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The Negro Church. Report of a Social Study Made under the Direction
of Atlanta University; Together with the Proceedings of the Eighth Conference
for the Study of the Negro Problems, held at Atlanta University, May 26th, 1903:
Electronic Edition.

Dubois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963, Ed.

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(title page) The Negro Church: Report of a Social Study made under the Direction of Atlanta University; together with the Proceedings of the Eighth Conference for the Study of the Negro Problems, held at Atlanta University, May 26, 1903
Edited by W. E. Burghardt Du Bois
viii, 212 p.
Atlanta, Ga.
The Atlanta University Press
1903
Call number 277.3 D852n (Queens College, Charlotte, N. C.)

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Library of Congress Subject Headings, 21st edition, 1998

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NO student of the race problem, no person who would either think or speak upon it intelligently, can afford to be ignorant of the facts brought out in the Atlanta series of sociological studies of the conditions and the progress of the Negro.

The OUTLOOK, March 7, 1903.

THE NEGRO CHURCH

Report of a Social Study made under the direction of Atlanta
University;together with the Proceedings of the Eighth
Conference for the Study of the Negro Problems,
held at Atlanta University, May 26th, 1903

EDITED BY

W. E. BURGHARDT DUBOIS
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY OF THE CONFERENCE

The Atlanta University Press
Atlanta, Ga.
1903

Page ii

        THE Negro Church is the only social institution of the Negroes which started in the African forest and survived slavery; under the leadership of priest or medicine man, afterward of the Christian pastor, the Church preserved in itself the remnants of African tribal life and became after emancipation the center of Negro social life. So that today the Negro population of the United States is virtually divided into church congregations which are the real units of race life.

        Report of the Third Atlanta Conference, 1898.

Page iii

CONTENTS

Page iv

Page v

PREFACE

        A study of human life to-day involves a consideration of conditions of physical life, a study of various social organizations, beginning with the home, and investigations into occupations, education, religion and morality, crime and political activity. The Atlanta Cycle of studies into the Negro problem aims at exhaustive and periodic studies of all these subjects so far as they relate to the American Negro. Thus far, in the first eight years of the ten-year cycle, we have studied physical conditions of life (Reports No. 1 and No. 2), social organization (Reports No. 2 and No. 3), economic activity (Reports No. 4 and No. 7), and Education (Reports No. 5 and No. 6). This year we take up the important subject of the NEGRO CHURCH, studying the religion of Negroes and its influence on their moral habits.

        Such a study could not be made exhaustive for lack of funds and organization. On the other hand, the United States government and the churches themselves have published a great deal of material and it is possible from this and limited investigations in various typical localities to make a study of some value.

        This investigation bases its results on the following data:

        In the preparation of this report the editor begs to acknowledge his indebtedness to the several hundred persons who have so kindly answered his inquiries; to students in Atlanta University and Virginia Union University, who have made special investigations; and particularly to Professor B. F. Williams, Mr. M. N. Work, Mr. R. R. Wright, Jr.,

Page vi

and Mr. W. H. Holloway, all of whom have given valuable time and services to this work. The Rev. F. J. Grimke has kindly allowed the use of his unpublished report, made to the Hampton Conference in 1901; Mr. J. W. Cromwell has loaned us the results of his historical researches, and Dr. A. M. MacLean has given us the results of a valuable local study. The proof-reading was largely done by Mr. A. G. Dill.

        Atlanta University has been conducting studies similar to this for the past seven years. The results, distributed at a nominal sum, have been widely used.

        Notwithstanding this success the further prosecution of these important studies is greatly hampered by the lack of funds. With meagre appropriations for expenses, lack of clerical help and necessary apparatus, the Conference cannot cope properly with the vast field of work before it.

        We appeal therefore to those who think it worth while to study this, the greatest group of social problems that has ever faced the Nation, for substantial aid and encouragement in the further prosecution of the work of the Atlanta Conference.

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY OF NEGRO CHURCHES

        A brief statement of the rise and progress of the testimony of the religious society of Friends against slavery and the slave-trade. Philadelphia: Joseph and William Kite. 1843.

        Ernest H. Abbott. Religious life in America. A record of personal observation. New York: The Outlook, 1902 XII, 730 pp. 80.

        Nehemiah Adams. A South side view of slavery. 80. Boston, 1854.

        Richard Allen, first bishop of the A. M. E. Church. The life, experience and gospel labors of the Rt. Rev. Richard Allen. Written by himself. Philadelphia, 1833.

        Richard Allen and Jacob Tapisco. The doctrine and discipline of the A. M. E. Church. Philadelphia, 1819.

        Matthew Anderson. Presbyterianism and its relation to the Negro. Philadelphia, 1897.

        A statistical inquiry into the condition of the people of color of the city and districts of Philadelphia. Philadelphia, 1849, 1856 and 1859.

        Samuel J. Baird. A collection of the acts, deliverances and testimonies of the Supreme Judiciary of the Presbyterian Church, from its origin in America to the present time, with notes and documents explanatory and historical, constituting a complete illustration of her polity, faith and history. Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publications.

        J. C. Ballagh. A history of slavery in Virginia. John Hopkins University Studies. Extra vol., No. 24. Baltimore, 1902.

Page vii

        Albert Barnes. Inquiry into the scriptural views of slavery. Philadelphia, 1857.

        John S. Bassett. History of slavery in North Carolina. Johns Hopkins University studies. Baltimore, 1899.

        Slavery and servitude in the colony of North Carolina. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, April and May, 1896.

        David Benedict. A general history of the Baptist denomination in America and other parts of the world. Boston, 1813.

        Edward W. Blyden. Christianity, Islam and the Negro race. With an introduction by the Hon. Samuel Lewis. 2d edition. London: W. B. Whittingham & Co. 432 pp. 80.

        George Bourne. Man-stealing and Slavery denounced by the Presbyterian and Methodist Churches. Boston: Garrison and Knapp.

        Jeffrey R. Brackett. Notes on the progress of the colored people of Maryland since the war. A supplement to the Negro in Maryland, a study of the institution of slavery. Baltimore: J. Hopkins Univ., 1890. 96 pp. 80.

        The Negro in Maryland. A study of the institution of slavery. Baltimore: N. Murray. (6) 268 pp. 80. (Johns Hopkins University studies in historical and political science.) Extra vol. 6.

        William Burling. An address to the elders of the church upon the occasion of some Friends compelling certain persons and their posterity to serve them continually and arbitrarily, without regard to equity or right, not heeding whether they give them anything near so much as their labor deserveth. 1718. In Lay, All Slave Keepers Apostates. pp. 6-10.

        Rev. Dr. R. F. Campbell. The race problem in the South. Pamphlet, 1899.

        W. E. Burghardt DuBois. 1900. The religion of the American Negro. New World, vol. 9 (Dec. 1900) 614-625.

        The Philadelphia Negro. A Social Study. Philadelphia, 1899: Ginn & Co.

        The Negroes of Farmville, Va. 38 pp. Bulletin U.S. Department of Labor, Jan. 1898.

        Some efforts of American Negroes for their own social betterment. Report of an investigation under the direction of Atlanta University, together with the proceedings of the third Conference for the study of the Negro problems, held at Atlanta University, May 25-26, 1898. Atlanta, Ga. (Atlanta University, 1898. 66 pp.)

        The Souls of Black Folk. Chicago, 1903.

        William Douglass. Sermons preached in the African Protestant Episcopal Church of St. Thomas. Philadelphia, 1854.

        Annals of St. Thomas's Church. Philadelphia, 1862.

        Bryan Edwards. History, civil and commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies. London, 1807.

        Friends. A brief testimony of the progress of the Friends against slavery and the slave-trade. 1671-1787. Philadelphia, 1843.

        William Goodell. The American slave code in theory and practice. Judiciary decisions and illustrative facts. New York, 1452.

        H. Gregoire. Enquiry concerning the intellectual and moral faculties, etc., of Negroes. Brooklyn, 1810.

        L. M. Hagood. The Colored Man in the Methodist Episcopal Church. Cincinnati.

        Bishop J. W. Hood. One Hundred Years of the A. M. E. Zion Church.

        Edward Ingle. The Negro in the District of Columbia. Johns Hopkins University studies. Vol. XI. Baltimore, 1893.

        Samuel M. Janney. History of the religious society of Friends. Philadelphia, 1859-1867.

        Chas. C. Jones. The religious instruction of the Negroes in the United States. Savannah, 1842.

        Absalom Jones. A Thanksgiving sermon on account of the abolition of the African slave-trade. Philadelphia, 1808.

Page viii

        Robert Jones. Fifty years in the Lombard Street Central Presbyterian Church. Philadelphia, 1894. 170 pp.

        Fanny Kemble. A journal of a residence on a Georgia plantation. New York, 1863.

        Walter Laidlow, editor. The Federation of Churches and Christian Workers in New York City. New York, 1896-1897.

        Lucius C. Matlack. The history of American slavery and Methodism from 1789-1849. New York, 1849.

        Holland McTyeire. A history of Methodism, comprising a view of the rise of this revival of spiritual religion in the first half of the eighteenth century. Nashville, Tenn.: Southern Methodist Publishing House, 1887.

        Minutes, Annual Conferences, A. M. E. Church.

        Minutes, Annual Conferences, C. M. E. Church.

        Minutes, Annual Conferences, M. E. Church.

        Minutes, Annual Conferences, A. M. E. Z. Church.

        Minutes, General Conferences, A. M. E. Church.

        Minutes, General Conferences, C. M. E. Church.

        Minutes, General Conferences, M. E. Church.

        Minutes, General Conferences, A. M. E. Z. Church.

        Minutes, National Baptist Convention.

        Edward Needles. Ten years' progress or a comparison of the state and condition of the colored people in the city and county of Philadelphia from 1837-1847. Philadelphia, 1849.

        Daniel A. Payne. History of the A. M. E. Church. Nashville, 1891.

        I. Garland Penn and J. W. E. Bowen. The United Negro; his problems and his progress. Containing the addresses and proceedings of the Negro Young People's Christian and Educational Congress, held August 6-11, 1902. Atlanta, Ga.: D. E. Luther Publishing Co., 1902, XXX, 600 pp. Plates, portraits. 12o.

        Reports, Freedmen's Aid Society, Presbyterian Church.

        Robert R. Semple. History of the rise and progress of Baptists in Virginia. Richmond, 1810.

        William J. Simmons. Men of Mark, Eminent, Progressive and Rising. Cleveland, Ohio.

        Slavery as it is; the testimony of a thousand witnesses. Publication of Anti-Slavery Society. New York, 1839.

        George Smith. History of Wesleyan Methodism. London, 1862.

        David Spencer. Early Baptists of Philadelphia. Philadelphia, 1877.

        William B. Sprague. Annals of the American Pulpit. New York, 1858.

        Benjamin T. Tanner. An outline of history and government for A. M. E. Churchman. Philadelphia, 1884.

        An apology for African Methodism. Baltimore, 1867.

        H. M. Turner. Methodist Polity. Philadelphia.

        United States Census, 1890. Churches.

        A. W. Wayman. My Recollections of A. M. E. Ministers. Philadelphia, 1883.

        S. D. Weld. American Slavery as it is: testimony of thousands of witnesses. New York, 1839.

        Stephen B. Weeks. Anti-slavery sentiment in the South. Washington, D. C., 1898. Southern Quakers and Slavery. Baltimore, 1896.

        George W. Williams. History of the Negro race in America. New York, 1883.

        White. The African Preacher.

Page 1

THE NEGRO CHURCH

1. Primitive Negro Religion.

        The prominent characteristic of primitive Negro religion is Nature worship with the accompanying strong belief in sorcery. There is a theistic tendency: "Almost all tribes believe in some supreme god without always worshiping him, generally a heaven and rain god; sometimes, as among the Cameroons and in Dahomey, a sun-god. But the most widely-spread worship among Negroes and Negroids, from west to northeast and south to Loango, is that of the moon, combined with a great veneration of the cow."*

        * Professor C. P. Thiele, in Encyclopedia Britannica, 9th ed., XX, p. 362.


The slave trade so mingled and demoralized the west coast of Africa for four hundred years that it is difficult to-day to find there definite remains of any great religious system. Ellis tells us of the spirit belief of the Ewne people; they believe that men and all Nature have the indwelling "Kra," which is immortal. That the man himself after death may exist as a ghost, which is often conceived of as departed from the "Kra," a shadowy continuing of the man. So Bryce, speaking of the Kaffirs of South Africa, a branch of the great Bantu tribe, says:

        "To the Kaffirs, as to the most savage races, the world was full of spirits--spirits of the rivers, the mountains, and the woods. Most important were the ghosts of the dead, who had power to injure or help the living, and who were, therefore, propitiated by offerings at stated periods, as well as on occasions when their aid was especially desired. This kind of worship, the worship once most generally diffused throughout the world, and which held its ground among the Greeks and Italians in the most flourishing period of ancient civilization, as it does in China and Japan to-day, was, and is, virtually the religion of the Kaffirs."


        The supreme being of the Bantus is the dimly conceived Molimo, the Unseen, who typifies vaguely the unknown powers of nature or of the sky. Among some tribes the worship of such higher spirits has banished fetichism and belief in witchcraft, but among most of the African tribes the sudden and violent changes in government and social organization have tended to overthrow the larger religious conceptions and leave fetichism and witchcraft supreme. This is particularly true on the west coast among the spawn of the slave traders.

        There can be no reasonable doubt, however, but that the scattered remains of religious systems in Africa to-day among the Negro tribes

Page 2

are survivals of the religious ideas upon which the Egyptian religion was based, and that the basis of the religion of Egypt was "of a purely Negritian character."*

        * Encyclopedia Britannica, 9th ed., XX, p. 362.


        The early Christian church had an Exarchate of fifty-two dioceses in Northern Africa, but it probably seldom came in contact with purely Negro tribes on account of the Sahara. The hundred dioceses of the patriarchate of Alexandria, on the other hand, embraced Libya, Pentapolis, Egypt, and Abyssinia, and had a large number of Negroid members. In Western Africa, after the voyage of Da Gama, there were several kingdoms of Negroes nominally Catholic, and the church claimed several hundred thousand communicants. These were on the slave coast and on the eastern coast.

        Mohammedanism entered Africa in the seventh and eighth centuries and has since that time conquered nearly all Northern Africa, the Soudan, and made inroads into the populations of the west coast. "The introduction of Islam into Central and West Africa has been the most important if not the sole preservation against the desolations of the slave-trade,"*

        * Blyden, Meth. Quar. Review,Jan. 1871. See also his Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race.


and especially is it preserving the natives against the desolations of Christian rum.

2. Effect of Transplanting.

        It ought not to be forgotten that each Negro slave brought to America during the four centuries of the African slave trade was taken from definite and long-formed habits of social, political, and religious life. These ideas were not the highest, measured by modern standards, but they were far from the lowest, measured by the standards of primitive man. The unit of African tribal organization was the clan or family of families ruled by the patriarch or his strongest successor; these clans were united into tribes ruled by hereditary or elected chiefs, and some tribes were more or less loosely federated into kingdoms. The families were polygamous, communistic groups, with one father and as many mothers as his wealth and station permitted; the family lived together in a cluster of homes, or sometimes a whole clan or village in a long, low apartment house. In such clans the idea of private property was but imperfectly developed, and never included land. The main mass of visible wealth belonged to the family and clan rather than to the individual; only in the matter of weapons and ornaments was exclusive private ownership generally recognized.

        The government, vested in fathers and chiefs, varied in different tribes from absolute despotisms to limited monarchies, almost republican. Viewing the Basuto National Assembly in South Africa, Mr. Bryce recently wrote:

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        "The resemblance to the primary assemblies of the early peoples of Europe is close enough to add another to the arguments which discredit the theory that there is any such thing as an 'Aryan Type' of institutions."*

        * Impressions of S. Africa, 3rd ed., p. 352.



        In administering justice and protecting women these governments were as effective as most primitive organizations.

        The power of religion was represented by the priest or medicine man. Aided by an unfaltering faith, natural sharpness and some rude knowledge of medicine, and supported by the vague sanctions of a half-seen world peopled by spirits, good and evil, the African priest wielded a power second only to that of the chief, and often superior to it. In some tribes the African priesthood was organized and something like systematic religious institutions emerged. But the central fact of African life, political, social and religious, is its failure to integrate--to unite and systematize itself in some conquering whole which should dominate the wayward parts. This is the central problem of civilization, and while there have arisen from time to time in Africa conquering kingdoms, and some consolidation of power in religion, it has been continually overthrown before it was strong enough to maintain itself independently. What have been the causes of this? They have been threefold: the physical peculiarities of Africa, the character of external conquest, and the slave-trade--the "heart disease of Africa." The physical peculiarities of the land shut out largely the influence of foreign civilization and religion and made human organization a difficult fight for survival against heat and disease; foreign conquest took the form of sudden incursions, causing vast migrations and uprooting of institutions and beliefs, or of colonizations of strong, hostile and alien races, and finally for four centuries the slave-trade fed on Africa, and peaceful evolution in political organization or religious belief was impossible.

        Especially did the slave-trade ruin religious evolution on the west coast; the ancient kingdoms were overthrown and changed, tribes and nations mixed and demoralized, and a perfect chaos of ideas left. Here it was that animal worship, fetichism and belief in sorcery and witchcraft strengthened their sway and gained wider currency than ever.

        The first social innovation that followed the transplanting of the Negro was the substitution of the West Indian plantation for the tribal and clan life of Africa. The real significance of this change will not appear at first glance. The despotic political power of the chief was now vested in the white master; the clan had lost its ties of blood relationship and became simply the aggregation of individuals on a plot of ground, with common rules and customs, common dwellings, and a certain communism in property. The two greatest changes, however, were, first, the enforcement of severe and unremitted toil, and, second,

Page 4

the establishment of a new polygamy--a new family life. These social innovations were introduced with much difficulty and met determined resistance on the part of the slaves, especially when there was community of blood and language. Gradually, however, superior force and organized methods prevailed, and the plantation became the unit of a new development. The enforcement of continual toil was not the most revolutionary change which the plantation introduced. Where this enforced labor did not descend to barbarism and slow murder, it was not bad discipline; the African had the natural indolence of a tropical nature which had never felt the necessity of work; his first great awakening came with hard labor, and a pity it was, not that he worked, but that voluntary labor on his part was not from the first encouraged and rewarded. The vast and overshadowing change that the plantation system introduced was the change in the status of women--the new polygamy. This new polygamy had all the evils and not one of the safeguards of the African prototype. The African system was a complete protection for girls, and a strong protection for wives against everything but the tyranny of the husband; the plantation polygamy left the chastity of Negro women absolutely unprotected in law, and practically little guarded in custom. The number of wives of a native African was limited and limited very effectually by the number of cattle he could command or his prowess in war. The number of wives of a West India slave was limited chiefly by his lust and cunning. The black females, were they wives or growing girls, were the legitimate prey of the men, and on this system there was one, and only one, safeguard, the character of the master of the plantation. Where the master was himself lewd and avaricious the degradation of the women was complete. Where, on the other hand, the plantation system reached its best development, as in Virginia, there was a fair approximation of a monogamic marriage system among the slaves; and yet even here, on the best conducted plantations, the protection of Negro women was but imperfect; the seduction of girls was frequent, and seldom did an illegitimate child bring shame, or an adulterous wife punishment to the Negro quarters.

        And this was inevitable, because on the plantation the private home, as a self-protective, independent unit, did not exist. That powerful institution, the polygamous African home, was almost completely destroyed and in its place in America arose sexual promiscuity, a weak community life, with common dwelling, meals and child-nurseries. The internal slave trade tended to further weaken natural ties. A small number of favored house servants and artisans were raised above this--had their private homes, came in contact with the culture of the master class, and assimilated much of American civilization. Nevertheless, broadly speaking, the greatest social effect of American slavery was to substitute for the polygamous Negro home a new polygamy less guarded, less effective, and less civilized.

Page 5

        At first sight it would seem that slavery completely destroyed every vestige of spontaneous social movement among the Negroes; the home had deteriorated; political authority and economic initiative was in the hands of the masters, property, as a social institution, did not exist on the plantation, and, indeed, it is usually assumed by historians and sociologists that every vestige of internal development disappeared, leaving the slaves no means of expression for their common life, thought, and striving. This is not strictly true; the vast power of the priest in the African state has already been noted; his realm alone--the province of religion and medicine--remained largely unaffected by the plantation system in many important particulars. The Negro priest, therefore, early became an important figure on the plantation and found his function as the interpreter of the supernatural, the comforter of the sorrowing, and as the one who expressed, rudely, but picturesquely, the longing and disappointment and resentment of a stolen people. From such beginnings arose and spread with marvellous rapidity the Negro Church, the first distinctively Negro American social institution. It was not at first by any means a Christian Church, but a mere adaptation of those heathen rites which we roughly designate by the term Obe Worship, or "Voodoism." Association and missionary effort soon gave these rites a veneer of Christianity, and gradually, after two centuries, the Church became Christian, with a simple Calvinistic creed, but with many of the old customs still clinging to the services. It is this historic fact that the Negro Church of to-day bases itself upon the sole surviving social institution of the African fatherland, that accounts for its extraordinary growth and vitality. We easily forget that in the United States to-day there is a Church organization for every sixty Negro families. This institution, therefore, naturally assumed many functions which the other harshly suppressed social organs had to surrender; the Church became the center of amusements, of what little spontaneous economic activity remained, of education, and of all social intercourse.

3. The Obeah Sorcery.

        Let us now trace this development historically. The slaves arrived with a strong tendency to Nature worship and a belief in witchcraft common to all. Beside this some had more or less vague ideas of a supreme being and higher religious ideas, while a few were Mohammedans, and fewer Christians. Some actual priests were transported and others assumed the functions of priests, and soon a degraded form of African religion and witchcraft appeared in the West Indies, which was known as Obi,*

        * Obi (Obeah, Obiah or Obia), is the adjective: Obe or Obi, the noun. It is of African origin, probably connected with Egyptian Ob, Aub, or Obron, meaning serpent. Moses forbids Israelites ever to consult the demon Ob, i. e., "Charmer, Wizard." The Witch of Endor is called Oub or Ob. Onbaous is the name of the Baselisk or Royal Serpent, emblem of the Sun, and, according to Horus Appollo, "ancient oracular Deity of Africa."--Edwards, West Indies, II, pp. 106-119.


or sorcery. The French Creoles
Page 6

called it "Waldensian" (Vaudois), because of the witchcraft charged against the wretched followers of Peter Waldo, whence comes the dialect name of Voodoo or Hoodoo, used in the United States. Edwards gives as sensible an account of this often exaggerated form of witchcraft and medicine as one can get:

        "As far as we are able to decide from our own experience and information when we lived in the island, and from the current testimony of all the Negroes we have ever conversed with on the subject, the professors of Obi are, and always were, natives of Africa, and none other; and they have brought the science with them from thence to Jamaica, where it is so universally practiced, that we believe there are few of the large estates possessing native Africans, which have not one or more of them. The oldest and most crafty are those who usually attract the greatest devotion and confidence; those whose hoary heads, and a somewhat peculiarly harsh and forbidding aspect, together with some skill in plants of the medical and poisonous species, have qualified them for successful imposition upon the weak and credulous. The Negroes in general, whether Africans or Creoles, revere, consult, and fear them. To these oracles they resort, and with the most implicit faith, upon all occasions, whether for the cure of disorders, the obtaining revenge for injuries or insults, the conciliating of favor, the discovery and punishment of the thief or adulterer, and the prediction of future events. The trade which these imposters carry on is extremely lucrative; they manufacture and sell their Obeis adapted to the different cases and at different prices. A veil of mystery is studiously thrown over their incantations, to which the midnight hours are allotted, and every precaution is taken to conceal them from the knowledge and discovery of the White people."*

        * Edwards: West Indies, II, 108-109.



        At first the system was undoubtedly African and part of some more or less general religious system. It finally degenerated into mere imposture. There would seem to have been some traces of blood sacrifice and worship of the Moon, but unfortunately those who have written on the subject have not been serious students of a curious human phenomenon, but rather persons apparently unable to understand why a transplanted slave should cling to heathen rites.

4. Slavery and Christianity.

        The most obvious reason for the spread of witchcraft and persistence of heathen rites among Negro slaves was the fact that at first no effort was made by masters to offer them anything better. The reason for this was the widespread idea that it was contrary to law to hold Christians as slaves. One can realize the weight of this if we remember that the Diet of Worms and Sir John Hawkins' voyages were but a generation apart. From the time of the Crusades to the Lutheran revolt the feeling of Christian brotherhood had been growing, and it was pretty well established by the end of the sixteenth century that it was illegal and irreligious for Christians to hold each other as slaves for life. This did not mean any widespread abhorrence of forced labor from serfs or apprentices and it was particularly

Page 7

linked with the idea that the enslavement of the heathen was meritorious, since it punished their blasphemy on the one hand and gave them a chance for conversion on the other.

        When, therefore, the slave-trade from Africa began it met only feeble opposition here and there. That opposition was in nearly all cases stilled when it was continually stated that the slave-trade was simply a method of converting the heathen to Christianity. The corrollary that the conscience of Europe immediately drew was that after conversion the Negro slave was to become in all essential respects like other servants and laborers, that is bound to toil, perhaps, under general regulations, but personally free with recognized rights and duties.

        Most colonists believed that this was not only actually right, but according to English law. And while they early began to combat the idea they continually doubted the legality of their action in English courts. In 1635 we find the authorities of Providence islands condemning Mr. Reshworth's behavior concerning the Negroes who ran away, as indiscreet, "arising, as it seems, from a groundless opinion that Christians may not lawfully keep such persons in a state of servitude during their strangeness from Christianity," and injurious to themselves.*

        *Sainsbury: Calendar of State Papers, 1574-1660, ¶ 262.


        The colonies early began cautiously to declare that certain distinctions lay between "Christian" inhabitants and slaves, whether they were Christians or not. Maryland, for instance, proposed a law, in 1638, which failed of passage. It was:

        "For the liberties of the people" and declared "all Christian inhabitants (slaves only excepted) to have and enjoy all such rights, liberties, immunities, privileges and free customs, within this province, as any natural born subject of England hath or ought to have or enjoy in the realm of England, saving in such cases as the same are or may be altered or changed by the laws and ordinances of this province."*

        *Williams' History of the Negro Race, I, 239.



        The question arose in different form in Massachusetts when it was enacted that only church members could vote. If Negroes joined the church, would they become free voters of the commonwealth? It seemed hardly possible.*

        *IbidI, 190.


Nevertheless, up to 1660 or thereabouts it seemed accepted in most colonies and in the English West Indies that baptism into a Christian church would free a Negro slave. Massachusetts first apparently attacked this idea by enacting in 1641 that slavery should be confined to captives in just wars "and such strangers as willingly sell themselves or are sold to us," meaning by "strangers" apparently heathen, but saying nothing as to the effect of conversion. Connecticut adopted similar legislation in 1650 and Virginia declared
Page 8

in 1661 that Negroes "are incapable of making satisfaction" for time lost in running away by lengthening their time of service, thus implying that they were slaves for life, and Maryland declared flatly in 1663 that Negro slaves should serve "durante vita." In Barbadoes the Council presented, in 1663, an act to the Assembly recommending the christening of Negro children and the instruction of all adult Negroes to the several ministers of the place.

        At the same time in the ready-made Duke of York's laws sent over to the new colony of New York in 1664 the old idea seems to prevail:

        "No Christian shall be kept in bondslavery, villenage, or captivity, except such who shall be judged thereunto by authority, or such as willingly have sold or shall sell themselves, in which case a record of such servitude shall be entered in the Court of Sessions held for that jurisdiction where such masters shall inhabit, provided that nothing in the law contained shall be to the prejudice of master or dame who have or shall by any indenture or covenant take apprentices for term of years, or other servants for term of years or life."*

        * Williams I, 139.



        It was not until 1667 that Virginia finally plucked up courage to attack the issue squarely and declared by law:

        "Baptisme doth not alter the condition of the person as to his bondage or freedom, in order that diverse masters freed from this doubt may more carefully endeavor the propagation of Christianity."*

        * Williams I, 139.



        Following this Virginia took three further decisive steps in 1670, 1682, and 1705. First she declared that only slaves imported from Christian lands should be free. Next she excepted Negroes and mulattoes from even this restriction unless they were born of Christians and were Christians when taken in slavery. Finally only personal Christianity in Africa or actual freedom in a Christian country excepted a Virginia Negro slave from life-long slavery.*

        * Ballagh, pp. 47-52.


        This changing attitude of Christians toward Negroes was reflected in Locke's Fundamental Constitutions for Carolina in 1670, one article of which said:

        "Since charity obliges us to wish well to the souls of all men, and religion ought to alter nothing in any man's civil estate or right, it shall be lawful for slaves as well as others to enter themselves and to be of what church or profession any of them shall think best, and thereof be as fully members as any freeman. But yet no slave shall hereby be exempted from that civil dominion his master hath over him, but be in all things in the same state and condition he was in before."*

        * Bassett: Slavery in Colony of N. C., p. 41.



        So much did this please the Carolinians that it was one of the few articles re-enacted in the Constitution of 1698. In 1671 Maryland was moved to pass "An Act for the Encouraging of the Importation of Negroes and Slaves." This law declared that conversion or the holy

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sacrament of baptism should not be taken to give manumission in any way to slaves or their issue who had become Christians or had been or should be baptized either before or after their importation to Maryland, "any opinion to the contrary notwithstanding."

        It was explained that this law was passed because "several of the good people of this province have been discouraged from importing or purchasing therein any Negroes or other slaves; and such as have imported or purchased any there have neglected--to the great displeasure of Almighty God and the prejudice of the souls of those poor people--to instruct them in the Christian faith, and to permit them to receive the holy sacrament of baptism for the remission of their sin, under the mistaken and ungrounded apprehension that their slaves by becoming Christians would thereby be freed."*

        * Brackett, p. 29.


This law was re-enacted in 1692 and 1715.

        It is clear from these citations that in the seventeenth century not only was there little missionary effort to convert Negro slaves, but that there was on the contrary positive refusal to let slaves be converted, and that this refusal was one incentive to explicit statements of the doctrine of perpetual slavery for Negroes. The French Code Noir of 1685 made baptism and religious instruction of Negroes obligatory. We find no such legislation in English colonies. On the contrary, the principal Secretary of State is informed in 1670 that in Jamaica the number of tippling houses has greatly increased, and many planters are ruined by drink. "So interests decrease, Negroes and slaves increase. There is much cruelty, oppression, rape, whoredoms, and adulteries."*

        * Sainsbury's Calendars, 1669-74, ¶ 138.


        In Massachusetts John Eliot and Cotton Mather both are much concerned that "so little care was taken of their (the Negroes') precious and immortal souls," which were left to "a destroying ignorance merely for fear of thereby losing the benefit of their vassalage."

        So throughout the colonies it is reported in 1678 that masters, "out of covetousness," are refusing to allow their slaves to be baptized; and in 1700 there is an earnest plea in Massachusetts for religious instruction of Negroes since it is "notorious" that masters discourage the "poor creatures" from baptism. In 1709 a Carolina clergyman writes to the secretary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in England that only a few of 200 or more Negroes in his community were taught Christianity, but were not allowed to be baptized. Another minister writes, a little later, that he prevailed upon a master after much importuning to allow three Negroes to be baptized. In North Carolina in 1709 a clergyman of the Established Church complains that masters will not allow their slaves to be baptized for fear that a Christian slave is by law free. A few were instructed in religion, but not baptized. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel combated

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this notion vigorously. Later, in 1732, Bishop Berkeley reports that few Negroes have been received into the church.*

        * Brackett, p. 31. Bassett: Slavery in Colony of N. C., p. 46.


        This state of affairs led to further laws, and the instructions to some of the royal Governors contain a clause ordering them to "find out the best means to facilitate and encourage the conversion of Negroes and Indians to the Christian religion."*

        * Instructions of Lord Cornbury of Va., 702. Williams I, 140.


New York hastened to join the States which sought to reassure masters, declaring in 1706:

        "Whereas, Divers of her Majesty's good subjects, inhabitants of this colony, now are, and have been willing that such Negroes, Indian and Mulatto slaves, who belong to them, and desire the same, should be baptized, but are deterred and hindered therefrom by reason of a groundless opinion that hath spread itself in this colony, that by the baptizing of such Negro, Indian or Mulatto slaves, they would become free, and ought to be set at liberty. In order, therefore, to put an end to all such doubts and scruples as have, or hereafter any time may arise about the same:

        "Be it enacted, etc., That the baptizing of a Negro, Indian, or Mullatto slave shall not be any cause or reason for the setting them, or any of them, at liberty. "And be it, etc., That all and every Negro, Indian, Mullatto and Mestee bastard child and children, who is, are, and shall be born of any Negro, Indian, or Mestee, shall follow the state and condition of the mother and be esteemed, reputed, taken and adjudged a slave and slaves to all intents and purposes whatsoever."*

        * Williams I, p. 141.



        In 1729 an appeal from several colonies was made to England on the subject in order to increase the conversion of blacks. The Crown Attorney and Solicitor General replied that baptism in no way changed the slave's status.§

        § Brackett, p. 30.


5. Early Restrictions.

        "In the year 1624, a few years after the arrival of the first slave ship at Jamestown, Va., a Negro child was baptized and called William, and from that time on in almost all, if not all, the oldest churches in the South, the names of Negroes baptized into the church of God can be found upon the registers."

        ¶ Archdeacon J. H. M. Pollard.


        It was easy to make such cases an argument for more slaves. James Habersham, the Georgia companion of the Methodist Whitefield, said about 1730:

        "I once thought it was unlawful to keep Negro slaves, but I am now induced to think God may have a higher end in permitting them to be brought to this Christian country, than merely to support their masters. Many of the poor slaves in America have already been made freemen of the heavenly Jerusalem and possibly a time may come when many thousands may embrace the gospel, and thereby be brought into the glorious liberty of the children of God. These, and other considerations, appear to plead strongly for a limited use of Negroes; for, while we can buy provisions in Carolina cheaper than we can here, no one will be induced to plant much."


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        In other cases there were curious attempts to blend religion and expediency, as for instance, in 1710, when a Massachusetts clergyman evolved a marriage ceremony for Negroes in which the bride solemnly promised to cleave to her husband "so long as God in his Providence" and the slave-trade let them live together!

        The gradual increase of these Negro Christians, however, brought peculiar problems. Clergymen, despite the law, were reproached for taking Negroes into the church and still allowing them to be held as slaves. On the other hand it was not easy to know how to deal with the black church member after he was admitted. He must either be made a subordinate member of a white church or a member of a Negro church under the general supervision of whites. As the efforts of missionaries, like Dr. Bray, slowly increased the number of converts, both these systems were adopted. But the black congregations here and there soon aroused the suspicion and fear of the masters, and as early as 1715 North Carolina passed an act which declared:

        "That if any master or owner of Negroes or slaves, or any other person or persons whatsoever in the government, shall permit or suffer any Negro or Negroes to build on their, or either of their, lands, or any part thereof, any house under pretense of a meeting-house upon account of worship, or upon any pretense whatsoever, and shall not suppress and hinder them, he, she, or they so offending, shall, for every default, forfeit and pay fifty pounds, one-half toward defraying the contingent charges of the government, the other to him or them that shall sue for the same."*

        * Lapsed in 1741. See Laws of 1715, Ch. 46, Sec. 18; Bassett: Colony, p. 50.



        This made Negro members of white churches a necessity in this colony, and there was the same tendency in other colonies. "Maryland passed a law in 1723 to suppress tumultuous meetings of slaves on Sabbath and other holy days," a measure primarily for good order, but also tending to curb independent religious meetings among Negroes. In 1800 complaints of Negro meetings were heard. Georgia in 1770 forbade slaves "to assemble on pretense of feasting," etc., and "any constable," on direction of a justice, is commanded to disperse any assembly or meeting of slaves "which may disturb the peace or endanger the safety of his Majesty's subjects; and every slave which may be found at such meeting, as aforesaid, shall and may, by order of such justice, immediately be corrected, without trial, by receiving on the bare back twenty-five stripes, with a whip, switch, or cowskin," etc.*

        * Prince's Digest, 447.


In 1792 in a Georgia act "to protect religious societies in the exercise of their religious duties," punishment was provided for persons disturbing white congregations, but "no congregation or company of Negroes shall upon pretense of divine worship assemble themselves" contrary to the act of 1770. Whether or not such acts tended to curb the really religious meetings of the slaves or not it is not easy to know. Probably they did, although at the same time there was probably much disorder and
Page 12

turmoil among slaves, which sought to cloak itself under the name of the church. This was natural, for such assemblies were the only surviving African organizations, and they epitomized all there was in slave life outside of forced toil.

        It gradually became true, as Brackett says, that "any privileges of church-going which slaves might enjoy depended much, as with children, on the disposition of the masters."*

        * Brackett, pp. 108-110.


In some colonies, like North Carolina, masters continued indifferent throughout the larger part of the eighteenth century. In New Hanover county of that state out of a thousand whites and two thousand slaves, 307 masters were baptized in 1742, but only nine slaves. The English are told of continued indifference in Massachusetts, the Connectient General Assembly is asked in 1738 if masters ought not to promise to train slaves as Christians, and instructions are repeatedly given to Governors on the matter, with but small results.*

        * Bassett: Colony, p. 49: Williams I, p. 188.


6. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.*

        * This section is taken largely from Charles Colcock Jones' "The Religious Instruction of the Negroes," Savannah, 1842.


        "The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts" was incorporated under William III, on the 16th day of June, 1701, and the first meeting of the society under its charter was the 27th of June of the same year. Thomas Laud, Bishop of Canterbury, Primate and Metropolitan of all England, was appointed by his majesty the first president.

        This society was formed with the view, primarily, of supplying the destitution of religious institutions and privileges among the inhabitants of the North American colonies, members of the established church of England; and, secondarily, of extending the gospel to the Indians and Negroes. The society entered upon its duties with zeal, being patronized by the king and all the dignitaries of the Church of England.

