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.

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.

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!”

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.

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:

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.†

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?”‡

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:

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.†

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 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 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.

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

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 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 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, 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:

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%

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:*

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

“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

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