PIONEER NEGRO PREACHERS
The new stage reached in the development of religious freedom in America
in securing toleration for the evangelical denominations, meant the
increasing importance of the Negro in the church. Given access to the
people in all parts of the country by virtue of this new boon resulting
from the struggle for the rights of man, the Methodists, Baptists and
Presbyterians soon became imbued with the idea of an equality of the
Negro in the church although they did not always militantly denounce
slavery. Negroes were accepted in these congregations on this basis and
when exhibiting the power of expounding the scriptures were sometimes
heard with unusual interest. Such elevation of the blacks by these more
liberal denominations, of course, incurred the displeasure and
opposition of the aristocratic churchmen to the extent that these
liberal denominations could not grant the Negroes as much freedom of
participation in the church work as they were disposed to do.
In those cases in which Negroes were permitted to preach, they found
themselves confronting not only the opposition of the more
aristocratic sects but violating laws of long standing, prohibiting
Negro ministers from exercising their gifts. When their ministrations
were of a local order, and they did not seemingly stir up their fellow
men to oppose the established order of things, not so much attention was
paid to their operations. When, however, these Negroes of unusual power
preached with such force as to excite not only the blacks but the
whites, steps were generally taken to silence these speakers heralding
the coming of a new day. This opposition on the part of the whites
apparently grew more strenuous upon the attainment of independence. As
British subjects, they had more feeling of toleration for the rise of
the Negro in the church than they had after the colonies became
independent. While struggling for liberty themselves, even for religious
freedom, these Americans were not willing to grant others what they
themselves desired. The attitude of most Americans then, unlike that of
some of the British, seemed to be that the good things of this life were
intended as special boons for a particular race.
The efforts to establish the early churches of South Carolina and
Georgia are cases in evidence. The first Negro Baptist Church in
America, according to Dr. W. H. Brooks, was founded by one Mr. Palmer at
Silver Bluff across the river from Augusta, Georgia, in the colony of
South Carolina, some time between the years 1773 and 1775. This group
was fortunate in having the kind master, George Galphin, who became a
patron of this congregation. He permitted David George to be ordained
for this special work after having formerly allowed George Liele to
preach there during these early years. Upon the evacuation of Savannah
by the Americans in 1778, the Silver Bluff Church was driven into exile.
Called upon to decide whether they would support the American or British
cause, friend separated from friend and sometimes master from slave.
When Galphin, a patriot, abandoned his slaves in his flight for refuge
from the British, David George and fifty of these slaves went over to
the British in Savannah where they were freed. David George returned to
South Carolina and resided for a time in Charleston, from which he went,
in 1782, to Nova Scotia, where he abode for ten years, preaching to
Baptist congregations at Shelburn, Birchtown, Ragged Island, and in St.
John, New Brunswick. Because of the inhospitable climate, the Negro
slaves who had escaped with their loyal masters crossing the Canadian
border to these points in Nova Scotia, went in 1792 to Sierra Leone
where they constituted themselves a colony, with David George the
founder of their first Baptist Church. After peace was made in 1783, the
Silver Bluff Church was revived under the direction of the Rev. Jesse
Peter who, unlike George Liele in having departed with his master when
the British evacuated Savannah in 1782, remained as a slave here in
South Carolina to carry forward the work across the river from Augusta
in South Carolina.
According to Dr. Walter H. Brooks, a portion of this Silver Bluff Church
brought into Savannah, Georgia, at the time of the departure of certain
Americans to join the British in 1778, took shape as an organized body
under George Liele, who had been the servant of a British officer. It is
highly probable that David George and Jesse Peter, who had served these
people at Silver Bluff, did not have sufficient influence to secure a
permit to preach to them in Savannah, although they did unite with the
church there. Out of this effort of George Liele developed what Dr.
Brooks considers the first Negro Baptist Church in the city of Savannah,
which flourished during the British occupancy from 1779 to the year
1782. The oldest Negro Baptist Church in this country, however, was that
of the Silver Bluff Church which, in another meeting place and under a
new name, became established at Augusta, having existed from the year
1773 to 1793 before the time of Andrew Bryan's organizing efforts in
Savannah.