        They instituted inquiries into the religious condition of all the colonies, responded to "by the governors and persons of the best note," (with special reference to Episcopacy), and they perceived that their work "consisted of three great branches: the care and instruction of our people settled in the colonies; the conversion of the Indian savages, and the conversion of the Negroes." Before appointing missionaries they sent out a traveling preacher, the Rev. George Keith (an itinerant missionary), who associated with himself the Rev. John Talbot. Mr. Keith preached between North Carolina and Piscataqua river in New England, a tract above eight hundred miles in length, and completed his mission in two years, and returned and reported his labors to the society.

        The annual meetings of this society were regularly held from 1702 to 1819 and 118 sermons preached before it by bishops of the Church of

Page 13

England, a large number of them distinguished for piety, learning, and zeal.

        In June, 1702, the Rev. Samuel Thomas, the first missionary, was sent to the colony of South Carolina. The society designed he should attempt the conversion of the Yammosee Indians; but the governor, Sir Nathaniel Johnson, appointed him to the care of the people settled on the three branches of Cooper river, making Goose creek his residence. He reported his labors to the society and said "that he had taken much pains also in instructing the Negroes, and learned twenty of them to read." He died in October, 1706. He was succeeded by a number of missionaries.

        "In 1709 Mr. Huddlestone was appointed school-master in New York city. He taught forty poor children out of the society funds, and publicly catechised in the steeple of Trinity Church every Sunday in the afternoon, 'not only his own scholars, but also the children, servants and slaves of the inhabitants, and above one hundred usually attended him.'

        "The society established also a catechising school in New York city in 1704, in which there were computed to be about 1,500 Negro and Indian slaves. The society hoped their example would be generally followed in the colonies. Mr. Elias Neau, a French Protestant, was appointed catechist, who was very zealous in his duty, and many Negroes were instructed and baptized.

        "In 1712 the Negroes in New York conspired to destroy all the English, which greatly discouraged the work of their instruction. The conspiracy was defeated, and many Negroes taken and executed. Mr. Neau's school was blamed as the main occasion of the barbarous plot; two of Mr. Neau's students were charged with the plot; one was cleared and the other was proved to have been in the conspiracy, but guiltless of his master's murder. 'Upon full trial the guilty Negroes were found to be such as never came to Mr. Neau's school; and, what is very observable, the persons whose Negroes were found most guilty were such as were the declared opposers of making them Christians.' In a short time the cry against the instruction of the Negroes subsided: the governor visited and recommended the school. Mr. Neau died in 1722, much regretted by all who knew his labors." He was succeeded by Rev. Mr. Wetmore, who afterwards was appointed missionary to Rye in New York. After his removal "the rector, church wardens, and vestry of Trinity Church in New York city" requested another catechist, "there being about 1,400 Negro and Indian slaves, a considerable number of whom had been instructed in the principles of Christianity by the late Mr. Neau, and had received baptism and were communicants in their church. The society complied with this request and sent over Rev. Mr. Colgan in 1726, who conducted the school with success."*

        * Cf. Atlanta University Publications, No. 6.


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        The society looked upon the instruction and conversion of the Negroes as a principal branch of its care, esteeming it a great reproach to the Christian name that so many thousands of persons should continue in the same state of pagan darkness under a Christian government and living in Christian families as they lay under formerly in their own heathen countries. The society immediately from its first institution strove to promote their conversion, and inasmuch as its income would not enable it to send numbers of catechists sufficient to instruct the Negroes, yet it resolved to do its utmost, and at least to give this work the mark of its highest approbation. Its officers wrote, therefore, to all their missionaries that they should use their best endeavors at proper times to instruct the Negroes, and should especially take occasion to recommend zealously to the masters to order their slaves, at convenient times, to come to them that they might be instructed.

        The history of the society goes on to say: "It is a matter of commendation to the clergy that they have done thus much in so great and difficult a work. But, alas! what is the instruction of a few hundreds in several years with respect to the many thousands uninstructed, unconverted, living, dying, utter pagans. It must be confessed what hath been done is as nothing with regard to what a true Christian would hope to see effected." After stating several difficulties in respect to the religious instruction of the Negroes, it is said: "But the greatest obstruction is the masters themselves do not consider enough the obligation which lies upon them to have their slaves instructed." And in another place, "the society have always been sensible the most effectual way to convert the Negroes was by engaging their masters to countenance and promote their conversion." The bishop of St. Asaph, Dr. Fleetwood, preached a sermon before the society in the year 1711, setting forth the duty of instructing the Negroes in the Christian religion. The society thought this so useful a discourse that they printed and dispersed abroad in the plantations great numbers of that sermon in the same year; and in the year 1725 reprinted the same and dispersed again great numbers. The bishop of London, Dr. Gibson, (to whom the care of plantations abroad, as to religious affairs, was committed,) became a second advocate for the conversion of Negroes, and wrote two letters on the subject. The first in 1727, "addressed to masters and mistresses of families in the English plantations abroad, exhorting them to encourage and promote the instruction of their Negroes in the Christian faith. The second in the same year, addressed to the missionaries there, directing them to distribute the said letter, and exhorting them to give their assistance towards the instruction of the Negroes within their several parishes."

        The society were persuaded this was the true method to remove the great obstruction to their conversion, and hoping so particular an application to the masters and mistresses from the See of London would have

Page 15

the strongest influence, they printed ten thousand copies of the letter to the masters and mistresses, which were sent to all the colonies on the continent and to all the British islands in the West Indies, to be distributed among the masters of families, and all other inhabitants. The society received accounts that these letters influenced many masters of families to have their servants instructed. The bishop of London soon after wrote "an address to serious Christians among ourselves, to assist the Society for Propagating the Gospel in carrying on this work."

        In the year 1783, and the following, soon after the separation of our colonies from the mother country, the society's operations ceased, leaving in all the colonies forty-three missionaries, two of whom were in the Southern States--one in North and one in South Carolina. The affectionate valediction of the society to them was issued in 1785. "Thus terminated the connection of this noble society with our country, which, from the foregoing notices of its efforts, must have accomplished a great deal for the religious instruction of the Negro population."

7. The Moravians, Methodists, Baptists, and Presbyterians.*

        * This section is largely based on Jones. See §6.


        The Moravians or United Brethren were the first who formally attempted the establishment of missions exclusively to the Negroes.

        A succinct account of their several efforts, down to the year 1790, is given in the report of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Heathen, at Salem, N. C., October 5th, 1837, by Rev. J. Renatus Schmidt, and is as follows:

        "A hundred years have now elapsed since the Renewed Church of the Brethren first attempted to communicate the gospel to the many thousand Negroes of our land. In 1737 Count Zinzendorf paid a visit to London and formed an acquaintance with General Oglethorpe and the trustees of Georgia, with whom he conferred on the subject of the mission to the Indians, which the brethren had already established in that colony (in 1735). Some of these gentlemen were associates under the will of Dr. Bray, who had left funds to be devoted to the conversion of the Negro slaves in South Carolina; and they solicited the Count to procure them some missionaries for this purpose. On his objecting that the Church of England might hesitate to recognize the ordination of the Brethren's missionaries, they referred the question to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Potter, who gave it as his opinion 'that the Brethren being members of an Episcopal Church, whose doctrines contained nothing repugnant to the Thirty-nine Articles, ought not to be denied free access to the heathen.' This declaration not only removed all hesitation from the minds of the trustees as to the present application, but opened the way for the labors of the Brethren amongst the slave population of the West Indies, a great and blessed work, which has, by the gracious help of God, gone on increasing even to the present day.

        "Various proprietors, however, avowing their determination not to suffer strangers to instruct their Negroes, as they had their own ministers, whom they paid

Page 16

for that purpose, our brethren ceased from their efforts. It appears from the letters of Brother Spangenburg, who spent the greater part of the year 1749 at Philadelphia and preached the gospel to the Negroes in that city, that the labors of the Brethren amongst them were not entirely fruitless. Thus he writes in 1751: 'On my arrival in Philadelphia, I saw numbers of Negroes still buried in all their native ignorance and darkness, and my soul was grieved for them. Soon after some of them came to me, requesting instruction, at the same time acknowledging their ignorance in the most affecting manner. They begged that a weekly sermon might be delivered expressly for their benefit. I complied with their request and confined myself to the most essential truths of scripture. Upwards of seventy Negroes attended on these occasions, several of whom were powerfully awakened, applied for further instruction, and expressed a desire to be united to Christ and his church by the sacrament of baptism, which was accordingly administered to them.' "


        At the request of Mr. Knox, the English Secretary of State, an attempt was made to evangelize the Negroes of Georgia. "In 1774 the Brethren, Lewis Muller, of the Academy at Niesky, and George Wagner, were called to North America and in the year following having been joined by Brother Andrew Broesing, of North Carolina, they took up their abode at Knoxborough, a plantation so called from its proprietor, the gentleman above mentioned. They were, however, almost constant sufferers from the fevers which prevailed in those parts, and Muller finished his course in October of the same year. He had preached the gospel with acceptance to both whites and blacks, yet without any abiding results. The two remaining Brethren being called upon to bear arms on the breaking out of the war of independence, Broesing repaired to Wachovia, in North Carolina, and Wagner set out in 1779 for England."

        In the great Northampton revival, under the preaching of Dr. Edwards in 1735-6, when for the space of five or six weeks together the conversions averaged at least "four a day," Dr. Edwards remarks: "There are several Negroes who, from what was seen in them then and what is discernible in them since, appear to have been truly born again in the late remarkable season."

        Direct efforts for the religious instruction of Negroes, continued through a series of years, were made by Presbyterians in Virginia. They commenced with the Rev. Samuel Davies, afterwards president of Nassau Hall, and the Rev. John Todd, of Hanover Presbytery.

        In a letter addressed to a friend and member of the "Society in London for promoting Christian knowledge among the poor" in the year 1755, he thus expresses himself: "The poor neglected Negroes, who are so far from having money to purchase books, that they themselves are the property of others, who were originally African savages, and never heard of the name of Jesus or his gospel until they arrived at the land of their slavery in America, whom their masters generally neglect, and whose souls none care for, as though immortality were not a privilege common to them, as with their masters;

Page 17

these poor, unhappy Africans are objects of my compassion, and I think the most proper objects of the society's charity. The inhabitants of Virginia are computed to be about 300,000 men, the one-half of which number are supposed to be Negroes. The number of those who attend my ministry at particular times is uncertain, but generally about 300, who give a stated attendance; and never have I been so struck with the appearance of an assembly as when I have glanced my eye to that part of the meeting-house where they usually sit, adorned (for so it has appeared to me) with so many black countenances, eagerly attentive to every word they hear and frequently bathed in tears. A considerable number of them (about a hundred) have been baptized, after a proper time for instruction, having given credible evidence, not only of their acquaintance with the important doctrines of the Christian religion, but also a deep sense of them in their minds, attested by a life of strict piety and holiness. As they are not sufficiently polished to dissemble with a good grace, they express the sentiments of their souls so much in the language of simple nature and with such genuine indications of sincerity, that it is impossible to suspect their professions, especially when attended with a truly Christian life and exemplary conduct. There are multitudes of them in different places, who are willingly and eagerly desirous to be instructed and embrace every opportunity of acquainting themselves with the doctrines of the gospel; and though they have generally very little help to learn to read, yet to my agreeable surprise, many of them by dint of application in their leisure hours, have made such progress that they can intelligibly read a plain author, and especially their Bibles; and pity it is that any of them should be without them.

        "The Negroes, above all the human species that I ever knew, have an ear for music and a kind of ecstatic delight in psalmody, and there are no books they learn so soon or take so much pleasure in as those used in that heavenly part of divine worship."

        The year 1747 was marked, in the colony of Georgia, by the authorized introduction of slaves. Twenty-three representatives from the different districts met in Savannah, and after appointing Major Horton president, they entered into sundry resolutions, the substance of which was "that the owners of slaves should educate the young and use every possible means of making religious impressions upon the minds of the aged, and that all acts of inhumanity should be punished by the civil authority."

        Methodism was introduced in New York in 1766, and the first missionaries were sent out by Mr. Wesley from New York in 1769. One of these says: "The number of blacks that attend the preaching affects me much." The first regular conference was held in Philadelphia, 1773. From this year to 1776 there was a great revival of religion in Virginia under the preaching of the Methodists in connection with Rev. Mr. Jarratt of the Episcopal Church, which spread through

Page 18

fourteen counties in Virginia and two in North Carolina. One letter states "the chapel was full of white and black;" another, "hundreds of Negroes were among them, with tears streaming down their faces." At Roanoke another remarks: "In general the white people were within the chapel and the black people without."

        At the eighth conference in Baltimore in 1780 the following question appeared in the minutes: "Question 25. Ought not the assistant to meet the colored people himself and appoint helpers in his absence, proper white persons, and not suffer them to stay late and meet by themselves? Answer. Yes." Under the preaching of Mr. Garretson in Maryland "hundreds, both white and black, expressed their love for Jesus."

        The first return of colored members distinct from white occurs in the minutes of 1786: White 18,791, colored 1,890. "It will be perceived from the above," says Dr. Bangs in his history of the Methodist Episcopal Church, "that a considerable number of colored persons had been received into the church, and were so returned in the minutes of the conference. Hence it appears that at an early period of the Methodist ministry in this country it had turned its attention to this part of the population."

        In 1790 it was again asked: "What can be done to instruct poor children, white and black, to read? Answer. Let us labor as the heart and soul of one man to establish Sunday-schools in or near the place of public worship. Let persons be appointed by the bishops, elders, deacons, or preachers, to teach gratis all that will attend and have a capacity to learn, from 6 o'clock in the morning till 10 and from 2 p. m. till 6, where it does not interfere with public worship. The council shall compile a proper school-book to teach them learning and piety." The experiment was made, but it proved unsuccessful and was discontinued. The number of colored members this year was 11,682.

        The first Baptist church in this country was founded in Providence, R. I., by Roger Williams in 1639. Nearly one hundred years after the settlement of America "only seventeen Baptist churches had arisen in it." The Baptist church in Charleston, S. C., was founded in 1690. The denomination advanced slowly through the middle and Southern States, and in 1790 it had churches in them all. Revivals of religion were enjoyed, particularly one in Virginia, which commenced in 1785 and continued until 1791 or 1792. "Thousands were converted and baptized, besides many who joined the Methodists and Presbyterians. A large number of Negroes were admitted to the Baptist Churches during the seasons of revival, as well as on ordinary occasions. They were, however, not gathered into churches distinct from the whites south of Pennsylvania except in Georgia."

        "In general the Negroes were followers of the Baptists in Virginia, and after a while, as they permitted many colored men to preach, the great majority of them went to hear preachers of their own color, which was attended with many evils."

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        "Towards the close of 1792 the first colored Baptist Church in the city of Savannah began to build a place of worship. The corporation of the city gave them a lot for the purpose. The origin of this church--the parent of several others--is briefly as follows:

        George Leile or Lisle, sometimes called George Sharp, was born in Virginia about 1750. His master sometime before the American war removed and settled in Burke county, Georgia. Mr. Sharp was a Baptist and a deacon in a Baptist church, of which Rev. Matthew Moore was pastor. George was converted and baptized under Mr. Moore's ministry. The church gave him liberty to preach."*

        *See infra.


        About nine months after George Leile left Georgia, Andrew, surnamed Bryan, a man of good sense, great zeal, and some natural elocution, began to exhort his black brethren and friends. He and his followers were reprimanded and forbidden to engage further in religious exercises. He would, however, pray, sing, and encourage his fellow-worshippers to seek the Lord. Their persecution was carried to an inhuman extent. Their evening assemblies were broken up and those found present were punished with stripes! Andrew Bryan and Sampson, his brother, converted about a year after him, were twice imprisoned, and they with about fifty others were whipped. When publicly whipped, and bleeding under his wounds, Andrew declared that he rejoiced not only to be whipped, but would freely suffer death for the cause of Jesus Christ, and that while he had life and opportunity he would continue to preach Christ. He was faithful to his vow and, by patient continuance in well-doing, he put to silence and shamed his adversaries, and influential advocates and patrons were raised up for him. Liberty was given Andrew by the civil authority to continue his religious meetings under certain regulations. His master gave him the use of his barn at Brampton, three miles from Savannah, where he preached for two years with little interruption.

        The African church in Augusta, Ga., was gathered by the labors of Jesse Peter, and was constituted in 1793 by Rev. Abraham Marshall and David Tinsley. Jesse Peter was also called Jesse Golfin on account of his master's name--living twelve miles below Augusta.

        The number of Baptists in the United States this year was 73,471, allowing one-fourth to be Negroes the denomination would embrace between 18,000 and 19,000.

        The returns of colored members in the Methodist denomination from 1791 to 1795, inclusive, were 12,884, 13,871, 16,227, 13,814, 12,179.

        The Methodists reported in 1796, 11,280 colored members. The recapitulation of the numbers for 1797 is given by states:

Page 20

        
Massachusetts 8 Maryland 5,106
Rhode Island 2 Virginia 2,490
Connecticut 15 North Carolina 2,071
New York 238 South Carolina 890
New Jersey 127 Georgia 348
Pennsylvania 198 Tennessee 42
Delaware 823 Kentucky 57

        Making a total of 12,215 Negroes; nearly one-fourth of the whole number of members were colored. There were three only in Canada.

        The year 1799 is memorable for the commencement of that extraordinary awakening which, taking its rise in Kentucky and spreading in various directions and with different degrees of intensity, was denominated "the great Kentucky revival." It continued for about four years, and its influence was felt over a large portion of the Southern States. Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists participated in this work. In this revival originated camp-meetings, which gave a new impulse to Methodism. From the best estimates the number of Negroes received into the different communions during this season must have been between four and five thousand.

        In 1800 there were in connection with the Methodists 13,452 Negroes. The bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church were authorized to ordain African preachers in places where there were houses of worship for their use, who might be chosen by a majority of the male members of the society to which they belonged and could procure a recommendation from the preacher in charge and his colleagues on the circuit to the office of local deacons. Richard Allen, of Philadelphia, was the first colored man who received orders under this rule.

        "The fact, however, is worthy of remembrance that, while the Indians--some of whom received us as guests and sold us their land at almost no compensation at all, and others were driven back to make us room, and with whom we had frequent and bloody wars, and we became, from time to time, mutual scourges--received some eminent missionaries from the colonists, and had no inconsiderable interest awakened for their conversion; the Africans who were brought over and bought by us for servants, and who wore out their lives as such, enriching thousands from Massachusetts to Georgia, and were members of our households, never received from the colonists themselves a solitary missionary exclusively devoted to their good, nor was there ever a single society established within the colonies, that we know of, with the express design of promoting their religious instruction!"

8. The Sects and Slavery.

        The approach of the Revolution brought heart-searching on many subjects, and not the least on slavery. The agitation was noticeable in the legislation of the time, putting an end to slavery in the North and to the slave-trade in all states. Religious

Page 21

bodies particularly were moved. In 1657 George Fox, founder of the Quakers, had impressed upon his followers in America the duty of converting the slaves, and he himself preached to them in the West Indies. The Mennonite Quakers protested against slavery in 1688, and from that time until the Revolution the body slowly but steadily advanced, step by step, to higher ground until they refused all fellowship to slaveholders. Radical Quakers, like Hepburn and Lay, attacked religious sects and Lay called preachers "a sort of devils that preach more to hell than they do to heaven, and so they will do forever as long as they are suffered to reign in the worst and mother of all sins, slave-keeping."

        In Virginia and North Carolina this caused much difficulty owing to laws against manumission early in the nineteenth century, and the result was wholesale migration of the Quakers.*

        * Cf. Week's Southern Quakers and Slavery; Thomas: Attitude, etc.


        Judge Sewall, among the Massachusetts Congregationalists, had declared, in 1700, that slavery and the slave-trade were wrong, but his protest was unheeded. Later, in 1770 and after, strong Congregational clergymen, like Samuel Hopkins and Ezra Stiles, attacked slavery, but so democratic a church could take no united action. Although Whitefield came to defend the institution, John Wesley, founder of the Methodists, called the slave-trade the "sum of all villanies," and the General Conference in America, 1780, declared slavery "contrary to the laws of God, man, and nature and hurtful to society." From this high stand, however, the church quickly and rather ignominiously retreated. By 1780 it only sought the destruction of slavery "by all wise and prudent means," while preachers were allowed to hold their slaves in slave states. In 1787 the General Conference urged preachers to labor among slaves and receive worthy ones into full membership and "to exercise the whole Methodist discipline among them." Work was begun early among the slaves and they had so many members that their churches in the south were often called Negro churches. The church yielded further ground to the pro-slavery sentiment in 1816, but in 1844 the censure of a bishop who married a slaveholder rent the church in twain on the question.

        The Baptists had Negro preachers for Negro members as early as 1773. They were under the supervision of whites and had no voice in general church affairs. The early Baptists held few slaves, and they were regarded as hostile to slavery in Georgia. The Philadelphia Association approved of abolition as early as 1789, and a Virginia Association urged emancipation in the legislature about the same time. In Kentucky and Ohio the Baptist Associations split on the question. The Baptists early interested themselves in the matter of slave marriages and family worship, and especially took spiritual care of the slaves of their own members. They took a stand against the slave-trade

Page 22

in 1818 and 1835. After the division on the subject of missions the Missionary Baptists began active proselyting among the slaves.

        The Presbyterian Synod of 1787 recommended efforts looking toward gradual emancipation, and in 1795 the question of excluding slave-holders was discussed, but it ended in an injunction of "brotherly love" for them. In 1815, 1818, and 1835 the question was dismissed and postponed, and finally in 1845 the question was dropped on the ground that Christ and the Apostles did not condemn slavery. At the time of the war the church finally divided.

9. Toussaint L'Ouverture and Nat Turner.

        "The role which the great Negro Toussaint, called L'Ouverture, played in the history of the United States has seldom been fully appreciated. Representing the age of revolution in America, he rose to leadership through a bloody terror, which contrived a Negro "problem" for the Western hemisphere, intensified and defined the anti-slavery movement, became one of the causes, and probably the prime one, which led Napoleon to sell Louisiana for a song; and, finally, through the interworking of all these effects, rendered more certain the final prohibition of the slave-trade by the United States in 1807."*

        * DuBois' Suppression of the Slave-Trade, p. 70.



        The effect of the revolution on the religious life of the Negro was quickly felt. In 1800, South Carolina declared:

        "It shall not be lawful for any number of slaves, free Negroes, mulattoes, or mestizoes, even in company with white persons, to meet together and assemble for the purpose of mental instruction or religious worship, either before the rising of the sun or after the going down of the same. And all magistrates, sheriffs, militia officers, etc., etc., are hereby vested with power, etc., for dispersing such assemblies."*

        * Goodell, 329.



        On petition of the white churches the rigor of this law was slightly abated in 1803 by a modification which forbade any person, before 9 o'clock in the evening, "to break into a place of meeting wherein shall be assembled the members of any religious society in this State, provided a majority of them shall be white persons, or otherwise to disturb their devotions unless such persons, etc., so entering said place [of worship] shall first have obtained from some magistrate, etc., a warrant, etc., in case a magistrate shall be then actually within a distance of three miles from such place of meeting; otherwise the provisions, etc., [of the Act of 1800] to remain in full force."*

        * Stroud, 93-4; Goodell, 329.


        So, too, in Virginia the Haytian revolt and the attempted insurrection under Gabriel in 1800 led to the Act of 1804, which forbade all evening meetings of slaves. This was modified in 1805 so as to allow a slave, in company with a white person, to listen to a white minister in the evening. A master was "allowed" to employ a religious teacher for his slaves.§

        § Stroud, 94; Ballagh, 95.


Mississippi passed similar restrictions.

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        By 1822 the rigor of the South Carolina laws in regard to Negro meetings had abated, especially in a city like Charleston, and one of the results was the Vesey plot.

        "The sundry religious classes or congregations, with Negro leaders or local preachers, into which were formed the Negro members of the various churches of Charleston, furnished Vesey with the first rudiments of an organization, and at the same time with a singularly safe medium for conducting his underground agitation. It was customary, at that time, for these Negro congregations to meet for purposes of worship entirely free from the presence of whites. Such meetings were afterwards forbidden to be held except in the presence of at least one representative of the dominant race. But during the three or four years prior to the year 1822 they certainly offered Denmark Vesey regular, easy and safe opportunities for preaching his gospel of liberty and hate. And we are left in no doubt whatever in regard to the uses to which he put those gatherings of blacks.

        "Like many of his race, he possessed the gift of gab, as the silver in the tongue and the gold in the full or thick-lipped mouth are oftentimes contemptuously characterized. And, like many of his race, he was a devoted student of the Bible, to whose interpretation he brought, like many other Bible students not confined to the Negro race, a good deal of imagination and not a little of superstition, which, with some natures, is perhaps but another name for the desires of the heart. Thus equipped, it is no wonder that Vesey, as he poured over the Old Testament scriptures, found many points of similitude in the history of the Jews and that of the slaves in the United States. They were both peculiar peoples. They were both Jehovah's peculiar peoples, one in the past, the other in the present. And it seemed to him that as Jehovah bent his ear, and bared his arm once in behalf of the one, so would he do the same for the other. It was all vividly real to his thought, I believe, for to his mind thus had said the Lord.

        "He ransacked the Bible for apposite and terrible texts whose commands in the olden times, to the olden people, were no less imperative upon the new times and the new people. This new people was also commanded to arise and destroy their enemies and the city in which they dwelt, 'both man and woman, young and old, with the edge of the sword.' Believing superstitiously as he did in the stern and Nemesis-like God of the Old Testament he looked confidently for a day of vengeance and retribution for the blacks. He felt, I doubt not, something peculiarly applicable to his enterprise and intensely personal to himself in the stern and exultant prophecy of Zachariah, fierce and sanguinary words, which were constantly in his mouth: 'Then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations as when he fought in the day of battle.' According to Vesey's lurid exegesis 'those nations' in the text meant beyond peradventure the cruel masters and Jehovah was to go forth to fight against them for the poor slaves and on whichever side fought that day the Almighty God on that side would assuredly rest victory and deliverance.

        "It will not be denied that Vesey's plan contemplated the total annihilation of the white population of Charleston. Nursing for many dark years the bitter wrongs of himself and race had filled him without doubt with a mad spirit of revenge and had given to him a decided predilection for shedding the blood of his oppressors. But if he intended to kill them to satisfy a desire for vengeance he intended to do so also on broader ground. The conspirators, he argued, had no choice in the matter, but were compelled to adopt a policy of extermination by the necessity of their position. The liberty of the blacks was in the balance of fate against the lives of the whites. He could strike that balance in favor of the blacks only by

Page 24

the total destruction of the whites. Therefore the whites, men, women, and children, were doomed to death."*

        *Grimke: Right on the Scaffold (Pub. American Negro Academy), pp. 11-12.



        The plot was well-laid, but the conspirators were betrayed. Less than ten years after this plot was discovered and Vesey and his associates hanged, there broke out the Nat Turner insurrection in Virginia. Turner was himself a preacher.

        "He was a Christian and a man. He was conscious that he was a Man and not a 'thing;' therefore, driven by religious fanaticism, he undertook a difficult and bloody task. Nathaniel Turner was born in Southampton county, Virginia, October 2, 1800. His master was one Benjamin Turner, a very wealthy and aristocratic man. He owned many slaves, and was a cruel and exacting master. Young 'Nat' was born of slave parents, and carried to his grave many of the superstitions and traits of his father and mother. The former was a preacher, the latter a 'mother in Israel.' Both were unlettered but, nevertheless, very pious people. The mother began when Nat was quite young to teach him that he was born, like Moses, to be the deliverer of his race. She would sing to him snatches of wild, rapturous songs and repeat portions of prophecy she had learned from the preachers of those times. Nat listened with reverence and awe, and believed everything his mother said. He imbibed the deep religious character of his parents, and soon manifested a desire to preach. He was solemnly set apart to 'the gospel ministry' by his father, the church, and visiting preachers. He was quite low in stature, dark, and had the genuine African features. His eyes were small, but sharp, and gleamed like fire when he was talking about his 'mission' or preaching from some prophetic passage of scripture. It is said that he never laughed. He was a dreamy sort of a man, and avoided the crowd. Like Moses he lived in the solitudes of the mountains and brooded over the condition of his people. There was something grand to him in the rugged scenery that nature had surrounded him with. He believed that he was a prophet, a leader raised up by God to burst the bolts of the prison-house and set the oppressed free. The thunder, the hail, the storm-cloud, the air, the earth, the stars, at which he would sit and gaze half the night all spake the language of the God of the oppressed. He was seldom seen in a large company, and never drank a drop of ardent spirits. Like John the Baptist, when he had delivered his message, he would retire to the fastness of the mountain or seek the desert, where he could meditate upon his great work."*

        * Williams II, pp. 85-86.



        In the impression of the Richmond Enquirer of the 30th of August, 1831, the first editorial or leader is under the caption of "The Banditte." The editor says:

        "They remind one of a parcel of blood-thirsty wolves rushing down from the Alps; or, rather like a former incursion of the Indians upon the white settlements. Nothing is spared; neither age nor sex respected--the helplessness of women and children pleads in vain for mercy. . . . The case of Nat Turner warns us. No black man ought to be permitted to turn preacher through the country. The law must be enforced--or the tragedy of Southampton appeals to us in vain."*

        * Quoted in Ibid, p. 90.



        Mr. Gray, the man to whom Turner made his confession before dying, said:

Page 25

        "It has been said that he was ignorant and cowardly and that his object was to murder and rob for the purpose of obtaining money to make his escape. It is notorious that he was never known to have had a dollar in his life, to swear an oath or drink a drop of spirits. As to his ignorance, he certainly never had the advantages of education, but he can read and write, and for natural intelligence and quickness of apprehension is surpassed by few men I have ever seen. As to his being a coward, his reason as given for not resisting Mr. Phipps, shows the decision of his character. When he saw Mr. Phipps present his gun, he said he knew it was impossible for him to escape as the woods were full of men. He, therefore, thought it was better for him to surrender and trust to fortune for his escape.

        "He is a complete fanatic or plays his part most admirably. On other subjects he possesses an uncommon share of intelligence, with a mind capable of attaining anything, but warped and perverted by the influence of early impressions. He is below the ordinary stature, though strong and active, having the true Negro face, every feature of which is strongly marked. I shall not attempt to describe the effect of his narrative, as told and commented on by himself, in the condemned hole of the prison; the calm, deliberate composure with which he spoke of his late deeds and intentious; the expression of his fiend-like face when excited by enthusiasm, still bearing the stains of the blood of the helpless innocence about him, clothed with rags and covered with chains, yet daring to raise his manacled hand to heaven, with a spirit soaring above the attributes of man. I looked on him and the blood curdled in my veins."*

        * Williams II, pp. 91-92.



        The Turner insurrection is so connected with the economic revolution which enthroned cotton that it marks an epoch in the history of the slave. A wave of legislation passed over the South prohibiting the slaves from learning to read and write, forbidding Negroes to preach, and interfering with Negro religious meetings. Virginia declared, in 1831, that neither slaves or free Negroes might preach, nor could they attend religious service at night without permission. In North Carolina slaves and free Negroes were forbidden to preach, exhort or teach "in any prayer-meeting or other association for worship where slaves of different families are collected together" on penalty of not more than thirty-nine lashes. Maryland and Georgia had similar laws. The Mississippi law of 1831 said: It is "unlawful for any slave, free Negro, or mulatto to preach the gospel" upon pain of receiving thirty-nine lashes upon the naked back of the presumptuous preacher. If a Negro received written permission from his master he might preach to the Negroes in his immediate neighborhood, providing six respectable white men, owners of slaves, were present.*

        * Williams II, 163.


In Alabama the law of 1832 prohibited the assembling of more than five male slaves at any place off the plantation to which they belonged, but nothing in the act was to be considered as forbidding attendance at places of public worship held by white persons. No slave or free person of color was permitted to "preach, exhort, or harrangue any slave or slaves, or free persons of color, except in the presence of five respectable slaveholders or unless the person
Page 26

preaching was licensed by some regular body of professing Christians in the neighborhood, to whose society or church the Negroes addressed properly belonged."

        In the District of Columbia the free Negroes began to leave white churches in 1831 and to assemble in their own.

10. Third Period of Missionary Enterprise.

        The efforts to convert Negroes in America fall in three main periods. The first period was early in the eighteenth century after it was decided that baptism did not free slaves. Results at this time were meagre, and the effort spasmodic. A second period came about the time of the Revolution, and had larger results. C. C. Jones says of the conditions, 1790-1820, that:

        "It is not too much to say that the religious and physical condition of the Negroes were both improved during this period. Their increase was natural and regular, ranging every ten years, between 31 and 36 per cent. As the old stock from Africa died out of the country the grosser customs, ignorance and paganism of Africa, died with them. Their descendants, the country-born, were better looking, more intelligent, more civilized, more susceptible of religious impressions.

        "On the whole, however, but a minority of the Negroes, and that a small one, attended regularly the house of God, and taking them as a class, their religious instruction was extensively and most seriously neglected."


        The third period followed after the depression of the thirties. This depression was severe, and lasted nearly twenty years.

        The Presbyterian Synod of South Carolina and Georgia, in 1833, published a statement in which they said of the slaves:

        "There are over two millions of human beings in the condition of heathen and some of them in a worse condition. They may justly be considered the heathen of this country, and will bear a comparison with heathen in any country in the world. The Negroes are destitute of the gospel, and ever will be under the present state of things. In the vast field extending from an entire state beyond the Potomac, [i. e., Maryland], to the Sabine river [at the time our southwestern boundary] and from the Atlantic to the Ohio, there are, to the best of our knowledge, not twelve men exclusively devoted to the religious instruction of the Negroes. In the present state of feeling in the South, a ministry of their own color could neither be obtained nor tolerated. But do not the Negroes have access to the gospel through the stated ministry of the whites? We answer, no. The Negroes have no regular and efficient ministry: as a matter of course, no churches; neither is there sufficient room in the white churches for their accommodation. We know of but five churches in the slaveholding states, built expressly for their use. These are all in the state of Georgia. We may now inquire whether they enjoy the privileges of the gospelin their own houses, and on our plantations? Again we return a negative answer. They have no Bibles to read by their own firesides. They have no family altars; and when in affliction, sickness or death, they have no minister to address to them the consolations of the gospel, nor to bury them with appropriate services."*

        * Goodell, pp. 333-5.



        The Presbyterian Synod of Kentucky, in 1834, said:

Page 27

        "Slavery deprives its subjects, in a great measure, of the privileges of the gospel. The law, as it is here, does not prevent free access to the scriptures; but ignorance, the natural result of their condition, does. The Bible is before them. But it is to them a sealed book. Very few of them enjoy the advantages of a regular gospel ministry."*

        * Jones, 167-8; Goodell, p. 335-6.



        The Synod of South Carolina and Georgia returned to the subject, in 1834, and declared:

        "The gospel, as things now are, can never be preached to the two classes (whites and blacks) successfully in conjunction. The galleries or back seats on the lower floor of white churches are generally appropriated to the Negroes, when it can be done without inconvenience to the whites. When it cannot be done conveniently, the Negroes must catch the gospel as it escapes through the doors and windows. If the master is pious, the house servants alone attend family worship, and frequently few or none of them, while the field hands have no attention at all. So as far as masters are engaged in the work [of religious instruction of slaves], an almost unbroken silence reigns on this vast field."*

        * Jones, 167-8; Goodell, p. 335-6.



        To this the Rev. C. C. Jones, of Georgia, adds:

        "We cannot cry out against the Papists for withholding the scriptures from the common people, and the keeping them in ignorance of the way of life, for we withhold the Bible from our servants, and keep them in ignorance of it, while we will not use the means to have it read and explained to them."*

        * Jones, 167-8; Goodell, p. 335-6.



        In 1838 the Methodist Conference of South Carolina appointed a missionary to labor among the colored people, but the enterprise was soon suppressed by the principal citizens. The Greenville (S. C.) Mountaineer of November 2, 1838, contained the particulars: A committee was appointed, who addressed a note to the missionary, requesting him to desist. This was backed up by James S. Pope and 352 others. The document argues at length the incompatibility of slavery with the "mental improvement and religious instruction" of slaves. "Verbal instruction," say they, "will increase the desire of the black population to learn. We know of upwards of a dozen Negroes in the neighborhood of Cambridge who can now read, some of whom are members of your societies at Mount Lebanon and New Salem. Of course, when they see themselves encouraged, they will supply themselves with Bibles, hymn books, and catechisms! Open the missionary sluice, and the current will swell in its gradual onward advance. We thus expect that a progressive system of improvement will be introduced, or will follow, from the nature and force of circumstances, and, if not checked (though they may be shrouded in sophistry and disguise), will ultimately revolutionize our civil institutions. We consider the common adage that 'knowledge is power,' and as the colored man is enlightened, his condition will be rendered more unhappy and intolerable. Intelligence and slavery have no affinity with each other." The document refers to the laws of the state, and hopes that "South Carolina is yet true to her vital interests," etc., etc.*

        * Goodell, p. 336-7.


Page 28

        Bishop Capers testifies about this time that there was the most urgent need for preaching among Negroes. Of the Negroes around Wilmington, N. C., he says: "A numerous population of this class in that town and vicinity were as destitute of any public instruction (or, probably, instruction of any kind as to spiritual things) as if they had not been believed to be men at all, and their morals were as depraved as, with such a destitution of the gospel among them, might have been expected." To this state of things the masters were indifferent; for, adds the bishop, "it seems not to have been considered that such a state of things might furnish motives sufficient to induce pure-minded men to engage, at great inconvenience or even personal hazard, in the work of improving them." Such work, on the other hand, seems to have been regarded as unnecessary, if not unreasonable. Conscience was not believed to be concerned.

