following which some of these churches have.
Here the minister controls not only hundreds but
thousands, as in the cases of Rev. J. E. Willis of
the Vermont Avenue Baptist Church in Washing¬
ton, of the Rev. Mr. Adams of the Concord Bap¬
tist Church in Brooklyn, Dr. M. W. Reddick in the
leadership of thousands of Baptists in Georgia,
and the eloquent Dr. M. W. D. Norman, who after
years of service as a minister in North Carolina
and Virginia and as Dean of the Theological De¬
partment of Shaw University, succeeded the la¬
mented Rev. Robert Johnson at the Metropol¬
itan Baptist Church in Washington, where thou¬
sands wait upon Dr. Norman's words. Some of
these ministers are drawing very large numbers,
because, instead of merely building large edifices
and buying fine clothes and gifts for themselves,
they are putting efficiency in the management of
the churches, as in the cases of R. H. Bowling in
Norfolk, Mordecai W. Johnson in Charleston, and
Dr. A. Clayton Powell in New York City. In the
Negro churches, moreover, as with Dr. J. C. Aus¬
tin in Pittsburgh, there are being organized banks,
housing corporations, insurance companies, and
even steamship projects in keeping with the ideas
of Dr. L. G. Jordan. Yet despite this change in
The Negro Church Socialized 283
point of view, the Negro church has not become a
corrupt machine. Its affairs are still in the hands
of men who, as a majority, are interested in their
race rather than in themselves. The opportunity
here sought is not that of leadership but that of
service.
One service of which the race is in need, as
the Negro minister is beginning to understand it,
is the prevention of poverty. The poor you have
with you always, and the poor will sometimes
steal before they will starve. The masses must
be elevated above dependence on another race for
what they shall eat or drink or the wherewithal
they shall be clothed. The saving of young men
and women of the race from those pursuits in
which they are unduly exposed to the temptations
of the low and the contemptible of both races, is
becoming a most important concern of many Ne¬
gro churches. The Negro minister is now begin¬
ning to realize that every time he saves a youth
from such undesirable conditions he himself be¬
comes like unto Christ, a savior of man. If to do
this it will be necessary to establish a business
enterprise or make the church a fraternal insur¬
ance company, the new Negro minister will act
accordingly. This is the way the race should go.
The minister is the shepherd of the flock. The
sheep know the voice of the shepherd and a
stranger they will not follow.
Out of the exercise of these many privileges in
284 The History of the Negro Church
the Negro church, moreover, has come unusually
important results. Although the Negro learned
in this way much that he had to forget, received
many impressions which led to improper expres¬
sion, the experiences in the end redounded to the
good of the race. Misinformation when detected
served but to emphasize the need of information;
imposition accentuated the necessity for honest
leadership; and the results of too much credulity
led to conservatism in the masses. It was the
school of experience for the Negro community.
The church furnished the opportunity for this
experience and the people learned their lesson
well. They learned how to discriminate, how to
think for themselves, how to take care of them¬
selves in a critical situation, in short, how to be
self-sufficient.
The most important of all lessons the Negro
has learned through his church has been that of
perseverance in cooperative effort. This is the
most striking result of this social work. Negroes
have not readily responded to the call of men in
other fields, but the fact that these church groups,
large and small, have held together for decades,
and even generations, in the sacrificing effort to
purchase houses of worship for which some of
them have well paid two or three times because of
thieves within and thieves without—that fact
alone is evidence of the development of the power
of consolidation among Negroes, an asset which in
The Negro Church Socialised
285
our day is being drawn upon for organization in
education and in business and bids fair to have
tremendous results when properly exploited by
honest leaders enjoying the confidence of the
masses.
CHAPTER XIV
THE RECENT GROWTH OP THE NEGRO CHURCH
THE student of this phase of history will nat¬
urally inquire as to the actual results from
all of these efforts to promote the progress of
Christianity among these people. Here we are
at a loss for facts as to the early period; but after
1890, when the first census of Negro churches was
taken, we have some very informing statistics:
and although the general census of 1900 took no
account of such statistics, the United States Bu¬
reau of the Census took a special census of reli¬
gious institutions in 1906, basing its report upon
returns received from the local organizations
themselves. The items of this report covered the
membership, places of worship, seating capacity
of the edifices, the value of church property, and
the number of ministers. There were reported
also the number and value of parsonages, the debt
on church property, and later the statistics of
Sunday schools.
Summarizing the details, the census showed
that in 1906 there were 36,770 Negro church or¬
ganizations with a membership of 3,685,097.
They had 35,160 church edifices and 1,261 halls
286
Dr. George W. Lee
The Recent Growth of the Negro Church 287
used as places of worship, affording a seating ca¬
pacity of 10,481,738. There were 4,779 parsonages
worth $3,727,884, whereas the church edifices were
worth $56,636,159. The debt on such church prop¬
erty, however, was $5,005,905. These churches
had 34,681 Sunday schools administered by 210,-
148 officers and teachers in charge of 1,740,009
scholars.
Comparing these statistics of 1906 with those
of 1890, one sees the rapid growth of the Negro
church. Although the Negro population increased
only 26.1 per cent during these sixteen years, the
number of church organizations increased 56.7 per
cent; the number of communicants, 37.8 per cent;
the number of edifices, 47.9; the seating capacity,
54.1 per cent; and the value of church property,
112.7 per cent. The proportionately smaller in¬
crease in the membership is accounted for by
the discovery of an overstatement of this item
through error by the African Methodist Episcopal
Zion Church in 1890, which in 1906 was corrected.
It is worthy of note here that the number of halls
decreased, showing that they gave place to perma¬
nent buildings for those who had been housed in
temporary quarters.
The distribution of these churches is of value
to determine the extent of this progress. Over
90 per cent of the organizations were in the South,
where the large majority of the Negroes are. Be¬
cause of the social and economic conditions in that
section, however, the proportion of the total value
288 The History of the Negro Church
of church property was smaller, being only 73.5
per cent, and the proportionate amount of debt
on church property accordingly smaller, being
53.1 per cent. Considering State by State, one
finds that the southern group, of course, took the
lead, whereas Idaho, Nevada, New Hampshire,
North and South Dakota, and Vermont reported
no Negro churches at all in 1890; but South Da¬
kota and New Hampshire carried such an item in
their returns in 1906. Georgia held first rank in
the number of Negro communicants in 1890 and
1906, while Alabama advanced from third to sec¬
ond place in 1906, and Mississippi from the sixth
in 1890 to fourth in 1906. Oklahoma did the un¬
usual thing of advancing from the thirty-third
place in 1890 to the twentieth in 1906. Most of
these changes, however, followed corresponding
changes in the Negro population of these States,
resulting not every time as a natural increase but
from migration.
A smaller number of Negro communicants were
distributed among 18 white organizations in 1906.
Between 1890 and 1906, however, the Southern
Baptist Conventions and the Evangelical Lutheran
churches lost their Negro members; but for the
first time the following reported Negro churches
in 1906: The Advent Christian Church, the Sev¬
enth Day Adventists, the General Council of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in North America,
the General Eldership of the Churches of God in
North America, the "Wesleyan Methodist Connec-
The Recent Growth of the Negro Church 289
tion, the Moravian Church, the Reformed Church
in America, and the Church of the United
Brethren in Christ. Other difficulties arise in
making the comparison here; for the Colored
primitive Baptists were not reported as a sep¬
arate denomination in 1890, but in 1906 they, with
the exception of four churches of this faith, con¬
stituted a body of their own. The white denom¬
ination reporting the largest number of Negro
members was the Methodist Episcopal Church.
The sectarian would be interested in learning,
moreover, the progress reported for the various
denominations. The greater achievements were
accredited to the 11 exclusively Negro organiza¬
tions reporting in 1890 and the 17 of this same
composition making returns in 1906'. These were
Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians, with a
sprinkling of such smaller groups as the Church
of God and Saints of Christ, organized in 1896;
Churches of the Living God, organized in 1899;
the Voluntary Missionary Society in America, or¬
ganized in 1900; the Free Christian Zion Church
of Christ, organized by Schismatic Methodists of
all sects in 1905; the Union American Methodist
Episcopal Church, the African Union Methodist
Protestant Church, organized in 1866; the Re¬
formed Union Apostolic Church, organized in
1882; and the Reformed Methodist Union Epis¬
copal Church, organized in 1896. While these
smaller bodies were developing between 1890 and
1906 there disappeared other small Negro national
290 The History of the Negro Church
church organizations known as the Congregational
Methodist Church and the Evangelical Missionary
Church. Of the distinctly Negro denominations,
the one reporting the largest number of communi¬
cants was the National Baptist Convention. Fol¬
lowing thus in the order of their numerical rank
came next the African Methodist Episcopal
Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion
Church, and the Colored Methodist Episcopal
Church.
Further statistics show more definitely the prog¬
ress along sectarian lines. In 1906 the six Baptist
bodies reported 19,891 organizations with 2,354,789
communicants and church property valued at
$26,562,845. The ten Methodist bodies combined
came second with 15,317 organizations, 1,182,131
communicants and church property valued at
$25,771,262. Taken together, the Methodists and
Baptists had 35,208 or 95.8 per cent of the total
number of Negro organizations; 3,536,920 or 96
per cent of the total number of Negro communi¬
cants and $52,334,107 or 92.4 per cent of the total
value of church property.
Other statistics show further tendencies of little
importance. The marked increase in the number
of Free Baptists between 1890 and 1906 is ac¬
counted for by better returns the latter year. The
falling off of the Disciples of Christ was said to
be due to the change resulting from separation of
the Disciples and the churches of Christ. There
were, moreover, during the same period signifi-
The Recent Growth of the Negro Church 291
cant changes in the membership of the Negroes in
such white organizations as the Roman Catholic,
the Congregational, the Presbyterian, and the
Episcopal churches.
The progress of the Negro church, however,
has been made, as shown above, in the denomina¬
tions organized and controlled exclusively by Ne¬
groes. In 1906 they had 85.4 per cent of the or¬
ganizations, 87 per cent of the membership, 83.2
per cent of the scholars in the Sunday School;
78.9 per cent of the value of the church property,
74.5 per cent of the total amount of the debt on
church property, and 67 per cent of the value of
parsonages. The statistician accounts for the
relatively larger proportion of the value of prop¬
erty and debt among the partly Negro denomina¬
tions by the fact that these organizations are
largely in Northern States where church buildings
are of better type and parsonages more common.