[Illustration: ANDREW BRYAN]
The struggles of George Liele and Andrew Bryan throw additional light on
these early efforts. George Liele was born in Virginia about the year
1750, but soon moved with his master, Henry Sharpe, to Burke County,
Georgia, a few years before the Revolutionary War. As his master was a
deacon of the Baptist church of which Matthew Moore was pastor, George,
upon hearing this minister preach from time to time when accompanying
his owner, became converted and soon thereafter was baptized by this
clergyman. Not long thereafter upon discovering that he had unusual
ministerial gifts, this church permitted him to preach upon the
plantations along the Savannah river and sometimes to the congregation
of the white church to which he belonged. As his master was much more
liberal than most of his kind, Liele was permitted to extend his
operations down the Savannah river as far as Brampton, Savannah, and
Yamacraw, where he preached to the slaves.
His ministerial work became so important that his master finally
liberated him that he might serve without interference; but his work was
interrupted by the Revolutionary War, during which his master was
killed. Upon the death of his master, moreover, some of the heirs to the
estate, not being satisfied with the manumission of George Liele, had
him thrown into prison, hoping to reenslave him; but Colonel Kirkland,
of the British Army, then in control of Savannah, came to his rescue by
securing his release from prison. When the British evacuated that city,
George Liele went with them to Jamaica, indenturing himself to Colonel
Kirkland as a servant for the amount of money necessary to pay his
transportation.[3] Before leaving Savannah, however, fortune brought it
to pass that the vessel in which he embarked was detained for some weeks
near Tybee Island, not far from the mouth of the Savannah river. While
waiting there he came to the city of Savannah and baptized Andrew Bryan
and his wife Hannah, Kate Hogg, and Hagar Simpson, who became the
founders of the first African Baptist Church in Savannah.
When George Liele landed at Kingston he was, upon the recommendation of
Colonel Kirkland to General Campbell, the Governor of Jamaica, employed
to work out the money for which he had been indentured. Upon discharging
the debt he obtained for himself and family a certificate of manumission
and was free in 1784 to begin his work as a preacher. He preached first
in a private home to a small congregation and then organized a church
with four men who had emigrated from the American colonies. Delivering
with power a message of such telling effect as the first dissenter to
undertake the establishment of a liberal sect in the midst of
communicants of the established church of England, he soon found his
meetings interrupted and himself cruelly persecuted. Frequently
memorialized for a grant of religious freedom, however, the Jamaica
Assembly finally permitted George Liele to proceed with his work.
Within a few years he had a following of about 500 communicants, and
with the help of a number of inspired deacons and elders extended the
work far into the rural districts. In addition to his ministerial work
he administered the affairs of these various groups, taught a free
school, and conducted a business at which he earned his living.
At first this work was largely inspirational, stirring up the people
here and there; and many thought that it would be a movement of short
duration: but becoming convinced that this was the real way of salvation
and life, persons adhering to this new creed contributed sufficiently to
its support to give it a standing in the community. Within a few years
we hear of the purchase for a sum of nearly 155 pounds of about three
acres of land at the east end of Kingston, on which they built a church.
When success had crowned his efforts in Jamaica, he took steps toward
the establishment of an edifice at Spanish Town, which was completed a
few years later. The records show too that he interested in his cause
some men of influence like Mr. Steven A. Cook, a member of the Jamaica
Assembly, who solicited funds for him in England. Of him Mr. Cook bears
this testimony: "He is a very industrious man, decent, humble in his
manners, and, I think, a good man." Contemporaries speak of his family
life as pleasant. He had a wife and four children, three boys and a
girl. He was not a well educated man, but he found time to read some
good literature.