        As the result of such appeals a reaction set in about 1835, and the Methodists and Baptists especially were active among the slaves. A minister in Mississippi testified that he had charge of the Negroes of five plantations and three hundred slaves; another in Georgia visited eighteen plantations every two weeks. "The owners have built three good churches at their own expense, all framed; 290 members have been added, and about 400 children are instructed." Another traveling minister declared, in 1841, that in many places, like Baltimore, Alexandria, and Charleston, the Negroes had large, spacious churches, and he thinks there were 500,000 Negro church members at the time, which is probably an exaggeration.

        Charles C. Jones writes, in 1842, that:

        "The Negro race has existed in our country for two hundred and twenty-two years, in which time the gospel has been brought within the reach of, and been communicated to, multitudes.

        "While there have been but few societies, and they limited in extent and influence, formed for the special object of promoting the moral and religious instruction of the Negroes, and while there have been comparatively but few missionaries exclusively devoted to them, yet they have not been altogether overlooked by their owners, nor neglected by the regular ministers of the various leading denominations of Christians, as the facts adduced in this sketch testify.

        "Yet it is a remarkable fact in the history of the Negroes in our country that their regular, systematic religious instruction has never received in the churches at any time that general attention and effort which it demanded, and the people have consequently been left, both in the free and in the slave states, in great numbers, in moral darkness, and destitution of the means of grace."

        "In 1848 an enterprise was begun for the more thorough-going evangelization of the colored people in Charleston, S. C., under the auspices of the Rev. Dr. J. B. Adger and the session of the Second Presbyterian church. In 1859 a church building costing $25,000, contributed by the citizens of Charleston, was dedicated. From the first the great building was filled, the blacks occupying the main floor, and the whites the galleries, which seated two hundred and fifty persons. The Rev. Dr. J. L. Girardeau, one of the greatest preachers in the South, was for years

Page 29

the pastor of this church. The close of the war found it with exactly five hundred colored members, and nearly one hundred white."*

        * Campbell: Some Aspects, etc.: and Jones.



        There were thirteen colored churches in Baltimore in 1847, supported largely, but not altogether, by free Negroes. In 1854 one-fourth of the slaves of South Carolina were said to be Methodists; one-third of the Presbyterians of that state were black, and one-half of the Baptists of Virginia. In 1859 there were 468,000 Negro church members reported in the South, of whom 215,000 were Methodists and 175,000 Baptists.*

        * Cf. Ingle Side Lights, pp. 273-74.


        Even at this time many restrictions on Negro religion remained. In Maryland camp-meetings were forbidden, and all meetings save at regular churches and with the consent of white preachers. There were also many local laws restricting worship. In other states the laws of the thirties remained in force or were strengthened. Moreover, even the church organizations working among Negroes were careful in their methods. The North Carolina Baptist Convention adopted a report concerning the religious instruction of the colored people, with a series of resolutions, concluding as follows:

        "Resolved, That by religious instructions be understood verbal communications on religious subjects?"*

        * Goodell, p. 336.


        Moreover, the masters clung to the idea that the chief use of religion among slaves was to make them "obey their masters." When it was charged that slaves were not allowed to read the Bible, one naive answer was that it was read to them, especially "those very passages which inculcate the relative duties of masters and servants."

        An intelligent Negro, Lundsford Lane, thus describes the religious instruction of slaves:

        "I was permitted to attend church, and this I esteem a great blessing. It was there I received much instruction, which I trust was a great benefit to me. I trusted, too, that I had experienced the renewing influences of divine grace. I looked upon myself as a great sinner before God, and upon the doctrine of the great atonement, through the suffering and death of the Savior, as a source of continual joy to my heart. After obtaining from my mistress a written permit, a thing always required in such cases, I had been baptized and received into fellowship with the Baptist denomination. Thus in religious matters I had been indulged in the exercise of my own conscience; this was a favor not always granted to slaves. There was one hard doctrine to which we as slaves were compelled to listen, which I found difficult to receive. We were often told by the ministers how much we owed to God for bringing us over from the benighted shores of Africa and permitting us to listen to the sound of the gospel. In ignorance of any special revelation that God had made to master, or to his ancestors, that my ancestors should be stolen and enslaved on the soil of America to accomplish their salvation, I was slow to believe all my teachers enjoined on this subject. How surprising then, this high moral end being accomplished, that no proclamation of emancipation had before this been made! Many of us were as highly civilized as

Page 30

some of our masters, and as to piety in many instances their superiors. I was rather disposed to believe that God had originally granted me temporal freedom, which wicked men had taken from me--which now I had been compelled to purchase at great cost. There was one kind-hearted clergyman whom I used often to hear; he was very popular among the colored people. But after he had preached a sermon to us in which he urged from the Bible that it was the will of heaven from all eternity that we should be slaves, and our masters be our owners, many of us left him, considering, like the doubting disciple of old, 'This is a hard saying; who can hear it?'"*

        * Bassett: State, pp. 51-52.



        So, too, Dr. Caruthers says although many of the slaves were pious they owed for this "no thanks to slavery or the slave laws." Even after the war the reconstruction legislation of states like Mississippi sought especially to restrain Negro preachers and imposed, in 1865, upon Negroes exercising the functions of a minister without a license from a regularly organized church a fine of $10-$100, and liability to imprisonment not more than thirty days.*

        * Garner: Reconstruction, p. 115.


11. The Earlier Churches and Preachers, (by Mr. John W. Cromwell).

        The original colored churches in different sections of the country came about in one of the following ways:

        The establishment of these churches took place about the same time in sections more distant from each other then than now, for it was before the time of the railroad, the use of the steamboat or the telegraph; so that their coming into existence at the same time must be attributed to a correspondence of general causes.

        The first regular church organization of which I know was a Baptist Church at Williamsburg, Va., in the year 1776. Following it were three Baptist Churches in the year 1778, one in Augusta and two in Savannah, Ga.; the Episcopal Church, St. Thomas, in Philadelphia, in 1791; Bethel Church, Philadelphia, in 1794; Zion Methodist Church, New York city, in 1796; Joy Street Baptist Church, Boston, in 1807; Abyssinian Baptist Church, New York, in 1808; First Baptist, St. Louis, 1830.

Page 31

        So far as the establishment is concerned of those colored Methodist Churches which evolved the A. M. E. and the A. M. E. Zion denominations, persecution by the whites was the moving cause. They were compelled to protect themselves against the yoke sought to be imposed on them, by worshipping among themselves. The one movement in Philadelphia, the other in New York, moved in parallel, often in rival lines. New York and Philadelphia were soon in free states and their methods were those of free men, in name at least, while the establishment of colored Methodist Churches in the South, as in Maryland, under the direction of the whites, illustrated one of the instances of special missionary effort.

        The colored Baptist Church in the South came mostly into existence mainly through the third inciting cause mentioned.

        The Presbyterian Church, as found among the colored people, came about through the operation of two causes: the desire of the colored people to be by themselves and that of the whites to strengthen their denomination among this class.

        The first colored Episcopal Churches, both in New York and Philadelphia, resulted directly from causes similar to those which gave rise to the Methodist Churches in the same localities.

        Of the men mainly instrumental by reason of their position as pioneers in organizing these first churches in the different colored denominations a word is needed.

        First in order came Richard Allen. He was one of the leaders in the free African Society. From the members of this body came the leaders, almost the organization itself, both of the Bethel Methodist and the St. Thomas Episcopal Churches in the city of Philadelphia.

        Richard Allen was born February 12, 1760, old style, a slave in Philadelphia. At an early age he gave evidence of a high order of talent for leadership. He was converted while quite a lad and licensed to preach in 1782. In 1797 he was ordained a deacon by Bishop Francis Asbury, who had been entrusted by John Wesley with the superintendence of the work in America. April 11, 1816, at the general conference of the African Methodist Churches, held in the city of Philadelphia, he was elected their first bishop. Under his administration the work was vigorously prosecuted in all directions. He died in 1831, universally lamented.

        He possessed talents as an organizer of the highest order. He was a born leader and an almost infallible judge of human nature. He was actively identified with every forward movement among the colored people, irrespective of denomination, and died, leaving a greater influence upon the colored people of the North than any other man of his times. He was one of the promoters, as well as one of the chief actors, in the first national convention of colored men in the United States ever held, which was in Philadelphia in the year 1830.

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        Absalom Jones, who certainly comes next in point of time, was born a slave in Sussex, Del., November 6, 1746. At the age of sixteen he was taken to Philadelphia. He was married in 1770, purchased his wife, and afterward succeeded in obtaining his own liberty. Like his co-laborer, Richard Allen, with whom he was associated in the African Society, he was quite thrifty and became the owner of several pieces of real estate. His education was quite limited, so much so that a dispensation was necessary to admit of his ordination, to which a condition was annexed that this church (St. Thomas) should not have the power of sharing in the government of the Episcopal Church in the diocese of Pennsylvania. Rev. Wm. Douglass, subsequently a rector of this church, in his "Annals of St. Thomas Episcopal Church," says of Absalom Jones, that he was impressive in his style of preaching, though his forte was not in the pulpit. It was his mild and easy manners, his habits as a pastor, his public spirit, that strengthened him in public estimation. He says that "he was of medium height, dark complexion, with stout frame, bland and open countenance, yet indicative of firmness. Whenever he appeared in public he donned the costume of the profession, black dress coat, breeches and vest of the same color, with top-boots or shoes with buckles and black stockings." After a ministry of twenty-two years, he died February 13, 1818, aged 71 years.

        Rev. John Gloucester, the first colored minister to act as pastor of the first colored Presbyterian Church, was a man thoroughly consecrated to his cause. He possessed a fair English education, which he received from private sources. He was a pioneer of Presbyterian ministers; four of his own sons, Jeremiah, John, Stephen, and James, became Presbyterian ministers, and from the Sunday-school of his church three other well known ministers went forth--Rev. Amos to Africa, Rev. H. M. Wilson to New York, and Rev. Jonathan C. Gibbs, who died in Florida after having been Secretary of State and State Superintendent of Schools.

        Mr. Gloucester, like Allen and Jones, was born a slave, in Kentucky, about the year 1776. Such was his intelligence that he was purchased by Rev. Gideon Blackburn, one of the leaders of the Presbyterian denomination in Kentucky. The records show that when Rev. Gloucester was ordained, Dr. Blackburn was the moderator of the presbytery. On the appointment of Rev. Gloucester to the first African Presbyterian church his master liberated him. One of the attractions of Rev. Gloucester was his rich musical voice that was pronounced as something phenomenal. In prayer his power was manifest.

        His character was so simple and Christian that he won many friends of both races. He was not only preacher, but pastor and adviser of his people in their temporal matters. He traveled extensively North and South and in nearly every city, raising the money with which he liberated

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his wife and children. He even crossed the ocean, where he met with great success.

        After fifteen years of service in the church, during which time it rapidly increased in members, from 22 to 300, he died May 2, 1822, a victim of consumption, in the forty-sixth year of his age.

        Now it is not to be inferred that these were the only men deserving of special notice as pioneers. By no means. We allude to them because of their relation to the historical churches. There were Harry Hosier, who travelled with Bishop Asbury, and who often filled appointments for him; Rev. Daniel Coker of Baltimore, and Rev. Peter Spencer of Delaware, who organized the Protestant branch of colored Methodism.

        Circumstances were somewhat similar in other parts of the country. With the increase of the colored population and its distribution to other centers, other religious societies sprang up, so that wherever you find any number of these people in the earlier decades of the republic you find a church, often churches, out of all proportion to the population.

        In the West, it may be stated, that colored churches were not the result of secessions or irregular wholesale withdrawals from the white churches as in the East. They sprang up directly in the path of the westward migration of colored people from the South and the East.

        In the South the whites were in complete and absolute control, in church as in state. Colored people attended and held membership in the same church as the whites, though they did not possess the same rights or privileges. They either had special services at stated times or they sat in the galleries. There may have been deep protests against such un-Christian treatment, but we may rest assured that these were by no means loud, however deep. It was when this membership increased to very large numbers that separate churches for colored people, rather than of the colored people, were established. In the South, as in the North, this membership was principally in the Baptist and Methodist churches, and to these denominations did these separate colored churches belong, with exceptions so rare that they may be named as to cities or districts where it was otherwise.

        Outside of the few ministers of the A. M. E. and the A. M. E. Zion churches in the border states, it is doubtful if there were a score of colored pastors in full control of colored churches in the South before the war. Nevertheless, there were a few colored ministers so very conspicuous by their work as pioneers as to deserve special notice here. It is possible to refer briefly only to a few.

        Taking them in the order of time there was the Rev. George Lisle, a native of Virginia, the slave or body servant of a British officer. Throughout that struggle he preached in different parts of the country. As one of the results of his labors we find one of the very first colored churches of any denomination in the country organized, especially that

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in 1788 at Savannah, Ga., by Rev. Andrew Bryan, whom Lisle had baptized. Compelled to leave the United States at the close of the war, Lisle went to Jamaica, where he organized a church with four members in 1783. By 1790 he had baptized more than 400 persons on that island. In 1793 he built there the very first non-Episcopal religious chapel, to which there were belonging, in 1841, 3,700 members. That white Baptist missionaries subsequently went to the West Indies is to be attributed to Rev. Lisle's work, for they were brought there as a direct result of his correspondence with ecclesiastical authorities in Great Britain.

        Next we have Lott Carey, also a native of Virginia, born a slave in Charles City county, about 1780. His father was a Baptist. In 1804 Lott removed to Richmond, where he worked in a tobacco factory and from all accounts was very profligate and wicked. In 1807, being converted, he joined the First Baptist Church, learned to read, made rapid advancement as a scholar, and was shortly afterwards licensed to preach.

        After purchasing his family, in 1813, he organized, in 1815, the African Missionary Society, the first missionary society in the country, and within five years raised $700 for African missions.

        That Lott Carey was evidently a man of superior intellect and force of character is to be evidenced from the fact that his reading took a wide range--from political economy, in Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, to the voyage of Captain Cook. That he was a worker as well as a preacher is true, for when he decided to go to Africa his employers offered to raise his salary from $800 to $1,000 a year. Remember, that this was over eighty years ago. Carey was not seduced by such a flattering offer, for he was determined. His last sermon in the old First Church in Richmond must have been exceedingly powerful, for it was compared by an eye-witness, a resident of another state, to the burning, eloquent appeals of George Whitefield. Fancy him as he stands there in that historic building ringing the changes on the word "freely," depicting the willingness with which he was ready to give up his life for service in Africa.

        He, as you may already know, was the leader of the pioneer colony to Liberia, where he arrived even before the agent of the Colonization Society. In his new home his abilities were recognized, for he was made vice governor and became governor, in fact, while Governor Ashmun was absent from the colony in this country. Carey did not allow his position to betray the cause of his people, for he did not hesitate to expose the duplicity of the Colonization Society and even to defy their authority, it would seem, in the interests of the people.

        While casting cartridges to defend the colonists against the natives in 1828, the accidental upsetting of a candle caused an explosion that resulted in his death.

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        Carey is described as a typical Negro, six feet in height, of massive and erect frame, with the sinews of a Titan. He had a square face, keen eyes, and a grave countenance. His movements were measured; in short, he had all the bearings and dignity of a prince of the blood.

12. Some Other Ante-Bellum Preachers.

        Six noted Negro preachers have been mentioned: Nat Turner, the revolutionist; Richard Allen the founder of the African Methodists; Absalom Jones, the first Negro Episcopal rector; Harry Hosier, the companion of Bishop Asbury; George Lisle, the West Indian missionary and Lott Carey, the African missionary. To these may be added the names of Lemuel Haynes, John Chavis, Henry Evans, James Varick, Jack of Virginia, Ralph Freeman, and Lunsford Lane, forming thirteen remarkable characters. "Lemuel Haynes was born in Hartford, Conn., July 18, 1753. His father was an African, his mother a white woman. He received the honorary degree of A. M. from Middlebury College in 1804. After completing a theological course he preached in various places and settled in West Rutland, Vt., in 1788, where he remained for thirty years, and became one of the most popular preachers in the state. He was characterized by subtle intellect, keen wit, and eager thirst for knowledge. His noted sermon from Genesis 3:4 was published and passed through nine or ten editions. His controversy with Hosea Ballou became of world-wide interest The life of Lemuel Haynes was written by James E. Cooley, New York, 1848."*

        * Report U. S. Bureau of Edacation, 1900-1, p. 837.


John Chavis was a full-blooded Negro, born in Granville county, N. C., near Oxford, in 1763. He was born free and was sent to Princeton, and studied privately under Dr. Witherspoon, where he did well. He went to Virginia to preach to Negroes. In 1802, in the county court, his freedom and character were certified to and it was declared that he had passed "through a regular course of academic studies" at what is now Washington and Lee University. In 1805 he returned to North Carolina, where he in 1809 was made a licentate in the Presbyterian Church and preached. His English was remarkably pure, his manner impressive, his explanations clear and concise. For a long time he taught school and had the best whites as pupils--a United States senator, the sons of a chief justice of North Carolina, a governor of the state and many others. Some of his pupils boarded in his family, and his school was regarded as the best in the State. "All accounts agree that John Chavis was a gentleman," and he was received socially among the best whites and asked to table. In 1830 he was stopped from preaching by the law. Afterward he taught a school for free Negroes in Raleigh.*

        * Bassett, State, North Carolina, pp. 73-6. Cf. also Ballagh: Slavery in Virginia.


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        Henry Evans was a full-blooded Virginia free Negro, and was the pioneer of Methodism in Fayetteville, N. C. He found the Negroes there, about 1800, without religious instruction. He began preaching and the town council ordered him away; he continued and whites came to hear him. Finally the white auditors outnumbered the black, and sheds were erected for Negroes at the side of the church. The gathering became a regular Methodist Church, with a white and Negro membership, but Evans continued to preach. He exhibited "rare self-control before the most wretched of castes! Henry Evans did much good, but he would have done more good had his spirit been untrammelled by this sense of inferiority."*

        * Bassett State, North Carolina, pp. 58-9.


        His dying words uttered us he stood, aged and bent beside his pulpit, are of singular pathos:

        "I have come to say my last word to you. It is this: None but Christ. Three times I have had my life in jeopardy for preaching the gospel to you. Three time I have broken ice on the edge of the water and swam across the Cape Fear to preach the gospel to you; and, if in my last hour I could trust to that, or anything but Christ crucified, for my salvation, all should be lost and my soul perish forever."*

        * Ibid., loc. cit.



        Early in the nineteenth century Ralph Freeman was a slave in Anson county, N. C. He was a full-blooded Negro, and was ordained and became an able Baptist preacher. He baptized and administered communion, and was greatly respected. When the Baptists split on the question of missions he sided with the anti-mission side. Finally the law forbade him to preach.*

        * Ibid., p. 64.


        Lunsford Lane was a Negro who bought his freedom in Raleigh, N. C., by the manufacture of smoking tobacco. He later became a minister and was intelligent, and had the confidence of many of the best people.§

        § Ibid., p. 50. Cf. p. 29.


        James Varick was a free Negro of New York, and is memorable as the first bishop of the Zion Methodists.

        The story of Jack of Virginia is best told in the words of a Southern writer:

        "Probably the most interesting case in the whole South is that of an African preacher of Nottoway county, popularly known as 'Uncle Jack,' whose services to white and black were so valuable that a distinguished minister of the Southern Presbyterian Church felt called upon to memorialize his work in a biography.

        "Kidnapped from his idolatrous parents in Africa, he was brought over in one of the last cargoes of slaves admitted to Virginia and sold to a remote and obscure planter in Nottoway county, a region at that time in the backwoods and destitute particularly as to religious life and instruction. He was converted under the occasional preaching of Rev. Dr. John Blair Smith, president of Hampden-Sidney College, and of Dr. Wm. Hill and Dr. Archibald Alexander of Princeton, then young theologues, and by hearing the scriptures read. Taught by his master's

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children to read, he became so full of the spirit and knowledge of the Bible that he was recognized among the whites as a powerful expounder of Christian doctrine, was licensed to preach by the Baptist Church, and preached from plantation to plantation within a radius of thirty miles, as he was invited by overseers or masters. His freedom was purchased by a subscription of whites, and he was given a home and a tract of land for his support. He organized a large and orderly Negro church, and exercised such a wonderful controlling influence over the private morals of his flock that masters, instead of punishing their slaves, often referred them to the discipline of their pastor, which they dreaded far more.

        "He stopped a heresy among the Negro Christians of Southern Virginia, defeating in open argument a famous fanatical Negro preacher named Campbell, who advocated noise and "the spirit" against the Bible, winning over Campbell's adherents in a body. For over forty years, and until he was nearly a hundred years of age, he labored successfully in public and private among black and whites, voluntarily giving up his preaching in obedience to the law of 1832, the result of 'Old Nat's war.'

        "The most refined and aristocratic people paid tribute to him, and he was instrumental in the conversion of many whites. Says his biographer, Rev. Dr. Wm. S. White: 'He was invited into their houses, sat with their families, took part in their social worship, sometimes leading the prayer at the family altar. Many of the most intelligent people attended upon his ministry and listened to his sermons with great delight. Indeed, previous to the year 1825, he was considered by the best judges to be the best preacher in that county. His opinions were respected, his advice followed, and yet he never betrayed the least symptoms of arrogance or self-conceit. His dwelling was a rude log cabin, his apparel of the plainest and coarsest materials.' This was because he wished to be fully identified with his class. He refused gifts of better clothing, saying, 'These clothes are a great deal better than are generally worn by people of my color, and besides if I wear them I find I shall be obliged to think about them even at meeting.'"*

        * Ballagh, pp. 110-112. Cf. White: The African Preacher.



13. The Negro Church in 1890.

        (From the Eleventh United States Census). There were in the United States in 1890, 23,462 Negro churches. Outside of these there were numbers of Negroes who are members of white churches, but they are not distinguished from others:

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SUMMARY OF COLORED ORGANIZATIONS

DENOMINATIONS. Organizations. Church Edifices. Approximate Seating Capacity. Halls, etc. Seatiing Capacity. Value of Church Property. Communicants or Members.
Total 23,462 23,770 6,800,035 1,358 114,644 $26,626,448 2,673,977
Denominations 18,835 19,631 5,791,384 940 78,719 20,389,714 2,303,151
Organizations in other denominations 4,627 4,139 1,008,651 418 35,925 6,236,734 370,826

        
DENOMINATIONS. Organizations. Church Edifices. Approximate Seating Capacity. Halls, etc. Seating Capacity. Value of Church Property. Communicants or Members.
Regular Baptists 12,533 11,987 3,440,970 663 45,570 $9,038,549 1,348,989
Union American Methodist Episcopal 42 35 11,500 7 250 187,600 2,279
African Methodist Episcopal 2,481 4,124 1,160,838 31 2,200 6,468,280 452,725
African Union Methodist Protestant 40 27 7,161 13 1,883 54,440 3,415
African Methodist Episcopal Zion. 1,704 1,587 565,577 114 15,520 2,714,128 349,788
Congregational Methodist 9 5 585 4 450 525 319
Colored Methodist Episcopal 1,759 1,653 541,464 64 6,526 1,713,366 129,383
Zion Union Apostolic 32 27 10,100 1 100 15,000 2,346
Evangelist Missionary 11 3 1,050 9 2,650 2,000 951
Cumberland Presbyterian 224 183 52,139 34 3,570 195,826 12,956
Regular Baptists (North) 406 324 92,660 72 7,245 1,087,518 35,221
Regular Baptists (South) 7 5 1,900 2 80 3,875 651
Freewill Baptists 5 3 800 2 200 13,300 271
Primitive Baptists 323 291 96,699 33 1,700 135,427 18,162
Old Two-Seed in the Spirit Predestinarian Baptists 15 4 1,025 11 825 930 265
Roman Catholic 31 27 8,370 3 60 237,400 14,517
Christians (Christian Connection) 63 54 16,495 7 800 23,500 4,989
Congregationalists 85 69 19,360 11 1,925 246,125 6,908
Disciples of Christ 277 183 41,590 75 5,850 176,795 18,578
Lutheran Synodical Conference 5 5 1,050 . . . . . . . . . . 13,400 211
Lutheran United Synod in the South 5 3 550 2 250 1,750 94
Methodist Episcopal 2,984 2,800 635,252 165 12,925 3,630,093 246,249
Methodist Protestant 54 50 11,545 4 200 35,445 3,183
Independent Methodists 2 2 725 . . . . . . . . . . 4,675 222
Presbyterian (Northern) 233 200 56,280 21 3,100 391,650 14,961
Presbyterian (Southern) 45 29 6,190 7 565 22,200 1,568
Reformed Presbyterian (Synod) 1 1 300 . . . . . . . . . . 1,500 76
Protestant Episcopal 49 53 11,885 2 100 192,750 2,977
Reformed Episcopal 37 36 5,975 1 100 18,401 1,723

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Organizations by States

STATES. Organizations. Church Edifices. Approximate Seating Capacity. Halls, etc. Seating Capacity. Value of Church Property. Communicants or Members.
The United States 23,462 23,770 6,800,035 1,358 114,644 $26,626,448 2,673,977
Alabama 2,395 3,425 717,989 113 8,925 1,880,656 297,161
Arizona 2 2 450 . . . . . . . . . . 8,000 155
Arkansas 1,375 1,432 378,056 94 6,835 962,149 106,445
California 29 23 5,879 8 2,000 65,300 3,720
Colorado 10 8 2,900 . . . . . . . . . . 73,800 1,171
Connecticut 23 20 6,000 3 350 116,950 1,624
Delaware 82 91 21,310 7 570 187,825 6,595
District of Columbia 77 65 38,325 14 1,400 1,182,650 22,965
Florida 657 729 172,412 47 3,806 506,970 64,337
Georgia 2,878 3,134 953,873 102 7,035 2,171,267 341,433
Illinois 192 207 53,744 14 2,075 566,835 15,635
Indiana 121 126 39,725 11 825 347,950 13,404
Indian Territory 27 31 4,530 . . . . . . . . . . 5,593 780
Iowa 45 43 10,795 2 250 121,990 2,643
Kansas 149 136 32,699 21 1,675 270,145 9,750
Kentucky 816 734 212,795 84 6,880 1,143,380 92,768
Louisiana 1,340 1,343 323,311 27 2,525 1,228,617 108,872
Maine 1 . . . . . . . . . . 1 150 . . . . . 45
Maryland 463 473 122,379 22 1,840 1,118,040 58,566
Massachusetts 34 30 12,050 5 950 285,700 3,638
Michigan 49 47 12,520 7 1,750 107,035 3,957
Minnesota 10 9 3,700 . . . . . . . . . . 62,500 958
Mississippi 2,309 2,354 614,681 91 7,120 1,434,102 224,404
Missouri 549 515 133,809 72 4,700 919,427 42,452
Montana 3 2 350 1 100 14,000 32
Nebraska 4 4 1,350 . . . . . . . . . . 62,000 399
New Jersey 136 140 40,076 10 1,448 405,490 12,720
New Mexico 3 3 550 . . . . . . . . . . 3,300 62
New York 110 94 39,340 17 2,113 1,023,750 17,216
North Carolina 2,191 2,205 668,588 64 4,845 1,592,596 290,755
Ohio 250 214 66,515 31 1,750 576,425 19,827
Oklahoma 4 . . . . . . . . . . 3 270 . . . . . 100
Oregon 3 2 300 . . . . . . . . . . 20,000 291
Pennsylvania 228 234 77,865 25 3,025 1,156,408 26,753
Rhode Island 16 11 4,800 5 1,218 148,100 1,999
South Carolina 1,731 1,959 599,544 55 5,660 1,770,504 317,020
Tennessee 1,328 1,350 399,568 71 4,740 1,690,946 131,015
Texas 2,323 2,126 551,965 244 19,810 1,455,507 186,038
Utah 1 . . . . . . . . . . 1 50 . . . . . 7
Virginia 1,360 1,346 449,972 52 4,139 1,735,873 238,617
Washington 2 1 400 . . . . . . . . . . 4,000 66
West Virginia 27 96 24,045 31 3,415 154,768 7,160
Wisconsin 5 4 550 1 200 40,400 268
Wyoming 4 2 325 2 200 5,500 154

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        We may now consider these organizations by denominations:

Regular Baptists (Colored)

        The colored Baptists of the South constitute the most numerous body of Regular Baptists. Not all colored Baptists are embraced in this division; only those who have separate churches, associations, and state conventions. There are many colored Baptists in Northern States, who are mostly counted as members of churches, belonging to white associations. None of them are included in the following tables.

        The first state convention of colored Baptists was organized in North Carolina in 1866, the second in Alabama, and the third in Virginia in 1867, the fourth in Arkansas in 1868, and the fifth in Kentucky in 1869. There are colored conventions in fifteen states and the District of Columbia.

        In addition to these organizations the colored Baptists of the United States have others more general in character: The American National Convention, the purpose of which is "to consider the moral, intellectual, and religious growth of the denomination," to deliberate upon questions of general concern, and to devise methods to bring the churches and members of the race closer together; the Consolidated American Missionary Convention, the General Association of the Western States and Territories, the Foreign Mission Convention of the United States, and the New England Missionary Convention. All except one are missionary in their purpose.

        The Regular Baptists (colored) are represented in fifteen states, all in the South, or on the border, and the District of Columbia. In Virginia and Georgia they are very numerous, having in the latter 200,516, and in the former 199,871 communicants. In Alabama they have 142,437, in North Carolina 134,445, in Mississippi 136,647, in South Carolina 125,572, and in Texas 111,138 members. The aggregate is 1,348,989 members, who are embraced in 12,533 organizations, with 11,987 church edifices, and church property valued at $9,038,549. There are 414 associations, of which 66 are in Alabama, 63 in Georgia, 49 in Mississippi, and 39 in North Carolina.

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SUMMARY BY STATES AND TERRITORIES

STATES AND TERRITORIES. Organizations. Church Edifices. Approximate Seating Capacity. Halls, etc. Seating Capacity. Value of Church Property. Communicants or Members.
The United States 12,533 11,987 3,440,970 663 45,570 $9,038,549 1,348,989
Alabama 1,374 1,341 376,839 50 3,365 795,384 142,437
Arkansas 923 870 243,395 51 3,310 585,947 63,786
District of Columbia 43 33 18,600 10 1,150 383,150 12,717
Florida 329 295 61,588 37 2,270 137,578 20,828
Georgia 1,818 1,800 544,540 58 3,460 1,045,310 200,516
Kentucky 378 359 109,030 26 2,025 406,949 50,245
Louisiana 865 861 191,041 13 1,480 609,890 68,008
Maryland 38 34 12,389 . . . . . . . . . . 150,475 7,750
Mississippi 1,385 1,333 371,115 59 3,695 682,541 136,647
Missouri 234 212 60,015 26 1,225 400,518 18,613
North Carolina 1,173 1,164 362,946 14 750 705,512 134,445
South Carolina 860 836 275,529 37 3,685 699,961 125,572
Tennessee 569 534 159,140 41 1,860 519,923 52,183
Texas 1,464 1,288 282,590 180 12,000 664,286 111,138
Virginia 1,001 977 358,032 32 1,955 1,192,035 199,871
West Virginia 79 50 14,175 29 3,340 50,090 4,233

African Methodist Episcopal

        This branch of American Methodism was organized in Baltimore in 1816 by a number of colored members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. They withdrew from the parent body in order that they might have larger privileges and more freedom of action among themselves than they believed they could secure in continued association with their white brethren. The Rev. Richard Allen was elected the first bishop of the new church by the same convention that organized it. In the year 1787 Mr. Allen had been made the leader of a class of forty persons of his own color. A few years later he purchased a lot at the corner of Sixth and Lombard streets, Philadelphia, where the first church erected in this country for colored Methodists was occupied in 1794. This site is now covered by an edifice, dedicated in 1890, valued at $50,000.

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        In doctrine, government, and usage, the church does not essentially differ from the body from which it sprang. It has an itinerant and a local or non-itinerant ministry, and its territory is divided into annual conferences. It has a general conference, meeting once every four years; bishops or itinerant general superintendents, elected for life, who visit the annual conferences in the episcopal districts to which they are assigned, and presiding elders, who exercise sub-episcopal oversight in the districts into which the annual conferences are divided; and it has the probationary system for new members, with exhorters, class leaders, stewards, stewardesses, etc.

        The church in its first half century grew slowly, chiefly in the Northern States, until the close of the war. At the end of the first decade of its existence it had two conferences and about 8,000 members. In 1856 it had seven conferences and about 20,000 members; in 1866, ten conferences and 75,000 members. Bishop B. W. Arnett, the ardent and industrious statistician of the church, in noting a decrease of 343 members in the decade ending in 1836, in the Baltimore conference, explains that it was due to the numerous sales of members as slaves. According to elaborate figures furnished by him the increase in the value of church property owned by the denomination was not less than $400,000 in the decade closing in 1866, or nearly fifty per cent. In the succeeding ten years the increase was from $825,000 to $3,064,000, not including parsonages, which seem to have been embraced in the total for 1866. According to the returns for 1890, given herewith, the valuation is $6,468,280, indicating an increase of $3,404,280 in the last fourteen years, or 111.11 per cent.

        The church is widely distributed, having congregations in forty-one states and territories. The states in which it is not represented are the two Dakotas, Idaho, Maine, Nevada, New Hampshire, and Vermont, the territories being Alaska, Oklahoma, and Arizona. Its members are most numerous in South Carolina, where there are 88,172. Georgia comes second, with 73,248; Alabama third, with 30,781; Arkansas fourth, with 27,956; Mississippi fifth, with 25,439. Tennessee has 23,718, Texas 23,392, and Florida 22,463. In no other state does the number reach 17,000. The eight Southern States above given report 315,169 members, or considerably more than two-thirds of the entire membership of the church. It will be observed that of the 2,481 organizations only thirty-one worship in halls, school-houses, etc. All the rest, 2,450, own the edifices in which their meetings are held.

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SUMMARY BY STATES AND TERRITORIES

STATES AND TERRITORIES. Organizations. Church Edifices. Approximate Seating Capacity. Halls, etc. Seating Capacity. Value of Church Property. Communicants or Members.
The United States 2,481 4,124 1,160,838 31 2,200 $6,468,280 452,725
Alabama 145 274 77,600 4 200 $242,765 30,781
Arkansas 173 333 77,585 . . . . . . . . . . 233,425 27,956
California 13 15 2,929 . . . . . . . . . . 24,300 772
Colorado 8 6 2,300 . . . . . . . . . . 63,500 788
Connecticut 4 4 1,275 . . . . . . . . . . 16,000 158
Delaware 16 33 7,025 . . . . . . . . . . 39,500 2,603
District of Columbia 6 7 5,500 . . . . . . . . . . 117,500 1,479
Florida 152 269 63,445 . . . . . . . . . . 168,473 22,463
Georgia 334 654 184,592 7 250 601,287 73,248
Illinois 74 105 23,799 . . . . . . . . . . 310,985 6,383
Indiana 36 51 16,450 . . . . . . . . . . 138,280 4,435
Indian Territory 14 22 1,680 . . . . . . . . . . 2,618 489
Iowa 29 29 7,115 . . . . . . . . . . 87,365 1,820
Kansas 48 58 14,309 . . . . . . . . . . 153,530 4,678
Kentucky 90 106 39,100 . . . . . . . . . . 181,201 13,972
Louisiana 81 115 36,150 . . . . . . . . . . 193,115 13,631
Maryland 58 93 29,881 . . . . . . . . . . 266,370 12,359
Massachusetts 12 11 5,950 1 75 119,200 1,342
Michigan 21 26 7,155 . . . . . . . . . . 72,185 1,836
Minnesota 6 6 2,350 . . . . . . . . . . 30,000 489
Mississippi 122 255 59,833 1 50 226,242 25,439
Missouri 87 126 27,870 . . . . . . . . . . 281,289 9,589
Montana 3 2 350 1 100 14,000 32
Nebraska 4 4 1,350 . . . . . . . . . . 62 000 399
New Jersey 54 68 19,510 1 300 159,850 5,851
New Mexico 3 3 550 . . . . . . . . . . 3,300 62
New York 34 29 12,900 6 325 231,500 3,124
North Carolina 61 147 42,350 . . . . . . . . . . 112,998 16,156
Ohio 111 113 40,965 1 50 318,250 10,025
Oregon 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Pennsylvania 87 112 39,900 5 600 605,000 11,613
Rhode Island 4 3 2,050 1 . . . . . 95,000 595
North Carolina 229 491 125,945 . . . . . . . . . . 356,362 88,172
Tennessee 144 236 61,800 . . . . . . . . . . 461,305 23,718
Texas 138 208 82,850 . . . . . . . . . . 233,340 23,392
Utah 1 . . . . . . . . . . 1 50 . . . . . 7
Virginia 67 102 34,375 . . . . . . . . . . 187,245 12,314
Washington 2 1 400 . . . . . . . . . . 4,000 66
West Virginia 3 3 1,050 . . . . . . . . . . 11,000 216
Wisconsin 3 3 400 . . . . . . . . . . 40,000 118
Wyoming 3 1 200 2 200 4,000 139

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African Union Methodist Protestant

        This body, which has a few congregations divided among eight states, came into existence at about the same time the African Methodist Episcopal Church was organized (1816), differing from the latter chiefly in objection to the itinerancy, to a paid ministry, and to the episcopacy.

        

SUMMARY BY STATES

STATES. Organizations. Church Edifices. Approximate Seating Capacity. Halls, etc. Seating Capacity. Value of Church Property. Communicants or Members.
The United States 40 27 7,161 13 1,883 $54,440 3,415
Delaware 6 4 1,250 2 270 $9,600 368
Maine 1 . . . . . . . . . . 1 150 . . . . . 45
Maryland 8 7 2,255 1 240 5,600 1,546
New Jersey 8 6 836 2 108 5,940 281
New York 3 . . . . . . . . . . 3 568 . . . . . 60
Pennsylvania 8 8 2,140 . . . . . . . . . . 32,100 852
Rhode Island 1 . . . . . . . . . . 1 148 . . . . . 49
Virginia 5 2 680 3 399 1,200 214

Congregational Methodist (Colored)

        Dissatisfaction with certain features of the system of polity led a number of ministers and members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, to withdraw and organize a body in which laymen should have an equal voice in church government, and local preachers should become pastors.