These figures show that the Negro denominations
are growing more rapidly than the others. The
statistician says: "While in 1890 they had 81.7
per cent of the organizations against 18.3 per
cent for the other class, in 1906, they reported 85.4
per cent, while in the past Negro bodies had
dropped 14.6 per cent." The variations, instead
of refuting this statement, tend to confirm it.
The National Baptist Convention, for example,
dropped from 53.4 per cent to 50.4 per cent in or¬
ganizations but advanced from 50.4 per cent to
61.4 per cent in membership and from 33.9 per
292 The History of the Negro Church
cent to 43.1 per cent in value of church property.
The Northern Convention showed a decrease in
every item as to its report on the Negro member¬
ship. The African Methodists apparently fell be¬
hind but the difference was due not to any actual
decrease in membership but to more accurate re¬
turns as is confirmed by more recent reports in
their histories and their year books. The Pres¬
byterians and Congregational churches show a
slightly increased percentage in membership but a
decreased percentage in value of property. The
Protestant Episcopal Church reported a general
increase, especially in the value of church prop¬
erty. The percentages of increase in the case
of Catholic Churches are not striking except in
the case of membership. These last mentioned
denominations, moreover, still have a compara¬
tively small following among the Negroes.
The Bureau of the United States Census has
fortunately compiled statistics to show even the
sex of these communicants. These tend to con¬
firm the oft repeated declaration that the women
largely support Negro churches. 4'Of the total
number of organizations reported," says the stat¬
istician, "34,648, or 94.2 per cent, made returns
showing the sex of communicants or members,
and the number thus reported, 3,527,660 was 95.7
per cent of the total membership. Of this number
1,324,123, or 37.5 per cent, were males, and 2,203,-
537, or 62.5 per cent, were females. As compared
with the figures for all religious bodies, white
The Recent Growth of the Negro Church 293
and Negro, which show 43.1 per cent males and
56.9 per cent females, they indicate a greater pre¬
ponderance of females in Negro bodies." The
census reports account for this difference in con¬
tending that the Roman Catholic bodies, among
which the proportion of males is relatively large
(49.3 per cent), constituted over 36 per cent of
the total church membership reported by the cen¬
sus of 1906, but only one per cent of the Negro
church membership. In the total Protestant
church membership the percentage of females is
60.3, or only slightly lower than that of the mem¬
bership of the Negro churches alone.
The few denominations which show the larger
proportion of males are the Catholics with 47.5
per cent, the colored Cumberland Presbyterian,
46.5 per cent, and the United American Free-will
Baptist Church, 43.9 per cent. Those showing the
smallest proportion of males are the Protestant
Episcopal Church, with 35.2 per cent; the Colored
Primitive Baptists in America, 35.7 per cent, and
the Northern Baptist Convention, 35.9 per cent.
Statistics of the Sunday schools exhibit direct
evidence as to how largely this institution func¬
tions in the religious life of the Negroes. The
Bureau of the Census believes that the most sig¬
nificant fact regarding the Sunday schools re¬
ported by Negro churches is the exceptionally
large proportion of organizations reporting them.
'1 Whereas the percentage of all church organiza¬
tions in the United States reporting Sunday
294 The History of the Negro Church
schools," says the census, "was only 79 per cent,
91.2 per cent of the entire number of Negro or¬
ganizations made such a report. The two classes
of denominations are nearly even, the rate for the
exclusively Negro bodies being a little lower than
that for Negro organizations in other bodies.
Among the single denominations, those showing
the highest percentage of Sunday schools, as com¬
pared with the total number of organizations, are
the Colored Cumberland Presbyterian Church,
with 98 per cent, and the Presbyterian Church in
the United States of America, with 97.1 per cent.
The denominations showing the lowest percent¬
age, as compared with the total number of organi¬
zations, are the Colored Primitive Baptists in
America, with 20.8 per cent, and the United Amer¬
ican Free-will Baptists, with 39.9 per cent. Of
all the Sunday schools given, the National Bap¬
tist Convention reported 17,910, or 51.6 per cent,
a little more than one-half; the African Methodist
Episcopal Church, 18.1 per cent; the Methodist
Episcopal Church, 10.8 per cent; the Colored
Methodist Episcopal Church, 6.7 per cent, and
the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, 6
per cent. These five bodies reported 32,360 Sun¬
day schools, or 93.3 per cent of the total number
reported by Negro organizations. The statistics
as to officers, teachers, and scholars show about
the same proportions.
The report on Negro ministers shows a very
rapid increase, in fact, a much larger number
The Recent Growth of the Negro Church 295
than in the case of other professional men among
Negroes. The results show that although when
brought into comparison with the white race the
professions among Negroes are generally under¬
manned, the Negro ministry, so far as numbers
are concerned, is well supplied. In 1906 there
were 31,624 Negro ministers. The Baptists then
had 17,117, the African Methodist Church 6,200,
the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church
3,082, the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church
2,671, the Colored Primitive Baptists in America
1,480, the Colored Cumberland Presbyterian
Church 375, and the United Free-will Baptists
136. The remaining number of ministers were
distributed among the smaller denominations.
Another essential in the estimate of the re¬
ligious progress of the Negro is the work done
by the churches for their expansion into neglected
parts. It has been said that the Negroes of the
United States annually contribute more than
$125,000 to home missions, supporting about 250
home missionaries and aiding more than 400
churches in backward districts. Owing to the
recent migration resulting in all but the depletion
of many churches in the South, and the necessity
for others in the North, there has been much stim¬
ulus from without in some centers where churches
have had little support from those migrants pri¬
marily interested in economic gain. Ever alive
to the situation, however, the various Negro de¬
nominations have raised large sums to organize
296 The History of the Negro Church
and maintain new churches wherever these mi¬
grants of color have settled in large numbers.
In foreign missions the Negro denominations
have done almost as well. They annually con¬
tribute to this work more than $150,000.
While some of this sum has been expended in
promoting this cause in various foreign fields,
the larger portion of it, by special designa¬
tion, has been used in countries having a
preponderance of Negro population, especially
in Africa. The Negro Baptists, through the
Foreign Mission Board of the National Bap¬
tist Convention, the work of which is directed by
that untiring apostle to the lowly, Dr. L. G. Jor¬
dan, carries on missionary work in five foreign
countries. This body has established 61 stations,
83 out-stations, and 43 churches, having altogether
14,700 communicants, among whom are 43 native
workers and 451 assistants. The African Metho¬
dist Episcopal Church, having organized their
mission work earlier than the Baptists—that is, in
1844, whereas the Baptists did not organize theirs
until 1880—have been more successful abroad.
This denomination has invaded as many as eight
foreign countries. Most of its efforts, however,
have been restricted to Africa, where this denom¬
ination has two bishops reaching 17,178 members
through 118 ordained ministers and 479 local
preachers and teachers. This work in Africa was
promoted largely through Bishops Levi J. Coppin
and J. Albert Johnson, who, transferred to dis-
The Recent Growth of the Negro Church 297
tricts in this country, are still rendering their
denomination valuable service. The African
Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, which did not
organize its foreign mission work until 1892, has
established three foreign mission stations, five out-
stations, and eleven churches. Other denomina¬
tions have also done much to support missionary
effort in foreign parts.
To promote Christian education both at home
and in foreign fields these denominations have
well supported publishing houses. The Colored
Methodists have for a number of years had a
successful plant for this work, which reached a
stage of progress under its efficient agent, Dr. J.
C. Martin. The African Methodist Episcopal
Zion Church was earlier in the field and saw the
work recently expanded under the well-known Dr.
J. W. Crockett. The African Methodist Episco¬
pal Church, a pioneer in this enterprise, has easily
taken the lead in this work among the Negro
churches, especially under such efficient managers
as Dr. R. R. Wright, in charge of the Publishing
House and editor of The Christian Recorder in
Philadelphia, under Dr. R. C. Ransom, the brilliant
editor of the African Methodist Episcopal Church
Review, and under the progressive Ira T. Bryant,
the director of the publications of the Sunday
School Union in Nashville, founded by Bishop C.
S. Smith. The Negro Baptists, having become en¬
raged at the refusal of the white Baptists to rec¬
ognize them as constituents of an all comprehend-
298 The History of the Negro Church
ing denomination, organized the National Baptist
Convention, which accepted as one of its most
important concerns the establishment of The Na¬
tional Baptist Publishing House. After attaining
a high degree of success under the efficient Dr.
R. H. Boyd, however, this establishment became
the business of only that portion of the Baptists
who supported Dr. Boyd in his efforts to direct
the work on what his opponents called a private
basis. The other Baptist faction has established
another publishing house in Nashville.
Still another idea of the growth of the Negro
church may be obtained from the statistics as to
their administrative officers. The work of the
Negro denominations has grown to the extent that
the African Methodist Episcopal Church has fif¬
teen bishops and nine other administrative officers,
the Colored Methodists seven bishops and eleven
other administrative officers, and the African
Methodist Episcopal Zion Church ten bishops and
fifteen other administrative officers. The affairs
of the National Baptist Convention, incorporated,
are administered by thirteen officers, and the Na¬
tional Baptist Convention, unincorporated, by an
equal number of functionaries. These, however,
are not all regularly engaged in administrative
work as in most of the Methodist denominations.
The smaller groups of Baptists and Methodists
show here and there top-heavy administrative
staffs, whereas very large groups of Negro mem¬
bers in white churches have fewer supervisors.
The Recent Growth of the Negro Church 299
The Methodist Episcopal Church, however, has
for some years maintained for the Negroes abroad
a missionary bishop, in the capacity of whom
Bishops Alexander P. Camphor and Isaiah B.
Scott have served. The noble fight as indicated
by favorable ballots taken in various conferences,
moreover, all but resulted in the election of the
eloquent Dr. J. W. E. Bowen as a regular bishop.
Becoming sufficiently liberal, however, to override
race prejudice, the Conference of 1920 not only
chose as bishop for Africa that pleasing preacher
and successful pastor, Dr. M. W. Clair, but at the
same time set apart for the New Orleans diocese
the scholarly and brilliant editor of the South¬
western Christian Advocate, Dr. R. E. Jones.