The unusual tact of George Liele was the key to his success. He seemed
to know how to handle men diplomatically, but some of his policy may be
subject to criticism. Unlike so many Baptist and Methodist missionaries
who came forward preaching freedom of body and mind and soul to all men
and thereby stirring up the slaves in certain parts, George Liele would
not receive any slaves who did not have permission of their owners, and
instead of directing attention to their wrongs, conveyed to them the
mere message of Christ. His influence among the masters and overseers
became unusual, and the membership of his church rapidly increased. No
literature was used and no instruction given until it had at first been
shown to the members of the legislature, the magistrates, and the
justices to secure their permission beforehand. One of the masters,
speaking of the wholesome influence of Liele's preaching, said that he
did not need to employ an assistant nor to make use of the whip whether
he was at home or elsewhere, as his slaves were industrious and
obedient, and lived together in unity, brotherly love, and peace.
The next pioneer preacher of worth among the Negroes was Andrew Bryan,
George Liele's successor in Georgia. Andrew Bryan was born a slave in
1737 at Goose Creek, South Carolina, about sixteen miles from
Charleston. He was later brought to Savannah, Georgia, where, as stated
above, he came under the influence of the preaching of George Liele. He
at first commenced by public exhortations and prayer meetings at
Brampton. Nine months after the departure of George Liele, Bryan began
to preach to congregations of black and white people at Savannah. Moved
by his convincing message, his master and other whites encouraged him in
his chosen field, inasmuch as the influence he had upon slaves was
salutary. He was thereafter permitted to erect on the land of Mr. Edward
Davis at Yamacraw a rough wooden building of which his group was soon
artfully dispossessed. As his ministrations were opposed by others who
did not like this simple faith, unusual persecution soon followed.
Bryan's adherents were not permitted to hold frequent meetings, and in
trying to evade this regulation by assembling in the swamps, they ran
the risk of rigid discipline. With the aid of his brother Sampson,
Andrew Bryan, however, gradually held this group together. At first it
was small; but finally sufficiently large to receive the attention of
the Rev. Thomas Burt in 1785, and that of the Rev. Abraham Marshall of
Kioke in 1788. The latter then baptized forty-five additional members of
this congregation, and on January 20, 1788, organized them as a church
and ordained Andrew Bryan as a minister with full authority to preach
the gospel and to administer the ordinances of the Baptist church.
This recognition of Bryan as a minister, however, did not solve all of
his problems. The greater his influence among the slaves, the more the
masters were inclined to believe that his work could result only in that
of servile insurrection. It became more difficult, therefore, for slaves
to attend his meetings; the patrols whipped them sometimes even when
they had passes, and finally a large number of the members were arrested
and severely punished. The culmination was that Andrew Bryan, their
pastor himself, and his brother, Sampson Bryan, one of the first
deacons, were "inhumanly cut and their backs were so lacerated that
their blood ran down to the earth as they, with uplifted hands, cried
unto the Lord; but Bryan, in the midst of his torture, declared that he
rejoiced not only to be whipped but would freely suffer death for the
cause of Jesus Christ." Accused of sinister plans, Andrew Bryan and his
brother Sampson were, upon the complaint of their traducers, imprisoned
and dispossessed of their meeting house. Lorenzo Dow, an eccentric
itinerant preacher appearing in Savannah about this time, preached at
Bryan's church to show not only his compassion for Bryan's waiting
congregation, but his disapproval of the persecution to which this
apostle was subjected.
Jonathan Bryan, the master of Andrew and Sampson, insisting that they
were the victims of prejudice and wickedness, however, secured for them
a hearing. They came before the Justices of the Inferior Court of
Chatham County, Henry Osborne, James Haversham, and James Montague,
who, finding no criminal intent in their efforts, ordered that they be
released. They were then permitted by their master to resume worship in
the barn on his plantation, but persecution followed them even there,
where they were surrounded by spies and eavesdroppers. This continued
until one of the eavesdroppers, upon listening to what was going on
among these communicants at Andrew Bryan's private home, heard this man
of God earnestly praying for the men who had so mercilessly used him.
This enlisted so much sympathy among the people kindly disposed that the
chief justice of the court, before whom they had been brought, granted
them permission to continue their worship of God at any time between
sunrise and sunset. They held meetings at Brampton about two years,
during which they made a number of influential friends among the whites,
who, along with the communicants of this group, assisted Bryan in
raising funds to purchase a lot upon which to begin the erection of a
church in 1794. The first African church stood for years on this lot on
what is now known as Mill Street, running to Indian Street Lane in
Savannah.