        This body consists of congregations of colored members organized into conferences by presidents of the Congregational Methodist Church, to which it corresponds in all particulars of doctrine, polity, usage. The only difference between the churches of the two bodies is, that they are composed of white and colored persons, respectively.

        

SUMMARY BY STATES

STATES. Organizations. Church Edifices. Approximate Seating Capacity. Halls, etc. Seating Capacity. Value of Church Property. Communicants or Members.
The United States 9 5 585 4 450 $525 319
Alabama 7 5 585 2 250 525 215
Texas 2 . . . . . . . . . . 2 200 . . . . . 104

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African Methodist Episcopal Zion

        A congregation of colored people, organized in New York city, in 1796, was the nucleus of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. This congregation originated in a desire of colored members of the Methodist Episcopal Church to hold separate meetings in which they "might have an opportunity to exercise their spiritual gifts among themselves, and thereby be more useful to one another." They built a church, which was dedicated in 1800, the full name of the denomination subsequently organized being given to it.

        The church entered into an agreement in 1801 by which it was to receive certain pastoral supervision from the Methodist Episcopal Church. It had preachers of its own, who supplied its pulpit in part. In 1820 this arrangement terminated, and in the same year a union of colored churches in New York, New Haven, Long Island, and Philadelphia was formed, and rules of government adopted. Thus was the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church formally organized.

        The first annual conference was held in 1821. It was attended by nineteen preachers, representing six churches and 1,426 members. Next year James Varick was chosen superintendent of the denomination, which was extended over the states of the North chiefly, until the close of the civil war, when it entered the South to organize many churches.

        In its polity lay representation has long been a prominent feature. Laymen are in its annual conferences as well as in its general conference, and there is no bar to the ordination of women. Until 1880 its superintendents or bishops were elected for a term of four years. In that year the term of the office was made for life or during good behavior. Its system is almost identical with that of the Methodist Episcopal Church, except the presence of laymen in the annual conference, the election of presiding elders on the nomination of the presiding bishop, instead of their appointment by the bishop alone, and other small divergences. Its general conference meets quadrennially. Its territory is divided into seven episcopal districts, to each of which a bishop is assigned by the general conference.

        The church is represented in twenty-eight states and the District of Columbia. It is strongest in North Carolina, where it has 111,949 communicants. Alabama comes next, with 79,231 communicants; South Carolina third, with 45,880, and Florida fourth, with 14,791. There are in all 1,704 organizations, 1,587 church edifices, church property valued at $2,714,128, and 349,788 communicants.

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SUMMARY BY STATES AND TERRITORIES

STATES AND TERRITORIES. Organizations. Church Edifices. Approximate Seating Capacity. Halls, etc. Seating Capacity. Value of Church Property. Communicants or Members.
The United States 1,704 1,587 565,577 114 15,520 $2,714,128 349,788
Alabama 336 315 118,800 17 2,500 $305,350 79,231
Arkansas 29 23 8,800 6 750 17,250 3,601
California 13 6 2,600 7 1,950 37,200 2,627
Connecticut 12 10 2,900 2 150 79,350 1,012
Delaware 2 1 115 1 200 500 158
District of Columbia 6 6 3,400 . . . . . . . . . . 298,800 2,495
Florida 61 61 23,589 . . . . . . . . . . 90,745 14,791
Georgia 70 62 19,775 9 200 52,360 12,705
Illinois 5 5 2,000 . . . . . . . . . . 13,400 434
Indiana 5 5 2,400 . . . . . . . . . . 54,700 1,339
Kentucky 55 52 13,075 3 250 86,830 7,217
Louisiana 21 19 5,200 2 350 12,920 2,747
Maryland 13 10 2,375 3 400 17,350 1,211
Massachusetts 7 6 2,050 1 75 58,800 724
Michigan 6 4 650 2 500 3,200 702
Mississippi 64 50 22,350 14 2,375 22,975 8,519
Missouri 6 6 3,900 . . . . . . . . . . 6,000 2,037
New Jersey 25 24 7,400 1 150 107,700 2,954
New York 47 47 17,000 . . . . . . . . . . 371,400 6,668
North Carolina 541 527 171,430 14 1,300 485,711 111,949
Ohio 8 5 1,160 3 . . . . . 13,000 194
Oregon 2 2 300 . . . . . . . . . . 20,000 275
Pennsylvania 62 55 17,625 7 275 256,150 8,689
Rhode Island 3 1 400 2 870 2,000 401
South Carolina 130 128 66,770 2 250 126,395 45,880
Tennessee 55 52 21,093 3 250 78,813 12,434
Texas 47 38 11,500 9 1,775 26,450 6,927
Virginia 72 66 16,770 6 950 68,449 11,765
Wisconsin 1 1 150 . . . . . . . . . . 400 102

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Colored Methodist Episcopal

        The Colored Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in 1870 of colored members and ministers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

        Before the late civil war the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, did a large evangelistic work among the Negroes. Bishop McTyeire, of that body, in his "History of Methodism," says:

        "As a general rule Negro slaves received the gospel by Methodism from the same preachers and in the same churches with their masters, the galleries or a portion of the body of the house being assigned to them. If a separate building was provided, the Negro congregation was an appendage to the white, the pastor usually preaching once on Sunday for them, holding separate official meetings with their leaders, exhorters, and preachers, and administering discipline, and making return of members for the annual minutes." For the Negroes on plantations, who were not privileged to attend organized churches, special missions were begun as early as 1829. In 1845, the year which marks the beginning of the separate existence of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, there were in the Southern conferences of Methodism, according to Bishop McTyeire, 124,000 members of the slave population, and in 1860 about 207,000.

        In 1866, after the opening of the South to Northern churches had given the Negro members opportunity to join the African Methodist Episcopal, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion, and other Methodist bodies, it was found that of the 207,742 colored members which the church, South, had in 1860 only 78,742 remained. The general conference of 1866 authorized these colored members, with their preachers, to be organized into separate congregations and annual conferences, and the general conference of 1870 appointed two bishops to organize the colored conferences into a separate and independent church. This was done in December, 1870, the new body taking the name "Colored Methodist Episcopal Church." Its rules limited the privilege of membership to Negroes. The Colored Methodist Episcopal Church has the same articles of religion, the same form of government, and the same discipline as its parent body. Its bishops are elected for life. One of them, Bishop L. H. Holsey, says that for some years the body encountered strong opposition from colored people because of its relation to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, but that this prejudice has now almost entirely disappeared.

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SUMMARY BY STATES AND TERRITORIES

STATES AND TERRITORIES. Organizations. Church Edifices. Approximate Seating Capacity. Halls, etc. Seating Capacity. Value of Church Property. Communicants or Members.
The United States 1,759 1,653 541,464 64 6,526 $1,713,366 129,383
Alabama 222 220 69,200 . . . . . . . . . . $264,625 18,940
Arkansas 116 104 31,059 13 1,200 60,277 5,888
Delaware 6 3 430 3 100 1,125 187
District of Columbia 5 4 3,500 1 100 123,800 939
Florida 36 26 7,000 5 1,236 14,709 1,461
Georgia 266 256 100,495 7 1,075 167,145 22,840
Illinois 2 2 800 . . . . . . . . . . 1,250 56
Indian Territory 13 9 2,850 . . . . . . . . . . 2,975 291
Kansas 17 15 3,625 . . . . . . . . . . 14,400 713
Kentucky 91 63 16,000 12 1,225 140,330 6,908
Louisiana 138 131 43,220 2 100 134,135 8,075
Maryland 2 2 205 . . . . . . . . . . 475 44
Mississippi 293 292 72,150 . . . . . . . . . . 230,490 20,107
Missouri 35 31 5,554 3 100 22,140 953
New Jersey 5 3 625 2 140 7,500 266
North Carolina 26 20 7,725 6 . . . . . 23,120 2,786
Pennsylvania 6 2 310 4 1,050 1,400 247
South Carolina 34 33 15,045 1 100 65,325 3,468
Tennessee 206 205 67,900 . . . . . . . . . . 258,120 18,968
Texas 222 216 88,330 3 . . . . . 147,075 14,895
Virginia 18 16 4,850 2 100 33,150 1,351

Cumberland Presbyterian (Colored)

        This body was organized in May, 1869, at Murfreesboro, Tenn., under the direction of the General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. It was constituted of colored ministers and members who had been connected with that church. Its first synod, the Tennessee, was organized in 1871, and its general assembly in 1874. It has the same doctrinal symbol as the parent body and the same system of government and discipline, differing only in race. It has twenty-three presbyteries, and is represented in nine states and one territory. It has 224 organizations, 183 church edifices, 12,956 communicants, and church property valued at $195,826.

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SUMMARY BY STATES AND TERRITORIES

STATES AND TERRITORIES. Organizations. Church Edifices. Approximate Seating Capacity. Halls, etc. Seating Capacity. Value of Church Property. Communicants or Members.
The United States 224 183 52,139 34 3,570 $195,826 12,956
Alabama 44 38 9,574 7 475 $26,200 3,104
Arkansas 2 . . . . . . . . . . 2 300 . . . . . 255
Illinois 7 4 1,300 2 75 5,375 195
Kansas 6 3 650 3 150 15,000 190
Kentucky 36 31 7,730 2 . . . . . 31,645 1,421
Mississippi 4 4 950 . . . . . . . . . . 1,825 278
Missouri 10 9 1,650 1 50 17,900 471
Oklahoma 4 . . . . . . . . . . 3 270 . . . . . 100
Tennessee 81 72 24,125 7 825 88,660 5,202
Texas 30 22 6,160 7 1,425 9,221 1,740

14. Local Studies, 1902-3.

        To realize the present condition of churches and the changes in the last thirteen years, the Conference of 1903 arranged for a number of local studies of churches: one in a black belt county of Georgia, another in a county of southern Ohio, a third in the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois, a fourth in Virginia, and a fifth in Atlanta, Ga. To these studies were added the results of previous investigations in DeLand, Fla., Farmville, Va., and Philadelphia, Pa. The study in Thomas county, Ga., was made by a colored Congregational minister, the Rev. W. H. Holloway, a graduate of Talladega College. The study in Greene county, Ohio, was made by the Rev. R. R. Wright, Jr., who later made a more comprehensive study for the United States Bureau of Labor. Mr. Monroe N. Work, of the University of Chicago, studied Illinois, and the investigations in Atlanta were made by senior students in Atlanta University. Dr. Annie M. MacLean kindly furnished the study of Deland, Fla. The students of Virginia Union University, under the direction of Professor B. F. Williams, made the investigations in Virginia.

        To realize just the change in moral conditions it is instructive to preface these studies with several verbatim paragraphs taken from the work of an apologist for slavery, but one who strove manfully for the uplift of the slaves.*

        * C. C. Jones: Religious Instruction of Negroes, pp. 89-176, passim.


The period referred to is generally the decade, 1830-1840:

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        "Persons live and die in the midst of Negroes and know comparatively little of their real character. They have not the immediate management of them. They have to do with them in the ordinary discharge of their duty as servants, further than this they institute no inquiries; they give themselves no trouble. The Negroes are a distinct class in the community, and keep themselves very much to themselves. They are one thing before the whites and another before their own color. Deception before the former is characteristic of them, whether bond or free, throughout the whole United States. It is habit, a long established custom, which descends from generation to generation. There is an upper and an under current. Some are contented with the appearance on the surface; others dive beneath. Hence the diversity of impressions and representations of the moral and religious condition of the Negroes. Hence the disposition of some to deny the darker pictures of their more searching and knowing friends. . . . . .

        "Their general mode of living is coarse and vulgar. Many Negro houses are small, low to the ground, blackened with smoke, often with dirt floors, and the furniture of the plainest kind. On some estates the houses are framed, weather-boarded, neatly whitewashed, and made sufficiently large and comfortable in every respect. . . . . .

        "It is a matter of thankfulness that the owners are few in number, indeed, who forbid religious meetings on their plantations, held either by their servants themselves, or by competent and approved white instructors or ministers. 'All men have not faith.' I have never known servants forbidden to attend the worship of God on the Sabbath day, except as a restraint temporarily laid, for some flagrant misconduct. . . . . .

        "Nor can the adult Negro acquaint himself with duty and the way of salvation through the reading of the scriptures any more than the child. Of those that do read, but few read well enough for the edification of the hearers. Not all the colored preachers read. . . . . .

        "Such, then, are the circumstances of the slave population, which have an unfavorable influence upon their moral and religious condition. Those circumstances only have been referred to which prominently assist us in our inquiry. In conclusion, it may be added that servants have neither intellectual nor moral intercourse with their masters generally, sufficient to redeem them from the adverse influence of the circumstances alluded to; for the two classes are distinct in their association, and it cannot well be otherwise. Nor have servants any redeeming intercourse with any other persons. On the contrary, in certain situations there is intercourse had with them, and many temptations laid before them against which they have little or no defense, and the effect is deplorable."

        "To know the extent of their ignorance, even where they have been accustomed to the sound of the gospel in white churches, a man should make investigation for himself. The result will frequently surprise and fill him with grief. They scarcely feel shame for their ignorance on the subject of religion, although they may have had abundant opportunity of becoming wiser. Ignorance, they seem to feel, is their lot; and that feeling is intimately associated with another every way congenial to the natural man, namely, a feeling of irresponsibility--ignorance is a cloak and excuse for crime. Some white ministers and teachers, in their simplicity, beholding their attention to the preaching of the gospel, adapted to their comprehension, and hearing the expressions of their thankfulness for the pains taken for their instruction, come to the conclusion that they are an unsophisticated race; that they form one of the casiest and pleasantest fields of labor in the world; and that they are a people 'made ready, prepared for the Lord,' nothing

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more being necessary than to carry them the gospel and converts will be multiplied as drops of morning dew; yea, a nation will be born in a day. Experiment shortly dissipates these visions, and well is it if the sober reality does not frighten the laborer away in disgust and disappointment. . . . . .

        "But a brief view of the prevailing vices of the Negroes will best reveal their moral and religious condition.

        "Violations of the Marriage Contract. The divine institution of marriage depends for its perpetuity, sacredness, and value, largely upon the protection given it by the law of the land. Negro marriages are neither recognized nor protected by law. The Negroes receive no instruction on the nature, sacredness, and perpetuity of the institution; at any rate they are far from being duly impressed with these things. They are not required to be married in any particular form, nor by any particular persons. Their ceremonies are performed by their own watchmen or teachers, by some white minister, or as it frequently happens, not at all; the consent of owners and of the parties immediately interested, and a public acknowledgement of each other, being deemed sufficient.

        "There is no special disgrace nor punishment visited upon those who criminally violate their marriage vows, except where they may be inflicted by owners, or if the parties be members, by the church in the way of suspension and excommunication.

        "Families are, and may be, divided for improper conduct on the part of either husband or wife, or by necessity, as in cases of the death of owners, division of estates, debt, sale, or removals, for they are subject to all the changes and vicissitudes of property. Such divisions are, however, carefully guarded against and prevented, as far as possible, by owners, on the score of interest, as well as of religion and humanity. Hence, as may well be imagined, the marriage relation loses much of the sacredness and perpetuity of its character. It is a contract of convenience, profit, or pleasure, that may be entered into and dissolved at the will of the parties, and that without heinous sin, or the injury of the property or interests of any one. That which they possess in common is speedily divided, and the support of the wife and children falls not upon the husband, but upon the master. Protracted sickness, want of industrial habits, of congeniality of disposition, or disparity of age, are sufficient grounds for a separation. While there are creditable instances of conjugal fidelity for a long series of years and until death, yet infidelity in the marriage relation and dissolution of marriage ties are not uncommon.

        "On account of the changes, interruptions and interferences in families, there are quarrelings and fightings, and a considerable item in the management of plantations is the settlement of family troubles. Some owners become disgusted and worried out, and finally leave their people to do their own way; while others cease from the strife ere it be meddled with, and give it as an opinion that the less the interference on the part of the master the better. A few conscientious masters persevere in attempts at reformation, and with some good degree of success.

        Polygamy is practiced, both secretly and openly. In some sections, where the people have been well instructed, it is scarcely known; in others, the crime has diminished and is diminishing; it is to be hoped universally so. It is a crime which, among all people and under all circumstances, carries, in its perpetration, vast inconveniences and endless divisions and troubles, and they are felt by the Negroes as well as by others, and operate as a great preventive. Polygamy is also discountenanced and checked by the majority of owners, and by the churches of all denominations.

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        "Uncleanness. This sin may be considered universal. The declaration will be sufficient for those who have any acquaintance with this people in the slave-holding states or in the free states; indeed, with the ignorant laboring classes of people wherever they may be found. It is not my object to institute comparisons. If it were, I could point to many tongues and people, in civilized governments, upon the same level of depravity with the Negroes. The sin is not viewed by them as by those of higher intelligence and virtue, so that they do not consider character as lost by it, nor personal degradation as necessarily connected with it. A view which, however it may spring from vitiated principle, preserves the guilty from entire prostration."

        "Intimately connected with this view is the crime of

        "Infanticide. A crime restrained in good measure by the provision made for the support of the child on the part of the owner, by the punishment in case of detection, and by the moral degradation of the people that takes away the disgrace of bastardy.

        "Theft. They are proverbially thieves. They bear this character in Africa; they have borne it in all countries whither they have been carried; it has been the character of slaves in all ages, whatever their nation or color. They steal from each other from their masters, from anybody. Cows, sheep, hogs, poultry, clothing; yea, nothing goes amiss to which they take a fancy; while corn, rice, cotton, or the staple productions, whatever they may be, are standing temptations, provided a market be at hand, and they can sell or barter them with impunity. Locks, bolts, and bars secure articles desirable to them, from the dwelling of the master to that of the servant, and the keys must always be carried.

        "Falsehood. Their veracity is nominal. Duplicity is one of the most prominent traits of their character, practiced between themselves, but more especially towards their masters and managers. Their frequent cases of feigned sickness are vexatious. When criminal acts are under investigation, the sober, strenuous falsehood, sometimes the direct and awful appeal to God, of the transgressor, averts the suspicion, and by his own tact and collusion with others, perhaps fixes the guilt upon some innocent person. The number, the variety, and ingenuity of falsehoods that can be told by them in a few brief moments is astonishing. Where opportunity is given they will practice imposition. Servants, however, who will neither steal nor lie, may be found, and in no inconsiderable numbers.

        "Quarreling and Fighting. The Negroes are settled in some quarter of the plantation, in houses near each other, built in rows, forming a street. The custom is to give each family a house of its own. The houses sometimes have a partition in the middle and accommodate a family in each end. These are called double houses. Living so near each other, and every day working together, causes of differences must necessarily arise. Families grow jealous and envious of their neighbors; some essay to be leading families; they overhear conversations and domestic disagreements; become privy to improper conduct; they depredate upon each other; a fruitful source of tumult is the pilfering and quarreling of children, which involve their parents. The women quarrel more than the men, and fight oftener. Where no decisive measures are taken to suppress these practices, plantations sometimes become intolerable, might is right; the strong oppress the weak. Every master or manager has the evil under his own control.

        "They come to open breaches, too, with their neighbors on adjoining plantations, or lots, if they live in towns. The Sabbath is considered a very suitable day for the settlement of their difficulties. However, with truth it may be said, there are fewer personal injuries, and manslaughters, and murders, among the

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Negroes in the South, than among the same amount of population in any part of the United States; or perhaps, in the world.

        "Insensibility of Heart. An ignorant and degraded people are not wont to exhibit much of the milk of human kindness.

        "Unless the Negroes are carefully watched and made accountable for power lodged in their hands, it will be abused. Parents will beat their children, husbands their wives, master mechanics their apprentices, and drivers the people. In sickness, parents will neglect their children, children their parents; and so with the other social relations. They cannot be trusted as nurses. Hence they must be made to attend upon the sick, and then watched lest they neglect them; which ultimately brings the whole care of the sick upon the master or manager. It is a saying of their own, 'that white people care more for them than their own color,' and again, 'that black people have not the same feeling for each other that white people have.' It is an indisputable fact that when Negroes become owners of slaves they are generally cruel masters. They will overload, work down, bruise and beat, and starve all working animals committed to their care, with careless indifference. . . . . .

        "The moral and religious condition of town and city Negroes, may be disposed of in a few lines.

        "They admit of division into four classes: family servants, or those who belong to the families which they serve; hired servants, or those who are hired out by their owners to wait in families, or to any other service; servants who hire their own time, and work at various employments and pay their owners so much per day or month; and watermen, embracing fishermen, sailors and boatmen.

        "Town and city Negroes are more intelligent and sprightly than country Negroes, owing to a difference in circumstances, employments, and opportunities of improvement. Their physical condition is somewhat improved; and they enjoy greater access to religious privileges.

        "On the other hand, they are exposed to greater temptations and vices; their opportunities of attending upon places of pleasure and dissipation are increased; they have stronger temptations to theft, and idleness, and drunkenness, and lewdness; and the tendency to Sabbath breaking is equally great. Their moral and religious condition is precisely that of plantation Negroes, modified in some respects by peculiarities of circumstances. They are more intelligent, but less subordinate; better provided for in certain particulars, but not more healthy; enjoy greater advantages for religious improvement, but are thrown more directly in the way of temptation; and, on the whole, in point of moral character, if there be any pre-eminence it is in favor of the country Negroes; but it is a difficult point to decide. . . . . .

        "The Honorable Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, in an 'Address before the Agricultural Society of South Carolina,' (Charleston, 1829, second edition, pp. 10-12), said:

        " 'There needs no stronger illustration of the doctrine of human depravity than the state of morals on plantations in general. Besides the mischievous tendency of bad example in parents and elders, the little Negro is often taught by these natural instructors, that he may commit any vice that he can conceal from his superiors, and thus falsehood and deception are among the earliest lessons they imbibe. Their advance in years is but a progression to the higher grades of iniquity. The violation of the seventh commandment is viewed in a more venial light than in fashionable European circles. Their depredations of rice have been estimated to amount to twenty-five per cent. on the gross average of crops, and

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this calculation was made after fifty years experience, by one whose liberal provision for their wants left no excuse for their ingratitude.' . . . . .

        "The Honorable Whitemarsh B. Seabrook, in an 'Essay on the Management of Slaves,' Charleston, (1836, pp. 7, 8, 12, etc.), says:

        'As human beings, however slaves are liable to all the infirmities of our nature. Ignorant and fanatical, none are more easily excited. Incendiaries might readily embitter their enjoyments and render them a curse to themselves and the community. The prominent offences of the slave are to be traced in most instances to the use of intoxicating liquors. This is one of the main sources of every insurrectionary movement which has occurred in the United States, and we are, therefore, bound by interest, as well as the common feeling of humanity, to arrest the contagious disease of our colored population. What have become of the millions of freemen who once inhabited our widely-spread country? Ask the untiring votaries of Bacchus. Can there be a doubt, but that the authority of the master alone prevents his slaves from experiencing the fate of the aborigines of America? At one time polygamy was a common crime; it is now of rare occurrence. Between slaves on the same plantation there is a deep sympathy of feeling which binds them so closely together that a crime committed by one of their number is seldom discovered through their instrumentality. This is an obstacle to the establishment of an efficient police, which the domestic legislator can with difficulty surmount.'

        "The executive committee of the Kentucky Union for the moral and religious improvement of the colored race, in their 'Circular to the ministers of Kentucky,' 1834, say: 'We desire not to represent their condition worse than it is. Doubtless the light that shines around them, more or less illuminates their minds and moralizes their characters. We hope and believe that some of them, though poor in this world's goods, will be found rich in spiritual possessions in the day when the King of Zion shall make up his jewels. We know that many of them are included in the visible church, and frequently exhibit great zeal; but it is to be feared that it is often 'a zeal without knowledge,' and of the majority it must be confessed that 'the light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not.' After making all reasonable allowances, our colored population can be considered, at the most, but semi-heathen.' . . . . .

        "C. W. Gooch, Esq., Henrico county, Virginia, in a Prize Essay on Agriculture in Virginia, said:

        " 'The slave feels no inducement to execute his work with effect. He has a particular art of slighting it and seeming to be busy, when in fact he is doing little or nothing. Nor can he be made to take proper care of stock, tools, or anything else. He will rarely take care of his clothes or his own health, much less of his companion's when sick and requiring his aid and kindness. There is perhaps not in nature a more heedless, thoughtless human being than a Virginia field Negro. With no care upon his mind, with warm clothing and plenty of food under a good master, is far the happier man of the two. His maxim is 'come day, go day, God send Sunday!' His abhorrence of the poor white man is very great. He may sometimes feel a reflected respect for him, in consequence of the confidence and esteem of his master and others. But this trait is remarkable in the white, as in the black man. All despise poverty and seem to worship wealth. To the losses which arise from the dispositions of our slaves, must be added those which are occasioned by their habits. There seems to be an almost entire absence of moral principle among the mass of our colored population. But details upon this subject would be here misplaced. To steal and not to be detected is a merit among them, as it was with certain people in ancient times, and is at this day, with some unenlightened

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portions of mankind. And the vice which they hold in the greatest abhorrence is that of telling upon one another. There are many exceptions it is true, but this description embraces more than the majority. The numerous free Negroes and worthless, dissipated whites, who have no visible means of support, and who are rarely seen at work, derive their chief subsistence from the slaves. These thefts amount to a good deal in the course of the year, and operate like leeches on the fair income of agriculture. They vary, however, in every county and neighborhood in exact proportion as the market for the plunder varies. In the vicinities of towns and villages they are most serious. Besides the actual loss of property occasioned by them, they involve the riding of their horses at night, the corruption of the habits and the injury of the health of the slaves; for whiskey is the price generally received for them.'

        "These extracts, selected at random, are sufficient. A multiplication of them would be but a tiresome repetition. After all, the best testimony, is the observation and experience of all persons who are intimately acquainted with them. That the Negroes are in a degraded state is a fact, so far as my knowlege extends, universally conceded. It makes no difference if it be shown, as it might be, that they are less degraded than other portions of the human family, the fact remains true in respect to them, they are degraded, and it is with this fact which we have to do. . . . . .

        "All approaches to them [the slaves] from abroad are rigidly guarded against, and no ministers are allowed to break to them the bread of life, except such as have commended themselves to the affection and confidence of owners. I do not condemn this course of self-preservation on the part of our citizens. I mention it only to show more fully the point in hand: the entire dependence of the Negroes upon ourselves for the gospel.

        "While this step is taken another has already been taken, and that of a long time; namely, Negro preachers are discouraged, if not suppressed, on the ground of incompetency and liability to abuse their office and influence to the injury of the morals of the people and the infringement of the laws and peace of the country. I would not go all the lengths of many on this point, for from my own observation, Negro preachers may be employed and confided in, and so regulated as to do their own color great good, and community no harm; nor do I see, if we take the word of God for our guide, how we can consistently exclude an entire people from access to the gospel ministry, as it may please Almighty God from time to time, as he unquestionably does, to call some of them to it 'as Aaron was.' The discouragement of this class of preachers, throws the body of the people still more in their dependence upon ourselves, who indeed cannot secure ministers in sufficient numbers to supply our own wants.

        "Nor have the Negroes any church organizations different from or independent of our own. Such independent organizations are, indeed, not on the whole advisaable. But the fact binds them to us with still stronger dependence. And, to add more, we may, according to the power lodged in our hands, forbid religious meetings, and religious instruction on our plantations; we may forbid our servants going to church at all, or only to such churches as we may select for them; we may literally shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, and suffer not them that are entering to go in?' . . . . .

        "The celebrated John Randolph, on a visit to a female friend, found her surrounded with her seamstresses, making up a quantity of clothing. 'What work have you in hand?' 'O, sir, I am preparing this clothing to send to the poor Greeks.' On taking leave at the steps of the mansion, he saw some of her servants in need of the very

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clothing which their tender-hearted mistress was sending abroad. He exclaimed:

        'Madam, madam, the Greeks are at your door!' . . . . .

        "We have colored ministers and exhorters, but their numbers are wholly inadequate to the supply of the Negroes; and while their ministrations are infrequent and conducted in great weakness, there are some of them whose moral character is justly suspected and who may be considered blind leaders of the blind."


        Finally, a word must be added on the church and slave marriages in ante-bellum days. The sale of a slave away from his home and family "was a virtual decree of divorce and so recognized, not only by usage, but by the deliberate decree of the churches."

        "The time will come when this statement will seem almost incredible. The usage, considered as a barbarism for which no religious defence would be possible, is bad enough. But to give it the sanction of religion, the religion of Jesus Christ, and to invoke the divine blessing upon a marriage which was no marriage at all, but simply a concubinage which the master's word might at any moment invalidate, seems at first beyond all manner of excuse. Yet it was done, and that not only by individual ministers of Christ, but by authority of ecclesiastical conventions. The resolutions to that effect went upon record in Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian churches, declaring that the separation of husband and wife under slavery, by the removal of either party, was to be regarded as 'civil death,' sundering the bonds, and leaving both parties free to make another marriage contract. Slavery, by necessity of the case, abolished all family ties, of husband and wife, of parents and children, of brothers and sisters, except so far as the convenience of the master might be suited by their recognition. Legal sanction there was none. But the sham service which the law scorned to recognize was rendered by the ministers of the gospel of Christ. I have witnessed it, but could never bring myself to take part in such pretence.

        "And yet I feel compelled by truth to say that, among all the alleviations of slavery, there was none greater than this. While the nominal relation continued at all, it mas made sacred to the slave husband and wife, and the affectionate African nature was comforted and sustained by it. It was a strong motive to good behavior, it promoted decency in social intercourse, it tended towards keeping the slave-family together, and was some restraint upon masters--a great restraint upon the better class of them--against arbitrary separation by sale; in short, it was one of the fearful anomalies of a brutal and barbarous social system existing among a civilized, Christian people.

        "The question was fully discussed by the Savannah River Baptist Association of Ministers in 1835; aud the decision was, 'that such separation, among persons situated as slaves are, is civilly a separation by death, and that in the sight of God it would be so viewed. To forbid second marriages in such case would be to expose the parties to church censure for disobedience to their masters, and to the spirit of that command which regulates marriage among Christians. The slaves are not free agents, and a dissolution by death is not more entirely without their consent and beyond their control than by such separation.'

        "Truly the logic of slavery was the destruction of humanity."*

        * Eliot: Story of Archer Alexander.



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15. A Black Belt County, Georgia, (by the Rev. W. H. Holloway).

        Thomas county is situated in extreme southwest Georgia, within twenty miles of the northern boundary line of Florida. According to the census of 1900, the Negro population was 17,450. Among this population there are ninety-eight churches. These churches represent all denominations, Baptist predominating, there being only two Congregational and one Episcopal church. This number gives the actual churches which we have been able to learn of. It will be a safe estimate to affirm that about twenty per cent. of this number may be added, of which we failed to learn.

        This will give a church for every 150 persons, and here it might be said that, unlike much of our American population, the Negro is well-churched. It is his only institution and forms the center of his public life. He turns to it not only for his spiritual wants, but looks toward it as the center of his civilization. Here he learns the price of cotton or the date of the next circus; here is given the latest fashion plates or the announcement for candidates for justice of the peace. In fact, the white office seeker has long since learned that his campaign among the Negroes must be begun in the Negro church, and by a Negro preacher.

        These ninety-eight institutions in Thomas county, like those of many other counties, have interesting histories. About half this number represent the churches whose beginning has been normal, the natural outgrowth of expansion. The other half's history is checkered. Their rise can almost invariably be traced to one or two methods. First, there is the proverbial "split." A careful study of the roll of membership in many of the churches will reveal the second method. Some brother is called to preach. This call is so thunderous, and the confidence that he can "make a better preach" than the present pastor so obtrusive, till he soon finds that there is little welcome in the sacred rostrum of the old church. He therefore takes his family and his nearest relatives and moves away. Study the rolls, therefore, of many of the churches and you will find that they are largely family churches, and that the first preacher was some venerable patriarch. I think one will be perfectly safe in concluding that two-thirds of the growth in churches of the various denominations has been made in this way; and that little has been accomplished by the church executives as the result of direct effort at church extension.

        It will be readily seen that churches having their origin in this way merely duplicate the old institution; often it is not a creditable duplicate. I know of no rural church in Thomas county whose inception had the careful nursing of an educated, cultured leader. Others have labored and we have entered into their labors. The largest churches and the biggest preachers in Thomas county do little home missionary work and organize no new churches.

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        The result, therefore, must necessarily be a constant propagation of the old regime. Standards of slavery time and directly after still prevail. It is impossible that it should be otherwise. Like begets like.

        The supreme element in the old system was emotionalism, and, while we hate to confess it, truth demands that we affirm it as the predominating element to-day. The church which does not have its shouting, the church which does not measure the abilities of a preacher by the "rousement" of his sermons, and indeed which does not tacitly demand of its minister the shout-producing discourse, is an exception to the rule. This is true of the towns as well as the country. Of course we all understand that it has always occupied first place in the worship of the Negro church; it is a heritage of the past. In the absence of clearly defined doctrines, the great shout, accompanied with weird cries and shrieks and contortions and followed by a multi-varied "experience" which takes the candidate through the most heart-rending scenes--this to-day in Thomas county is accepted by the majority of the churches as unmistakable evidence of regeneration.

        Now, the preachers who have had some advantages of study, who have come into contact with the learning of the schools, and have in their intelligence gotten above the ignorant preacher of the country, know that the old order of things is wrong. Talk with them and they all confess it. Confront them with the truth that it prevails in their own churches, and their reply puts the question upon the basis of supply and demand. They say: "My people have been used to it, my predecessor was thought to be the embodiment of perfection, and this was his standard; therefore, if I would succeed, if I would hold my people, I must supply this demand; and if I would make the record of my success more enduring than my predecessor I must supply this demand in greater quantities and more acceptable quality than he."

        The spirit of rivalry also has much to do with the continuance of this emotional feature. Two churches in the same community--one presided over by an educated minister, with lofty ideals and correct standards, and to whose better nature the old order is repulsive, and the other presided over by a typical representative of the old school: the educated minister will often preach unseen and waste his eloquence on the desert air. He soon finds that not only is his church losing its pristine prominence, not only is his own reputation as a representative elergyman waning, but that there is soon a very perceptible diminution in the loaves and fishes. It is a problem and it is forcing young preachers who would otherwise do good work in the ministry into the old ruts which, while their better natures condemn it, they have not the power to resist. Any system which robs the man of his individuality and makes him less than a man, finds itself early bereft of its power for the highest service. Another effect is, that it is driving out of the work the young men of ability whom the work most needs. I know one promising young man in my county who is driven to

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desperation and vows, for none other cause than this of which we have been speaking, that he will leave the work at the next annual conference. And, too, the young men in our schools turn their faces toward other vocations.

        Under this old system, which prevails in Thomas county, the question arises, is the moral condition of the people being raised?

        Of the blanks which we had returned, while some said openly "No," the majority left the question in doubt.

        We would conclude, however, that the moral standard of the Negroes in Thomas county is being bettered; but I seriously raise the question whether the church is the great factor in this improvement. Speaking especially now of the towns, whose condition has been studied more carefully and at first hand, the conclusion is almost inevitable that there are other factors equally potent, doubtless more so, than the church.

        This question of better morals must affect not so much the older generation, who still occupy a large place in the church, as it does the newer and younger people.

        If this is true, then we find certain conditions in many of the churches which give credence to the foregoing assertion.

        I beg you to note that I am giving what is true of the majority of the churches of Thomas county as insinuated in the answers to the questions sent out, supplemented by my own knowledge upon the subject.

        The first condition I would speak of is the relation of the church to the popular amusements. The supreme end of the church is spiritual: the bringing of the individual up to the higher ideals as exemplified in the life and teachings of Christ. When, therefore, the institution subordinates, even for a moment, this supreme end to a lower one, there can but be a perceptible lessening of the moral force of the institution. Now this is just what the church is doing. They vie with each other so strongly, the rivalry in new inventions and performances is so intense, till it has lead them into the realm of the questionable.

        To a great extent the church has so entered into this business that the young people look to it more as a bureau whose object is to provide amusement than they do toward it as a holy institution whose high privilege it is to deal with eternal realities and interpret the weightier matters of the law.

        Inordinate rivalries among the denominations is another condition. Rivalry is no mean motive and to its stimulating influence is traceable much of the world's progress; but when the church, in its ambition to excel, stoops to petty meannesses, then she need not complain if her moral dynamic becomes a doubtful quantity. We shall not mention examples here, for this is a condition which prevails in other churches than the Negro's.

        The prominent place in church circles taken by characters whose lives in the community are a constant contradiction to the creed prescribed

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to when they entered the church, is another condition which lessens the moral force of the church.

        True, as a race, we have had neither time nor training to establish that caste which marks the higher development in the moral code, and whose logical sequence is closer moral discrimination and segregation; yet the church, whose very motto is separation from the world, should have itself on record as being the most discriminating in this respect.

        The fact is, however, that some of the churches are too lax in this matter. It is true in Thomas county that some of the secret societies, especially among women, are more vigilant as to their constituencies than the church. I am personally acquainted with people who occupy first place in all the affairs in the church whose applications to the societies have been repeatedly turned down.

        The fact that their monied connections and their popularity are sufficient guarantees for the success of any church enterprise, seem to make their fitness for church membership unquestioned. Their lives may be black but no notice is paid to it.

        Now what is the effect of all this? Nothing other than that the young people, and the older people who do their own thinking, lose regard for the moral standards of the church. The preacher may discourse frequently on purity of life, but if he shuts his eyes to the impurity of some of his own members, and seems to insist that they be placed at the forefront of the church's activities, then his precepts become sounding brass and tinkling cymbals; and his example, weightier by far than his precepts, becomes a barrier to the highest usefulness of his institution as a moulder of the community's morality.

        Another condition which gives rise to our assertion that the church is not exercising its highest moral influence, is seen in its lax business methods. Let us give one example, which we dare assert is true of nine-tenths of the churches in Thomas county and in the South: A contract is made with every incoming minister. They promise him a stipulated sum for his year's service and when the year ends, he goes to conference with only about two-thirds of the pledge fulfilled. If he is sent back to the same field, the second year finds the church still deeper on the debit side of the ledger. If he is sent to another field the debt is considered settled, a new contract is made with the new preacher, and the same form is gone through.