CHAPTER XV
THE NEGRO CHURCH OF TO-DAY
THESE new developments have kept the Negro
ministry still attractive, but because of many
undesirable situations here and there in the church
comparatively few young men have, during the last
decade or so, aspired to this work. Some young
Negroes have learned to look upon the calling as a
necessary nuisance. Except in church schools
where the preparation for the ministry is an objec¬
tive, it has often been unusual to find one Negro
student out of a hundred aspiring to the ministry,
and too often those who have such aspirations rep¬
resent the inferior intellect of the group, as it
happened in the church during the middle ages.
So rapidly did the ministry fall into discredit in
many quarters a few years ago that most women
of promise would not dare to engage themselves
to men who thought of becoming clergymen; and,
if the marital connection happened to be effected
before the lot of the bride was known, it was in
many cases considered a calamity. Because Ne¬
groes now realize how limited the opportunity for
the race is in politics and some of the professions,
however, the ministry will doubtless continue, as it
300
Bishop Alexander Walters
The Negro Church of To-day 301
has since the Reconstruction, a sort of avenue
through which the ambitious youth must pass to
secure a hearing and become a man of influence
among his people. This does not mean that irre¬
ligious men will masquerade as spiritual advisers
but that, inasmuch as the church as an institution
is considered a welfare agency as well as a spir¬
itual body to edify souls, some Negroes, interested
in the social uplift of the race, are learning to
accomplish this task by accepting leadership in
the church.
Negroes see in the ministry, moreover, a new
mission. The world, having now gone mad after
the trifles of this life, is sadly in need of a re¬
deemer to save men from themselves. In the con¬
test between selfishness and godliness the former
has been victor in the soul of the American and
European. There are those like Bishop John
Hurst believing that the Negro church must play
the role of keeping the fire burning on the altar
until the day when men again become reverent,
and that the Negro's liberal interpretation of the
Christian religion, based upon the brotherhood
of man and the fatherhood of God, must gain
ascendancy and be accepted by a regenerated
world of to-morrow.
As a preparation to this end the afflictions of
the Negro have adequately developed self-control
in the race. The watchword of the Negro church
has been patience while waiting on the Lord. The
Negro has learned not to avenge his own wrongs,
302 The History of the Negro Church
believing that God will adjust matters in the end.
The Negro agrees with Professor Joseph A.
Booker, that he that taketh up the sword shall
perish by the sword. Even during these days,
when we learn much about the lawless, the be¬
havior of the Negroes is no exception to the rule.
An investigation shows that the Negroes never
do any more than to defend themselves in keep¬
ing with the first law of nature. White persons
who once found it possible to intimidate the whole
group by shooting or lynching one or two now
face persons of color bent upon defending their
homes. At heart, however, the Negro is conserva¬
tively Christian and looks forward to that favor¬
able turn in the affairs of man when the wrongs
of the oppressed shall be righted without the
shedding of blood.
The Negro church is criticized by a few radi¬
cal members of the race as a hindrance to the
immediate achievement of the aims of the race, in
that the white race in the exercise of foresight
encourages and even subsidizes the Negro min¬
istry in carrying out this conservative program.
This will tend, it is said, to keep the Negro down,
whereas the white people themselves do not actu¬
ally believe in such doctrine; for their own actions
show that they use it as a means to an end. This,
however, is hardly a fair criticism of the Negro
church of to-day. No force from without can claim
control of this institution, and certainly no one
can bridle its fearless speakers who stand for
The Negro Church of To-day 303
the Negro of to-day. The Negro churchmen,
moreover, are not any more conservative than
other leaders of the people. They may be
more generally effective because of their greater
influence. That the Negro church is conservative
is due to teaching and to tradition, and it is for¬
tunate that Providence has had it so. Acting as a
conservative force among the Negroes, the church
has been a sort of balance wheel. It has not been
unprogressive but rather wise in its generation in
not rushing forward to a radical position in ad¬
vance of public opinion. In other words, the Ne¬
gro church has known how far it can safely in¬
struct its people to go in righting their own
wrongs, and this conservatism has no doubt saved
the Negro from the fate of other oppressed groups
who have suffered extermination because of the
failure to handle their case more diplomatically.
This does not mean, however, that the Negro
church of to-day is not alive to the sufferings of
the race and is not critical of the attitude of the
so-called Christian elements in this country. Some
Negro ministers like Dr. F. J. Grimke are decid¬
edly outspoken, even to the extent of being classed
with the militant Reds now being deported. Dr.
Pezavia O'Connell, a gentleman of scholarship and
character, has all but suffered professional mar¬
tyrdom because he has always fearlessly cham¬
pioned the cause of the Negro. Inasmuch as such
an advanced position does not always harmonize
with the faith of his communicants, he has been
304 The History of the Negro Church
proscribed in certain circles. R. W. Bagnall,
George Frazier Miller, and Byron Gunner have
actually preached the use of force and encouraged
resistance to the mobs to the extent that some
Negroes have probably addressed themselves vin¬
dictively to the task of retribution. Through the
Negro churches, and these alone, have the Negroes
been able to effect anything like a cooperative
movement to counteract the evil influences of such
combinations against the race as the revived Ku
Klux Klan.
The church then is no longer the voice of one
man crying in the wilderness, but a spiritual or¬
ganization at last becoming alive to the needs of a
people handicapped by social distinctions of which
the race must gradually free itself to do here in
this life that which will assure the larger life to
come. To attain this the earth must be made
habitable for civilized people. Funds are daily
raised in Negro churches to fight segregation,
and an innocent Negro in danger of suffer¬
ing injustice at the hands of the local oppressor
may appeal with success to the communicants
with whom he has frequented a common altar.
The National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People would be unable to carry out its
program without the aid of the Negro church.
Although Negroes are not now attracted to the
church as much as formerly, the census reports
still show that there are more Negroes in the
ministry than in any other profession. The only
The Negro Church of To-day 305
really close competitor of tlie Negro in this pro¬
fession is the southern white man. While the
educated white men of the North are taking up
scientific pursuits and business, the southern
whites are carrying out their designs on the min¬
istry, in keeping with the well-laid plans by which
they have succeeded in getting partial control of
the northern press. During recent years so many
southern white students have crowded northern
schools of theology that, in keeping with the spirit
of Beelzebub, some of these institutions now deny
Negroes admission. The pulpits of the North are
being gradually taken over by the apostles indoc¬
trinated by the medieval agents of race hate.
Since the Negro ministry is still the largest fac¬
tor in the life of this race, it naturally conflicts
with the propaganda of the ministry preaching
caste. These representatives of the master and
slave classes must, in the capacity of spokesmen
of widely differing groups, work out the solution
of the problems of the church in the United
States; for either the one or the other must dic¬
tate the religious program of the economically
mad North. The North cares little about priest¬
craft. The struggle there for dollars and cents
and for opportunities to spend them in riotous
living is too keen to spare time for such matters
as Christian living and the remote hereafter.
The South, on the other hand, has never lost its
bearing. In spite of riots here and there and
lynchings almost anywhere, that section still con-
306 The History of the Negro Church
siders itself a Christian land and, in its way, has
lifted high the name of Christ without being
influenced by his life. The North, then, if it ever
awakes from its lethargy, will probably accept
either the principles of Jesus of Nazareth as they
have been preached and practiced by the Negroes,
or the Anglo-Saxon-chosen-people-of-God faith for
which many misguided white communicants have
jeopardized their own lives and have taken those
of Negroes unwilling to worship at the shrine of
race prejudice.
The white people of this country are not inter¬
ested in the real mission of Christ. In the North
the church has surrendered to the capitalistic sys¬
tem and developed into an agency seeking to
assuage the pains of those suffering from the very
economic evils which the institution has not the
courage to attack. In the southern portion of the
United States, the white churches have degener¬
ated into perfunctory machines engaged in the
service of deceiving the multitude with the doctrine
that the Anglo-Saxon, being superior to other
races by divine ordination, may justly oppress
them to maintain its supremacy and that the
principles of Jesus are exemplified in the lives
of these newly chosen people of God when they
permit their so-called inferiors to eat the crumbs
let fall by those whom their idol god has care¬
fully selected as the honor guests at the feast.
If the humble Nazarene appeared there disturb-
The Negro Church of To-day 307
ing the present caste system, he would be speedily
lynched as he was in Palestine.
In spite of the Negroes' logical preaching of
the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of
man, however, the North now seems inclined to
accept the faith of the South. Science has long
since uprooted the theory that one race can be
superior to another, but the northern churches
are loath to act accordingly. The same churches,
which prior to emancipation, championed the cause
of the Negro, are to-day working indirectly to
promote racial distinctions. The southern white
man, wiser in his generation than most of his
competitors, easily realized that he could not
legally reenslave the Negro, but early devised a
scheme to convert the North to the doctrine of
segregation, educational distinctions, and the elim¬
ination of the Negroes from the body politic, to
make it improbable, if not impossible, for the Ne¬
groes to attain the status of white men. The
Christian spirit of the North at first rebelled
against the very idea; but, already pledged to the
policy of the economic proscription of Negroes
through trades unions, that section, once bristling
with churches dominated by abolitionists, soon
yielded to the temptation of sacrificing the prin¬
ciples of Jesus for dollars and cents. The Negro
of to-day, therefore, is hated as much by the
northern religious devotee as by the southern
enthusiast at the shrine of race prejudice.
308 The History of the Negro Church
Evidence as to such conditions obtaining is not
wanting. In the midst of the changing order in¬
volving all but the annihilation of the Negro, the
race has repeatedly appealed to the ''Christian"
element of the North only to have a deaf ear
turned to its petition. Inasmuch as the northern
ministers are influenced by rich laymen whose
businesses have so many ramifications in the
South, they refrain from such criticism or inter¬
ference in behalf of the Negro, since it might mean
economic loss. Negroes at first secured from
northern churches large sums of money to es¬
tablish adequate private schools and colleges
throughout the South, but before these institu¬
tions could be developed these funds were di¬
verted to the support of industrial education
which the South openly interpreted to signify
that no Negro must be encouraged to become the
equal of any white man, and that education for
him must mean something entirely different from
that training provided for the Caucasian. The
northern white man, more interested in develop¬
ing men to produce cotton and tobacco than in the
training of a race to think for itself, again bowed
to mammon. Churches which once annually raised
sums for the maintenance of various Negro
schools have now, as a majority, restricted their
contributions to Hampton and Tuskegee, where, it
is believed, the ultimate distinctions of the whites
and blacks can, by the process of safeguarded edu¬
cation, be best effected. Practically all of the so-
The Negro Church of To-day 309
called Christian philanthropists have followed
their example.