Andrew Bryan faced another crisis upon the death of Jonathan Bryan, his
master. He succeeded, however, in emerging as a free man, the heirs of
the estate having given him an opportunity to purchase his freedom for
fifty pounds. Fortune prospered him thereafter to the extent that he
soon bought in Yamacraw a lot on which he built a residence not far from
the place of worship. Upon the final division of the Bryan estate it
developed that the church building was still controlled by that family,
but the worship of these communicants continued there under the
supervision of the whites without serious interruption. The membership
had then reached 700.
Bryan soon obtained a position of influence in spite of all of his
difficulties, as is evidenced by his own testimony in addressing his
coworker, Dr. Rippon, in 1800. He said: "With much pleasure I inform
you, dear sir, that I enjoy good health, and am strong in body, at the
age of sixty-three years, and am blessed with a pious wife, whose
freedom I have obtained, and an only daughter and child, who is married
to a free man, though she, and consequently under our laws, her seven
children, five sons and two daughters, are slaves. By a kind Providence
I am well provided for, as to worldly comforts (though I have had very
little given me as a minister), having a house and lot in this city,
besides the land on which several buildings stand, for which I receive a
small rent, and a fifty-acre tract of land, with all necessary
buildings, four miles in the country, and eight slaves; for whose
education and happiness I am enabled through mercy to provide."
As this congregation continued to increase, Andrew Bryan secured the
services of his brother as an assistant pastor. He planned, moreover, to
divide the church whenever the membership became too large for him to
serve it efficiently. This was what led to the organization of the
Second African Baptist Church of Savannah, with Henry Francis, a slave
of Colonel Leroy Hamilton, as pastor. As the head of this congregation,
Francis manifested power of remarkable leadership, and soon thereafter
purchased his freedom to devote all of his time to his congregation.
Bryan's church was further divided upon reaching the stage of having an
unwieldy number, when there emerged from it the Third African Baptist
Church. Bryan's church, moreover, became in the course of time the
beacon light in the Negro religious life of Georgia. From this center
went other workers into the inviting fields of that State, as to
Augusta, where a flourishing Baptist church was established. This
condition obtained until the Negro preacher became circumscribed during
the thirties and forties by laws intended to prevent such disturbances
as were caused by Nat Turner in Southampton County, Virginia. Andrew
Bryan, however, did not live to see this. He passed away in 1812,
respected by all who knew him and loved by his numerous followers. The
position which he finally attained in the esteem and the respect of the
community is well illustrated by the honor shown him by the following
resolutions of the Savannah Baptist Association (white) on the occasion
of his death:
"The Association is sensibly affected by the death of the Rev.
Andrew Bryan, a man of color, and pastor of the First Colored
Church in Savannah. This son of Africa, after suffering
inexpressible persecutions in the cause of his divine Master, was
at length permitted to discharge the duties of the ministry among
his colored friends in peace and quiet, hundreds of whom, through
his instrumentality, were brought to a knowledge of the truth as
'it is in Jesus.' He closed his extensively useful and amazingly
luminous course in the lively exercise of faith and in the joyful
hope of a happy immortality."
In those parts of the South where the pro-slavery sentiment was not
developed so early as in Georgia, the Baptists were able to give their
Negro communicants more consideration. After this denomination had won
toleration in Virginia, its leaders experienced much less difficulty in
proselyting Negroes than in the case of other communicants. From 1770 to
1790 Negro preachers, thanks to the pioneer work of a man of color, Rev.
Mr. Moses, were in charge of congregations in Charles City, Petersburg,
Williamsburg, and Allen's Creek, in Lunenburg County. In 1801 Gowan
Pamphlet of that State was the pastor of a progressive Baptist church in
Williamsburg, some members of which could read, write and keep accounts.
William Lemon was about this time chosen by a white congregation to
serve at the Pettsworth or Gloucester church in that State.