        As far as I have been able to learn fully 75 per cent. of the churches in the county are in debt to their former preachers, and what is worse, there seems never to arise a question as to the honesty of the religious body.

        Now, this may seem a too minute selection of ecclesiastical faults, but when it is remembered that the simple virtues of honesty, truthfulness, and business promptness are the qualities most needed by the race, then that institution which represents the embodiment of all that is perfect in its precepts loses its moral force by the laxity of its example,

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and this laxity which is characteristic of the body must find counterpart in the individuals who compose the body.

        We ventured the assertion that the church in this county is not too potent a factor in the moral betterment of the race; and we went further and raised the question as to whether there were not other factors equally potent, perhaps more so than the church.

        You will notice that I have not said that the church is doing nothing toward this betterment. Some of them are, and some of the denominations more than others; but what we are talking about is the weight of the combined influence of all the churches; and we still claim that its power is small, smaller to be sure than it should be, when it has such exalted example of all that is good to draw from in the enforcement of its teachings.

        We have been able to learn of about 120 preachers in the county. Of this number fully seventy-five are either ordained or licensed. The most of their names appear in the minutes of the various denominations. Now this number may be almost doubled if we search for all those who call themselves preachers and fill the function of interpreters of the word of God. This number moulds as great a sentiment for or against the church as those who hold license.

        You will get some idea of the vast host who belong to this class when I tell you that the records of the last conference of the South-west Georgia District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church show that there were forty-three applicants for admission to the conference. Note that this is only one of the four or five conferences of this church in the state. Be it said to the lasting credit of the conference that it in unmistakable terms put the stamp of condemnation upon the presumption of about thirty-five of them and sent them back to their homes disappointed men. And yet, while it sent them back home unadmitted, it did not make them less determined to preach, for in their several communities you will find them still exercising themselves in the holy calling.

        Now of this vast number, so far as I have been able to learn, only four of them hold diplomas from any institution giving record of previous fitness. Only about one per cent. of them can point to any considerable time spent in school.

        The course of study prescribed in the African Methodist Episcopal Church has helped some, but after all this, it can be truthfully said that for real fitness, fitness in the truest sense of the word, there is little to be found among the ministers of the county.

        Putting this another way is to say, that the majority of the ministers are unlearned or ignorant men, ignorant in the sense of fitness for leadership; for, learned or unlearned, the Negro preacher is to-day the leader of the race. If they are ignorant, then this ignorance manifests itself in any number of ways:

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        1st. His home life as a general rule is on no higher level than that of his neighbor. In most cases he married before he began to preach and his wife is ignorant. Here, then, is no toning example for the community which he serves. I beg you to note that the pulpit is not the only place where the minister is to do powerful and eloquent preaching.

        2d. In morality he has much to learn. Morality as it affects: (1) Temperance; (2) debt paying and business honesty; (3) sexual morality.

        I have presented a gloomy picture. I have one consolation, however, that it is true, if it is black.

        Your criticism will be that I have not brightened the picture a particle. But your conclusion will be erroneous if you decide that there is no brightness in it.

        First. The greatest hope lies in the young people who go out to these darkened places and sacrifice themselves for the betterment of the people. Thomas county is dotted with these young people from the schools.

        Second. Young men are seeing the need and are responding to it by entering the ministry.

        Third. In every community there is a body of older men, men indeed of the old school; but during the years their ideas of the function of the church, the qualifications and requirements of the minister have all undergone a very radical change. They are thoroughly disgusted with the old order of things and besides withdrawing their own support they give their children no encouragement to support it.

        Fourth. There is also a strong tendency in my county toward the newer denominations. This tendency will have two results: These newer denominations will continue to draw the young people and will continue to push the crusade for religious education. Second, this growth and popularity of the newer denominations will stimulate the older ones to greater efforts and to more intelligent worship.

        In these and other ways the race is gradually coming out of the darkness into the light, and the next generation will see all of the denominations of the South exerting a stronger religious and moral influence upon the Negro than they are to-day doing.

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Statistics of Three Churches, Thomas County

. . . . . C.M.E. A.M.E. Episcopal
Membership 120 72 149
Active membership 110 28 22
Value of church $800.00 $700.00 $2,500.00
Expenses-- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Salaries 240.00 259.10 . . . . .
On debt .00 .00 . . . . .
Running expenses 12.00 23.80 . . . . .
Charity, etc 2.00 4.90 . . . . .
Missions 2.50 6.00 . . . . .
Support of connection 50.00 31.00 . . . . .
Other expenses 10.00 3.20 . . . . .
Total $316.50 $328.00 . . . . .

        

Negro Baptist Churches, Thomas County, Ga.

NAME. Membership. . . . . . Value of Church Property. . . . . .
. . . . . 1901. 1902. 1901. 1902.
Spring Hill 95 95 $750 $500
St. Mary 17 25 250 125
Evergreen 28 28 100 200
Ocklochnee 125 80 100 150
St. Paul 161 157 1,000 150
N. O. Grove 240 250 1,000 1,500
Centennial 35 30 322 275
Bethel 329 325 500 350
Paradise 51 54 100 100
Walnut Hill 109 112 . . . . . . . . . .
New Hope . . . . . 38 . . . . . 75
Aucilla 202 169 1,000 500
Centenary 150 159 . . . . . 100
A. B. C., Thomasville 500 500 10,000 12,000
Richland 38 37 150 200
Mt. Pilgrim 43 48 . . . . . 200
Friendship 150 140 . . . . . 200
Antioch 83 75 85 100
St. Luke 10 15 100 100
Beulah Road 13 14 100 100
Piney Grove 65 70 500 250
Silver Hill 87 88 250 250
Mt. Olive 80 80 350 380
Mt. Calvary 113 68 600 600
Magnolia 16 19 30 600
Shady Grove 77 65 700 250
Mt. Moriah 50 44 1,500 300
Midway 50 48 250 300
Rebecca . . . . . 38 . . . . . 150
County Line 30 30 200 200
Oaky Grove 19 22 50 50
Turner Grove . . . . . 12 . . . . . 75
Jerusalem 120 . . . . . 150 . . . . .
Total 3,086 3,035 $17,465 $20,320

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Opinions of Intelligent Colored Laymen on Thomas County Churches

        1. Condition of the churches.

        "Well attended." "More centers for amusement than for worship." "Little spiritual life." "Half are in debt." "Not what they should be." "Lack competent leaders."


        2. Influence of Churches.

        "Influence good." "Influence bad." "Good, on the whole." "Ten per cent. of the membership is honest, pure, and upright." "Influence is bad, but there are some earnest folks."


        3. Are the ministers good?

        "No." "Out of ten, three are sexually immoral, one drinks, three are careless in money matters." "Weak in morals." "One is sexually impure and frequents disreputable places." "Lack intellect." "They fairly represent those whom they lead." "Some of them are good men."


        4. Charity work.

        "Nine-tenths believe there is but one object of charity--the minister; give all you've got to the minister and if any one is sick or in prison, give him one-half of what is left."


        5. The young people.

        "The church amuses the young people, and they pay for the amusement." "Young people join slowly." "Church support comes largely from non-members."


        6. Are moral standards being raised?

        "Cannot say; much laxity." "Standard never lower." "Raised by presence of a score or more of graduates of city schools." "Being raised." "In six years I note a change for the better." "Reaching high moral standards." "In some cases standards are being raised, in others, not." "There are fewer separations of man and wife, and fewer illegitimate children."


14. A Town in Florida. (By Annie Marion MacLean, A. M., Ph. D.)

        The Negro is always an interesting subject for study in a Southern town, and one feels amply repaid for any effort made to understand his life. The town of Deland appealed to me as being an excellent place to make a study of the Negro population, both on account of its character and size. The town is largely Northern in population and sentiment, and it is small so that city problems do not need to be considered.

        There are three regularly organized Negro churches in Deland. In and around these the religious life of the colored inhabitants centers, and we may study these in order of importance.

1. Missionary Baptist Church

        This church, the largest and most flourishing in the community, is located on the outskirts of the town, in the best Negro district. Its founding dates back to 1883, when one of the prominent white citizens gave a lot of land and erected a small house of worship. The membership has constantly increased since that time, and in 1895 a new

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site was purchased and the present structure put up at a cost of about $1,000. A parsonage was bought immediately adjoining the church at a cost of $300, the necessary money for these improvements being raised by the members themselves. The church building is kept in good repair and is provided with a small organ, good, comfortable pews, and has carpeted aisles and plain stained glass windows. The seating capacity is 250, the membership 109--forty-six male and sixty-three female. The average attendance is about one-quarter of the total membership, and contrary to the usual state of affairs in white churches, men are always in the majority at the meetings. The minister's explanation of this is that the women work very hard during the week, and when Sunday comes they are too tired to leave their homes. He says that it is much easier for the women to get steady employment than for the men. No children are received into membership under the age of twelve years. The Sunday-school is well attended, and there are two fully organized missionary societies--one to aid home and the other to aid foreign missions. The other societies are a Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor and a Baptist Young People's Union, both of which meet in the church weekly, with fair attendance. The minister is a man of average intelligence, his early education having been obtained in the public schools. He is elected by the congregation, and preaches three Sundays in the month at morning and evening service. The fourth Sunday he preaches in a small country church. His regular salary is $300 a year, and from his country charge he receives $125. In addition to this he has the use of the parsonage and its furnishings. When he was called, two years ago, the church was $250 in debt. It now owes but $50.

2. Bethel Church (African Methodist Episcopal)

        This is the second largest church in the community, and is located on the opposite side of the town from the one just described. It was organized in 1882, and has now its second building. The church and the parsonage immediately adjoining are valued at $800 and $400, respectively. The church has not always been self-supporting, having from time to time received aid from the Extension Board of the denomination. The building is kept in very good repair, and a large belfry has been added during the past year. Inside is a very good small organ, good, plain pews, and other necessary furniture. The seating capacity is 235, the membership ninety-three, one-quarter of which is men; and the average attendance is one-third the total membership. Children are baptized and received at any age, and later, upon confession of faith, are confirmed.

        Among flourishing church organizations may be mentioned the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor, a Christian Willing Working Club, which corresponds to a missionary society, and a Stewardesses' Board, composed of the most intelligent women in the

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church. This last named society has charge of all charities, church furnishings, and the like. The two former meet once a week, and are well attended. There is a well organized Sunday-school. A prayer service is held on Thursday of each week.

        The pastor is a remarkable Negro in many respects. He is a little past middle age; never attended school, and yet is by all odds the most intelligent of his race in the community. He was born of slave parents, and early in life was seized with a desire to learn. As a boy he had no advantages. He educated himself, "after whistle time," to use his own words. This is his first year in his present pastorate. He was for eight consecutive years presiding elder of this, the eleventh, district, which includes the entire state of Florida. He is a good conversationalist, being well posted on the topics of the day. He spends his whole time in the work of this one church and in looking after his business interests. He pays taxes on $16,000 worth of property, and has an income of $102 per month on rentals. The church pays him about $300 per year salary, and gives him the use of the parsonage. He gave his son a college education, and sent him through a medical course of four years. The son is now a physician of large practice in St. Augustine. Under the African Methodist Episcopal form of church government the ministers are appointed to their charges at the annual conference.

        There are two regular Sunday services--one in the morning and one in the evening. The debt at present amounts to about $228, which the pastor expects to pay in the near future at a "rally."

        The church has a mission about two miles distant, at a Negro settlement called Yamassee. This mission has but eight members and holds services once a month, at which time communion is given. The preacher comes from a town about thirty miles distant, and is said to be a man of but average ability. There are no activities within the church, except the monthly services. The building is extremely rough and is valued at $400.

3. St. Annis' Primitive Baptist (Primitive Orthodox Zion Baptist Church)

        This church is the most interesting of the three, from the standpoint of the student of sociology. It is the principal church of Yamassee, the only other being the mission just mentioned. Yamassee is the largest of the Negro settlements and lies about a mile and a half from the center of the town, but within the town limits.

        Facts concerning the origin and history of the church are hard to obtain. Indeed neither the minister nor any of the members seem to know just when or how it had its beginning. The building is valued at $1,800 and it has never been painted, and is not kept in good repair. The floors are uncarpeted, the interior is finished in wood, the windows plain, and there is no musical instrument. The seating capacity is 300, the membership fifty-six, twenty of whom are male. The average attendance is two-thirds of the membership, and the men and women are

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about evenly divided. No children under twelve years are admitted to membership. There is an organized Sunday-school, which is fairly attended, and also a weekly prayer meeting. This is led by some member of the church. There is a society called "The Young People's Band," which corresponds to the "Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor." It meets in the church once a week, but is poorly attended and not strongly organized.

        This church asserts, with much vigor, that it is the original Baptist Church; that the so-called "Missionary Baptist" (of the type described above) is a false body, which withdrew from the mother church in 1832. It points with pride to the list of the great men who were "Primitive Baptists." Its members believe in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, in predestination, in the fall of man, in the covenant of redemption, in justification, regeneration, in the resurrection and general judgment, baptism, the Lord's supper, and foot-washing. This last (foot-washing) is, of course, the main distinguishing characteristic. The regular communion service is held on the second Sunday of each month and after the sermon the members turn their benches so as to form two large squares on each side of the pulpit, the men on one side and the women on the other. They then wash each other's feet in turn, the preacher taking the lead. This, they say, is merely carrying out the example of Christ. The service generally ends with a kind of a dance, which they call "Rocking Daniel." No information could be gained as to the origin of this most peculiar custom. A leader stands in the center of a circle, which the members form in front of the pulpit. They begin with singing the lines:


                         "Rock Daniel, rock Daniel,
                         Rock Daniel till I die."

        Gradually they move round in the circle, single file, then begin to clap hands and fall into a regular step or motion, which is hard to describe. Finally, when they have become worked up to a high state of excitement, and almost exhausted, the leader gives a signal, and they disperse. This ceremony reminds one quite strongly of an Indian war dance, except that it is on a somewhat tamer plan.

        The songs sung by the church are extremely interesting, as they embody so many strange and original sentiments. These people seem to believe thoroughly in a noisy religion. They frequently interrupt the speaker with shouts of approval or disapproval and songs. The prayers are long and earnest in the extreme. The churches spoken of above are much more conventional in their services.

        The minister preaches one Sunday in a month at a country church; the remainder of the time he spends with his own congregation. He was educated in the public schools of Jacksonville, Fla., and in Cookman College, and is a graduate of the Correspondence Bible College, and of the Christian University, Canton, Mo., having taken the degree

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of M. A. L. (Master of Ancient Literature) at the last named institution. Bethaney College of North Carolina conferred upon him the honorary degree of D. D. In 1895 he delivered the annual address to the literary societies of the Southern University of New Orleans, La. He is the author of several pamphlets, and was the general secretary of the Eleventh Annual Sunday-school and Ministers' Convention of the Eastern and Southern District of his church in 1901. He is considered to be a man of unusual ability and attainments by the residents of his community.

        Generally speaking, the ministers are men of good character and of fair education. They are highly respected by their congregations and others. They all agree that the Negro was given citizenship long before he was ready for it; that his only salvation lies in education. They try to impress upon their people the real extent and meaning of the ignorance which is so prevalent among them, and also the fact that they must look to the white inhabitants for encouragement and help.

        There is very little sectarian animosity between the different denominations; union meetings and efforts are common, and much good often results from them. The church members play almost no part in the politics of the community, although most of them are property holders.

        There is comparatively little moral or religious training in the homes or in the schools. Family worship is not observed. The churches are the center of social life and activity, but one finds the meetings of the morning poorly attended, while those of the evening are full, and are generally very lengthy.

        Just how deep the every-day lives of the members are affected by their religion it is difficult to say, but the pastors agree that it has a decided tendency to keep them "in the straight path."

        To sum up, the following brief table may be presented as an indication of the present condition of the Negro churches in the town under consideration:

        
CHURCH. Founded. Value of Property. Seating Capacity. Members.
Missionary Baptist 1883 $1,900 250 106
Bethel Church (African M. E.) 1882 1,200 255 93
Primitive Baptist ? 1,800 300 56

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17. A Southern City.*

        * The data in this section were gathered by students in the senior and junior college classes in Atlanta University in 1902-3.


        There are in the city of Atlanta, Ga., the following Negro churches:

        
DENOMINATION. No. Churches. Membership Claimed. Active Membership. Value of Property. Income, 1902.
Baptist 29 10,363 5,274 $61,273 $23,259.30
Methodist 21 5,015 2,571 149,235 23,101.75
Other denominations 4 883 578 42,000 5,451.79
Total 54 16,261 8,423 $252,508 $51,812.84

        The Negro population of Atlanta (1900) was 35,727. This means one church to every 662 men, women, and children, or one to every 130 families. Half the total population is enrolled in the church, and probably nearly two-thirds of the adult population. The active paying membership is much smaller.

        There are 29 Baptist churches, with an active membership of over 5,000, and $60,000 worth of real estate. The $23,000 raised by them annually is expended as follows:

        
For salaries $10,811.00 46.4%
Running expenses, etc 4,629.70 19.9
Debt and interest 4,493.40 19.3
Charities and missions 2,751.60 11.9
Support of Connectional Boards 573.60 2.5
Total $23,259.30 100.0%

        The Baptist churches may be tabulated as follows:

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Baptist Churches

Serial No. Membership Claimed. Active Members. Value of Buildings. Income.
1 79 12 $125 $178.20
2 874 350 2,500 750.00
3 85 50 . . . . . 162.00
4 400 150 1,500 310.00
5 20 14 . . . . . 87.00
6 150 60 1,000 263.00
7 30 20 800 112.00
8 37 20 700 791.00
9 600 300 7,000 1,148.50
10 387 200 4,000 2,405.00
11 34 32 200 120.00
12 125 75 1,000 582.00
13 120 80 500 300.00
14 12 7 85 57.00
15 22 18 200 101.00
16 500 200 4,000 2,408.00
17 750 150 6,000 1,960.00
18 800 200 2,500 2,400.00
19 200 125 2,000 392.25
20 62 40 800 . . . . .
21 50 20 800 106.00
22 500 250 4,500 1,200.00
23 15 6 13 25.50
24 60 30 1,000 . . . . .
25 13 10 900 55.00
26 265 165 1,200 514.60
27 2,598 1,560 2,700 4,040.00
28 1,500 1,100 15,00 2,774.00
29 75 30 250 17.25
All. 10,363 5,274 $61,273 $23,259.30

        The twenty-one Methodist churches are divided as follows:

        

Methodist Churches

DENOMINATIONS. No. Membership Claimed. Active Members. Real Estate. Income.
African Methodist Episcopal 14 3,242 1,461 $90,200 $13,831.10
Methodist Episcopal 4 1,333 910 48,500 6,927.00
Colored Methodist Episcopal 3 440 200 10,535 2,343.65
Total 21 5,015 2,571 $149,235 $23,101.75

        Annual expenditures of these churches are approximately as follows:

        
Salaries $9,174.53 39.7%
Debt and Interest 7,510.02 32.5
Charities, etc 1,137.50 4.9
Support of connection 1,694.00 7.4
Other expenses 3,585.75 15.5
Total $23,101.80 100.0%

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        The churches in detail are:

        

African Methodist Episcopal Churches

Serial No. Membership Claimed. Active Members. Real Estate. Income.
37 340 110 $9,200 $1,420.00
38 30 20 200 125.00
39 40 32 150 120.00
40 20 6 1,200 233.00
41 35 20 600 307.00
42 400 600 50,000 4,864.86
43 100 70 2,000 585.00
44 506 200 20,000 5,274.00
45 370 135 3,500 3,058.67
46 16 8 500 . . . . .
47 90 50 250 740.02
48 110 100 300 587.55
49 135 85 2,000 135.00
50 50 25 300 140.00
All. 3,242 1,461 $90,200 $17,590.10

        

Methodist Episcopal Churches

Serial No. Membership Claimed. Active Members. Real Estate. Income.
33 740 500 $40,000 $3,235.00
34 227 115 1,000 542.00
35 166 100 2,500 1,425.00
36 200 195 5,000 1,725.00
All. 1,333 910 $48,500 $6,927.00

        

Colored Methodist Episcopal

Serial No. Membership Claimed. Active Members. Real Estate. Income.
30 100 50 $4,000 $1,543.05
31 75 25 35 20.65
32 265 125 6,500 780.00
All. 440 200 $10,535 $2,343.65

        The remaining churches are four in number, one each of the Congregational, Episcopal, Christian, and Presbyterian denominations. Figures for them are:

        
Serial No. Membership Claimed. Active Members. Real Estate. Income.
51 485 400 $25,000 $2,225.00
52 180 80 10,000 1,494.00
53 68 . . . . . 4,000 1,296.79
54 150 30 3,000 436.00
All. 4,125 1,971 $42,000 $5,451.79

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        The expenditures of three of these deserve to be given in detail:

        
  51 52 53
Salaries $1,200 $244 $950.00
Debt and interest 0 495 44.08
Charities 300 75 5.80
Connection 25 . . . . . . . . . .
Other expenses 700 180 296.91
Total $2,225 *$994
        * To this the general church adds $560 for salaries. 		**$1,296.79
        ** Only partially raised by members themselves.

        Three extracts, from the reports of first-hand young investigators, throw some general light on the general character of these churches:

        From an old colored citizen of Atlanta, I learned of the marked advancement he has witnessed in the erection of church edifices and in the character of worship. Just after the war, when the colored people were in their bitter struggle for the necessities of life, he says the race worshipped in box cars frequently, for they could not always obtain houses. As conditions changed the churches were moved to better quarters. The people generally supported the church very well until finally the Negro began to pattern his churches after the white churches, building structures which were far too costly for the Negro's financial status at the time. It seemed very sad to this old man that the "worship of the good, old time" was not what it used to be.

        The character of the pastors of the seven Methodist churches in my district seems, in every case, to be good. Such phrases as "you could not find any one to say anything against his character," express the sentiments of the members of these churches. The education of the pastors is fair, although there are exceptions. Among the schools represented by the different pastors, are: Bennet College, Clark University, Turner Theological Seminary (Morris Brown Theological Department), and Gammon Theological Seminary.

        The education of the members seems to vary from fair to very poor. In the case of my largest church (membership 740) a large number of the members were graduates of Clark University, and nearly all have a fair education. However, in the smaller churches, having from 16 to 277 members, the education of the congregations was very meagre.

        A great majority of the members of the smaller churches are common laborers and are quite poor. The members of the larger churches are in moderate circumstances, and although most of them are laborers, there is a fair per cent. of artisans and business men among them.

        The total expenses for the respective churches for last year varied from $6 to $5,274. The salaries paid by churches varied from $500 to $1,240, not considering a case where there was no fixed salary and one where the church had no preacher last year, the pulpit being supplied by "local" preachers.

        Four of the seven churches are in debt. The debts ranged from $35 to $600, the latter of which was incurred by the building of a new church.

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        Most of the churches have relief societies to look after the charity and relief work. Some churches did no special relief work. One church, however, has a deaconess, who devotes her time to such work. The money expended in such work varied from nothing to $100 in the different churches. That spent for missions varied from nothing to $200.

        The government of all Baptist churches is extremely democratic. Each member has the power of taking part in any of the general meetings and of voting. The financial and business matters of the church are attended to by the deacons' board. The power of the pastor varies somewhat according to the different congregations, and the difference of esteem in which the pastor is held sometimes governs his influence and sway over them.

        All Baptists agree that each church is complete in itself and has the power, therefore, to choose its own ministers and to make such rules as it deems to be most in accordance with the advancement of its best interest and the purpose of its existence. The time that a pastor is to serve is not fixed but varies according to the wishes of the people. If the people like the pastor, he is kept as long as he desires to remain, but if they do not, he is put out immediately.

        The general condition of the ten Baptist churches in this part of the city shows that on a whole their work is not progressing very fast. Over half of them are very small, with very small memberships, and very ignorant and illiterate pastors. And certainly where there are ignorant leaders of ignorant people not very much progress or good influence can be expected to follow. The places of meeting are not comfortable, being poorly lighted and unclean most of the time, and in some cases the church was situated in an unhealthy place. These, however, represent the worst half; and on the other hand, the larger churches are progressing very fast and their influence is gradually but surely spreading far and wide, and includes all grades of society. Many of the most influential and wealthy Negro churches of the city are Baptist.

        The pastors of the Congregational, Episcopal, and Presbyterian churches have excellent characters, and are doing much towards lifting the moral standard and religious life of the people. Not only are they earnest workers, but they are also well equipped for their work. They are well educated, one being a graduate of Fisk and Yale Universities, another is a graduate of St. Augustine College, Raleigh. N. C., and took a post graduate course at Howard University, Washington, D. C., and one is a graduate of Lincoln University, who completed both the college and theological courses. They have excellent reputations, and are held in high esteem by their Alma Maters. The Yale graduate is well known North and South. The character of the members of these churches is good. They are quiet and intelligent, and there is no emotionalism in the churches. Most of the members of these churches are at least high school graduates, and a large per cent. is composed of business and professional men and women.

        The best picture of Atlanta churches can be obtained by studying certain typical congregations now existing in the city. The primitive Negro congregation as it emerged from slavery was of two types: the large group, led by a masterful personality; the small democratic group, led by one of their own number. This latter group is of interest as approximating conditions in the early Christian church. In the case of the Negro, however, the communicants were ignorant people, with largely perverted, half-mystical ideals, and liable to become the victims of mountebanks and rascals. A few such groups still survive, although they are dying out rapidly. Here is an example:

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        No. 24. Primitive Baptist--Active members thirty.

        The pastor can read and write, but is not well educated. His character is good, but he will not do laborious work, which the members think he ought to do outside his church work. Most of the members were slaves, and the church is about twenty-eight years old. It has no influence except among its members and it began where it now stands, and was organized by most of the present members. No collection is taken except on communion day. The building is an old wooden one of rough lumber, raised about five feet from the ground. I looked through one of the cracks to get a view of the interior. Its seating capacity is about seventy-five. The benches are of rough lumber. The lamps (four oil lamps) are hanging from the shabby ceiling. I saw a large Bible upon an altar of dressed lumber. One of the oldest members told me that he gave all the coal and oil used this year. He said that the church had a meeting once a month, and every three months communion and washing of feet. They believed in having no music, save singing. They believed in the pastor's working for his living just as the members did, and because the present pastor would not do this they were going to let him go. I could not find the pastor nor could they tell me where he or any of the other members lived.

        This is an example of church communion among lowly ignorant and old people--a survival from the past. Such groups tend to change--to absorption into some larger group or to degenerate through bad leaders and bad members. Two other specimens of this type follow:

        No. 5. Baptist--Fourteen active members.

        The old store, which is used for church purposes, is a very shabby building. A few chairs, two lamps, and a small table and a Bible make up the furniture. All of the members are old and ignorant. There is no Sunday-school connected with the church. The church government is a pure democracy, the pastor and the active members governing the church. The members are ignorant and of questionable character. The pastor is an old and ignorant man, but is fairly good. He went away two years ago and left his flock because they did not give him the proper support. The church did not split but degenerated. Very little charitable work is done. When one of the members is sick he is given aid if he asks to be aided. There are several ignorant Negroes living in the vicinity of the church.

        No. 25. Baptist--Six active members.

        The pastor has a fairly good education, but there seem to be some serious doubts as to his character. In the church there seem to be three classes of members: some with good character, some with questionable character, and some about whose character there is no question. There is no charitable and rescue work done. The building is simply a small room house which is not used regularly for worship, but is used sometimes when the people in the neighborhood desire to meet there and can get the pastor to attend. They hold no regular meetings.

        The other type of church, with a strong leader and a number of followers, is a more effective organization, but its character depends largely on its pastor. Here is one:

        No. 26. Baptist (Missionary)--165 active members.

        The education of the pastor is fair, but his character is not good. He has the reputation of being very immoral. He is, however, a good speaker. There are a few intelligent members, but the larger portion of the members are very illiterate.

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There is connected with the church an organized body of women (Woman's Mission) which looks after the poor, the old, and the sick. The church was organized in 1878, in the old barracks of this city. It has had eight pastors since its organization, and it is very influential over a large number of people in the vicinity. The church building is large and was once a beautiful wooden structure, but at present it is very much in need of repairs. It is furnished fairly well on the inside, and is situated in one of the black belts of Atlanta. There is an official board appointed by or elected by the church. This official board attends to the affairs of the church. The pastor presides over the meetings. The pastor now in charge was once forced to give up his charge and leave the city, so the general report goes, because of his immorality. There were seven preachers called during his absence and two church splits, brought about through the pastors who were leading. Then the first pastor was recalled. While many of the members and the pastor bear the reputation of being immoral, they are also said to be very good to the poor. The entire collection of every fifth Sunday goes to the poor. There is a fairly good Sunday-school connected with the church, and this Sunday-school has recently purchased an organ for the church. The church debt is $400.

        To reform a perverted group like this is extremely difficult, and yet the work is slowly going on. If the reform is attempted through a change in the type of pastor the result at first is likely to be the substitution of a less forceful personality and the consequent loss of enthusiasm and interest among the mass of members.

        No. 8. Baptist--Twenty-five active members.

        The pastor, from the report of the clerk and two or three other members, is an upright man. He attended the Atlanta Baptist College, but did not graduate. He is a tailor, with a place of business on Edgewood Avenue, near Ivy Street. He does not depend on the church to support him, but is supported entirely by his business. The majority of the members are hard-working people. The men are employed as day laborers and the women do house-work. There is a lack of interest among the members. The Sunday-school is held at 3 o'clock each Sunday afternoon, and is composed of about ten or twelve children. The pastor is planning an organization, a B. Y. P. U., to meet each Sunday afternoon after Sunday-school. There is now being carried on a revival at the church. This church building is one story, and has about twenty-five or thirty benches in it. There are four windows on each side and a seating capacity for about 150 or 175. It has a small organ, and is lighted by one large kerosene lamp with a few lamps on the walls. It is situated in an unhealthy spot, but the pastor is contemplating changing the locality. As soon as the debt is paid he says that he and the deacons intend to sell and move to a more desirable locality, where they can do more effective work.

        No. 49. African Methodist Episcopal--Eighty-five active members.

        The church was built about fourteen years ago. It was organized in a small house, where the meetings were held for about three years. The present building was then erected and a pastor called, but the church was so poor that after a few years there was no pastor sent. In January of this year the present minister was sent, but he is pastor of two other small churches. The influence of the church depends largely on the activity of the minister, yet its location would restrict its influence in any case. It is bounded on one side by Oakland cemetery and all others by a small settlement of Negro hovels, while back of these for a long way extend

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only white residences. The building is a wooden structure, with basement, fairly large. It is kept fairly clean on the inside, and was recently whitewashed. Outside the woodwork is unpainted.

        When, however, inspiration comes from without through the larger churches or the church connection these small groups often show renewed activity and grow into influential churches.

        No. 30. Colored Methodist Episcopal--Fifty active members.

        The church was first begun with one family, at the old barracks, in a one-room cabin. From there it was moved to Peters street, to Shell hall, where it was joined by a second family. Then it was moved to Markham street, where it was joined by others; then to Hunter street, in a white church, where it was burned. It was then re-established at Taylor street, in a store house, from whence it was moved to its present site. It now has a fair brick building, which cost about $3,000, and is fairly well furnished inside. The present building and parsonage were built largely by the co-operative labor of its own members. The pastors are noisy, but of pretty good education.

        No. 34. Methodist Episcopal--115 active members.

        The pastor has attended Clark University, and is a graduate of Gammon. He is well liked by his parishioners. The church recruits its members from the railroad hands and their families, who are for the greater part uneducated. Some charitable work is done by different societies in the church. Such, for instance, as aiding paupers. The church is nineteen years old. It is not in debt, and has a large membership. Its influence is wide-spread, being one of the largest churches in this particular section. The church has connected with it a Woman's Home Missionary Society and an Epworth League. Through the missionary society, and through the help department of the league, much charitable work is being done in the community. I am told that during this year a poor woman was taken and given a decent burial, whereas otherwise the county would have had it to do. There is also a parsonage adjoining the church, which, together with the church, is estimated to be worth $1,500.

        The services in churches of this type are calculated to draw the crowd, and are loud and emotional. A student thus describes a sermon in a large Baptist church of 500 active members on the occasion of the annual sermon before the Knights of Pythias. "He began by telling the history of the Knights of Pythias. This was interesting and I could understand him; but when he shut the Bible and began to preach I could not understand him at first. As soon as I could distinguish between the words and the peculiar sound made by the intaking of his breath, I found myself listening to what the people called 'a good sermont.' During his talk he spit behind the altar many times, and often raised his voice to a veritable yell. I could not keep any record of his exact words. After the sermon there were speeches by several laymen and then the deacons, gathering around the table in front of the pulpit, began to call for the collection. The choir then sang, but the calls of the deacons so interrupted that I could not hear the singing well. Twenty-three dollars were finally collected, each bringing forward his collection and placing it on the table."

        Such churches grow into large and influential organizations, losing many of their unconventional features and becoming very much like churches in any part of the land.

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        No. 42. African Methodist Episcopal--600 active members.

        The pastor is of good character and education, a graduate of Howard University Theological School. The members vary from the old, poor, and respectable, to the young and well educated. In 1866 this church was organized by Rev. J. J. Wood; the membership increased steadily until 1868. The church moved into a new building. This old structure itself is yet sufficiently well preserved to show what a nice building it was. In 1891 the present structure was begun. In a short while the building went up, but owing to poor workmanship it was condemned. For this reason one wall had to be torn away at a loss of about $5,000. This meant a great blow to the congregation for the edifice was constructed at a great cost and as a result of much sacrifice on the part of many people. This left the people under the burden of a heavy debt, and the ministers who have succeeded have worked hard to pay it. The present structure is a handsome one, with a beautiful interior. The building is granite and is finished inside in yellow pine. Beautiful glass windows adorn the church and there are electric light fixtures and theatre chairs in the auditorium, while a $2,500 pipe organ also adds to the beauty. The church is very large, having a seating capacity of 3,000. The total membership is about 1,400, and is composed of some of the most influential and cultured colored people of the city, a considerable number being school teachers and property owners and respected people. The church is valued at $50,000 and a statement of the money paid out during the previous year shows a total of $4,964.86, which includes $984.86 for salary to the pastor and $3,020 for the church debt. This church does a great deal of relief work among the indigent members. Last year the amount expended was $200 for such work and $360 for missions; $500 was given to the general connections.

        The growth of such great Negro institutions involves much effort and genius for organization. The greatest danger is that of the "split;" that is, the withdrawal of a dissatisfied minority and the formation of a new church. The government of the Methodist churches hinders this, but the Baptist churches are peculiarly liable to it. A case in the Methodist church follows:

        No. 37. African Methodist Episcopal--110 active members.

        The pastor is educated and respected and the grade of membership is fairly high. The church property, building and parsonage, is worth about $9,200. On this there is a debt of $2,800, but as this was loaned by one of the church members, no interest is charged on it. The church is a nice brick structure, with stained glass windows, galleries, choir, and organ. In the basement is a Sunday-school room. The church was founded in 1870 by members of No. 44, who had moved too far from their own church to attend services. As the church grew a cleft appeared between the richer and poorer members and the result was that some thirty or more members of the poor class withdrew and formed:

        No. 54. Christian--Thirty active members.

        The leader and pastor is a man of questionable character. The members are mainly the middle working classes of average intelligence. Very little charitable and relief work is done because the church has a hard time to keep on its feet. The church drew out of No. 37 in 1897 and established this church, and since that time the young church has been struggling for existence. The church building is a large barn-like structure, roughly finished on the outside and rather crudely furnished on the inside. It will accommodate about 400 people.

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        Such splits in the Negro church have been numerous in the past, but as the churches grow stronger this method of protest is less effective. Of the present fifty-four churches, eleven represent withdrawals from older churches. In some cases this represents only natural growth; in others the establishment of more convenient local churches; in others quarrels and differences. Since splits are so easy in the democratic Baptist churches a large church of this denomination is evidence of great cohesion and skilled leadership:

        No. 57. Baptist--1,560 active members.

        The character of the pastor is good and he is educated. The membership includes some of the best people of the city, less than 100 are illiterate; there are many business men, property owners and steady laborers and servants. The church supports two missions, and has a committee for charitable work and general relief. The organization dates back to 1870, when a few members of No. 28 formed a small church. To-day the church is out of debt and has a bank account; has the largest Sunday-school in the state and one of the largest congregations in the city. It occupies a large plain building, furnished comfortably but not elaborately. It has two organs and a piano. It has had but three pastors, the second retiring on account of age, with a pension paid by the church.

        Another type of church is the Negro church which is an organization in one of the great white denominations. The Episcopal Church, for instance, has had Negro communicants from early times, but while it helps them there is the feeling that the church wants them to keep in their "place," and their churches are not growing.

        No. 53. Protestant Episcopal--Sixty-eight communicants.

        The character of the rector is excellent. He was educated at St. Augustine College, Raleigh, N. C., and at Howard University, Washington, D. C. The membership is small, quiet, and intelligent. Charity and relief work is done by distributing clothing to the needy; periodicals are also distributed and visits made to the sick. The present structure was erected in 1893. It is a frame building, painted, of moderate size, and neatly but plainly furnished on the interior. There is under the auspices of the church and in an adjoining building a primary school with an enrollment of 120 students and three teachers.

        The Methodist Church has treated its Negro members with much consideration and sympathy and has in consequence many large and influential churches. One of the best of these in Atlanta is:

        No. 33. Methodist Episcopal--500 active members.

        The pastor is a "gentleman and honest man." The membership is composed of the best class of working people with a large number of educated people and graduates of the schools. The church supports a salaried deaconess to take charge of its charitable work and spends nearly $300 a year on this work outside of salaries. The church was organized in 1870 with thirty members. The present building was owned by white Methodists, but they gave it up after the war and it was turned over to the Negroes, and has become the leading church of this denomination in the South. The church is especially noted for its harmonious work and lack of "splits." It does much for its young people, having a large Sunday-school besides classes in cooking and sewing and a week-day class in religious training.