The Negro church, however, finds itself facing
still another problem. During recent years Ne¬
groes have manifested more interest in the re¬
demption of Africa. Negro churches have long
since contributed to missions and the periodical
return of the apostle to the lowly far away has
been awaited with the anticipation of unwonted
joy; but it is only recently that the church has
begun to make sacrifices for the cause. Whereas
a few years ago a congregation felt that it had
done its duty in raising a missionary collection of
ten or fifteen dollars, that same group is to-day
supporting one or two missionaries in Africa.
The raising of funds for this purpose and the
administration of it have been of late so well ex¬
tended, as noted above, that the national church
organizations have had to assign this work to
boards, whose business is to supply the mission¬
aries at the various posts and extend their opera¬
tions by establishing schools where they have suffi¬
ciently well established the work to require sys¬
tematic training.
In spite of their well-laid plans, however, the
Negro church finds itself handicapped in reaching
the Africans. Controlled as that continent is by
the capitalistic powers of Europe, they have much
apprehension as to the sort of gospel the Negro
missionary may preach in Africa, lest the natives
be stirred up to the point of self-assertion. They
310 The History of the Negro Church
desire that missionaries to Africa, like race lead¬
ers in the United States, be "hand-picked." In
other words, the missionary movement must bow
to mammon. To the heathen, then, must go those
who have served only as forerunners of foreign
conquests involving the discomfiture, the oppres¬
sion, and in many cases the annihilation of the
very people whom they professed to be saving.
Following in their wake, a certain American
"Christian" organization financed by "philan¬
thropists" recently sent to Africa Thomas J.
Jones who, in behalf of his race, sought to carry
out this policy. The effect of this mission was
soon apparent. After having nobly served in
Africa and India, Max Yergan, an International
Young Men's Christian Association Secretary,
appointed to serve permanently in Africa, recently
toured the United States for a mission fund which
the Negroes freely contributed that through him
some portion of Africa might be redeemed. This
man in Africa having ingratiated himself into the
favor of the capitalistic government there, how¬
ever, according to Yergan's statement, influenced
the administration to refuse him the permit to
work among his own people. The same meddler,
according to a complaint made by the colored
branch of the Young Men's Christian Association,
all but made himself the dictator of the appoint¬
ments of that department and other Negro welfare
agencies sent abroad during the World War. His
business now seems to be that of furnishing the
The Negro Church of To-day 311
world with "hand-picked" Negro leaders to damn
even the natives in Africa. The white church
then, has not only failed to preach the social
gospel of Jesus, but is preventing the Negroes
from carrying that message to their own people.
In other words, the principles of the humble Naza-
rene must be crushed out to make money and per¬
petuate caste.
This and other handicaps, however, have not
prevented the progress of the church. Pyobably
the most promising aspect is that Negro ministers
of to-day measure up to a higher standard than
formerly. They are not diverted from their course
by politics and the like. Here and there, of course,
are some of little promise, who in a poverty-
stricken condition accept almost any bribe offered
them by political bosses, but fortunately this num¬
ber is known to be rapidly decreasing. During
the last generation there has developed among
Negroes the feeling that the political embroglio
is an unclean sphere which the minister should
not enter. The increasing duties of the Negro
preachers, moreover, have recently so multiplied
that they have no time for such service. Experi¬
ence has shown that even in the case of those who
have gone into politics in self-defense that they
have accomplished little good or that some layman
could have handled the matter more successfully.
We have recently had two striking cases in evi¬
dence. Bishop Alexander Walters, after having
rendered valuable service to the cause as an edu-
312 The History of the Negro Church
cator and minister in Kentucky, California, and
Tennessee, became the ranking bishop of the Afri¬
can Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. He then
decided that his people had been so long duped by
the grafters and tricksters masquerading as the
successors of Lincoln and Grant, that he would
use his influence to have the Negroes divide their
vote by supporting Woodrow Wilson in 1912. Dr.
J. Milton Waldron, an influential Baptist minis¬
ter of Washington, feeling that it would mean
a new day for the Negro to have this democratic
college president of many promises elevated to
the headship of the nation by the aid of the Negro
vote, did likewise. Disappointed in the end, how¬
ever, by the hypocrisy of Wilson, who, in his heart
hated Negroes, these churchmen saw themselves
painfully humiliated among their people, who, in
return for the large number of votes which they
gave Wilson, received nothing but segregation in
the civil service, elimination from public office,
and conscription to do forced labor in the World
War, while he was promising that the Negroes
should have justice and have it abundantly.
The Negro churchmen of to-day realize, as most
leaders of the race do, that the hope of the blacks
lies not in politics from without but in race up¬
lift from within in the form of social amelioration
and economic development. Neither Democrats
nor Eepublicans are interested in the Negro ex¬
cept so far as the race may be used to enable them
to get into office. Their platform promises have
The Negro Church of To-day
313
been not something to stand on but to get into
office on. This does not in any sense, however,
mean that the Negro minister has lost interest in
public matters of concern to every citizen, but
rather that he has learned the possibilities in the
political world. He will in no sense withdraw
from the contest in behalf of the rights of his
people. His method of attack will be different.
Carrying out this reconstructed policy for the re¬
habilitation of the race, the Negro minister, like a
majority of the thinking members of this group to¬
day, will welcome the assistance and cooperation
of the white man, but will not suffer himself to be
used as a tool in connection with forces from with¬
out the circles of the race, pretending to be inter¬
ested in the solution of its problems.
INDEX
Abbott, Lyman, interest of, in
the freedmen, 212
Abrams, Joseph, a Negro
preacher in Richmond, 163
Adams, Henry, pioneer Negro
preacher in Louisville, 119
Adams, J. B., pastor of the
Concord Baptist Church, 282
Afflictions, the effect of, 301-
302
Africa, missionary work in, im¬
peded, 309-311
African Civilization Society,
the, achievements of, 211-
212
A. M. E. Church, the establish¬
ment of, 72-78; troubles of,
with the Zionites, 81-85;
schools of, 205; educational
program, 212
A. M. E. Zion Church, the be¬
ginnings of, 78-85; inde¬
cision of, 81-85; struggles of,
82-84; schism in, 106-107;
schools of, 206
African Union First Colored
Methodist Protestant Church
of America, established, 192
African Union Church organ¬
ized, 107
Alabama, Negro churches in,
118; reactionary laws of,
132; Presbyterians in, 155,
156-157
Alexander, Dr. A., a friend of
John Gloucester, 66
Allen, Richard, the work of,
73-78; recognition of, 73;
early efforts, 74-75; elected
bishop, 76; death of, 101
Allen University, the establish¬
ment of, 205
Allensworth, Allen, religious
work of, 229; in politics,
229-230
Ambrose, F., a pioneer C. M.
E. worker, 196
American Baptist Home Mis¬
sion Association, efforts of,
209
American Baptist Home Mis¬
sion Society, the, achieve¬
ments of, 203, 209-210; the
attack on, 261-264
American Freedmen's Aid Com¬
mission, the work of, 212
American Freedmen's Union
Commission, the establish¬
ment of, 213
American Missionary Associa¬
tion, schools of, 203-204
American Union Commission,
the, achievements of, 212-
213
Americans, unfavorable atti¬
tude of, 41
Anderson, I. H., a pioneer C.
M. E. preacher, 196
Anderson, Thomas, a preacher
in Savannah, 116
Anderson, William, a supporter
of Richard Allen, 76
Andrew, Governor John A., a
friend of the freedmen, 213
Andrew, a pioneer Negro
teacher in Charleston, 8-9
Anglican clergy, the attitude
of, 20-24; corruption, 20, 21,
22
Anthony Street Church, estab¬
lishment of, in Mobile, 135
Arnett, Bishop B. W., re¬
ligious work of, 236; in poli-
316
Index
tics, 235-236; effort of, to re¬
peal "Black Laws," 236
Asbury, Bishop, the position
of, 26, 28; work of, 28-30;
recognition of Richard Allen
by, 73
Ashmun Institute, the estab¬
lishment of, 152
Atkinson, Edward, a friend of
the freedmen, 213
Auchmutty, the work of, among
Negroes in New York, 14
Austin, J. C., a popular
preacher in Pittsburg, 282
Babbit, Bessie, white wife of
Lemuel Haynes, 63
Bacon, Thomas, sermons of, on
the instruction of Negroes,
23, 151-152
Bacote, S. W., a preacher in
Missouri, 277-278
Bagnall, R. W., a social wel¬
fare minister, 277; advanced
position of, 304
Ballou, Hosea, contest of, with
Lemuel Haynes, 64
Baltimore, Baptist churches
in, 111; Association for the
moral and Educational Im¬
provement of the Colored
People of, the efforts of, 208,
211
Baptists, early progress of, 85-
91, 107-122, 298; reason for
growth of, 108-109, 110; in
the North, 120-122; statistics
of schools of, 206; statistics
of, 286, 296; division and
increase of Negro Baptists,
256-257
Baptist Association of West¬
ern States and Territories,
200
Baptist conventions, the rise of,
199-201
Baptist Foreign Mission Con¬
vention, 201
Baptist Home Missionary So¬
ciety, the American, the work
of, 203, 209-210
Baptists (white) the Emanci¬
pating, 32-36
Baptists (white) the work of,
among Negroes, 31-36; posi¬
tion in 1789, 32; anti-slavery
work of, 32-36; the schism
of, 130; interest of, in the
Negro, 160
Baptized Licking-Locust Asso¬
ciation, 36
Barclay, T., the work of, in
New York, 15
Barnett, Nelson, a pioneer
Baptist preacher of West
Virginia, 240
Barrow, David, the position of,
33-34
Bartow, the work of, among Ne¬
groes, 11
Baxter, Richard, ideas of,
carried out, 16
Beach, J., the work of, among
Negroes, 16-17
Beckett, the work of, in Penn¬
sylvania, 11
Beebe, J. A., a bishop of the
C. M. E. Church, 196
Beecher, H. W., interest of, in
the freedmen, 212
Benezet, Anthony, a worker
among Negroes in Philadel¬
phia, 18
Bentley, George, a pioneer Ne¬
gro preacher in Tennessee,
137
Bethel Church, organization of,
75
Bible, influence of, among Ne¬
groes, 266-272
Biddle University, the estab¬
lishment of, 203
Binga, Anthony, a useful min¬
ister in Richmond, 240
Bishop, Bishop, election of,
106; schismatic connection
of, 106-107
Bishop, Josiah, a Negro Bap¬
tist preacher among whites,
54-55
Bishops of England, interested
Index
317
in proselyting the Negroes,
6-7
Black Code, 5
Black Harry, a pioneer Metho¬
dist Negro preacher, 56-58
"Black Laws" of Ohio, -efforts
to have them repealed, 236
Blackburn, Gideon, master of
John Gloucester, 66-67
Book Concern of the A. M. E.