In Portsmouth, Virginia, a Negro Baptist preacher attained unusual
distinction. There the blacks and whites belonging to the same Baptist
church experienced very little difficulty in their acceptance of each
other on the basis of religious equality. They were constituted a church
by the Association held in Isle of Wight County in 1789, and after the
service of a number of pioneer ministers the church called one Thomas
Armistead. The church fell into bad hands a few years thereafter and
suffered a decline under one Frost, a Baptist preacher, who in the
propagation of the doctrines of free will caused unusual excitement.
This did not subside until he, according to the contemporaries, was
stricken by the hand of God. While looking out for another pastor there
came to this community, in 1795, from Northampton County, a black
preacher whose name was Josiah Bishop. He preached with such fervor and
with such success that the whites as well as the blacks hung, as it
were, upon his words. He easily rallied the scattered forces of the
church, revived their spirits, and lifted high the banner of the gospel.
So impressed was the congregation with his work that the church gave
Josiah Bishop the money with which to purchase his freedom and soon
thereafter bought his wife and his eldest son.
It is said that his preaching was much admired by both saints and
sinners wherever he went. "As a stranger," say Lemuel Burkett and Jesse
Reed in their _Concise History of the Kehukee Baptist Association_, "few
received equal degree of liberality with him." They were, therefore,
advised, "that whereas the black brethren in the church seemed anxious
for a vote in the conference that it would be best to consider the black
people as a wing of the body, and Josiah Bishop to take over sight of
them, as this church, at that time, fellowshiped a number of Negroes.
The black people at first seemed pleased with the proposition, but soon
repented and came and told the deacons they were afraid that matters
might turn up disagreeable to them and dishonoring to God, and said that
they would be subordinate to the white brethren, if they would let them
continue as they were, which was consented to." Josiah Bishop, of
course, could not long remain as the pastor of a mixed church in the
slaveholding colony of Virginia. After toiling successfully for a short
period in that city, he moved to Baltimore, where he helped to promote
the cause of the rising Baptists in that city. When his work was well
done there, he moved to the city of New York, where during 1810 and 1811
he served as the pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church.
Pioneering in this same field in 1792 was the famous "Uncle Jack," a
full-blooded African, recognized by the whites as a forceful preacher of
the gospel in the Baptist Church. For some years he preached from
plantation to plantation, moving so many to repentance that the white
citizens in appreciation of his worth had him licensed to preach and
raised a fund with which they purchased his freedom. They bought him a
small farm in Virginia, where for more than 40 years he continued his
ministry as an instrument in the conversion of a large number of white
people.
Contemporaneous with Uncle Jack was Henry Evans, a free Negro of
Virginia. On his way to Charleston, South Carolina, to work at the trade
of shoemaking, Evans happened to stop at Fayetteville, North Carolina.
Having been licensed as a local preacher in the Methodist Church, he
tarried there to work among the people, whose deplorable condition
excited his sympathy. At first he worked at his trade and preached on
Sunday. The town council, feeling that he was a public danger, ordered
him to refrain from preaching. Whereupon he began to hold secret
meetings. His preaching became so effective, however, and so many white
persons attended his meetings, that the official opposition yielded
sufficiently to have a regular Methodist Church organized there in 1790.
The edifice was so constructed as to provide quarters for Evans, who
remained there until his death in 1810, although a white minister was in
actual charge of the church.
From the Methodists there emerged another such preacher, Black Harry,
who, accompanying Mr. Asbury, learned from him to preach more forcefully
than Asbury himself. According to a contemporary, Harry was "small, very
black, keen-eyed, possessing great volubility of tongue; and, although
illiterate so that he could not read," was one of the most popular
preachers of that age. Upon hearing Harry preach, Dr. Benjamin Rush
pronounced him the greatest orator in America. Desiring Harry to
accompany him in 1782, Bishop Asbury made the request, saying that the
way to have a very large congregation was to give out that Harry was to
preach, as more would come to hear Harry than to hear Bishop Asbury. On
one occasion in Wilmington, Delaware, where the cause of the Methodist
was unpopular, a large number of persons came out of curiosity to hear
Bishop Asbury. But, as the auditorium was already taxed to its fullest
capacity, they could only hear from the outside. At the conclusion of
the exercises, they said, without having seen the speaker: "If all
Methodist preachers can preach like the Bishop, we should like to be
constant hearers." Some one present replied: "That was not the Bishop,
but the Bishop's servant that you heard." This, to be sure, had the
desired effect, for these inquirers concluded: "If such be the servant,
what must the master be?" "The truth was," says John Ledman in his
_History of the Rise of Methodism in America_, "that Harry was a more
popular speaker than Mr. Asbury or almost any one else in his day." In
this same capacity Harry accompanied and preached with not only Mr.