        The Congregational Church is virtually independent and its growth and influence is due almost entirely to Negroes.

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        No. 51. Congregational--400 active members.

        The membership presents the highest average of intelligence of any colored church in the city. The charitable work is regularly and efficiently organized and a mission is maintained in the slums. The church was founded thirty-eight years ago by two white missionaries. The church became self-supporting under its present pastor and exerts a wide-spread influence in the city. The building is plain but substantial and well located. The church raises $2,225 a year and has no debt. Three hundred dollars is given in charity annually.

        A word may be added here as to the character of pastors and the finances of churches. In several of the smaller churches the pastors are ignorant and immoral men, who are doing great harm. In the larger churches there is not in the city a man of notoriously immoral life. Against a few ministers there are rumors of lapses here and there, but it is difficult to say how far such gossip is trustworthy and how far it is the careless talk of a people so long used to a low standard among ministers that they hardly realize that there has been any change. That there has been a change, however, is certain. The older type of minister who built up the great churches of twenty years ago had a magnetic personality, great eloquence, and a power of handling men. In private life he varied in all degrees from an austere recluse to a drunkard and moral leper. This type of man has passed away and his place has been gradually taken by a quiet, methodical man, who can organize men and raise money. Such men are usually of good average character and are executive officers of organizations strong enough to hold together with or without a pastor. They, however, fall behind the present demand in two particulars: they are not usually highly educated men, although they are by no means illiterate, and their goodness is the average goodness of every day men and not the ideal goodness of a priest, who is to revivify and reinspire the religious feelings of a rapidly developing group.

        While the salaries paid ministers are still small, there has been a great improvement in recent years. The ministers of the fifty-four Atlanta churches are paid as follows per annum:

        
$1,000 and over 7
750-1,000 3
500-750 10
300-500 7
100-300 8
50-100 6
Under $50 5
No fixed salary 8
Total 54

        The greatest change in the last decade has come in the forming of the church groups. Ability to organize and systematize, arrange a regular income and spend it effectively is demanded more and more of ministers and church officials. There is still much looseness and waste in money matters and some dishonesty in the smaller churches. Over $12,500 was paid out in interest and principal of debts last year. This probably represents a total indebtedness of $50,000 to $75,000 on a quarter of a million dollars worth of property.

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18. Virginia.*

        * The data on which this paragraph is based were collected by students of Virginia Union University.


        There are twenty-four Negro churches in Richmond,*

        * Including Manchester.


nineteen of which are Baptist. The active membership of these churches is nearly the same as that of the fifty-four churches in Atlanta. As the Negro population of the two cities is nearly the same, this shows a striking concentration in church fellowship and is probably the result of longer growth in the older city, eliminating the smaller churches. The statistics of membership and expenses are:

        
DENOMINATION. No. of Churches. Membership Claimed. Active Members. Value of Church Property. Expenses of Last Year.
African Methodist Episcopal 1 236 78 $25,000 $3,810.00
Methodist Episcopal 1 97 50 3,500 1,490.00
Baptist 19 14,802 6,949 291,400 40,653.29
Presbyterian 1 83 60 11,000 732.00
Episcopal 2 143 138 10,800 1,210.70
Totals 24 15,361 7,275 $341,700 $47,895.99

        The expenditures of these churches are distributed as follows:

        
DENOMINATION. ITEMIZED EXPENSES.            
  For Salaries. For Interest and Principal Debt. For Running Expenses. For Charity and Relief Work. For Missions. For Support of the Connection. For other Expenses.
African Methodist Episcopal $600.00 $4,100.00 $1,500.00 $90.00 $20.00 $ $500.00
Methodist Episcopal 500.00 750.00 100.00 20.00 20.00 30.00 70.00
Baptist 15,278.22 14,843.79 5,859.94 1,667.02 1,042.46 446.81 4,616.08
Presbyterian 570.00 . . . . . 150.60 . . . . . 12.00 . . . . . . . . . .
Episcopal 600.00 360.00 190.00 54.20 .50 . . . . . 6.00
Total $17,548.22 $14,053.79 $7,699.91 $1,831.22 $1,094.96 $476.81 $5,191.08

        Richmond is noted for its large Baptist churches. If we divide the twenty-four churches according to active membership, we have:

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Over 1,000 active members 2
750-1,000 active members 1
500-750 active members 3
250-500 active members 2
100-250 active members 8
Under 100 active members 8

        The three largest churches claim a total membership of 6,169 persons, and an active membership of 3,134. They are all Baptist churches with interesting histories. Over one the noted John J. Jasper was stationed for years. The largest church has a total membership of 2,553, of which one-half are active. This church raises $5,229 a year and spends nearly $700 in charity and mission work. It has no debt. Ninety-four persons joined the church last year, of whom sixty-two were under twenty years of age. The pastor is a college graduate. Another church has 1,058 active members. It raises $5,000 a year and spends $270 in charities. It paid nearly $3,000 on its debt last year. A third church, with 800 active members, raises $3,250 a year. They paid off the last indebtedness on a $3,000 church last year. The Protestant Episcopal Church has 133 communicants and raises $1,200 a year. It spends $243 a year in charity.

        The present condition of Richmond churches seems, on the whole, to be good. While the standard of the ministry is not yet satisfactory, the proportion of upright and moral men is increasing. There is considerable work among the sick and the poor, and this kind of work is increasing.

        For a picture of the condition of churches in Farmville, Va., in 1898, we may quote the following:*

        * Bulletin of the United States Department of Labor, No. 14, pp. 34-35.


        "The church is much more than a religious organization: it is the chief organ of social and intellectual intercourse. As such it naturally finds the free democratic organizations of the Baptists and Methodists better suited to its purpose than the strict bonds of the Presbyterians or the more aristocratic and ceremonious Episcopalians. Of the 262 families of Farmville, only one is Episcopalian and three are Presbyterian; of the rest, twenty-six are Methodist and 218 Baptist. In the town of Farmville there are three colored church edifices, and in the surrounding country there are three or four others.

        "The chief and overshadowing organization is the First Baptist Church of Farmville. It owns a large brick edifice on Main street. The auditorium, which seats about 500 people, is tastefully finished in light wood, with carpet, small organ, and stained glass windows. Beneath this is a large assembly room with benches. This building is really the central club-house of the community, and in greater degree than is true of the country church in New England or the West. Various organizations meet here, entertainments and lectures take place here, the church collects and distributes considerable sums of money, and the whole social life of the town centers here. The unifying and directing force is, however, religious exercises of some sort. The result of this is not so much that recreation and social life have become stiff and austere, but rather that religious exercises have

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acquired a free and easy expression and in some respects serve as amusement-giving agencies. For instance, the camp-meeting is simply a picnic, with incidental sermon and singing; the rally of the country churches, called the 'big meeting,' is the occasion of the pleasantest social intercourse, with a free barbecue; the Sunday-school convention and the various preachers' conventions are occasions of reunions and festivities. Even the weekly Sunday service serves as a pleasant meeting and greeting place for working people, who find little time for visiting during the week.

        "From such facts, however, one must not hastily form the conclusion that the religion of such churches is hollow or their spiritual influence bad. While under preent circumstances the Negro church can not be simply a spiritual agency, but must also be a social, intellectual, and economic center, it nevertheless is a spiritual center of wide influence; and in Farmville its influence carries nothing immoral or baneful. The sermons are apt to be fervent repetitions of an orthodox Calvanism, in which, however, hell has lost something of its terrors through endless repetition; and joined to this is advice against the grosser excesses of drunkenness, gambling, and other forms disguised under the general term 'pleasure' and against the anti-social peccadillos of gossip, 'meanness,' and undue pride of position. Very often a distinctly selfish tone inculcating something very like sordid greed and covetousness is, perhaps, unconsciously used; on the other hand, kindliness, charity, and sacrifice are often taught. In the midst of all, the most determined, energetic, and searching means are taken to keep up and increase the membership of the church, and 'revivals,' long continued and loud, although looked upon by most of the community as necessary evils, are annually instituted in the August vacation time. Revivals in Farmville have few of the wild scenes of excitement which used to be the rule; some excitement and screaming, however, are encouraged, and as a result nearly all the youth are 'converted' before they are of age. Certainly such crude conversions and the joining of the church are far better than no efforts to curb and guide the young.

        "The Methodist Church, with a small membership, is the second social center of Farmville, and there is also a second Baptist Church, of a little lower grade, with some habitual noise and shouting."


        Outside the city of Richmond, we have returns from thirty-five churches. Thirty-two of these are Baptist, one is Christian, and two Presbyterian:

        
Total churches 35
Total membership 18,727
Total actual membership 10,842
Total value property $114,810.00
Total expenses 21,155.54
Total expenses $21,155.54
Salaries $9,738.28
Debt and interest 862.00
Running expenses 3,821.68
Charity, etc 1,247.66
Missions 1,475.09
Support and connection 437.68
Other expenses 4,335.15

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        The condition of the Methodist churches can be judged by the reports of the African Methodist Episcopal Churches in the Norfolk, Portsmouth, Richmond, and Roanoke districts--108 churches in all:

        
Ministers 77
Members 9,126
Churches 108
Parsonages 38
Value churches and parsonages $168,114.09
Present indebtedness 64,739.61
Money raised for-- . . . . .
Pastors' support 18,578.62
Missionary money 1,177.46
Charitable purposes 1,162.53
Educational purposes 512.40
Building and repairs 8,489.40
Current expenses 38,284.22
For all purposes 70,584.67

19. The Middle West, Illinois. (By Monroe N. Work, A. M., and the
Editor).

        There are approximately about 250 Negro churches in the state with a total membership of 15,177. The Negro population of the state was 85,078 for 1900. This gives about 22½ per cent. of Negro population of the state as members of the church. There is a large number of persons who have moved into the state that in their native homes were members of churches. These would raise the actual number of church communicants considerably, for they commune, etc., and to all intents and purposes are members of the churches where they happen to reside. These would in a census be returned as members and counted in the state where residing.

        By denominations the membership is as follows:

        
African Methodist Episcopal 8,375
Baptist 8,812
African Methodist Episcopal Zion 100
Methodist Episcopal 360
Old Time Methodist Episcopal 100
Episcopal 380
Presbyterian 210
Cumberland Presbyterian 65
Christian 50
Catholics (not ascertained) . . . . .
Adventists (estimated) 25
The total amount of church property owned in the state was about $445,000
The total expenses for 1902 were about 133,000

        Of the above amount about $70,000 was for pastors' salaries and about $20,000 on church debt.

        The following conclusions are based on my own observations and the replies to questions sent out:

        The Negro church, as a result of slavery, emphasized the emotional side of mentality and the future life. Freedom, with its changed environments and opportunities, has modified these two aspects. It is found in the study of churches of this state, that there is a decided tendency

Page 84

away from the emotional and the emphasizing of the future life. This is especially noticeable in both Baptist and Methodist churches, which contain the bulk of the Negro communicants. In the churches of these denominations in the city of Chicago there are only a few where the emphasis is on the emotional and the future life. There are some churches where the emphasis is placed sometimes on the emotional, the future life, and sometimes on the intellectual and this present life. There is a large number of churches in which the emphasis is almost entirely on the intellectual and the things of this life. It may be said, therefore, that in general the farther the people have moved from slavery conditions the less emotional and unpractical they are religiously; the more effort there is to make religion a rule of conduct for every day life.

        Historically the Negro ministry has had three distinct stages of development and appears to be passing into a fourth stage. The minister of slavery days and early freedom, for the most part ignorant, was the leader of the people along all lines--religiously, intellectually, politically, etc. The emancipated Negro had few or no church buildings. This, with the additional fact of a large emigration to the cities, caused a demand for ministers who could build large church buildings and control large congregations. The church-building, congregation-managing minister was the result. It was not necessary that he should be intellectual or morally upright if he could meet with the demands, hence the development of this type of ministry. The need of church buildings was largely met, but almost every church had a debt upon it. There arose a demand for ministers who could raise money to pay these debts and keep the church doors from being closed. This, the third type, has more business ability than his predecessors. He is stronger intellectually and better morally. There is arising a demand for still another type of ministry, viz.: the man strong intellectually and sound morally. This demand is, as yet, not very strong, mainly because there are not many churches out of debt, and the energies of the people are largely expended in raising money to pay on church debts. It is more than probable that as the people progress in intelligence and the churches are freed from debt, thus permitting them to pay more attention to internal aspects of religion, the intellectual and moral man will become more and more the leader in the churches.

        The above is not intended as a full or adequate explanation of the churches in Illinois, especially in Chicago, but rather as one of the main causes in producing the present conditions of the churches in this state.

        The present conditions of the churches seems to be about as follows: they are for the most part deeply in debt. Hence the energies of the people are expended in raising money to pay interest, etc., of debt, thereby causing the emphasis to be laid on the incidentals instead of

Page 85

upon the essentials of the religious life. The people live for the church instead of the church existing for the people. There is not as much attention given to teaching the essentials of religion as should be, but the tendency seems to be more toward this phase as the churches are freed from debt. This is best illustrated by the institution of pastors having for their purpose the ministering to the social needs of the people. The Institutional Church, established in Chicago by the African Methodist Episcopal denomination, is the most advanced step in the direction of making the church exist for the people rather than the people for the church. Because of the financial needs and other things this church has been compelled to modify its efforts to minister to the people and lay emphasis on the incidental features.

        The church appears to be occupying a somewhat less prominent place in the social life of the people than it once did, although it is yet probably the most influential factor, or one of the most influential, in their social life.

        The ministry has probably improved, both intellectually and morally. It is, however, not meeting the needs of the people in the best possible manner, because there are few ministers with college and theological training, and the debt-ridden conditions of the churches call for men with ability to raise money rather than for men intellectually and morally strong.

        The morals of the people are probably being raised. This is best evidenced by the wide-spread dissatisfaction that is found to exist among church members and the criticism of present conditions which they make; also the increasing demand for a better ministry. This criticism is:

  • (1) One of the ministry.
    • a It lacks edification.
    • b It lacks morality.
    • c It lacks business ability.
  • (2) Of the members.
    • a Of the officers of the church who are often dishonest and lacking in business ability.
    • b The members lack moral sense and appreciation, i. e., the ethical standards are bad.

        The church is probably losing its influence on the young people because of the scarcity of ministers able to meet the intellectual needs of the times and the emphasis which the church is compelled to place on eternal things. The conditions of the churches in this state, while far from being good, are probably being improved.

        1. A better type of ministry is appearing (very few).

        2. The business affairs of the church are being better managed. This is notably true in Chicago.

        3. The people are demanding better ministers and higher morals (demand very weak and uncertain as yet).

        4. Tendency appears to be toward more honest and upright living among the members.

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        The opinions of seventy-five intelligent colored laymen throughout the state are as follows:

        The majority think that the present condition of the churches is bad. The churches' influence is, on the whole, toward better and more upright life, but there is great room for improvement. The ministers are said not usually to be the right sort of men, their faults being ignorance and immorality, and in some cases, drunkenness. Opinions are divided as to the efficiency of Sunday-schools. Not much charitable work is done and the church is not attracting young people.

        The great needs of the church in Illinois are better ministers, better business management, a high standard of living among members, a larger income, and more practical work.

        The standards of morality among Negroes are being slowly raised.

        Detailed returns as to churches have been received directly from sixty-one Negro churches having an enrolled membership of 10,144 and an active membership of 6,172. Of this active membership, 4,969 is in the thirty-two churches in the city of Chicago. The twenty-nine churches outside of Chicago report the following statistics:

        

Twenty=nine Churches in Illinois

Total membership . . . . . 2,143
Active membership . . . . . 1,093
Cost of churches . . . . . $72,660.00
Salaries $8,200.91 . . . . .
Debt and interest 3,206.49 . . . . .
Running expense 2,388.23 . . . . .
Charity 1,247.66 . . . . .
Missions 310.03 . . . . .
Support of connection 698.26 . . . . .
Other expenses 3,176.10 . . . . .
Total $18,461.68 . . . . .

        For southern Illinois we have reports of seventy-four African Methodist Episcopal Churches as follows:

        
Ministers 52
Members 4,085
Churches 74
Parsonages 35
Value churches and parsonages $83,190.00
Present indebtedness 23,304.44
School houses 3
Money raised for-- . . . . .
Pastors' support $17,964.11
Missionary money 481.35
Charitable purposes 650.08
Educational purposes 243.75
Building and repairs 8,215.74
Current expenses 4,161.98
For all expenses 33,207.58

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        There are in Chicago thirty-two colored churches and missions. Sixteen of these own the places where they worship. There are no returns from four of them. The figures are:

        

The Negro Churches in Chicago

DENOMINATION. No. Reporting. Membership. Active Membership. Valuation of Church Property. Expenses Last Year.
African Methodist Episcopal 9 3,549 2,080 $* 125,800 $39,372.95
Baptist 11 3,097 2,140 16,500 12,674.74
African Methodist Episcopal Zion 1 500 300 20,000 . . . . .
Presbyterian 2 215 134 8,000 2,640.00
Christian 1 50 40 . . . . . . . . . .
Episcopal 1 280 125 5,000 1,811.25
Methodist Episcopal 2 310 150 3,500 1,909.00
Adventist 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Total 28 8,001 4,969 $178,800 $58,408.50

        *One of the African Methodist Episcopal Churches does not own property, but uses a rented building.

        Four of the Baptist Churches do not own property, but use rented buildings.

        One of the Presbyterian Churches owns no property.

        The Christian Church uses a rented building.

        One of the Methodist Episcopal Churches uses a rented building.


        [N. B.] These totals are smaller than they really should be owing to the fact that some churches were only partially reported, while the "Adventist Church" has no report of statistics.

        The active membership of these churches varies as follows:

        
750-1,000 2
500-750 2
300-500 1
100-300 7
Under 100 14
Unknown 6
Total 32

        The pastors of these churches may be classified as follows: Of the five larger churches (300-1,000 members) the pastors are reported:

  • No. 1. "Reputation fair."
  • No. 2. "Charged with drunkenness and immorality; but charges not confirmed."
  • No. 3. "Charged with misuse of church funds."
  • No. 4. "No especial charges."
  • No. 5. "Character not good--immoral."

        Of the pastors of churches with 100-300 members:

  • Nos. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 12. "Character good."
  • No. 11. "Character not good--given to drink."
Page 88

        Of the pastors of the smaller churches nine are of good character. The others are:

  • No. 14. "Reputation not good."
  • No. 26. "Charged with misuse of funds."
  • Nos. 15 and 17. ?
  • No. 20. Has no pastor at present.

        In the larger churches four are composed largely of ignorant or lower middle class people. One has a pretty intelligent class of people. Of the seven medium churches three have intelligent congregations of the upper class and four congregations of fair intelligence. The smaller churches consist of three rather intelligent congregations, seven of fair or medium intelligence, and five ignorant bodies.

        Only one of the large churches does much charitable work. It spent last year nearly $400. One other church claims to spend considerable, but does not do very effective work. Two of the medium sized churches do charitable work of some importance. One of these was originally organized as a social settlement, but for lack of proper guidance has had but partial success. Nevertheless, it is a significant movement and indicates a drift in the right direction. It has done some good work, among other things co-operating with Atlanta University in this study. One of the smaller churches has a day nursery and kindergarten, and two others do some institutional work among the young people. The oldest of the Negro churches was established in 1850. It was for some time a station on the underground railroad. It is to-day a center of social and religious life and also of the political life of the Negroes. President McKinley spoke in the church on his last public visit to Chicago. The second oldest church was established in 1853.

        The actual services in these churches can best be judged by recording the results of a series of visits. In four of the large churches we have the following results:

        African Methodist Episcopal Church--700 active members.

        11 a. m. Sunday service. There was a long ritualistic introduction. The singing was good and effort was put forth to make strangers feel at home. The sermon was preached especially to converts and there was much emotion prevalent. The emphasis was laid on the after life. The house was well filled and the ventilation bad.

        African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church--300 active members.

        Morning service. The attendance was poor and much emotion was displayed. The sermon was on "God's love." There was much insistence on money. The ventilation was bad.

        African Methodist Episcopal Church--800 active members.

        Special afternoon service. Discussion of the decrease of consumption by colored physicians of the city. Talks on care of the body.

        Baptist Church--1,000 active members.

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        Evening service. The house was crowded and the sermon emotional. The service was long, running forty-five minutes over time. Sermon had some practical bearings at the close. Ventilation was good.

        Ten other church services in the medium and smaller churches are reported. In nine of these there was no evidence of emotion--in some cases for lack of interest, in other cases from custom. In one case the church had white and colored members and a colored pastor. They showed much emotion at the service, but were very sincere and earnest people. The sermons varied: one was on the "Future life;" another took the theme "Get ready to leave this world," but ended with practical advice on home-owning. Another spoke of the "Blessed life," putting emphasis on both this and the future life. Another sermon was on "Self-control."

        The expenditures of Chicago churches were as follows:

        

Thirty-two Churches in Chicago

Total membership 6,811
Active membership 4,329
Valuation of churches $199,300.00
Salaries 17,895.13
Debt and interest 17,617.39
Running expenses 12,869 32
Charity 2,760.98
Missions 609.10
Support of connection 1,550.95
Other expenses 4,267.10
Total $57,569.97

        The comments of intelligent Negroes and some of the pastors on the condition of the churches are worth listening to. As to the condition of the churches there is much complaint of the debts due largely to the erection of imposing edifices:

        "As a rule, they are marked with inefficiency and a lack of proper regard for the moral development of the people. The emphasis placed on the financial condition is so great that the church is lacking in that which works for the moral development of the people in honesty, in sexual purity, etc."

        "I have been informed that all but two of the churches in this city carry large debts. These debts range from $5,000 to $27,000. In appearance and appointments the church structures compare favorably with the edifices of the white population. One was built and completed at a cost of nearly $50,000. The Institutional Church was bought from the First Presbyterian Church for $33,000, of which sum $9,000 has been paid. The Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church and the Olivet Baptist Church cost in the neighborhood of $30,000 each. They each owe about $15,000."

        "The majority are in debt. The larger churches are largely attended by fashionably dressed people. The smaller ones have a hard struggle to exist. There is a constant demand for money at every service in all of them."


Page 90

        The influence of these churches is criticized:

        "The thought of right doing and right living seems to be secondary. The primary idea seems to be to get the most good-paying members."

        "We have many loyal and faithful members in our churches, and, I may add, altogether too many bad ones."


        The ministers are especially taken to task:

        "As a rule, I think the ministers are good men. There are dangerous exceptions, however."

        "I know some good, pure, and upright men in the ministry, but I know some who are not good, pure, and upright. In my observations, I have noticed drunkenness, poor paymasters, lack of interest in their families, and very much tainted with sexual impurity."

        "The ministers of . . . . . . . . churches are excellent Christian gentlemen, educated, and doing all in their power to raise the standard of Christian citizenship."

        "So far as my personal knowledge goes, the ministers are good men. I can not deny that I have heard some ugly and persistent rumors concerning the life and character of several of the local staff of preachers. Sexual immorality and drunkenness are the offenses charged. I do not know of this from personal knowledge, however. In making this statement I am not attempting to evade whatever responsibility may rest with me in this matter. I simply do not know of my own knowledge of the correctness of these charges."

        "I do not know of any specific cases of immorality such as you make mention of here. I can only judge by what I hear and that not too harshly. If I should judge strictly according to what I hear, I should not believe that there were any Christians among our ministers. This I am unwilling to accede."

        "I regret to say some of those in our larger churches have not conducted themselves as Christian ministers should, numerous scandals having arisen about them. Whether false or true, it has a tendency to destroy their influence for good."

        "Common rumor charges the ministers of our largest churches in this community with gross immorality--sexual impropriety and drunkenness. The ministers of the three largest Methodist churches are charged with drunkenness, and the one at another church with gross sexual immorality. According to persistent rumor, one church was robbed by a former pastor who still has a charge here."

        "Several ministers whom I know have had the above charges laid at their door. I cannot say whether they are guilty or not. I know, however, that a great deal of money passes through their hands and still the churches groan under the heavy weight of debt. Some I know are positively immoral."


        Several pastors write of their especial difficulties, enumerating them as follows:

        "How to secure sufficient means to prosecute the work in my district, which is the 'Slum District,' and how to treat and deal with the influx now migrating here from the South."

        "One is poverty. Another is to have my message received for its own sake. A third is the utter lack of moral stamina in the community, extending to everything."

        "The pastor's greatest difficulty is to meet his financial obligations because of his meagre salary."

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        "The one great difficulty of the Negro pastor is to overcome the persistent, well nigh peremptory demand for something which appeals to the animal rather than to the human--that rouses the excitable rather than convicts the judgment."

        "Lack of competent officials in a business way."


        The greatest needs of the churches, according to the pastors, are:

        "More intelligence and more piety, as well as an infinitely greater degree of purified refinement."

        "(1) New methods of giving, i. e., from principle; (2) harmony between inner and external life; (3) promptness in attendance; (4) true conception of the meaning of worship; (5) to keep the church out of politics."

        "The greatest need is money."


        The laymen think the needs are:

        "I think the greatest need of our churches is good business management of funds, honest, intelligent and industrious business men on our trustee and deacon boards."

        "More earnestness, higher moral tone, particularly in pulpit. To reform methods of raising money so as to preserve the quiet calm that should prevent devotional meetings from degenerating into a bargain counter session. The building of large and imposing edifices without previous monetary arrangements or its spiritual value being thought of, makes morals and religion serve as bell-ringer merely to call the congregation in order to cajole, importune or brow-beat interest money and pastor's salary."


        And above all, "Better ministers."

        Yet, that there is some good work done in matters of charity and reform by the churches, all admit.

        "Yes, we have Sunday Clubs, as for instance, the Ladies' Aid of Berean Church, which did noble work during the severe cold weather just passed. They meet from house to house and sew for the poor."

        "The Institutional Church and Social Settlement does the most of this kind of work. The other churches confine their charitable and reformatory work to their membership. I think this is accounted for in the small and moderate means of the membership."

        "No specialized charity, but particularly generous and open-hearted in request cases"

        "The Institutional, Quinn Chapel, Bethel, and others in Chicago. Special collections are lifted to bury some poor unfortunate or to relieve the wants of the destitute."


        The churches are not attracting young people as they should.

        "Owing to present conditions, as I see them, the young people of the intellectual class are not attracted to the church. They give very little for the support of the church."

        "Not in large numbers. A few are scattered throughout all of the churches, but the vast majority seems to have no inclination toward the church."

        "Taking Chicago as a whole, No! In the community of which I write, Yes! One of the largest Negro churches in the city until recently actually set a premium on ignorance, and drove the younger element from the church."

        "I am sorry to have to answer No. Our young people are being educated away from the church. A very small percentage of our professional men and women are regular in their church attendance."


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        In spite of all drawbacks the weight of opinion is that moral standards in Chicago are being slowly raised despite the influx of the new colored immigrants:

        "It is my firm belief that the standards are being raised in these particulars. The accumulations in property holdings and homes, the increase in bank accounts, the visible improvement in the matter of good taste in dress, are signs which, in my opinion, confirm the belief that the standards included in this question are being raised."

        "I do not think the standards are being raised by any means."

        "Through the efforts of the church, Women's Clubs, and Sunday Clubs, there seems to be an improvement in morals."

        "Lowered, as viewed from large numbers of marriages, which are not held in such sacredness as such tie demands and in careless rearing of children."

        "I think the standard of morality is being raised. Marriages are common, every-day occurrences, and illicit and illegal cohabitation is no longer common but is very rare. The chief agencies in this work are church and school."


20. The Middle West, Ohio. (By R. R. Wright, Jr.*)

        * Cf. Mr. Wright's longer study, Bulletin United States Bureau of Labor, No. 48.


        Greene County is situated in the southwestern portion of the state of Ohio, about midway between Cincinnati and Columbus. Its area is 453 square miles and its population is 31,613, of whom 4,055 are Negroes. Greene County is a typical county for the study of the Negro problem, as it refers to the Northern Negro of the country and small town, for it not only has a very varied population of Negroes, but also the largest proportion of Negroes to whites in the state; and among these Negroes are some of the oldest inhabitants of the state as well as some of the most recent immigrants from the South.

Negro Church in Ohio

        Ohio has a population of 4,157,545 persons, of whom 96,901 are Negroes. Of these about 28,000, or twenty-nine per cent., are reported as church members.

        Early in the last century the Negro church had its rise in this state. In 1815, when there were but few Negroes here, the first Negro church was established at Cincinnati. This was under the Methodist Episcopal church. Rev. B. W. Arnett, now bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, gives the following account in his "Proceedings of the Semi-Centenary Celebration of the African Methodist Episcopal Church of Cincinnati, 1874:" "The first religious society organized in Cincinnati by colored people was the Deer Creek Church, organized in 1815, under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church. This was one year before the organization of the African Methodist Episcopal denomination in Philadelphia by Richard Allen and others. What Negroes there were in Cincinnati had been attending Old Stone Church,

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or 'Wesley Chapel' Methodist Episcopal Church; but on account of the shouting habit they were not very much desired at this white church. They were all crowded into one section of the church, where with much effort they tried not to disturb their white brethren by their frequent outbursts of praise to God. The whites tolerated them as long as they were successful in suppressing this inclination to shout. The crisis came, however, in 1815, when a brother, striving to suppress his shout by muffling his mouth with a handkerchief, burst one of his blood vessels in the attempt. After this the whites themselves took serious steps to have a separate church for Negroes. The result was the Deer Creek Church, whose pastor for a long while was a slave who came over from Kentucky from time to time. This new church was under the Methodist Episcopal connection until 1823, when, on account of alleged discrimination and unbrotherly action on the part of the white brethren toward the colored, many of the latter withdrew and went over to the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Those who remained continued in the Methodist Episcopal Church, known later as Union Chapel. Thus began the Negro church in Ohio. Its mother was the Methodist Episcopal Church. The first African Methodist Episcopal Church was at Steubenville. In 1823, according to Bishop D. A. Payne's History of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, there were churches of this denomination at Cincinnati, Steubenville, and Chillicothe. When the Chillicothe and Steubenville churches were founded is not exactly known. In 1824 the report for the African Methodist Episcopal churches was as follows: Jefferson County Circuit (composed of Steubenville, with forty-five members, Cape Belmont, six members, Mount Pleasant, twelve members)--total sixty-three members; Chillicothe Circuit (composed of Chillicothe, Zanesville, Lancaster, and Cincinnati), only thirty-three members were reported on these charges. In 1833 there were churches at twenty different points with a membership of 690. In 1836 the membership of the African Methodist Episcopal Church was 1,131, and in 1838 it was 1,817. It has steadily increased until to-day it is more than 6,000."

        When the separate Negro church was established, in 1815, nearly all the Negroes of the town joined or attended it regardless of what denomination they had before belonged to. It was not until 1835 that the first Baptist organization was begun--"Union Baptist Church" of Cincinnati.

        There are now in the state seven denominations maintaining separate churches for Negroes, with a membership as follows:

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Baptists . . . . . 16,213
Western Association 6,885
Eastern Association 3,704
Zion Association *3,500
Providence Association 2,124
African Methodist Episcopal Church . . . . . 6,308
Ohio Conference 3,179
North Ohio Conference 3,129
Methodist Episcopal Church, North . . . . . 1,645
Wesleyan Methodists . . . . . 557
Christian (Disciples) . . . . . *1,000
Episcopal and Presbyterian . . . . . 2,000
Total . . . . . 27,723

        * Estimated by Secretary.


        These with the number of Negroes who are members of white congregations among Presbyterians, Catholics, Congregationalists, Zionists (Dowieites), would make the total about 28,000, or about twenty-nine per cent. of the total Negro population of the state. Of the population over fifteen years of age--70,032--forty per cent. are church members. In 1890 there were 250 organizations in the state among Negroes, having 19,827 communicants. This was 22.8 per cent. of the total population of 87,113 Negroes, much less than in 1902. The number of church members in the country at large in 1890 was 2,673,977 or 35.7 per cent. of the total Negro population. By this we see that Ohio is now still somewhat behind what the country at large was in 1890. The following table is taken from the United States census of 1890:

        
STATE. Organizations. Edifices. Seating Capacity. Halls. Seating Capacity. Value. Communicants. Population.
Total for United States 23,462 23,770 6,800,035 1,358 114,644 $26,626,488 2,673,977 7,488,788
Ohio 250 214 66,516 34 1,750 576,425 19,827 87,113

        There are now over 300 organizations distributed among over 200 cities and towns in the state.

Greene County

        Greene County has a population of 31,613, of whom 4,055 are Negroes. The county is favorably situated for farming, and outside of Xenia many Negroes engage in this occupation, chiefly as "hands" at odd labor, however, as the census of 1900 gave only ninety farmers among the colored population of the county. The county is one of the oldest in the State, constituted in 1802, and named for General Nathaniel

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Greene. From its earliest days it has had Negroes among its population, as the following table will show:

        

POPULATION OF GREENE COUNTY BY UNITED STATES CENSUS, 1810-1900

Year. White. Colored. Total.
1810 5,834 36 5,870
1820 10,468 61 10,521
1830 14,639 162 14,801
1840 17,184 344 17,528
1850 21,292 654 21,946
1860 24,722 1,475 26,197
1870 24,199 3,839a
a Includes 24 Indians. 		28,038
1880 26,774 4,575b
b Includes 6 Chinese and 19 Indians. 		31,349
1890 25,950 4,060c
c Does not include 3 Chinese and 7 Indians. 		29,820
1900 27,554 4,055d
d Negroes only. Does not include 4 Chinese and Japanese. 		31,613

        The following table gives a partial exhibit of the general financial condition of the churches of the State:

        
CHURCHES. Value of Property. Indebtedness. Salary of Pastor. Paid on Debt. Total Raised.
M. E. Church a$79,050.09
a $12,200 for parsonages. 		$10,439.00 $8,430.00 b$9,074.00
b $5,628 for improvements, $3,466 on debt. 		. . . . .
A. M. E.-- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
N. O. Conference 242,375.00 17,055.25 14,692.01 14,898.29 $37,878.57
Ohio Conference 108,570.00 10,364.53 13,116.28 10,806.64 28,522.43
Baptist Eastern Association . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Baptist Western Association . . . . . . . . . . 13,380.00 d13,510.00
d The total valuation of church property of the Baptists is estimated at $259,200. 		. . . . .
Baptist Zion Association . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Baptist Providence Association 31,350.00 . . . . . c1,414.40
c For six pastors only. 		. . . . . . . . . .
Wesleyan 9,400.00 . . . . . 1,954.99 . . . . . 3,296.52

        Greene County is noted for its many small towns, among a score of which the most prominent are Xenia, with a population of 8,696; Jamestown, 1,205; Yellow Springs, 1,371; Cedarville, 1,189; Osborn, 948; Bowersville, 370; Springvalley, 522; and Bellbrook, 352. In five of these, viz: Xenia, Jamestown, Yellow Springs, Cedarville, and Wilberforce, we find the Negro church. To describe one of these is to describe all save Xenia and Wilberforce, the latter a college community, where Wilberforce University is located.

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        One rides into one of the other of these little towns and here he finds two more or less neat little church buildings, with seating capacity, on an average, of about 150 or 200 persons; sometimes of brick, sometimes frame. At Yellow Springs, the seat of Antioch College, where once the great Horace Mann presided, both churches are of brick and neat. One of these churches is an African Methodist Episcopal, and the other a Baptist Church. Almost invariably you will find that the younger and more intelligent class of Negroes is at the Methodist Church, while the older contingent generally constitute the membership of the Baptist Church. At the Baptist Church one will find more fervency of speech and a more sanctimonious look on the part of both pastor and people, more of heaven and the future is talked of; at the Methodist churches there is all of this, but less in proportion. The sermons one very probably will hear at the Baptist Church will abound in much good thought, ending generally in the same way, with something foreign more or less to the text. While the Methodist pastor may not be free from digressions, yet he is in every case the more logical speaker, and now and then gives his people something out of the "same old way." This is natural, when we know that the pastor of the Baptist Church is generally a middle-aged man*

        * The pulpit of Cedarville Baptist Church has been recently given to a young man--student at Wilberforce.


of but meagre English and no theological training, while the pulpit of the Methodist Church is occupied by a student in the Theological Seminary at Wilberforce, who is also generally the equivalent of a high school graduate. These circumstances account for the above-named facts that the more intelligent class attends the Methodist Church. This comparison is somewhat abnormal when the whole state is considered, because the Methodist pastors are students who, were they engaged solely in preaching, would have much better churches, and leave these smaller churches to more poorly equipped men, as is the case with the Baptists now. The Baptist churches are, however, generally larger than the Methodist chiefly because they receive more time from their pastors. This was the case up to two years ago. Still there is no friction, but the most cordial feeling between both pastors and both flocks. Indeed many of the members of the Methodist Church take active parts in affairs of the Baptist Church, and vice versa. The pastors even change their pulpits, which once was not common. During the winter of 1902, when the revival fever had taken vigorous hold of Greene County, in order that there be no disadvantage in fighting Satan occasioned by a division of the hosts of the Lord, an agreement was made in Cedarville to the effect that one of the denominations would hold its revival and that all the members of the other church would give aid. After this first revival, then all, regardless of denomination, should combine their forces at the other church. This worked well for both. On the day
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that the Methodist Church was visited by the writer, he found the pastor of the Baptist Church present to preach.