Church, established, 102
Booker, J. A., an educator, 206;
opinion of, 302
Boone, L. W., a preacher of
power in North Carolina,
240
Boston, the Negro Baptists in,
121
Boucher, Jonathan, the words
of, 23-24
Boulden, J. F., in politics, 227-
228; religious efforts of, 227
Bowen, J. W. E., a prominent
candidate for bishop, 299
Bowling, R. H., a preacher of
renown in Norfolk, 282
Boyd, R. H., head of the Na¬
tional Baptist Publishing
House, 261, 297
Bradby, a social welfare min¬
ister, 277
Braxton, P. H. A., religious ef¬
fort of, 228-229; in politics,
229
Bray, Dr. Thomas, the mission
of, 10
British, favorable attitude of,
41
Brooks, Bishop Sampson, a
popular social preacher, 278
Brooks, Philip, interest of, in
the freedmen, 212
Brooks, Walter H., quotation
from, 41-42; the education
of, 217; attack of, on white
Baptists, 261
Brooks, W. H., a Methodist
minister in New York, 277
Brown, Marcus, a co-worker of
Morris Brown, 76
Brown, Morris, a pioneer
African Methodist preacher
in South Carolina, 76;
elected bishop of A. M. E.
Church, 101
Brown, William, a pioneer in
the A. M. E. Zion Church,
78
Brown, W. W., popular pastor
in New York, 278
Browne, W. W., a minister in
business, 267
Bryan, Andrew, efforts of, in
Savannah, 43, 47-53; perse¬
cution of, 49-52
Bryan, Jonathan, master of An¬
drew Bryan, 49; his friend,
50
Bryan, Sampson, brother and
co-worker of Andrew Bryan,
49-50
Bryant, Ira T., a publisher, 297
Bryant, William C., interest
of, in the freedmen, 212
Bryce, John, a preacher to Ne¬
groes, 160, 164
Bull, Henry, a co-worker of
Morris Brown, 76
Bumstead, Horace, an edu¬
cator, 215
Burling, William, interest of,
in Negroes, 18
Burns, Francis, a Negro made
bishop to Africa by the
Methodists, 189
Burroughs, N. H., the achieve¬
ments of, 206
Burrows, pastor of the African
Baptist Church in Philadel¬
phia, 87
Burt, Thomas, a supporter of
the work in Savannah, 48
Buxton, Fowell, a comment of,
27
Caesar, a pioneer Negro Bap¬
tist preacher, 137
Cain, Bishop R. H., religious
work of, 234-235; in politics,
234-235; a member of Con¬
gress, 234
Call of politics, 220-246
318
Index
Cameron, Paul C., quotation
from, on John Chavis, 68-69
Camp meetings among Negro
Methodists, 144-145
Campbell, Alexander, sermon
of, in Andrew Marshall's
church, 114; trouble result¬
ing from, 114, 115
Campbell, General, a friend of
George Liele, 45
Campbell, William J., succes¬
sor to Andrew Marshall, 117
Camphor, A. P., a Methodist
missionary bishop, 299
Capucin monks, protest of, 3
Carroll, Richard, a preacher of
social welfare tendency, 278
Carter, R. A., a bishop of the
C. M. E. Church, 240
Cary, Lott, sketch of, 137-140;
ordained to preach, 139;
work of, in Liberia, 139-140;
death of, 140; interest of, in
religious instruction, 160
Casas, las, a missionary, 2;
attitude of, on slavery, 2
Caste in the white church, 306-
309
Catholics working among Ne¬
groes, 1-6; appeal to Ne¬
groes a failure, 98; attrac¬
tion of Negroes by, 256
Challenge to the Negro in free¬
dom, 168
Change in worship advocated,
254-255
Chapman, James, a co-worker
of Richard Allen, 75
Charleston, a Negro school in,
8-9; Morris Brown's work in,
77; fracas in church, in, 133-
134; Negro churches of, de¬
molished, 134; Presbyterians
of, interested in the instruc¬
tion of Negroes, 155
Charlton, the, work of, among
Negroes in New York, 14
Chase, Salmon P., interest of,
in freedmen, 213
Chavis, John, an educated Ne¬
gro teacher and preacher, 67-
69
Christian, W., pastor of a Ne¬
gro Baptist Church in To¬
ronto, 122
Christian character empha¬
sized, 252
"Christianity" of the whites,
a farce in modern times,
306-309
Church management, question¬
ed, 254
Churchill, W. P., one of the
pioneer C. M. E. workers,
196
Civil War, the, and the church,
185-201; an upheaval, 188
Clair, M. W., a bishop of the
M. E. Church, 299
Clarke, James Freeman, a
friend of the freedmen, 213
Clayton, Moses C., a pioneer
Baptist preacher in Balti¬
more, 111, 136
Cleaves, N. C., a bishop of the
C. M. E. Church, 240
Coke, Bishop, the position of,
26
Coker, Daniel, a pioneer
preacher in the A. M. E.
Church, 75-76; elected
bishop, 76; resigned, 76;
work of, in Baltimore, 76
Cole, Abraham, a preacher of
power, 104
Coleman, Elihu, interest of, in
Negroes, 18
Colgan, the work of, in New
York, 14
Collins, Leonard, a pioneer
preacher in the A. M. E.
Zion Church, 104
Colonization Society, the Amer¬
ican, opposed, 170
Colored Cumberland Presby¬
terian Church organized, 192
Colored Methodist Episcopal
Church organized, 193-197;
unfair criticism of, 193-194
Columbus, missionary spirit of,
Index
319
Conflict of sects, 19-20
Congregationalisms, interest of,
in Negroes, 99; small follow¬
ing, 99; promotion of edu¬
cation by, 203-204; attract
Negroes later, 256
Conservative and progressive
in the Negro church, 247-
265
Consolidated American Bap¬
tist Missionary Convention,
200
Control of Negro church, de¬
sired by whites, 278-280
Cook, Steven A., a friend of
George Liele, 46
Cooke, John F., founder of the
Fifteenth Street Presbyter¬
ian Church, 136
Cooperation taught through the
church, 284, 285
Coppin, Bishop L. J., foreign
mission work of, 296-297,
Corpew, E. G., a preacher in
Portsmouth, 135
Cottrell, Elias, a bishop of the
C. M. E. Church, 240
Coxe, General, attitude of,
toward the teaching of slaves,
164
Crockett, J. W., denominational
work of, 297
Cruikshanks, Amos, a co¬
worker of Morris Brown, 76
Crummell, Alexander, the strug¬
gles of, 176-177; interest of,
in civil rights, 238
Cuff, Peter, a supporter of
Richard Allen, 76
Cunningham, Henry, a co¬
worker with Andrew Mar¬
shall, 113
Curry, J. L. M., work of, 214
Cutler, Dr., a missionary in
Boston, 17
D'Alone, M., supporter of Ne¬
gro and Indian Missions, 10
Davis, Edward, a friend of
Andrew Bryan, 48
Davis, Noah, a pioneer Bap¬
tist preacher in Baltimore,
111, 136
Dawn, the, of a new day, 23-39
DeBaptiste, Richard, a pio¬
neer Baptist preacher in the
Northwest Territory, 122;
religious work of, 241-242
DeBerry, W. N., church of, so¬
cialized, 277
Derrick, Bishop W. B., re¬
ligious work of, 231; in poli¬
tics, 231-232
Development, the early, of the
Negro church, 100-122
Devous, John, a preacher in
Savannah, 116
Differing ideas in the Negro
church, 247-265
Difficulties, the, of missions,
19-22
District of Columbia, Negro
churches in, 110-111, 136
Dixwell Avenue Congregational
Church, establishment of,
99
Dover Baptist Association, re¬
ceived Negro church, 135
Dow, Lorenzo, sermon of, in
Andrew Bryan's church, 49
Drayton, Henry, a co-worker
of Morris Brown, 76
Drummond, Hugh, the escape
of a slave preacher from, 72
Durham, Clayton, a co-worker
of Richard Allen, 75
Early development of the Ne¬
gro Church, 100-122
Eden, James, a co-worker of
Morris Brown, 76
Education, a concern of the Ne¬
gro preacher, 168
Edwards, Mrs., interest of, in
proselyting Negroes, 7
Eliot, John, interest of, in
slaves, 15
Ellis, Harrison, a Negro preach¬
er in Alabama, 140-142
Episcopalians, interest of, in
Negroes, 94-97; attitude of,
toward Negroes, 150-152; as-
320
Index
sistance of, given freedmen,
210-211; attract Negroes, 256
Evangelical sects, work of, 23-
29; appeal of, successful, 143-
144
Evans, Henry, a pioneer Negro
preacher in North Carolina,
56
Farrand, Daniel, teacher of
Lemuel Haynes, 63
Finley, J. B., the successor
of John Stewart, 60-61
First Colored Methodist Prot¬
estant Church organized, 107
Fisk University, the establish¬
ment of, 203
Fleetwood, Bishop, sermon of,
on the conversion of Ne¬
groes, 9
Foreign mission and the Ne¬
gro church, 296, 297
Foreign relief to freedmen, 208
Ford, J. E., church institu¬
tional work of, 276
Fox, George, attitude of,
toward freedom and en¬
lightenment, 18
France, decrees of, as to in¬
doctrinating slaves, 3 -
Francis, Henry, a Negro
preacher in Savannah, 52
Fray, S. T., a pioneer preacher
in the A. M. E. Zion Church,
104
Frazer, Garrison, a pastor in
Savannah, 117
Free African Society, organi¬
zation of, 75; comment of,
92
Free-Will Baptists, the achieve¬
ments of, 203, 209
Freedmen Aid Societies, the
work of, 208-209
Freedmen Aid Society, the, of
the Methodist Church, the
establishment of, 209
Freedmen's Bureau, facts from,
208
French, missionary spirit of, 1
Friends, the relief work of,
207-208; the Society of, in
England, the efforts of, 208
Friends' Association of Phila¬
delphia, for the relief of
colored Freedmen, the work
of, 207
Friends' Association for the
Aid and Elevation of the
Freedmen, 208
Frink, S., a missionary in
Georgia, 11
Fugitive Slave Law, effect of,
on the migration of Negroes,
Galbreth, George, election of,
as bishop, 105-106; dispute
concerning, 106
Gales, G. W., in politics, 226;
religious efforts of, 226
Galphin, George, patron of the
Silver Bluff Church, 42
Garnett, Henry Highland, the
career of, 175-176
Garretson, Freeborn, attitude
of, on Negro conversion, 28
Garrison, William L., interest
of, in relief of freedmen, 212
George, David, pastor of the
Silver Bluff Church, 42;
work of, in Nova Scotia, 42;
in Sierre Leone, 42
Georgia, the instruction of Ne¬
groes in, 10-11; Negro Bap¬
tists in, 112-118; reaction¬
ary laws of, 132; Presby¬
terians of, interested in the
Negro, 155, 157
Gibbs, Thomas, the escape of
a slave preacher from, 72
Gibson, Bishop, interested in
proselyting Negroes, 7; let¬
ters of, 7
Gillfield Baptist Church,
Petersburg, establishment of,
136
Gilliard, Nicholson, a sup¬
porter of Richard Allen, 76
Gloucester, John, a pioneer
Index
321
Presbyterian preacher, 65-67
Goff, Lyman B., interested in
the preaching of Charles T.