        In all of these churches the chief stress is put upon "saving souls;" that is, in persuading people to forsake sin and accept the Christian religion as the guiding force of their lives. And the method is quite rational. Usually in the middle of the winter, i. e., the first thing in the new year, the churches begin their revivals. This first work of the year lasts from two to eight weeks and many come to be saved, and are converted. Some of these see visions or dream dreams, some spend weeks in mourning, and still others are converted in a few minutes. In the revivals the sermons are chiefly on hell and its terrors, the love of Christ and God as shown in the suffering and death of Christ, Christ seeking sinners, the awful doom of those rejecting Him, etc. They abound in pathetic stories, which are related with great feeling, and which seldom fall in the desired result. This result is a large number of conversions and accessions to the churches. These are in due time baptized and admitted to full membership. Then the revival has closed, not only having been of great benefit to those converted, but also a positive moral help to the community at large. The remaining nine or ten months of the year are used for strengthening and teaching the members in the Christian religion and in the doctrines of the church. The Baptists take in their members directly. The Methodists require six months of probation, during which the candidate is supposed to receive instruction in his duty as a Christian and church member by the pastor, beside the regular instruction given from the pulpit. In none of the Methodist churches of Greene County is this carried out fully, but in those where it is attempted with anything like success, the results show well in the character of the members.

        If there is any criticism as to method in arousing and directing the religious consciousness it should be more severe as regards post-revival methods than revival methods. Experienced revivalists, and some men of much intelligence living in the county, state that for the average Negro congregation their method, though accompanied by much of the spectacular, is best suited for those to whom they appeal, but that after the "revival" is over the proper oversight is seldom given the young Christian and, as is quite natural, the life is far from the ideal.

        WILBERFORCE.--The value of the Wilberforce church consists in the fact that many students are interested in Christian work, and are trained for larger service after leaving school. The pastor of the church is the instructor in science and a very devout man. Under his preaching from forty to eighty students are converted every year. Of these some take an active interest in the local Christian work, and of these latter some enter the ministry. In many states of the Union there are men and women earnestly engaged in church, Sunday-school, Young Men's Christian Association work, now leaders and pastors,

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who were converted in the Wilberforce revival and got their first interest and training here. For the training of the newly converted there is a class led by one of the instructors. Beside this the Bible classes of the Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A., taught by professors in the University, have in the past year been successful in imparting systematic knowledge of the Scriptures more than at any previous time.

        Payne Theological Seminary is at Wilberforce, and its students and teachers are local preachers in the church. Its dean is superintendent of the Sunday-school. In the Seminary are forty-five students, representing South America, South Africa, West Africa, and various states in the Union. The class of 1903 numbers eleven members.

        XENIA.--Xenia is the county seat of Greene County and one of the oldest towns in the state. Its population by the census of 1900 was 8,696, of whom 1,988, or 21.7 per cent., were Negroes. These Negroes are made up of about half natives of the state of Ohio and about half immigrants from Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and other Southern states. In general the immigrants make up the lower class, being the poorer and more illiterate. The illiteracy of Xenia Negroes is 13.42 per cent. for all above ten years, and 1.57 per cent. for those between ten years and forty years. About 63 per cent. of Xenia Negroes own their homes and they pay taxes on $116,828 worth of property. The school advantages, through high school, are far above ordinary. Yet Xenia is a town of but little thrift compared with the advantages offered. The chief businesses are barbers, small groceries and an undertaking establishment. While the Negroes are not extraordinarily thrifty, they are not, on the other hand, very vicious. Composing 21.7 per cent. of the population, they furnish 29.9 per cent. of the arrests. The number for 1901-2 was ninety-eight. Among these cases were: Drunk, ten; loitering, three; disorderly, twenty; drunk and disorderly, seven; assault and battery, seven; suspicion, five; safe keeping, eleven; stealing ride, seven; petit larceny, one; lunacy, two; burglary, fugitive from justice, murder in another state, larceny, threatening, execution, one each; gambling, seven; horse stealing, two.

        Xenia, then, is a slow, not good, not bad, conservative, somewhat conceited sort of a town, whose people live, in the main, comfortably, i. e., according to the general standard for Negroes.

        Negroes have lived in the county ever since it has been established. The first count made in the county, in 1803, took a record only of white males over twenty-one years of age, but the United States census gives the colored population of Xenia only since 1830, as follows:

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Year. White. Colored. Total.
1830 902 17 919
1850 2,694 330 3,024
1860 3,856 802 4,658
1870 4,687 1,690 6,377
1880 5,077 1,949 a
a Includes 3 Chinese and Japanese and 3 Indians. 		7,026
1890 5,424 1,877 b
b Includes 3 Chinese and 6 civilized Indians. 		7,301
1900 6,705 1,991 c
c Includes 3 Chinese. 		8,696

        There are seven churches in Xenia, viz: Three Baptist, one African Methodist Episcopal, one Methodist Episcopal, one Wesleyan Methodist, and one Christian Church.

        The first church in Xenia was established by the African Methodist Episcopal connection in 1833. Nothing is known of it save that it was on the Hillsboro Circuit, and Rev. Thomas Lawrence was its pastor. In 1836 Rev. William Paul Quinn, afterwards bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, was pastor. In 1842 the church was called the "Greene County Mission," had twenty-five members and paid its pastor the neat sum of $7.91. The first Baptist Church was established in 1848. Henry Howe's first "History of Ohio," published in 1852, says that then Xenia contained one German Church, one Lutheran Church, one Methodist Episcopal Church, one Seceders' Church, one Associate Reformed Church, one Baptist Church, and two churches for colored people.

        Membership.--The seven churches of Xenia report a total membership of 1,068, or 53.4 per cent. of the entire Negro population. The membership is as follows:

        
Church. Membership.
Baptist 640
Zion 370
Middle Run 140
Third 130
African Methodist Episcopal 240
Methodist Episcopal 54
Wesleyan 9
Christian 125
Total 1,068

        By a personal count of 1,832 persons made by the writer during May-June, 1902, 976, or 53.6 per cent., reported themselves as church members. These members were all persons over ten years of age. The number of persons counted who were over ten years of age was 1,505. Hence 64.8 per cent. of these were church members. The following table will show the membership as reported by the persons themselves:

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AGE PERIOD. Church Members. . . . . . . . . . . Total Population. . . . . . . . . . . Percent of Members.
. . . . . Males. Females. Total. Males. Females. Total. . . . . .
10 to 19 years 46 102 148 142 189 331 44.7
20 to 29 years 52 124 176 149 168 317 55.5
30 to 39 years 44 106 150 104 133 237 63.3
40 to 49 years 73 119 192 112 125 237 81.0
50 to 59 years 64 93 157 82 103 185 84.8
60 to 69 years 53 47 100 73 51 124 80.7
70 to 79 years 17 15 32 25 18 43 74.4
80 years and over 4 12 16 5 12 17 94.1
Unknown age 4 1 5 9 5 14 35.7
Total 357 619 976 701 804 1,505 64.8

        This table shows very strikingly that the young people are not forsaking the church to such an extent as to discard membership. More than half for every age period above twenty years are members, and in the first period more than half from fifteen to nineteen years of age are church members. The excess is of women over men. These persons are distributed throughout all occupations, but almost invariably those in the most lucrative positions or employments are church members. As to culture, as indicated by scholastic training, it appears from a personal count by the writer that out of ninety-five high school graduates 80 or 84.2 per cent. are church members--fifty-nine out of sixty-seven women, and twenty-one out of twenty-eight men. In the African Methodist Church the principal of the high school is superintendent of the Sunday-school, and the principal of the elementary school, although a woman, is a class leader. The only college graduate in the city is also an ordained minister connected with the local African Methodist Episcopal Church. As to material standing of the church members it is noted that of the 318 families who own their homes 288, or 90.6 per cent., were connected with the church by some member of the family, and 237 of them were connected by the head of the family.

        The chief means of increasing the membership is through the revival, which is substantially the same as conducted in other parts of the county. Last year there were 175 conversions, of whom sixty-nine were under twenty years of age, and eleven were over forty years, according to the report of the pastors. (See table, page 00).

        Activities.--These churches make some attempt to satisfy all the legitimate social desires of their members. There are sick benefit societies, educational societies, Home and Foreign Missionary Societies, Christian Endeavor Societies, Baptist Young People's Unions, sewing circles, besides various temporary organizations for raising money and other purposes. These are in addition to the organizations fundamental to the church government, such as in the Methodist Church, the various conferences, boards of trustees, stewards, spiritual officers, Sunday-school, etc.

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        As before stated, the chief activity is to preach and teach Christian doctrine and morality. The method for this is preaching in all the churches two or three times on Sunday, once or twice during the week, prayer-meeting on Wednesday night, class-meeting once a week in the Methodist Church and pastoral visiting, beside monthly love feasts or covenant meetings. As a means to this end is the material side of the church life to be looked after, and this is chiefly in regard to raising funds for the pastor's salary, current expenses, the debt, improvements, general purposes, etc. This is done by way of the Sunday and weekly collections and by organizing the members into clubs to solicit subscriptions or to raise funds by concerts and other entertainments. In this way the African Methodist Episcopal Church paid its debt of some $400 last year.

        The next function of the church is the purely social. This is carried forward in other organizations and as a part of the more religious and financial activity. At church service old friends are met and new ones often made, but as no part of the special program. To raise money socials are given, etc., so that as secondary through all the activity there is the purely social. Along literary and musical lines, in spite of the fact that Negroes have free access to the theatre, the University Extension Courses, and the Y. M. C. A. lecture courses, the church is still the most powerful factor in Xenia life. Here the local talent finds the best opportunity for expression and development, and here the best available talent is brought from afar. In the Baptist Church last year there were ten lectures and two high class concerts. Among the lecturers was Rev. M. C. B. Mason, one of the most distinguished Negro orators. The Methodist (African) Church had during this year Miss Flora Batson, the noted singer, and a few weeks later the Canadian Jubilee Singers to entertain the people. In this way the church fulfills a social need which neither the extension courses or the theatre would fulfill--that of bringing the Negroes into touch with some of the best of their own race.

        The table below will show that there is not much charity work done in Xenia by the churches, chiefly because there is not much need for such. Last year the churches gave as follows:

        
Zion Baptist $25.00
Middle Run Baptist 7.00
St. John African Methodist Episcopal 50.00
Total $82.00

        Eighty-two dollars are reported, but the amount of charity work is more. By this it is seen that Middle Run Baptist Church reports $7, but Middle Run takes care of an old woman of eighty years, granting her free rent of a small house owned by the church and furnishing her, from time to time, with other necessities. In times of sickness, in many ways the church influences charity, though it does not get credit

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for it. On the first Sunday of each month most of the churches take an offering called the "Poor Saints' Collection." Beside this there are connected with several of the churches sick benefit societies. For instance, connected with Zion Baptist there are two: The Ladies' Home Aid and the Ladies' Auxiliary, both of which are especially designed to help the sick. There is practically no prison work undertaken by the churches of Xenia, except an occasional visit to the work-house or jail by one of the pastors.

        Pastors.--The pastors of Xenia are all men of high moral character, as is the universal testimony of those who have given opinions. They are all men of zeal for their work, intelligent, though none are college graduates. (See table, page 105.) It seems that Xenia has always had as ministers men of good reputations and high character. A historian*

        * Dill's History of Greene County.


of Greene County, writing in 1881, speaking of the different Negro ministers of the city, said of one: "He has always been an upright Christian man;" of another: "By his gentlemanly deportment and Christian walk, he has gained many warm friends;" of another: "A congenial, attractive man, he shows from his fruits that he practices what he preaches;" of another: "The people of this county will find it a hard matter to fill his place should he be called to some other locality."

        

Value of Church Properties, Indebtedness, Pastor's Salary and Total Amount Raised by Churches of Greene County

CHURCH. Value of Property. Indebtedness. Pastor's Salary. Total Raised.
Baptist- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Zion $12,000 $3,400.00 $500.00 $1,025.00
Middle Run 1,000 00 170.00 . . . . .
Third 8,000 . . . . . 500.09 . . . . .
Yellow Springs 3,000 . . . . . 210.00 . . . . .
Cedarville 1,000 . . . . . 170.00 223.25
Jamestown 2,000 . . . . . 350.00 505.00
Massies' Creek 700 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Methodist Episcopal 1,500 266.00 640.00 . . . . .
Wesleyan Methodist 500 . . . . . 25.59 42.49
Christian 3,000 . . . . . 300.00 600.00
A. M. E.- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Jamestown 2,000 00 300.00 956.71
Cedarville 1,200 00 167.50 316.80
Yellow Springs 3,000 00 250.00 495.85
St. John, Xenia 6,000 00 768.00 1,178.00
Wilberforce Use Chapel of Wilberforce University 0 250.00 624.75

        Incomplete.

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General Financial Statistics

CHURCH. Current Expenses. For Connection. Interest on Debt and Principal. Charity. Missions. Education and Other Purposes. Salary. Total.
Baptist-- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Zion $100.00 . . . . . $400.00 $25.00 . . . . . . . . . . $500.00 $1,025.00
Middle Run 100.00 $32.60 475.00 7.00 $14.00 . . . . . 170.00 . . . . .
Third . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500.09 . . . . .
Yellow Springs . . . . . 3.83 210.00 . . . . . 22.00 $54.17 . . . . . 280.00
Cedarville 2.60 . . . . . 40.00 1.50 6.75 2.40 170.00 . . . . .
Jamestown 75.00 10.00 0 30.00 25.00 15.00 350.00 505.00
Massies' Creek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Methodist Episcopal 72.00 . . . . . 10.00 . . . . . 2.00 . . . . . 640.00 . . . . .
Wesleyan 7.40 7.00 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.50 25.59 42.49
Christian 92.00 . . . . . 208.00 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300.00 600.00
A. M. E.-- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Jamestown 89.00 37.50 448.71 12.50 9.00 60.00 300.00 956.71
Cedarville 37.20 11.50 .00 19.60 27.58 53.42 167.50 316.80
Yellow Springs 18.78 33.30 125.00 . . . . . 8.77 . . . . . 2.50 495.85
Xenia 200.00 120.00 400.00 50.00 40.00 . . . . . 768.00 1,178.00
Wilberforce 113.72 65.75 . . . . . 49.68 60.00 127.00 250.00 665.65

        Incomplete.

        The questions on the schedules for "Data from Negro Churches" were answered as follows by the pastors of Greene County:

I.

        What do the churches need most?

        
Preachers that study the Bible and teach it in its purity 1
Educated ministers on fire with glory of God and uplift of the people 1
Leaders, pure, courageous, with executive ability 1
Educated, experienced, courageous, and honest men as preachers 1
Religion and good sense 1
Religion and faithful ministers, and refinement 1
Revival of religion and money 1
More of the spirit of Christ 1
Better attendance and support from members 1
Union 1

II.

        What is the pastor's greatest difficulty?

        
Lack of conscientious Bible study on his part 1
Minister too abusive and people too sensitive 1
Lack of courage and ability on part of minister 1
Unconverted membership 1
Irregular and desultory attendance of members 2
Lack of co-operation on part of members 1
Difficulty of getting people to live Christian lives after joining the church 1
Immorality and ignorance of the people 1

Page 104

III.

        Are the morals of the people being raised or lowered in respect to sexual morals, honesty, home life, truth-telling, etc?

        
Raised 5
Raised by fifty per cent 1
Doubtful 1
Very little as to sexual morals, home life and truth-telling; some as to honesty 1

IV.

        Is the Sunday-school effective?

        
Yes 8

        How can it be improved?

        
By co-operation of parents 4
Systematic visiting through the week 1
Gathering the little children 1

V.

        How many persons joined the church last year?

        How many of these were under 20 years of age?

        How many were over 40 years of age?

        
CHURCH Accessions. Under 20 Years. Accessions. Over 40 Years. Total. Total Members. Total Active Members.
Baptist-- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Zion 19 . . . . . 38 370 250
Middle Run 30 4 81 140 45
Third 0 0 2 130 27
Yellow Springs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 . . . . .
Cedarville 0 3 10 40 30
Jamestown 8 0 9 108 75
Massies' Creek 0 0 0 25 14
Methodist Episcopal 0 0 0 58 . . . . .
Wesleyan Methodist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 9
Christian 0 1 4 125 50
A. M. E.-- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Jamestown 18 1 20 124 85
Cedarville 24 0 24 47 35
Yellow Springs 9 0 9 75 40
St. John, Xenia 20 6 50 240 160
Wilberforce*
* 1901. Report for 1902 not available. 		60*
* Estimated. 		2 80 108 55
Total 188 17 327 1,760 875

VI.

        Is there much shouting or emotion?

        
Not very much 8
Considerable emotion, occasional shouting 1
Yes 1
Too much for the good done 1

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VII.

        Are the younger set of educated people joining the church and helping in its work?

        
Yes 8
To some extent 1
Slowly; they do a little 1

VIII.

Sketches of Pastors of Greene County

        (This includes also the A. M. E. and M. E. Presiding Elders.)

        
Church of Which Pastor. Age. Birthplace. Years of Experience. Education.
Baptist-- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Zion 45 Ohio 14 Normal.
Middle Run 25 Ohio 7 High School.
Third 48 South Carolina 18 Common Schools of South Carolina.
Cedarville 29 Ohio 1 Common School.
Jamestown 48 . . . . . 17 Common School.
Yellow Springs 50 . . . . . . . . . . Common School.
Massies' Creek . . . . . No pastor . . . . . . . . . .
Methodist Episcopal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Wesleyan Methodist . . . . . No pastor . . . . . . . . . .
Christian 54 Kentucky 18 "Very limited."
A. M. E.-- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Xenia 34 Illinois 11 High School Graduate.
Cedarville 36 Florida 3 Common School and Member of Class '03, Theological Seminary.
Jamestown 31 Ohio 8 Theological and High School Graduate.
Yellow Springs 30 Louisiana 5 Grammar School and Graduate Theological, '03.
Wilberforce 41 Ohio 7 College Graduate.
Presiding Elder A. M. E. 47 Ohio 25 Theological.
Presiding Elder M. E. 50 Indiana 20 College.

Opinions of Negro Church

        These opinions are from people of long residence and good standing in Greene County. They are as to occupations as follows:

        
Pastors 6
Presiding Elders 2
Physicians 2
College Professors 3
Dean Theological Seminary 1
Principal High School 1
Principal Elementary School 1
Barbers 2
Grocer 1
Student 1
Total 20

Page 106

I.

        So far as you have observed, what is the present condition of the churches in your community?

        
Very gratifying 1
Improving 2
Embarrassed financially 2
Fair 3
Good 5

        Some answered this question as follows:

        
Financially, poor 2
Financially, fair 1
Financially, good 1
Intellectually, fair 1
Intellectually, good 1
Spiritually, dull 1
Spiritually, fair 2

II.

        Is their influence, on the whole, toward pure, honest living?

        
Yes 12
Not as much as should be 3
In part, but not all 2
Largely so 2
Generally so 1

III.

        (a) Are the ministers usually good men?

        
Yes 16
Usually, not universally 2

        (b) Their chief faults?

        
Whiskey and women 2

        (This does not apply to those in Greene County.)

        
Illiteracy and want of deep convictions 1

        (This also does not apply to those in Greene County.)

        
Desire to be popular 1
Failure to study 1

IV.

        Of the ministers whom you know, how many are notoriously immoral? What direction does their immorality take? Cite instances.

        This question, like the third, was generally answered for the general condition and not as applying to Greene County in particular, as directed. One man of wide experience says he knows twenty-four notoriously immoral preachers, but there are only twenty-five in the county, including those who are idle and who preach outside of the county.

        
None 11
A few 1
Two 2
Twenty-four 1

Page 108

        
Raised 14
Inclined to think raised 1
Raised very little 1
Raised to some extent 1

        "Twelve or thirteen years ago the patrol was constantly called to a class of resorts which have been wiped out."

        "Xenia, Jamestown, Cedarville, Yellow Springs, are 'dry.'"

        "Greater condemnation of men who deceive women."

21. An Eastern City.*

        * From the more elaborate study on the Philadelphia Negro (Ginn).


        Philadelphia, Pa., gives an opportunity to study the growth of the Negro church for over a century. In 1800 there were in that county*

        * City and County are to-day co-terminous.


7,000 Negroes and three Negro churches, founded as follows:

        
1792--St. Thomas Episcopal.
1791--Bethel African Methodist Episcopal.
1791--Zoar Methodist Episcopal.

        In 1813, when there were about 11,000 Negroes in the city, there were the following churches and members:

        
St. Thomas, Protestant Episcopal 560
Bethel, African Methodist Episcopal 1,272
Zoar, Methodist Episcopal 80
Union, African Methodist Episcopal 74
Baptist, Race and Vine Streets 80
Presbyterian 300
Total 2,366

        There were about 17,500 Negroes in 1838:

        
DENOMINATIONS. No. Churches. Members. Annual Expenses. Value of Property. Incumbrance.
Episcopallan 1 100 $1,000 $36,000 . . . . .
Lutheran 1 10 120 3,000 $1,000
Methodist 8 2,860 2,100 50,800 5,100
Presbyterian 2 325 1,500 20,000 1,000
Baptist 4 700 1,300 4,200 . . . . .
Total 16 3,995 $6,020 $114,000 $7,100

        In 1847 the population had grown to 20,000. There were nineteen churches; twelve of these reported 3,974 members; the property of eleven cost $67,000. After the war the population had increased to 22,000. There were the following churches in 1867:

Page 109

        
NAME. Founded. No. of Members. Value of Property. Pastor's Salary.
Protestant Episcopal-- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
St. Thomas 1792 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Methodist-- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Bethel 1794 1,100 $50,000 $600
Union 1827 467 40,000 850
Wesley 1817 464 21,000 700
Zoar 1794 400 12,000 . . . . .
John Wesley 1844 42 3,000 No regular salary.
Little Wesley 1821 310 11,000 500
Pisgah 1831 116 4,600 430
Zion City Mission 1858 90 4,500 . . . . .
Little Union 1837 200 . . . . . . . . . .
Baptist.-- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
First Baptist 1809 360 5,000 . . . . .
Union Baptist . . . . . 400 7,000 600
Shiloh 1842 405 16,000 600
Oak Street 1827 137 . . . . . . . . . .
Presbyterian-- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
First Presbyterian 1807 200 8,000 . . . . .
Second Presbyterian 1824 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Central Presbyterian 1844 240 16,000 . . . . .

        By 1880 (population 30,000) there were twenty-five churches and missions. In 1897 there were about 60,000 Negroes in the city, and the following churches:

        
DENOMINATION. Churches. Members Claimed. Value of Property. Expenses.
African Methodist Episcopal 14 3,210 $202,229 $27,074
African Methodist Episcopal Zion 3 . . . . . 25,000 5,000
Union African Methodist Episcopal 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Methodist Protestant 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Methodist Episcopal 6 1,202 49,700 16,394
Baptist 17 5,583 296,800 30,000
Presbyterian 3 633 150,000 4,473
Protestant Episcopal 6 791 130,000 6,613
Roman Catholic 1 200? . . . . . . . . . .

        There are three other small churches, making fifty-five churches in all, with 13,000 members, $910,000 worth of property, and an annual income of $95,000. In 1900 Philadelphia had 62,613 Negroes.

        The general character of church life is thus set forth:

        "Perhaps the pleasantest and most interesting social intercourse takes place on Sunday; the weary week's work is done, the people have slept late and have had a good breakfast, and sally forth to church well dressed and complacent. The usual hour of the morning service is eleven, but people stream in until after twelve. The sermon is usually short and stirring, but in the larger churches elicits little response other than an 'Amen' or two. After the sermon the social features begin; notices on the various meetings of the week are read, people talk with each other

Page 110

in subdued tones, take their contributions to the altar, and linger in the aisles and corridors after dismission to laugh and chat until one or two o'clock. Then they go home to good dinners. Sometimes there is some special three o'clock service, but usually nothing, save Sunday-school, until night. Then comes the chief meeting of the day; probably 10,000 Negroes gather every Sunday night in their churches. There is much music, much preaching, some short addresses; many strangers are there to be looked at; many beaus bring out their belles, and those who do not, gather in crowds at the church door and escort the young women home. The crowds are usually well-behaved and respectable, though rather more jolly than comports with a Puritan idea of church services.

        "In this way the social life of the Negro centers in his church--baptism, wedding and burial, gossip and courtship, friendship and intrigue--all lie in these walls, What wonder that this central club-house tends to become more and more luxuriously furnished, costly in appointment and easy of access!

        "It must not be inferred from all this that the Negro is hypocritical or irreligious. His church is, to be sure, a social institution first, and religious afterwards, but nevertheless, its religious activity is wide and sincere. In direct moral teaching and setting moral standards for the people, however, the church is timid, and naturally so, for its constitution is democracy tempered by custom. Negro preachers are condemned for poor leadership and empty sermons, and it is said that men with so much power and influence could make striking moral reforms. This is but partially true. The congregation does not follow the moral precepts of the preacher, but rather the preacher follows the standard of his flock, and only exceptional men dare seek to change this. And here it must be remembered that the Negro preacher is primarily an executive officer rather than a spiritual guide. If one goes into any great Negro church and hears the sermon and views the audience, one would say, either the sermon is far below the calibre of the audience, or the people are less sensible than they look. The former explanation is usually true. The preacher is sure to be a man of executive ability, a leader of men, a shrewd and affable president of a large and intricate corporation. In addition to this, he may be, and usually is, a striking elocutionist. He may also be a man of integrity, learning, and deep spiritual earnestness; but these last three are sometimes all lacking, and the last two in many cases. Some signs of advance are here manifest no minister of notoriously immoral life, or even of bad reputation, could hold a large church in Philadelphia without eventual revolt. Most of the present pastors are decent, respectable men. There are perhaps one or two exceptions to this, but the exceptions are doubtful rather than notorious. On the whole, then, the average Negro preacher in this city is a shrewd manager, a respectable man, a good talker, a pleasant companion, but neither learned nor spiritual, nor a reformer.

        "The moral standards are, therefore, set by the congregations, and vary, from church to church, in some degree. There has been a slow working toward a literal obeying of the Puritan and ascetic standard of morals which Methodism imposed on the freedmen, but condition and temperament have modified these. The grosser forms of immorality, together with theatre-going and dancing, are specifically denounced; nevertheless, the precepts against specific amusements are often violated by church members. The cleft between denominations is still wide, especially between Methodists and Baptists. The sermons are usually kept within the safe ground of a mild Calvinism, with much insistence on salvation, grace, fallen humanity, and the like."*

        * Philadelphia Negro, p. 204, ff.



Page 111

22. Present Condition of Churches - The Baptists.

         "In the minutes of the old Savannah Association for 1812, is the following note: 'The Association is sensibly affected by the death of 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 permitted to discharge the duties of his ministry among his colored friends in peace and quiet, hundreds of whom through his instrumentality were brought to a knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. He closes his useful and amazingly luminous course in the lively exercise of faith and in the joyful hope of a happy immortality.'

         "The most of the colored Baptists were at this period identified with white churches, and in churches of mixed membership the whites were often in the minority. In the mixed churches of this period, the colored members had no voice in affairs, unless in the reception and discipline of members of their own race. After the emancipation of slaves the Negro Baptists of the Southern states very generally separated from the white churches, and organized churches, and Associations of their own. Other colored Baptist churches of that section, that were organized at an earlier period, besides the one at Savannah, above mentioned, are the Springfield Baptist Church, Augusta, Ga. 1790, and the one at Portsmouth, Va., 1841; the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church of Washington D. C., 1832; one in Louisville, Ky., 1842; one in Baltimore, Md., 1836. In the Northern and Western states, the earliest organized colored Baptist churches are the Abyssinian of York City, 1803; the Independent of Boston, 1805; the First of Philadelphia, 1809; Ebenezer of New York City, 1825; the Union of Cincinnati, 1827; the Union of Philadelphia, 1832; the Union of Alton, Ill., 1838.

        "The Western states organized the first colored Baptist Association. The Providence Baptist Association of Ohio was organized in 1836, and the Wood River Baptist Association of Illinois in 1838. The number of colored Baptists in the United States in 1850 is reported but in part. In fifteen Southern states and four Northern states, 100 out of 336 Associations report 89,695 colored members. There is no report from 146 Southern Associations, but high authority puts the whole number of colored Baptists in this country in 1850 at 150,000. Then we have a numerical growth of Negro Baptists in America from 150,000 in 1850 to 1,604,310 in 1894; an increase of 1,454,310 in forty-four years, which is an increase of over 33,000 net each year. From one ordained preacher in 1777 to 10,119 in 1894; from one church in 1788 to 13,138 churches in 1894, or an average increase of 124 churches each year; increase in valuation of church property from nothing in 1788 to $11,271,651."*

        *Growth of the Negro Baptists, by R. De Baptiste, 1896.



        The Baptist churches unite in Associations and State Conventions for missionary and educational work. For a long time however it seemed impossible to unite any large number of them in a National Convention, but this has at last been done.

        The National Baptist Convention was organized at, Atlanta, Ga., September 28, 1895. Its objects are missionary and educational work, and the publication of religious literature. The membership consists of representatives of churches, Sunday-schools, Associations, and State Conventions of Baptists, and of such individual Baptists as wish to join. The Convention meets annually, and has a president, vice-presidents from each state, a statistical secretary, and other officers. This Convention

Page 112

elects annually a Foreign Mission Board, a Home Mission Board, an Educational Board, and a Baptist Young People's Union Board. These boards all consist of one member from each state represented, and elect their own officers and executive committee so located as to be able to meet monthly. The Convention also collects statistics concerning the Negro Baptists throughout the United States. The Conventions of 1901 and 1902 follow.

        These figures are not altogether accurate, but are probably under statements rather than exaggerations.*

        * A prominent church official writes:


        The most remarkable result of the united efforts of the Negro Baptists is the Home Mission department, including the publishing house:

        "It has been the policy of our Board from its incipiency to do whatever missionary work that is done in any state in co-operation with the regular state authorities or state organizations in their organized capacity.

        "We believe also that when this policy of our Board is better understood, the churches, Associations and Conventions will contribute more liberally to the advancement of the work of our Board. While we have not been able to do as much in this co-operative mission work as we had hoped, yet we have done what we could. We have gone as far as our limited means would allow. The following is a summary of the missionary work done by our Board and by its co-operative policy in the United States:

        

COMBINED REPORTS

Sermons preached 1,550 Homes visited 1,661
Sunday schools addressed 905 Homes found without Bibles 84
Prayer-meetings attended 829 Churches visited 1,323
B. Y. P. U. meetings attended 478 Sunday-schools organized 7
Women's meetings addressed 261 Missionary societies organized 44
Other addresses made 1,495 Baptisms 70
Total number addresses made 2,376 Miles traveled by railroad 99,612
Conventions, Associations and women's meetings visited since last report 253 Cost of travel $1,493.64
. . . . . . . . . . Miles traveled otherwise 5,491
. . . . . . . . . . Cost of same $188.30
Number of letters and cards written 12,056 Total traveling expense $1,681.94
. . . . . . . . . . Total amount of money sent to National Baptist Publishing Board $1,281.36
Number of circulars and tracts distributed 40,703 . . . . . . . . . .
Number of books and tracts donated 1,019 Amount of the money collected applied to salaries $281.35
Books sold $1,774.83 Total amount of money collected and left with churches 79.80
Money collected $3,538.37 . . . . . . . . . .
Total amount of money received from all sources $5,114.02 Number of Missionary Conferences held 31
Subscriptions to the Union 256 . . . . . . . . . .
Money collected for same $57.20 Paid on salaries $3,839.38
Days of service rendered 2,223 Total paid on salaries $4,174.73

Page 113

        "It has been our custom, from year to year, to call the attention of our Convention to the work of correspondence of our Board. This is done with a view of giving the members somewhat of an idea of the magnitude of this portion of our work. For the benefit of those who may be interested, we quote the following number of first-class letters received and disposed of by answers by the Corresponding Secretary and his assistants during the fiscal year:

        
September, 1901 4,303
October, 1901 6,255
November, 1901 2,243
December, 1901 3,355
January, 1902 5,968
February, 1902 2,709
March, 1902 6,432
April, 1902 9,607
May, 1902 4,866
June, 1902 8,576
July, 1902 7,922
August, 1902 2,720
Grand total for the year 64,956

        

General Summary of Baptists in the United States

. . . . . 1901. 1902.
State Conventions . . . . . 43
Associations 515 517
Churches 15,654 16,440
Ordained ministers 14,861 16,080
Present membership in the United States 1,975,538 2,038,427
Meeting houses 7,576 11,069
Valuation $11,605,891 $12,196,130
Sunday-schools 7,466 13,707
Teachers and officers 36,736 41,537
Pupils in Sunday-schools 473,271 544,505
Total in Sunday-schools 510,007 586,042

        

MONEY RAISED

. . . . . 1901. 1902.
Church expenses . . . . . $3,090,190.71
Sunday-school expenses . . . . . 107,054.00
State Missions . . . . . 9,954.00
Foreign Missions . . . . . 8,725.00
Home Mission and Publication . . . . . 81,658.00
Education $115,809.55 127,941.00
Total raised during the year $1,816,442.72 $3,425,523.11

Page 114

        "The Publishing Board of the National Baptist Convention is acting as trustees of the Convention in holding and managing the publishing concern. It is composed of a committee of nine, and the vacancies are filled by three each year. These form the charter or corporate members and are incorporated under the laws of Tennessee, and hold and operate the property in trust for the National Baptist Association, and are amenable to our Home Board. They, under the authority of our Home Board, have their regular organization of chairman, secretary and treasurer. The secretary and treasurer is one and the same person, who is required to execute and file in the courts of Davidson County a suitable and sufficient, well secured bond. This has been the requirement since this board was inaugurated in 1898.

        "In order to curtail the expenses and economize in our work, the Home Missionary Board has operated its missionary and Bible work under the management of the Publishing Board, together with its publication work. The experiment has proved a profitable one, and we find that the business has been operated with less than one-half the expense of other denominations doing similar work. In fact, the Corresponding Secretary of the Home Mission Board, upon a meagre salary, has operated the missionary work, and has acted as secretary, treasurer and general manager of the National Baptist Publishing Board. By blending the four offices into one we have been able to save the salary of three other secretaries. This is one of the great causes or economical provisions that have enabled your board to give a dividend to missions each year.

        "The publishing plant and offices are located at the corner of Market and Locust streets, one-half block from the Louisville and Nashville passenger depot. Market street is one of the greatest business thoroughfares in the city of Nashville. This plant occupies four brick buildings, one one-story, two two-story, and one three-story building. The scattered condition of the plant makes it very inconvenient to operate the machinery in carrying on the great volume of manufacturing that is necessary to supply the increasing demands of this institution.

        "This plant consists of a large first-class steam boiler, two engines, a complete electric plant, a complete system of telephones, with a well-regulated set of the most improved power printing presses, a well-regulated bindery, with all the machinery and equipment that is commonly attached to the most modern printing and publishing plant, together with a complete composing room, with all of the modern paraphernalia, including linotype machines. This plant, with its stock, is fully worth to the denomination $100,000 and if it were in a stock company its stock, if placed at $100,000, would sell in the market at par, and its income would pay a creditable dividend.

        "The board has been compelled to purchase and exchange a considerable amount of its machinery. The authorities or managers were unable to foresee the large increase of work that would be necessary to supply the necessities. They, therefore, supplied themselves with machinery and material in proportion to then present needs of the institution, but so marvelous has been the increase that the machinery and quarters were found inadequate to meet the demands. They have, therefore, been compelled to exchange old machinery and buy new at a considerable loss in the dealings. They have been compelled to lease or rent other buildings. These increased demands have also created a demand for more and better skilled laborers, and they have, therefore, been compelled to increase the wages in each department in order to secure the help needed.

Page 115

        "The Book Department of our work is divided into three departments. First, books bought of other publishers and dealers and sold with or without profit to supply the needs of our patrons. Secondly, books manufactured by ourselves for the exclusive use of the denomination. Third, books manufactured for the author as job work, and, at the same time, bought and retailed by our board. These three features of the book work constitute the major portion of our actual work.

        "The periodical and Sunday-school departments deal almost exclusively with the rising element of our denomination. In other words, in this department we are preparing the future church. In this periodical department we are sending fresh publications to the homes of our churches each quarter, month and week. We are thereby moulding the doctrines and opinions and shaping the destiny of the future church and race. The expression that we now put forth may be criticised by some, but we give it as our opinion that it is impossible for any race of people to keep their identity, sway their influence, keep pace with other races, hold the influence over their offspring, unless they provide themselves with literature and keep before their rising generation the great men that are passing from the stage of action. Artists and poets have done more to make the Caucasian great than has the writer of prose. The Negro Baptists of this country, therefore, will be compelled to cease talking or discussing cheap literature for their children, but they must discuss, produce or provide literature capable of keeping the identity and increasing race pride of the rising generation or they must be entirely overshadowed by the dominant race of this country, and each child born of Negro parents must be brought to feel that his God has made him inferior by nature to other races with whom he comes in contact. We, therefore, feel the value of the literature produced by the National Baptist Publishing Board cannot be measured by dollars and cents.

        "The following is a list and number of periodicals published and circulated by our Board during the years 1900, 1901 and 1902:

        
PERIODICALS. 1900. 1901. 1902.
Teachers 84,800 136,000 139,000
Advanced Quarterlies 416,000 244,000 543,000
Intermediate Quarterlies 175,000 244,000 250,000
Primary Quarterlies 275,000 380,000 332,000
Leaflets and Gems 557,000 528,000 585,000
Picture Lesson Cards 1,560,000 2,340,000 2,500,000
Bible Lesson Pictures 33,800 41,600 50,000
National Baptist Concert Quarterly 259,000 800,000 850,000
Child's Gem 6,000 . . . . . . . . . .
Davidson's Questions . . . . . . . . . . 85,000
Boyd's Questions . . . . . . . . . . 85,000
National Baptist Easy Lessons . . . . . . . . . . 90,000
Total 3,366,600 4,713,600 5,509,000

        "These periodicals have been published and mailed to our Sunday-schools a such prices as in reality do not pay for the expense of producing them. In fact our thirty-two paged magazines are retailed to our Sunday-schools, with the postage paid, cheaper than blank paper could be received through the mail. We call the attention of the Convention to this fact in order that they may see and know under what difficulties we are laboring.