Walker, 245
Goose Creek Parish, Negroes of,
instructed, 7
Graham, Solon, an early C. M.
E. minister, 196
Graham, W. F., a minister in
business, 267
Grant, Bishop, a useful church¬
man, 238
Great, Evans, a preacher in Sa¬
vannah, 112, 113
Green, A. R., an editor and
Book Steward, 102
Green, Beriah, a friendly
teacher of Negroes, 175, 176
Gregg, David, interested in the
preaching of Charles T.
Walker, 245
Gregg, Jacob, an Emancipating
Baptist, 35
Grimes, Leonard, sketch of,
180-182
Grimke, F. J., position of, 303
Grouch, Job, a C. M. E. worker,
196
Growth of the Negro church,
286-299
Guy, Rev. Mr., a preacher to
Negroes, 8
Gunner, Byron, the advanced
position of, 304
Haig, Mrs., interest of, in
proselyting Negroes, 7
Hale, Edward Everett, a friend
of the freedmen, 213
Hall, C., preaching of, to Ne¬
groes, in North Carolina, 10
Hall, Stephen, a supporter of
Richard Allen, 76
Hamilton, Leroy, the master
of Henry Francis, 52
Hamilton, William, a pioneer
in the A. M. E. Zion Church,
78-79
Hampton Institute, the estab¬
lishment of, 204
Hanover Presbytery, John Cha-
vis a missionary for, 68
Harden, rlenry, troubles of,
with the A. M. E. Zion
Church, 82-83
Harding, Henry, a supporter
of Richard Allen, 75-76
Harper, Alexander, a co-worker
of Morris Brown, 76
Harry, a Negro teacher in
Charleston, 8-9
Haversham, Justice James, fa¬
vorable to Andrew Bryan, 49-
50
Hawkins, Gen. Rush C., inter¬
ested in the preaching of
Charles T. Walker, 245
Hawkins, John R., a business
man in the church, 267
Hawthorne Keidor, a preacher
to Negroes in Mobile, 135
Hayes, Gregory W., the work
of, 206; conflict of, with the
American Baptist Home Mis¬
sion Society, 262
Haygood, A. G., a friend of
the freedmen, 213
Haynes, Lemuel, a scholarly
Negro preacher to whites,
62-65
Henderson, Archibald, a stu¬
dent under John Chavis, 70
Henderson, John, a student
under John Chavis, 70
Henderson, J., a preacher in
Philadelphia, 121
Hepburn, John, a worker
among Negroes, 18
Hogarth, George, election of
as A. M. E. Book Steward,
102
Hogg, Kate, a member of the
Savannah African Church,
45
Holly, J. T., the record of, 179-
180
Holmes, Donald, an emancipat¬
ing Baptist, 35
Holsey, L. H., an early C. M.
E. preacher, 196; elected
bishop, 196; work of, 239-240
322
Index
Home missions of the Negro
church, 295-296
Honyman, J., the efforts of,
among Negroes, 17
Hood, Bishop James W., the
religious work of, 236; in
politics, 236-238
Hopkins, Samuel, the inter¬
est of, in Negroes, 36
Houston, U. L., a pastor in Sa¬
vannah, 117
Howard, O. 0., an educator, of
freedmen, 215
Howard University, the estab¬
lishment of, 204
Huddlestone, work of, in New
York, 14
Hunt, Rev. Mr., a teacher of
Negroes, 8
Hurst, Bishop John, the faith
of, 301
Illinois, Negro Baptists in, 122
Independent church movement,
71-99
Intelligent people lost to the
church, 255-256; welconjed
by others, 256
Jack, Uncle, a pioneer Negro
preacher in Virginia, 55-56
Jackson, Anderson, an early
C. M. E. minister, 196
Jackson, Edward, a supporter
of Richard Allen, 76
Jackson, William, a preacher
in Philadelphia, 121
Jackson, Tennessee, C. M. E.
Church organized at, 195-
196
Jacksonville, Florida, Negro
Baptist church in, 118-119
Jacob, a slave preacher, the es¬
cape of, 72
Jacobs, Francis, a pioneer in
the A. M. E. Zion Church, 78-
79
Jamaica, the work of George
Liele in, 43-46
James, Thomas, an anti-slav¬
ery preacher, 173
Jasper, John, a popular Bap¬
tist preacher, 238-239
Jaudan, Rev. J., a preacher to
Negroes in Florida, 118
Jenny, Rev. Mr., the work of,
among Negroes, 11
Jernagin, W. H., a social wel¬
fare minister in Washington,
278
John Street Methodist Episco¬
pal Church, troubles of, 78,
83-84
Johnson, Adam, pastor of a
schismatic church in Savan¬
nah, 114
Johnson, Dr., a worker at
Stratford, 17
Johnson, D. L., a teacher of
contrabands, 215
Johnson, Harvey, attack of, on
white Baptists, 261
Johnson, Henry, a pioneer
preacher in the A. M. E.
Zion Church, 104
Johnson, Bishop J. Albert,
foreign mission work of, 296-
297
Johnson, M. W., a rising
preacher in the Baptist
Church, 282
Johnson, Robert, a pastor of
Baptists in Washington, D.
C., 282
Johnson, W. B., a Baptist
preacher in the District of
Columbia, 240
Johnson, Bishop W. D., an A.
M. E. minister of educa¬
tional tendencies, 278
Jones, Absalom, a co-worker of
Richard Allen, 74; differing
ideas of, 75; rector of St.
Thomas, 75, 94
Jones, C. C., interest of, in
the enlightenment of Ne¬
groes, 153-155
Jones, Joshua H., a substan¬
tial supporter oi Wilber-
force, 264
Jones, R. E., a bishop of the
M. E. Church, 299
Index
323
Jones, Thomas, escape of a
slave preacher from, 72
Jones, William, a pioneer C.
M. E. worker, 196
Jordan, L. G., interest of, in
business, 282; foreign mis¬
sion work of, 296
Keith, George, promoter of re¬
ligious training, 18
Kennedy, Dempsey, an anti-
slavery preacher, 173
Kentucky, the Emancipating
Baptists in, 34-36; Negro
Baptists in, 119-120
Kirkland, Colopel, a friend of
George Liele, 44, 45
Lambert, William, a pioneer
Methodist preacher, 81;
troubles with the A. M. E.
Zion Church, 81; relations
with Richard Allen, 80-82
Lane, Isaac, a bishop of the
C. M. E. Church, 240
Lane, John W., a C. M. E.
worker, 196
Lane College, the establish¬
ment of, 203
Latin element, missionary
spirit of, 2
Law, Josiah, a preacher to Ne¬
groes, 155
Lawton, Bristol, a minister in
Savannah, 117
Leadership in the Negro
church, 280-281
Lee, George W., achievements
of, 244
Lee, Bishop, President of Wil-
berforce, 238
Legislation, reactionary, 131-
132
Lemon, William, a Negro Bap¬
tist preacher in Virginia,
53
Lexington, Kentucky, the Bap¬
tist Church in, 86; Negro
Baptist Church in, 119
Liberty County, Georgia, in¬
struction of Negroes in, 165
Liele, George, preacher at the
Silver Bluff Church, 42;
efforts of, in Savannah, 43-
45; in Jamaica, 44-45
Lincoln University, develop¬
ment of, 203
Lindsay, the work of, in New
Jersey, 12
Literature for religious in¬
struction, 166
Livingston College, the estab¬
lishment of, 205-206
Locke, a white minister inter¬
ested in Thomas Paul, 88
Locke, John, the philosophy of,
influential, 25
Locke, Richard, the work of,
among Negroes, 11
London Freedmen's Aid So¬
ciety, the work of, 208
Lott Cary Convention, organ¬
ization, 262-263
Love, E. K., a popular preacher
in Georgia, 240
Louisville, Negro Baptists in,
119
Macintosh County, Georgia, in¬
struction of Negroes in, 165
Macsparran, Dr., a worker
among Negroes at Narra-
gansett, 17
McClaskey, John, an adviser
of the A. M. E. Zion Church,
79
McDonald, James, a co-worker
with Negroes in Florida, 118
McKall, Basil, a preacher of
power, 104
McLemore, James, an evange¬
list among Negroes, 137
McQueen, Steven, a preacher
in Savannah, 116
McTyeire, interest of, in the
Colored Methodist, 195
Management of the Church,
the, questioned, 254
Manchester, Virginia, large Ne¬
gro Baptist church in, 111-
112
Manly, Governor Charles, a
324
Index
student under John Chavis,
70
Mangum, P. H., a student under
John Chavis, 69
Mangum, W. P., a student
under John Chavis, 69
Manning, J. M., a friend of
the freedmen, 213
Mars, John N., an anti-slavery
Methodist preacher, 173
Marsh, Jacob, a supporter of
Richard Allen, 76
Marshall, Abraham, organizer
of the Savannah Baptist
Church, 48
Marshall, Andrew, a noted Bap¬
tist preacher in Savannah,
112; troubles of, 113-115;
work of, 112-118
Martin, J. C., denominational
work of, 297
Martin J. Sella, an eloquent
preacher, 238
Maryland, Catholic workers
among Negroes in, 4-5
Massachusetts Episcopal As¬
sociation, the efforts of, 211
Mather, Cotton, interest of, in
slaves, 15-16
Matthews, John, a co-worker of
Morris Brown, 76
Mayo, A. D., the efforts of, 214
Meacham, J. B., a pioneer Ne¬
gro preacher in St. Louis,
120
Meade, Bishop, interest of,
in the instruction of Ne¬
groes, 151-152
Methodist and Baptist attract
Negroes, 196-197, 217
Methodists, African, in the
North, 120-122; school sta¬
tistics of, 203
Methodist Episcopal Church,
position on slavery in 1784,
29; pioneer work among Ne¬
groes, 26-31; division of, on
slavery, 123-124; interest of,
in Negro uplift, 158-159; in
the Civil War, 186-187, 189-
192; attitude of, toward the
Negroes, 188-192, 258-259-;
qualified recognition of Ne¬
groes, by, 191-192, 193-197
Mifflin, Warner, the memorial
of, 38
Migration of Negro Methodists
and Baptists, 122
Miles, W. H., one of the first
bishops of the C. M. E.
Church, 196
Miller, George Frazier, an Epis¬
copal rector of Brooklyn, 277,
304
Miller, Kelly, opinion of, re¬
ferred to, 280-281
Miller, Thomas, pioneer in the
A. M. E. Zion Church, 78
Miller, William, a pioneer
preacher among the Metho¬
dists, 78; elected bishop of
the A. M. E. Zion Church,
105; death of, 105
Missionaries, the attitude of
the early, among Negroes,
1-2; in the West Indies,
26-27
Missionary work, the lack of,
in America, 21; impeded in
Africa, 309-311
Mississippi, the Presbyterians
of, interested in the Negro,
155
Mixed churches, procedure in,
132-133
Mobile, a Negro church in,
118; establishment of the An¬
thony Street Church in, 135
Monks, Capucin, protest of, 3
Montague, Justice James,
favorable to Andrew Bryan,
49-50
Montgomery, Alabama, Negro
Baptists in, 118
Moore, Matthew, the pastor of
whites and Negroes, 44
Moore, Bishop, election of, 105;
retirement of, 105
Morehouse College, the estab¬
lishment of, 203
Morris Brown University, the
establishment of, 205
Index
325
Morris, E. C., head of the Na¬
tional Baptist Convention.
261
Morris, Rev. Mr., a preacher in
Virginia, 135
Moses, Rev. Mr., a worker
among Negroes in Virginia,
53
Mound Bayou, mixed Baptist
Church in, 86
Muir, a worker in Kentucky, 38
National Association for the
Relief of Destitute Colored
Women and Children, the
efforts of, 307
National Baptist Convention,
201; the fight of, against
white Baptists, 257-264
National Freedmen's Relief As¬
sociation, the work of, 207
Neal, Rev. Mr., the labors of,
in Dover, 12
Neau, Elias, the work of, among
Negroes in New York, 12-14
Negro Baptists, connection of,
with white Baptists, 201
Negro Church, the, socialized,
266-285; a place for recrea¬
tion, 267-268; educational
institution, 268-273; a wel¬
fare agency, 273-277; leader¬
ship in, 280-281; the criti¬
cism of, 302-303; its present
situation, 300-313
Negro ministers, restrictions
upon, 131; the authority of,
278-279; unique position of,
281-282; still numerous, 304-
305; in conflict with south¬
ern white ministers, 305-306;
a redeeming force, 301
Negro schools established after
the Civil War, 203-219
Negroes, the religious point of
view of, 146-147
New England Missionary Con¬
vention, the, 200
New England, missionary work
of, among Negroes, 15-17;
Negro churches in, 121
New Haven, Connecticut, Ne¬
gro Congregational Church
in, 99
New Jersey, the conversion of
Negroes in, 12
New York, the instruction of
Negroes in, 12-15
New York City, the Abyssin¬
ian Baptist Church in,
organized, 88-89
Newman, Rev. Mr., preaching
of, to Negroes in North
Carolina, 9-10
Norman, M. W. D., a preacher
of power, 282
North, Negro Baptists in, 120,
122
North Carolina, the instruc¬
tion of Negroes in, 9-10;
the work of the Quakers in,
18; Negro Baptists of, organ¬
ized the first State Conven¬
tion, 199-200
Northern philanthropy, change
in, 263-264
Northwestern Baptist Conven¬
tion, 200
Northwestern Freedmen's Aid
Commission, the work of, 207
Ohio, Negro Baptists in, 122
Olivet Baptist Church, the suc¬
cess of, 278-279
Olmsted, F. L., comment of,
on religious instruction, 149-
151; interest of, in the freed-
men, 212
O'Neal, J. B., ideas of, as to
Negro uplift, 164
Opinions, differences of, a dif¬
ficulty, 19-20
Osborne, Justice Henry, favor¬
able to Andrew Bryan, 49
Paine, Bishop Robert, interest
of, in Colored Methodists,
195-196
Paine College, the establish¬
ment of, 205
Palmer, founder of the Church
at Silver Bluff, 41-42
326
Index
Pamphlet, Gowart, a preacher of
the Negro race in Virginia,
53
Panama, de Luna Victoria, a
bishop in, 4
Parsippany, Presbyterian
School at, 152
Patterson, Robert, an elder in
Kentucky, 38
Paul, Thomas, a pioneer Ne¬
gro Baptist preacher in New
England, 88-91; work of, in
Boston, 88; efforts of, in
New York, 89-90; mission¬
ary efforts of, 90-91
Payne, Bishop Daniel A., early
work of, 171-172
Payne, C. H., religious work of,
230; in politics, 230-231
Penn, William, interest of, in
Negroes, 18
Pennington, J. W. C., the
achievements of, 178-179
Pennsylvania Freedmen's Re¬
lief Association, the efforts
of, 207
Pennsylvania, the missionary
movement in, 11-12
Perkins, R. J., a pioneer preach¬
er of West Virginia, 240
Perry, Rufus L., religious and
educational work of, 242-244
Peru, a Negro bishop in, 4
Peter, Jesse, the work of, in
reviving the Silver Bluff
Church, 42
Petersburgh, Virginia, Baptist
Church in, 53, 85
Philadelphia, the Negro Bap¬
tist Church of, established,
86; proslavery element in,
86-87
Philanthropy, northern, change
in, 263-264
Phillips, C. H., a bishop of the
C. M. E. Church, 240
Phillips, Doc., a pioneer Ne¬
gro preacher, 137
Pierce, Edward Linterest of,
in the freedmen, 212
Pioneer Negro preachers, 40-70
Poindexter, James, a pioneer
Negro Baptist preacher in
Ohio, 122; religious efforts
of, 223; in politics, 223-224
Politics, the call of, 220-246
Polk, Bishop, attitude of,
toward the instruction of his
slaves, 149-151
Pontier, Samuel, a pioneer in
the A. M. E. Zion Church,
78
Porteus, Bishop, interest of, in
the salvation of Negroes, 7
Portsmouth, Virginia, Negro
Baptist church in, 54-55, 111
Powell, A. C., a preacher with
a following, 282
Preachers, Negro, pioneer work
of, 40-70; educational work
of, 168-169; as spokesmen of
the Negroes, 169; interested
in colonization, 170; in the
underground railroad, 170,
171; in the press, 171
Preachers, Negro Pioneer, 40-
70
Preachers of versatile genius,
167-184
Presbyterians, interest of, in
Negroes, 97-98; failure to
win Negroes, 98; position on
slavery and the Negro, 36-
39; position of in 1782, 36-
37; pacifist letter of, 38-39;
the attitude of, on slavery,
124-127, 128, 130; interest
of, in the instruction of Ne¬
groes, 152-158; schools of,
203, 204, 205; educational
work of, 210; attract Ne¬
groes, 256
Price, J. C., the record of, 206;
the education of, 217
Primitive Baptist Church, Ne¬
groes separate therefrom,
192
Princeton, John Chavis at, 68
Proctor, H. H., church insti¬
tutional work of, 276
Progressive Baptists, the sepa-
Index
327
ration of, from whites, 259-
264
Progressive ideas in the Ne¬
gro church, 247-265
Protestant Episcopal Freed-
men's Commission, aid of, to
Negroes, 211
Protracted meetings among
Baptists, 143-144
Providence Baptist Association,
organization of, 122
Pugh, the work of, among Ne¬
groes, 12
Quakers, the efforts of, among
Negroes, 17-19
Quinn, W. P., a successful mis¬
sionary, 101; elected bishop,
101
Race prejudice in the church,
305-309
Ranford, of Chowan, a preacher
to Negroes, 9
Ransom, R. C., head of the In¬
stitutional Church, Chicago,
276; an editor, 297
Ray, Charles B., the work of,
173-174
Recent growth of the Negro
church, 286-299
Recent statistics of the Ne¬
gro church, 286-299
Reddick, M. W., a preacher of
influence, 282
Relation of the individual to
the church, differing ideas as
to, 251-252
Relations of whites and blacks
in churches, 132-134
Religion, differing ideas of, 250-
251
Religious education as a prep¬
aration, 202-219
Religious instruction revived,
148-166
Revells, Hiram R., sketch of,
183-184
Rice, an elder in Kentucky,
interested in the Negro, 38
Richard, a slave preacher, the
escape of, 72
Riddle, J. M., a minister in
California, 278
Riot of Negroes in New York
in 1812, 14
Rippon, Dr., testimony of, as
to Andrew Bryan, 51
Roberts, Isaac, a preacher in
Savannah, 117
Roberts, John W., a Negro
made bishop to Africa by the
Methodists, 189
Roberts, R., the missionary
work of, 100
Rockefeller, John D., interested
in the preaching of Charles
T. Walker, 245
Roger Williams University, the
establishment of, 203
Rogers, E. P., a preacher be¬
fore the Civil War, 179;
poem of, on the Missouri
Compromise, 179
Rose, David, friend of Lemuel
Haynes, 62
Ross, the work of, in Pennsyl¬
vania, 11
Rush, Christopher, a pioneer
in A. M. E. Zion Church,
85; election of, as bishop,
102; the success of, 102-103
Ryland, Robert, pastor of Ne¬
gro church in Richmond, 111-
112; work of, among Ne¬
groes, in Richmond, 135; pro¬
moter of religious instruc¬
tion among Negroes, 161-
163; comment on, 162-163
Samuels, an early C. M. E.