        "We are glad to call the attention again this year to the department of our work of issuing circulars and tracts. We still hold to the opinion that more people are

Page 116

influenced by tracts than by any other publications, and, as we have had occasion to say in the preface of the introductory of one of our little booklets, that the colored people, more than any other in this country, need the use of short and concise tracts; that is, they need Bible doctrine, true gospel teaching, put in plain, simple, concise form, and furnished to them in such a way that they can read it. A glance at the census of 1900 will show that the illiteracy in the South reaches over 50 per cent., but as this may be overdrawn, it is perfectly safe to say that 40 per cent. of the colored people are illiterate, and 20 per cent. of those who can read and write are not fluent readers. Sixty per cent. of those who can read are youths--children. Therefore, it is very essential that reading matter for these people must not be in large and soggy books, but must be in small books, booklets, tracts and pamphlets. Our board has endeavored to turn some attention to raising a tract fund, but has done very little as yet.

        "We are in need of both money and writers to produce these tracts. Addresses, papers and sermons read or delivered before the different annual gatherings, if they were put in print and circulated among the people, would do much toward elevating them. We have been able this year to publish a few tracts for free distribution. We have been able to print and distribute through our free distribution system something over 40,000 tracts. These the writers have contributed free of charge.

RECEIPTS

        

BUSINESS DEPARTMENT

Balance on hand $1,054.09 . . . . .
Fourth quarter, 1901 12,119.01 . . . . .
First quarter, 1902 10,825.69 . . . . .
Second quarter, 1902 15,884.82 . . . . .
Third quarter, 1902 18,782.77 . . . . .
Total receipts from Business Department . . . . . $58,666.38

        

RECEIPTS FROM MISSIONARY DEPARTMENT

From Woman's Auxiliary Convention $75.00 . . . . .
From Home Mission Board of Southern Baptist Convention 1,800.00 . . . . .
From Woman's Auxiliary of Southern Baptist Convention 50.00 . . . . .
By missionary collections (a) 3,538.37 . . . . .
By special missionary collections (b) 281.35 . . . . .
By designated collections (c) 79.80 $5,824.52

        

SPECIAL DONATIONS FOR BIBLES AND COLPORTAGE WORK

From Sunday-school Board of Southern Baptist Convention $121.25 . . . . .
By other donations 119.00 . . . . .
For colportage and book work 2,100.94 . . . . .
From special periodical donations 230.90 . . . . .
From special tract donations 109.36 . . . . .
For special Bible work in Africa 35.71 . . . . .
From general missionary and Bible donation 432.48 $3,149.64

        

SPECIAL SUBSCRIPTION, ADVERTISING, NEGOTIABLE NOTES AND OUTSTANDING ACCOUNTS

From subscriptions to Union $499.91 . . . . .
From advertisements 510.00 . . . . .
From negotiable notes 738.26 . . . . .
From periodicals uncollected 1,129.57 . . . . .
From printing uncollected accounts 2,205.58 . . . . .
Remaining in hands of colporters and missionaries unreported 1,683.78 $6,767.10
Grand total . . . . . $74,407.64

Page 117

DISBURSEMENTS

        

BUSINESS DEPARTMENT

Wages, printing material and Editorial Department $30,326.54 . . . . .
Merchandise, notes, machinery and other miscellaneous 17,073.84 . . . . .
Coal, ice, freight, drayage, boarding horses, etc 2,842.54 . . . . .
Rents, water tax, gas, commission, insurance, traveling and special missions 2,127.92 . . . . .
Stamps, postage, telephone, telegrams, electricity, etc 5,360.54 . . . . .
To balance in hand 934.94 . . . . .
Total disbursements of Business Department. . . . . . $58,666.38

        

MISSIONARY DEPARTMENT

In salaries of district secretaries, state and local missionaries, male and female $5,824.52 . . . . .
In expenses, books, Bibles, tracts and periodicals donated by them 3,149.64 . . . . .
Salary of secretary, advertising, special traveling expenses, uncollected accounts, negotiable notes, manuscripts, etc. 6,767.10 $15,741.26
Grand total . . . . . $74,407.64

        "Notwithstanding the failure of crops of 1901, by glancing over the report of the work done for the year it will be seen that this institution is not only self-supporting, but besides defraying its own expenses, has been able to spend on missionaries and their traveling expenses $11,683.19, and on machinery, notes, etc., which stand as a sinking fund, $5,352.48, making a dividend to the denomination of $17,035.67; and, if we add in the $1,601.09 deficit for running the denominational paper, and the $3,335.15 outstanding accounts for work and periodicals during the year, and $1,683.78 in the hands of agents, missionaries and colporters unreported, it will be seen that the denomination has a clear dividend arising from the work of these boards of $23,655.69."


        The Negro Baptists support eighty schools, as follows:

        

List of Institutions by States

STATES. INSTITUTION. LOCATION.
Alabama Baptist University Selma.
Alabama Normal College Anniston.
Alabama Eufaula Academy Eufaula.
Alabama Marion Academy Marion.
Alabama Opelika High School Opelika.
Alabama Thomsonville Academy Thomsonville.
Arkansas Aouchita Academy Camden.
Arkansas Baptist College Little Rock.
Arkansas Arkadelphia Academy Arkadelphia.
Arkansas Brinkley Academy Brinkley.
Arkansas Magnolia Academy Magnolia.
Florida Florida Baptist College Jacksonville.
Florida Florida Institute Live Oak.
Florida West Florida Baptist Academy Pensacola.
Georgia Americus Institute Americus.
Georgia Walker Academy Augusta.
Georgia Jeruel Academy Athens.
Georgia Central City College Macon.
Illinois Southern Illinois Polytechnic Institute Cairo.
Indiana Indiana Colored Baptist University Indianapolis.

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Indian Territory Dawes Academy . . . . .
Indian Territory Sango Baptist College Muskogee.
Kentucky State University Louisville.
Kentucky Cadez Theological Institute Cadez.
Kentucky Female High School Frankfort.
Kentucky Glasgow Normal Institute Glasgow.
Kentucky Western College Weakly.
Kentucky Danville Institute Danville.
Kentucky Hopkinsville College Hopkinsville.
Kentucky Eckstein Norton University Cane Springs.
Louisiana Leland Academy Donaldsonville.
Louisiana Baton Rouge Academy Baton Rouge.
Louisiana Houma Academy Houma.
Louisiana Morgan City Academy Morgan City.
Louisiana Howe Institute New Iberia.
Louisiana Opelousas Academy Opelousas.
Louisiana Central Louisiana Academy Alexandria.
Louisiana Cherryville Academy Cherryville.
Louisiana Baptist Academy Lake Providence.
Louisiana Monroe High School Monroe.
Louisiana Ruston Academy Ruston.
Louisiana Shreveport Academy Alexandria.
Louisiana Mansfield Academy Mansfield.
Louisiana North Louisiana Industrial High School Monroe.
Maryland Clayton Williams Institute Baltimore.
Mississippi Natchez College Natchez.
Mississippi Gloster High School Gloster.
Mississippi Central College Kosciusko.
Mississippi Greneda High School Winona.
Mississippi Meridian High School Meridian.
Mississippi Ministerial Institute West Point.
Mississippi Nettleton High School Nettleton.
Mississippi Greenville High School Greenville.
Mississippi New Albany High School New Albany.
Missouri Western College Macon.
North Carolina Wharton Industrial School Charlotte.
North Carolina Latta University Raleigh.
North Carolina High School Wakefield.
North Carolina Shiloh Industrial Institute Warrenton.
North Carolina Thomson's Institute Lumberton.
North Carolina Addie Norris' Institute Winston.
North Carolina Training School Franklinton.
North Carolina Roanoke Institute Elizabeth.
North Carolina Albemarle Training School Edenton.
North Carolina Bertle Academy Windsor.
Ohio Curry School Urbana.
South Carolina Mather School Beaufort.
South Carolina Peace Haven Institute Broad River.
Tennessee Howe Institute Memphis.
Tennessee Nelson Merry College Jefferson City.
Tennessee Lexington Normal School Lexington.
Texas Guadalupe College Seguin.
Texas Central Texas Academy Waco.
Texas Houston Academy Houston.
Texas Hearne Academy Hearne.
Virginia Virginia Seminary and College Lynchburg.
Virginia Union Industrial Academy Port Conway.

         Total number of schools . . . . 80

         Valuation of property $564,000

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        Twenty of the above schools reported last year as follows:

        
Teachers, males 75 . . . . .
Teachers, females 73 . . . . .
Total 148 . . . . .
Students, males . . . . . 1,833
Students, females . . . . . 1,531
Total students . . . . . 3,364
Total in Home Missionary Society Schools . . . . . 6,198
Total in schools heard from . . . . . 9,562

        The value of property owned by these schools is as follows:

        
Alabama $39,500
Louisiana 45,000
Missouri 15,000
Georgia 10,000
Mississippi 77,000
Ohio 5,000
Arkansas 70,000
Maryland 6,000
Kentucky 65,000
Florida 20,000
Tennessee 33,000
Texas 80,000
North Carolina 16,000
South Carolina 19,000
Virginia 60,000
Indian Territory 3,700
Total $564,200

        The total income of the schools for 1902 was:

        
Arkansas $35,000.00
Alabama 10,500.00
North Carolina 2,700.00
Louisiana 15,000.00
Mississippi 9,100.00
Tennessee 4,300.00
Florida 16,000.00
Georgia 12,000.00
Maryland 585.00
Virginia 25,000.00
Texas 23,000.00
Ohio 3,500.00
Kentucky 20,000.00
Missouri 8,041.02
District of Columbia 400.00
Pennsylvania 857.75
Miscellaneous sources 238.00
Total $186,221.97

        The total number of pupils in all these schools is not given. Twelve of them report 148 teachers and 3,364 pupils. Probably there are at least 6,000 or 7,000 pupils in all the schools. The institutions are for the main part primary and secondary schools, despite their pretentious name, and supplement the public schools.

        Beside, these Negro Baptists have contributed largely to the Baptist schools of higher denomination, supported by the Northern white Baptists for Negro students. The chief schools of this class are:

Page 120

        

Baptist Schools (Report of the United States Commissioner of Education, 1900-1)

PLACE. SCHOOL. Teachers. Students. Value of Lands, Buildings, etc.
Richmond, Va Hartshorn Memorial College 11 120 $50,000
Richmond, Va Virginia Union University 13 157 300,000
Raleigh, N. C Shaw University 27 511 90,000
Winton, N. C Water's Normal Institute 5 272 12,000
Columbia, S. C Benedict College 16 488 76,000
Athens, Ga Jeruel Academy 5 221 2,500
Atlanta, Ga Atlanta Baptist College 13 165 75,000
Augusta, Ga Walker Baptist Institute 6 121 4,500
Jackson, Miss Jackson College 10 102 35,000
Marshall, Tex Bishop College 16 337 100,000
Nashville, Tenn Roger Williams University 13 268 200,000
Little Rock, Ark Arkansas Baptist College 9 213 25,000
Atlanta, Ga Spelman Seminary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Harper's Ferry, W. Va Storer College 7 142 50,000
Hampton, Va Spiller Academy 6 103 10,000
Windsor, N. C Bertie Academy 2 96 1,000
LaGrange, Ga LaGrange Baptist Academy 4 182 1,000
New Orleans, La Leland University 11 115 150,000

        In the words of the late General Morgan, secretary of the American Baptist Home Missionary Society, this society "has already spent more than $3,000,000 in their (i. e., the Negroes') behalf; the value of school property used for their benefit is not less than $1,000,000; its expenditure in their interest at present exceeds $100,000 a year. It has aided in the erection of a good number of meeting-houses."

        The other departments of the church are of less relative importance. The Baptist Young People's Union Board spent $7,000 for its work; the National Board spent $8,302.29 for missions, with the following results:

        SIERRA LEONE, WEST COAST AFRICA--Churches, 2; pastors and workers, 3; members, 40.

        LIBERIA, WEST COAST AFRICA--Churches, 52; pastors and workers, 86; members, 3,000.

        LAGOS, SOUTHWEST COAST AFRICA--Churches, 21; pastors and workers, 56; members, 2,000.

        CAPE COLONY, SOUTH AFRICA--Churches, 23; pastors and workers, 80; members, 1,750.

        CHIRADZULU BLANTYRE, EAST COAST AFRICA--Churches, 3; pastors and workers, 5; members, 35.

        GEORGETOWN DEMERARA, BRITISH GUIANA, SOUTH AMERICA--Churches, 3; pastors and workers, 11; members, 310.

        LAGWAN, EAST COAST, BRITISH GUIANA, SOUTH AMERICA--Churches, 1; pastors and workers, 2; members, 10.

        SURINAM, DUTCH GUIANA, SOUTH AMERICA--Churches, 1; pastors and workers, 3; members, 30.

        BARBADOES, BRITISH WEST INDIES, BRIDGETOWN--Churches, 1; pastors and workers, 5; members, 62.

        There are churches at St. George, St. John, Christ Church and St. Thomas, on the island, with pastors and workers, 7, and members, 42.

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        There is a Convention organized separately from the regular organization. It had in 1902:

        
State Conventions 22
Mission Societies 4,033
Children's Bands 1,380
Sewing Circles 420
Circles of King's Daughters 120
Money raised during 1902 $3,800

        There are the following newspapers published by Negro Baptists in the interest of that denomination:

        
NAME. Where Published.
American Baptist Louisville, Ky.
Baptist Leader Selma, Ala.
Baptist Magazine Washington, D. C.
The Pilot Winston, N. C.
The Sentinel Raleigh, N. C.
Christian Banner Philadelphia, Pa.
Baptist Herald Live Oak, Fla.
Florida Evangelist Jacksonville, Fla.
Georgia Baptist Augusta, Ga.
Western Messenger Macon, Mo.
National Baptist Union Nashville, Tenn.
Virginia Baptist Richmond, Va.
Baptist Vanguard Little Rock, Ark.
The Western Star Houston, Tex.
The Baptist Truth Savannah, Ga.
The Baptist Truth Cairo, Ill.
The Christian Organizer Lynchburg, Va.
The South Carolina Standard Columbia, S. C.
Southern Watchman Mobile, Ala.
The Herald Austin, Tex.
People's Recorder Columbia, S. C.
The Informer Urbana, O.
The Messenger New Orleans, La.
The American Tribune New Orleans, La.
Negro World Cary, Miss.
Guadaloupe College Recorder Seguin, Tex.
Advanced Quarterly (National Baptist Convention) Nashville, Tenn.
Intermediate Quarterly (National Baptist Convention) Nashville, Tenn.
Primary Quarterly (National Baptist Convention) Nashville, Tenn.
The Teacher Nashville, Tenn.
Child's Gems Nashville, Tenn.
Easy Lesson Primer Nashville, Tenn.
Preacher's Safeguard . . . . .
Zion Church Bulletin Denver, Col.
The Journal . . . . .
The Clarion Nashville, Tenn.
The Blue Grass Bugle Frankfort, Ky.
The Moderator Louisville, Ky.
The Mission Herald Louisville, Ky.
The Trumpet Washington, D. C.
The Watchman Columbia, S. C.
The Pennsylvania Baptist Pittsburg, Pa.
The Florida Baptist Fernandina, Fla.

Page 122

        As to the general character of the churches and preachers the following statement, made by the Home Missionary Society about five years ago, seems a fair presentation:

        In the few large cities and towns of the South a minister usually serves one church; in the rural districts and small villages, where three-fourths of the Negro population are found, he has from two to four churches, and preaching "once't a month" is customary. Of the 12,000 churches in 1895, probably not 1,000 have preaching every Sunday. Except in the larger and more progressive churches ministers do very little pastoral work.

        About fifteen ministers receive $1,500 or more; one per cent. about $1,000 each; fifteen per cent. from $500 to $700. The great majority get only $200 to $400; while many never see $100 in money yearly. These eke out their scanty salaries by manual labor. The people, generally, are very poor.

        Many are noble, high-minded, upright, God-fearing, unselfish, sincere, self-sacrificing, who honor their high calling. Of a great number, however, it must be said in sorrow, that their moral standards are not at all in accord with those of the New Testament for the ministry. They have grown up in an environment unfavorable to the production of a high type of character. The development of a Christian conscience is a fundamental need. In some states and localities it is more difficult than formerly for unworthy men to be ordained.

        Forty years ago, the minister who could read was the exception; now, the exception is one who cannot. Many, however, were too old to learn easily and made egregious blunders and understood what they read most imperfectly. Little could they learn in the very inferior country schools, maintained for only three or four months each year. Their knowledge was "picked up." There are sixty per cent. of the ministers whose libraries do not average a dozen volumes. Many, however, take a cheap religious paper. Yet among these are preachers of much native ability.

        About 25 per cent. have had approximately a fair common school education. Some spent a year or more at an academy or other higher school, where they also had a little instruction in the Bible and in preaching. A few got a start that led to intellectual and spiritual growth and power.

        Possibly 20 per cent. have had something like an ordinary academic course. Full college graduates are rare; not 100 Negro Baptist ministers have had a full collegiate and theological course.

        There are able preachers, whose sermons compare favorably with the average sermons of white preachers, in substance, diction and delivery. Most of these are the products of our Home Mission schools. They are an uplifting influence to their churches, and to their less favored brethren in the ministry.

        But it may be safely said that two-thirds of the preaching is of the crudest character, emotional, hortatory, imaginative, visionary, abounding in misconceptions of scripture, the close of the sermon being delivered with powerful intonations and gesticulations to arouse the audience to a high pitch of excitement, which both preacher and people regard as indispensable to a "good meeting." Two members of a ministers' class recently made these statements to their colored instructor: one had preached that Joshua never had father or mother, because he was "the son of Nun," (none); the other wrought up his congregation mightily by repeatedly shouting: "Mesopotamia." Such instances can be multiplied indefinitely.

Page 123

        The religious phenomenon of this land, if not of this age, is in the fact that while our Negro population increased slightly more than twofold in forty years, the Baptist increase among them was over fourfold. Negro preachers are remarkable evangelists in their way. Converts with weird and rapturous experiences are quickly baptized. With the survival of old-time notions concerning conversion, probably two-thirds of the churches are made up largely of "wood, hay and stubble." Nevertheless, in these are sincere, devout souls, in whom the Spirit of God seems to have wrought a genuine work and to whom he has given singularly clear views of truth. The process of emancipation from the old order of things is going on, largely under the leadership of men from our schools. Numerous churches maintain most orderly services, have good Sunday-schools, and young people's societies, and are interested in missions. Thousands of church edifices, some well equipped and very costly, bear witness to the zeal and devotion of the people, and to the persuasive power of their religious leaders.


23. The African Methodists.

        The greatest voluntary organization of Negroes in the world is probably the African Methodist Church. Its beginning had a tinge of romance, and this is the story:*

        *Taken in part from "The Philadelphia Negro."


        Between 1790 and 1800 the Negro population of Philadelphia County increased from 2,489 to 6,880, or 176 per cent., against an increase of 43 per cent. among the whites. The first result of this contact with city life was to stimulate the talented and aspiring freedmen; and this was the easier because the freedman had in Philadelphia at that time a secure economic foothold; he performed all kinds of domestic service, all common labor and much of the skilled labor. The group being thus secure in its daily bread needed only leadership to make some advance in general culture and social effectiveness. Some sporadic cases of talent occur, as Derham, the Negro physician, whom Dr. Benjamin Rush, in 1788, found "very learned." Especially, however, to be noted are Richard Allen, a former slave of the Chew family, and Absalom Jones, a Delaware Negro. These two were real leaders and actually succeeded to a remarkable degree in organizing the freedmen for group action. Both had bought their own freedom and that of their families by hiring their time--Allen being a blacksmith by trade, and Jones also having a trade. When, in 1792, the terrible epidemic drove Philadelphians away so quickly that many did not remain to bury the dead, Jones and Allen quietly took the work in hand, spending some of their own funds, and doing so well that they were publicly commended by Mayor Clarkson in 1794.

        The great work of these men, however, lay among their own race and arose from religious difficulties. As in other colonies, the process by which the Negro slaves learned the English tongue and were converted to Christianity is not clear. The subject of the moral instruction of the slaves had early troubled Penn, and he urged Friends to provide meetings for them. The newly organized Methodists soon attracted a number of the more intelligent, though the masses seem at the end of the last century not to have been church-goers or Christians to any considerable extent. The smaller number that went to church were wont to worship at St. George's, Fourth and Vine. For years both free Negroes and slaves worshipped here, and were made welcome. Soon, however, the church began to be alarmed at

Page 124

the increase in its black communicants which the immigration from the country was bringing, and attempted to force them into the gallery. The crisis came one Sunday morning during prayer, when Jones and Allen, with a crowd of followers, refused to worship except in their accustomed places, and finally left the church in a body.

        Allen himself tells of the incident as follows:

        "A number of us usually sat on seats placed around the wall, and on Sabbath morning we went to church and the sexton stood at the door and told us to go to the gallery. He told us to go and we would see where to sit. We expected to take the seats over the ones we formerly occupied below not knowing any better. We took these seats; meeting had begun and they were nearly done singing, and just as we got to the seats, the elder said: 'Let us pray.' We had not been long upon our knees before I heard considerable scuffling and loud talking. I raised my head and saw one of the trustees--H. M.--having hold of Absalom Jones, pulling him up off his knees and saying, 'You must get up, you must not kneel here.' Mr. Jones replied, 'Wait until prayer is over and I will get up and trouble you no more.' With that he beckoned to one of the other trustees--Mr. L. S.--to come to his assistance. He came and went to William White to pull him up. By this time the prayer was over and we all went out of the church in a body, and they were no more plagued by us in the church. This raised a great excitement and inquiry among the citizens, insomuch that I believe they were ashamed of their conduct. But my dear Lord was with us, and we were filled with fresh vigor to get a house erected to worship God in."


        This band immediately met together and on April 12, 1787, formed a curious sort of ethical and beneficial brotherhood called the Free African Society. How great a step this was, we of to-day scarcely realize. We must remind ourselves that it was the first wavering step of a people toward organized social life. This society was more than a mere club: Jones and Allen were its leaders and recognized chief officers; a certain parental discipline was exercised over its members and mutual financial aid given. The preamble of the articles of association says:

        "Whereas, Absalom Jones and Richard Allen, two men of the African race, who for their religious life and conversation, have obtained a good report among men, these persons, from a love to the people of their own complexion whom they beheld with sorrow, because of their irreligious and uncivilized state, often communed together upon this painful and important subject in order to form some kind of religious body; but there being too few to be found under the like concern, and those who were, differed in their religious sentiments; with these circumstances they labored for some time, till it was proposed after a serious communication of sentiments that a society should be formed without regard to religious tenets, provided the persons lived an orderly and sober life, in order to support one another in sickness, and for the benefit of their widows and fatherless children."


        The society met first at private houses, then at the Friends' Negro school-house. For a time they leaned toward Quakerism; each month three monitors were appointed to have oversight over the members; loose marriage customs were attacked by condemning cohabitation, expelling offenders, and providing a simple Quaker-like marriage ceremony. A fifteen-minute pause for silent prayer opened the meetings. As the representative body of the free Negroes of the city, this society opened communication with free Negroes in Boston, Newport, and other places.

Page 125

        The Negro Union of Newport, R. I., proposed, in 1788, a general exodus to Africa, but the Free African Society soberly replied: "With regard to the emigration to Africa you mention, we have at present but little to communicate on that head, apprehending every pious man a good citizen of the whole world." The society co-operated with the Abolition Society in studying the condition of the free blacks in 1790. At all times they seem to have taken good care of their sick and dead, and helped the widows and orphans to some extent. Their methods of relief were simple: they agreed "for the benefit of each other to advance one shilling in silver, Pennsylvania currency, a month; and after one year's subscription, from the dole thereof then to hand forth to the needy of the society, if any should require, the sum of three shillings and nine pence per week of the said money; provided the necessity is not brought on by their own imprudence." In 1790 the society had £42 9s. 1d. on deposit in the bank of North America, and had applied for a grant of the potter's field, to be set aside as a burial ground for them, in a petition signed by Dr. Rush, Tench Coxe, and others.

        It was, however, becoming clearer to the leaders that only a strong religious bond could keep this untrained group together. They would probably have become a sort of institutional church at first if the question of religious denomination had been settled among them; but it had not been, and for about six years the question was still pending. The tentative experiment in Quakerism had failed, being ill-suited to the low condition of the rank and file of the society. Both Jones and Allen believed that Methodism was best suited to the needs of the Negro, but the majority of the society, still nursing the memory of St. George's, inclined toward the Episcopal church. Here came the parting of the ways: Jones was a slow introspective man, with a thirst for knowledge, with high aspirations for his people; Allen was a shrewd, quick, popular leader, positive and dogged, and yet far-seeing in his knowledge of Negro character. Jones, therefore, acquiesced in the judgment of the majority, served and led them conscientiously and worthily, and eventually became the first Negro rector in the Episcopal church in America. About 1790 Allen and a few followers withdrew from the Free African Society, formed an independent Methodist Church, which first worshipped in his blacksmith's shop on Sixth street, near Lombard. Eventually this leader became the founder and first bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church of America.

        Full figures as to the growth of this institution are not available, but there are enough to show its striking advance in a century from a dozen or more to three-quarters of a million members:

Page 126

        

Growth of the African Methodist Episcopal Church

. . . . . 1816. 1826. 1836. 1846. 1866. 1876. 1880. 1900. 1901.
Bishops 1 2 3 4 4 6 9 13 13
General officers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 4 . . . . . 12
Presiding Elders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Annual Conferences 2 2 4 6 10 25 40 . . . . . . . . . .
Itinerant preachers 14 17 27 40 185 1,418 1,837 . . . . . 6,079
Local preachers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,168 9,760 . . . . . 9,749
Members 3,000 . . . . . 7,270 . . . . . . . . . . 172,806 391,044 561,550 688,354
Total members . . . . . 7,927 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213,469 402,638 663,746 762,580
Churches . . . . . . . . . . 86 198 285 1,833 2,051 5,630 5,715
Value of property . . . . . . . . . . $43,000.00 $90,000.00 $843,000 $3,064,911 . . . . . $8,718,456 $10,360,131
Parsonages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218 402 1,390 2,075
Value of total property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $3,203,711 $2,448,671 $9,309,973 $11,044,663
Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 . . . . . . . . . . 88 . . . . . 41
Raised for support of schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $125,650
Total money raised . . . . . $1,151.75 $1,385.88 $7,231.03 $91,593(?) $447,624 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

        Detailed figures showing the operations of seven fairly typical Annual Conferences follows:

        

Annual Conference Reports

. . . . . Virginia. Illinois. Indiana. Iowa. Ontario. Michigan. So. Carolina.
Ministers 102 51 74 68 7 22 100
Members 9,116 4,085 4,196 4,237 377 1,345 18,787
Churches 38 74 60 52 9 24 196
Parsonages 35 35 36 26 4 17 52
Value churches and parsonages $161,215.00 $83,190.00 $159,058.50 $246,265.00 $15,300.00 $280,032.89 $14,147.00
Indebtedness 64,739.61 23,304.44 15,493.77 61,006.42 5,737.90 8,467.29 10,212.14
Pastors' support 18,378.62 17,964.16 17,704.32 22,252.89 1,922.67 11,251.19 31,883.16
Total raised 70,514.67 31,707.00 39,608.95 76,426.85 4,217.52 17,688.40 47,883.38

Page 127

        In 1818 a publishing department was added to the work of the church, but its efficiency was impaired on account of the great mass of its members being in slave states or the District of Columbia, where the laws prohibited them from attending school, and deprived them of reading books or papers. In 1817 Rev. Richard Allen published a book of discipline; and shortly after this a church hymn-book was published also. Beyond this there was little done in this department until 1841, when the New York Conference passed a resolution providing for the publication of a monthly magazine. But the lack of funds compelled the projectors to issue it as a quarterly. For nearly eight years this magazine exerted an excellent influence upon the ministers with a strong interest. It contained the news in each of the conferences; its editorials breathed a spirit of love and fellowship; and thus the members were brought to a knowledge of the work being accomplished. At length the prosperity of the magazine seemed to justify the publication of a weekly paper. Accordingly a weekly journal, named the "Christian Herald," made its appearance and ran its course for the space of four years. In 1852, by order of the General Conference, the paper was enlarged and issued as the "Christian Recorder", which has continued to be published up to the present time.

        The department now publishes the Recorder, the African Methodist Episcopal Review, and various books.

        The financing of so large an organization is a matter of great interest. In the quadrennium, 1896-1900, there was raised for the purposes of the general church organization on the average:

        
Each year $236,194.79
Each month 19,682.89
Each day 656.09
Each minute .45

        The bishops receive $2,000 a year; the general officers, $1,200. In 1826 the pastors averaged $50 and $60 a year in salary, and often had other work for a livelihood. In 1900 the average salary of presiding elders was $663.72; of preachers $204.18. There is a system of pensions for the widowed and superannuated partially in force. The funds of the church are of two sorts: local monies, raised for the local churches, and "Dollar" money (i. e., one dollar per member), for the general church. The dollar money, which amounts to over $100,000 a year, is divided as follows:

  • Forty-six per cent. to general financial department.
  • Thirty-six per cent. to the annual conferences.
  • Ten per cent. to church extension.
  • Eight per cent. to education.
Page 128

        The total amount raised by the church in the four years, 1896-1900, was:

        
Dollar money $403,401.62
Church extension 64,474.00
Publishing Department 71,313.83
Education 270,988.54
Sunday-school Union 77,159.46
Preacher's aid 2,605.25
Missions 64,836.39
Total $954,779.09
Salaries of presiding elders $139,735.37
Salaries of ministers 735,796.21
Traveling expenses 29,594.00
Salaries of bishops 18,000.00
Salaries of general officers 12,300.00
Total*

        * Some of the items in this table are paid wholly or in part from the dollar money above.

$935,425.58
Total raised in quadrennium, 1896-1900 $1,777,948.20
Total raised in quadrennium, 1892-1896 1,533,414.01
Total raised in quadrennium, 1888-1892 1,064,569.50

        Turning to the various departments, we have first the Publishing Department. The Review is an octavo publication of about 100 pages, and is now in its twentieth year. It has a circulation of perhaps 1,000 copies. The contents of the New Year's number, 1903, were:

        The Mission of the African Methodist Episcopal Church to the Darker Races of the World--By C. J. Powell.

        Publications and Literature of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.--John E. Hagins.

        The Flight of Hagar.--J. A. Adams.

        The South Mountain Reservation.--Ralph Elwood Brock.

        The Leadership of the Church and the Opportunity of the Ministry.--George W. Henderson.

        The Opportunity of the Colored Young Men's Christian Association in the Work of Education.--F. D. Wheelock.

        The Preacher at Hill Station.--Katherine D. Tillman.

        St. Cecilia.

        A New Year--Looking Before and After.--H. T. Kealing.

        Joseph Parker's Prophecy.

        Women--Life's Mirror; Character in Eyes; Foes to Embonpoint; Tennyson's Egotism.

        Sociological.--Loves the Game; Alone in Paris; Indian Territory.

        Religious.--Some Questions and Answers.

        Miscellaneous.--Christmas; Christmas in the Orient; Who is Santa Claus? Keep Old Santa Claus; Winter; Music and Old Age; T. Thomas Fortune; The Strength of New England; Things to take to Church.

        Editorial.--The Review for 1903; President Roosevelt; Thomas B. Reed; Dr. Joseph Parker; You Count for One; The Stars for Us; The Good Old Times Worse than Our Times.

Page 129

        The Recorder is a weekly, eight-page paper, and is the oldest Negro periodical in the United States. It is taken up largely with church announcements and reports.

        The Philadelphia house received $65,687.98 in the four years, 1896-1900. It is not self-supporting at present, although it has been at various periods in the past. The outfit, including building and land, is valued at $45,500, on which there is a debt of $15,000. The branch establishment in Atlanta publishes the Southern Christian Recorder, a small weekly, at an annual cost of about $1,400.

        In Nashville there is located the Sunday-school Union, a publishing house for Sunday-school literature. It has valuable real estate and had an income of $77,159.46 during the quadrennium, or a little less than $20,000 a year.

        The mission work at home and abroad has been vigorously pushed in recent years, and in the thirty-six years from 1864 to 1900 this church has spent $2,102,150.75 in mission work. It has to-day in Africa 180 missions and over 12,000 members, beside missions in Canada and the West Indies. Over $60,000 was raised for missions in the last four years.

        There is some indebtedness on the general church property. The total value of churches and parsonages was $9,309,937 in 1900, on which there was a debt of $1,068,995.

        The African Methodist Episcopal Church began in 1844 to start schools for Negroes. A committee was appointed and founded Union Seminary. Later this institution was united with Wilberforce University, which was bought by the church from the white Methodist Church. Thus Wilberforce, dating from 1856, is the oldest Negro institution in the land. The church has now about twenty-five schools in all. They are supported from three sources: 1. Tuition, etc., paid by students; 2. Donations and bequests; 3. Appropriations from the general fund of the church. From these sources about $275,000 was raised in the four years, 1896-1900; and since 1884, when the general educational department was organized, there has been raised $1,250,000 for education. The figures are:

        
Schools 25
Teachers 140
Average attendance, four years 3,693
Acres of land 1,482
Buildings 51
Value of property $535,000.00
Raised and appropriated 1896-1900 270,988.54
Raised and appropriated 1884-1900 1,140,013.31

Page 130

        The schools are:

        

African Methodist Episcopal Schools

SCHOOLS. Established. Scholars. Teachers. Property. Receipts, four years.
Payne Theological Seminary, Wilberforce, O 1891 37 3 $13,000 $15,360.48
Wilberforce University, Wilberforce, Ohio 1856 311 20 158,000 85,923.23
Morris Brown College, Atlanta, Ga 1880 350 17 75,000 35,248.69
Kittrel College, Kittrel, N. C 1886 136 8 30,000 31,372.46
Paul Quinn College, Waco, Tex 1881 203 8 80,000 28,510.56
Allen University, Columbia, S. C 1880 285 8 35,000 19,365.05
Western University, Quindan, Kan . . . . . 90 10 75,000 15,637.53
Edward Waters College, Jacksonville, Fla 1883 172 8 25,000 12,873.85
Shorter University, North Little Rock, Ark 1887 110 4 10,250 11,929.44
Payne University, Selma, Ala . . . . . 233 9 3,000 5,981.00
Campbell-Stringer College, Jackson, Mo . . . . . 100 2 10,300 4,272.85
Wayman Institute, Harrodsburg, Ky 1891 50 1 2,760 2,618.08
Turner Normal Institute, Shelbyville, Tenn. 1887 79 3 3,500 2,030.36
Flagler High School, Marion, S. C . . . . . 161 3 1,500 700.00
Delhi Institute, Delhi, La . . . . . 57 3 3,000 . . . . .
Sission's High School, South McAlister, I. T . . . . . 35 2 . . . . . 332.78
Blue Creek and Muscogee High School, I. T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Morsell Institute, Hayti . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Bermuda Institute, Bermuda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Zion Institute, Sierra Leone, Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Eliza Turner School, Monrovia, Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Cape Town Institute, Cape Town, Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

        In 1901 there were 175 teachers, 6,725 students and 6,696 graduates from forty-one schools, valued at $865,574.

        The church extension work received $64,474 during the quadrennium, and there was $1,742.25 paid to preachers' widows. The total ministerial insurance in force amounted to $80,000.

        The African Methodist Episcopal Church, however, is chiefly noteworthy on account of its Board of Bishops. A board of thirteen men more or less wield the power directly over 750,000 American Negroes, and indirectly over two or more millions, administer $10,000,000 worth of property and an annual budget of $500,000. These bishops are elected for life by a General Conference meeting every four years. The membership of the General Conference consists of ministerial and lay delegates: the clerical delegates are elected from the Annual Conferences, one for every thirty ministers. Two lay delegates for each Annual Conference are selected by the representatives of the official church boards in the Conference. Thus we have a peculiar case of Negro government, with elaborate machinery and the experience of a hundred years. How has it succeeded? Its financial and numerical success has been remarkable as has been shown. Moreover, the bishops elected form a remarkable series of personalities. Together the assembled bishops are perhaps the most striking body of Negroes in the world in personal appearance: men of massive physique, clear cut faces and undoubted intelligence. Altogether the church has elected about thirty bishops.

Page 131

These men fall into about five classes. First, there were those who represented the old type of Negro preacher--men of little learning, honest and of fair character, capable of following other leaders. Perhaps five or six of the African Methodist Episcopal bishops have been of this type, but they have nearly all passed away. From them developed, on the one hand, four men of aggressive, almost riotous energy, who by their personality thrust the church forward. While such men did much for the physical growth of the church they were often men of questionable character, and in one or two instances ought never to have been raised to the bishopric. On the other hand, in the case of four other bishops, the goodness of the older class developed toward intense, almost ascetic piety, represented pre-eminently in the late Daniel Payne, a man of almost fanatic enthusiasm, of simple and pure life and unstained reputation, and of great intellectual ability. The African Methodist Episcopal Church owes more to him than to any single man, and the class of bishops he represents is the salt of the organization. Such a business plant naturally has called to the front many men of business ability, and perhaps five bishops may be classed as financiers and overseers. The rest of the men who have sat on the bench rose for various reasons as popular leaders--by powerful preaching, by pleasing manners, by impressive personal appearance. They have usually been men of ordinary attainment, with characters neither better nor worse than the middle classes of their race. Once in office they have usually grown in efficiency and character. On the whole, then, this experiment in Negro government has been distinctly encouraging. It has brought forward men varying in character, some good and some bad, but on the whole decency and ability have been decidedly in the ascendency, and the church has prospered.

25. The Zion Methodists.

        The history of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church has already been given.*

        * P. 45.


From the 1,500 members of 1821 it has grown until it claimed, in 1904, 551.591 adherents. Some facts about the church, as given at the twenty-first quadrennial session, are:

        "In May, 1896, the ordained ministry of the church numbered 2,473; this has increased in four years to 2,902, an addition of 429. The number of church edifices, which were 3,612, has increased to 4,841, an addition of 229. The membership of 409,441 has swollen to 528,461, an increase of 119,020. These, with an approximate transient membership of 12,000, and denominational adherents of 125,000, will give the church a following o