worker, 196
Sandiford, Ralph, interest of,
in Negroes, 18
Sandoval, Alfonso, protest of,
in behalf of Negroes, 3
Savannah, resolutions of the
Baptist Association of, on
Andrew Bryan, 53; the Bap¬
tist Church in, 85; the
churches of, 115-117
328
Index
Sayre, J., the work of, among
Negroes in New York, 15
Schism among white Metho¬
dists, effect of, on Negro
Methodists, 83-84-85; in the
Methodist Church, 123-124,
127-128, 130; in all churches,
123-147; in the Negro Bap¬
tist Church, 297-298
Schismatic movement in Ne¬
gro church, 247-265; results
from, 257-258
Scott, Daniel, a preacher in
Philadelphia, 121
Scott, June, a pioneer Metho¬
dist preacher, 78; schismatic
efforts of, 79-80
Seeker, Bishop, sermon on con¬
version of Negroes, 7
Sewell, Jonathan, interest of,
in slaves, 16
Shaw, Francis F., interest of,
in the freedmen, 212
Shaw University, the estab¬
lishment of, 203
Simmons, William J., reli¬
gious efforts of, 223; in poli¬
tics, 223
Simpson, Hagar, a member of
the Baptist Church in Savan¬
nah, 45
Simpson, Smart, a co-worker of
Morris Brown, 76
Slaves indoctrinated, 3
Smith, Bishop C. S., educa¬
tional efforts of, 297
Smith, George, an Emancipat¬
ing Baptist, 35
Socializing the Negro church,
266-285
Society for the Propagation of
the Gospel in Foreign Parts,
organized, 6; the work of,
6-22
South Carolina, Negroes in,
instructed, 7; a Negro school
in, 8; Negro Baptists in,
112; Methodists in, inter¬
ested in Negro uplift, 158-
159
Southern Baptist Convention,
200
Sovereigns of Europe, change of
attitude of, toward Negro, 2
Spain, decrees of, as to indoc¬
trinating slaves, 3
Spanish sovereigns, missionary
spirit of, 1
Spencer, Peter, a pioneer Ne¬
gro preacher, 76
Spywood, election of, as bishop,
104-105
St. George Methodist Episco¬
pal Church, in Philadelphia,
trouble in, 73
St. James, an Episcopal Church
established in Baltimore, 96
St. Louis, Negro Baptists in,
120
St. Phillips Church, episcopal,
established in New York, 94-
95
St. Thomas, an episcopal church
established in Philadelphia,
94
Statistics on Negro member¬
ship in mixed churches, 146;
of Freedmen Aid Societies,
206-208; of the Negro church,
286-299
Stevens, David, a preacher of
power, 104
Stewart, John, a pioneer Ne¬
gro preacher in Ohio, 58-61
Stewart, Rev. Mr., a missionary
in North Carolina, 10
Stiles, Ezra, interest in the Ne¬
gro, 36
Storer, Bellamy, interest of, in
the freedmen, 212
Stokes, W. H., a forceful
preacher in Richmond, 241
Stoupe, the work of, in New
York, 15
Straight College, the establish¬
ment of, 204
Stratton, Daniel, a pioneer
preacher of West Virginia,
240
Struggle between the conserva-
Index
329
tive and the progressive in
the Negro church, 247-265
Sturgeon, W., the work of,
among Negroes, 11-12
Taft, William H., interested in
the preaching of Charles T.
Walker, 245
Talented Negroes in conflict
with the conservatives, 247-
265
Talladega College, the estab¬
lishment of, 203-204
Tanner, Bishop B. T., comment
of, 92-93; a power in the A.
M. E. Church, 239
Tanner, C. M., an African
Methodist preacher in Wash¬
ington, 240
Tapsico, Jacob, a co-worker of
Richard Allen, 75
Tarrant, Carter, an Emanci¬
pating Baptist, 35
Taylor, Charles, the work of,
in New York, 15
Taylor, Rev. E., interest of, in
the enlightenment of Ne¬
groes, 7-8
Teague, Collin, a co-worker of
Lott Cary, 139-140
Tennessee, Baptists in, 119;
George Bentley's work in, 137
Terrell, L., pastor of Negro
Baptist Church in Lexing¬
ton, 119
Thiergood, R. T., an early C.
M. E. worker, 196
Thomas, Samuel, a teacher of
Negroes, 7
Thompson, Abraham, a pioneer
in the A. M. E. Zion Church,
78-79; schismatic efforts of,
79-80, 81
Tindley, C. A., a preacher of
power, 244
Toronto, Negro Baptists in,
122; Methodists in, 122
Tougaloo University, the estab¬
lishment of, 204
Transylvania, the Presbytery
of, concerned with the Ne¬
groes, 38
Trujillo, a Negro bishop in, 4
Turner, Bishop H. M., religious
work of, 232; in politics,
232-234
Turner, Nat, the effect of the
insurrection of, 52, 69
•Turpin, London, a co-worker of
Morris Brown, 76
Uncle Jack, a Negro pioneer
preacher, 55-56
Union American Methodist
Episcopal Church organized,
107
Union Church of Africans, or¬
ganized, 107
Union Seminary, the forerun¬
ner of Wilberforce, 205
Unwritten law as to holding
Christians slaves, 4
Usher, J., the work of, among
Negroes, 16
Vanderhorst, R. H., a pioneer
preacher in the C. M. E.
Church, 196; elected bishop,
196
Varick, James, a pioneer in the
A. M. E. Zion Church, 78;
elected bishop, 85; death of,
102
Vaughn, Richard, a preacher in
Philadelphia, 121
Vermont Avenue Baptist
Church, 282
Vesey, a supporter of Negro
missions, 13
Vesey, Denmark, the effect of
the insurrection of, 78
Vices, so-called, 253
Victoria, Francisco Xavier de
Luna, a churchman of Ne¬
gro blood, 4
Virginia, Quakers in, 17-18;
Emancipating Baptists in, 32-
34; Negro Baptists in, 53-54:
reactionary laws of, 131
Virginia Theological Seminary
330
Index
and College, the establish¬
ment of, 206
Waldron, J. M., church insti¬
tutional work of, 276; in
politics, 312
Walker, C. T., a preacher of
power, 245-246
Walker, William, opposition of,
to work of John Stewart, 60
Walters, Bishop A., church
work of, 311-312; in politics,
312
Ward, Samuel R., record of,
182-183; Frederick Douglass'
opinion of, 183
Watcoat, Richard, recognition
of Richard Allen by, 73
Waters, Edward, ordained as¬
sistant bishop, 101
Webster, Thomas, a co-worker
of Richard Allen, 75
Wells, Richard, a useful min¬
ister in Richmond, 240
West Indies, missionaries to
Negroes in, 4
Western Colored "Baptist Con¬
vention, organization of, 122
Western Freedmen's Aid Com¬
mission, the work of, 207
Western University, the estab¬
lishment of, 205
Wesley, John, the position of,
26
White, J. T., in politics, 225;
religious efforts of, 225
White, Sampson, a pioneer
preacher in the Baptist
Church, 110-111; preaching
of, in New York, 121; pas¬
tor of the Gillfield Baptist
Church, 136
White, W. J., a successful min¬
ister, 240
White, William, a co-worker
of Richard Allen, 74-75
White man's standard, an in¬
fluence, 252-253
Whitefield, George, the posi¬
tion of, on the Negro, 26
Whitmore, the work of, in
New York, 14
Whittier, John G., interest of,
in the freedmen, 212
Wilberforce University, the es¬
tablishment of, 205
Williams, John A., a pioneer
preacher in the A. M. E.
Zion Church, 104; a noted
revivalist, 104
Williams, L. K., popular pas¬
tor in Chicago, 278; social
work of, 278-279
Williams, Peter, a pioneer in
the A. M. E. Zion Church,
78; rector of St. Phillips in
New York, 94-95; his lack of
force, 95
Williams, Richard, a supporter
of Richard Allen, 75
Williams, R. S., a bishop of
the C. M. E. Church, 240
Williamsburg, Virginia, the
Baptist Church in, 1785, 53
Williamson, Edward, a sup¬
porter of Richard Allen, 76
Willis, J. E., a preacher of
power, 282
Willis, Joseph, a pioneer
preacher in the South, 86
Wood River Baptist Associa¬
tion, organization of, 122
Woods, R. C., progress of the
Virginia Theological Semi¬
nary under, 264
Woolman, John, efforts of, for
enlightenment of Negroes, 18
Worlds, J. J., a pioneer preach¬
er of North Carolina, 240
Worship, mode of, questioned,
254-255
Wortham, Dr. James F., a stu¬
dent under John Chavis, 70
Wright, R. R., editor and pub¬
lisher, 297
Yates, a worker in Pennsyl¬
vania, 11
Young Negroes in conflict with
the old in the church, 247-
249