Asbury but with Garretson, Watcote, and Dr. Coke.
"After he had moved on the tide of popularity for a number of years,"
says John Ledman, "he fell by wine, one of the strong enemies of both
ministers and people. And now, alas! this popular preacher was a drunken
ragpicker in the streets of Philadelphia. But we will not leave him
here. One evening Harry started down the Neck, below Southwark,
determined to remain there until his backslidings were healed. Under a
tree he wrestled with God in prayer. Sometime that night God restored to
him the joys of his salvation. From this time Harry continued faithful;
though he could not stand before the people with that pleasing
confidence as a public speaker that he had before his fall. About the
year 1810 Harry finished his course; and, it is believed, made a good
end. An unusually large number of people, both white and colored,
followed his body to its last resting place, in a free burying ground in
Kensington."
Among the pioneer Negro preachers one of the most interesting was John
Stewart. He was born of free parents in Powhatan County, Virginia, where
he received some religious training and attended a school during the
winter, thus securing to him so much mental development by the time of
reaching maturity that he could make a living much more easily than some
of his fellows. This early training, however, did not seem to restrain
him from certain temptations of this life; for, in going away from home
to make his career, he fell a victim to bad habits, becoming a dissolute
drunkard, drifting here and there. Finally he came to Marietta, Ohio,
where under the influence of the gospel as it was preached among his
lowly people in that center, he was converted and united with the
Methodist Episcopal Church. He then became a man of very regular habits
and devoted much of his time to meditation and prayer. On a certain
occasion he said, "I heard a voice like a woman's singing and praising
the Lord, while straight from the northern sky, which was filled with a
great radiance, came a man's voice, saying, 'You must declare my counsel
faithfully,' and I found myself standing on my feet speaking as to a
congregation." He felt that this was a call to preach, but at first
resisted the influence, hoping to escape therefrom. Having fallen sick
not long thereafter, however, he looked upon this as a punishment and
responded to the voices that he heard, overcoming his fears. Having his
mind thoroughly made up, he set off then to preach the gospel, steering,
as he said, "my course sometimes by the road, sometimes through the
cities, until I came to Goshen, where I found the Delaware Indians."
He preached and sang among these people for a short period, and finally
returned to Marietta. He was again summoned by the voices in the night
impelling him to make another pilgrimage. This time he drifted into a
settlement of whites, to whom he preached with much success, moving many
of them to repentance and organizing them as a church. He then proceeded
to Upper Sandusky, the home of the Wyandot Indians, who, having never
received the gospel, although the Roman Catholics had unsuccessfully
tried to evangelize them, had fallen back into a worse state of
heathenism and especially drunkenness, resulting from the vices imported
by traders. Here he had the opposition of William Walker, the government
agent, who did not take well to his message, but on being converted very
soon thereafter, Walker gave Stewart less trouble in reaching the
Indians. Another great hindrance, however, was the coming of the other
white traders, who prospered by the liquor traffic that they carried on
with these Indians. At first they tried to show that Stewart was not
properly authorized as a minister and should be denied the right to
preach; but having then the support of William Walker, the zealous
missionary succeeded in delivering his message. Some of the Indians,
too, felt that the gospel which he preached was not intended for the
Indians but for the white man, although Stewart endeavored to show that
this boon was for all nations and for all people. He persisted in
holding his position, and in the end success crowned his efforts in
bringing about the conversion of all of the prominent chiefs of this
tribe.
It is said that because of this success his enemies contrived to
discourage him. They prepared for an unusually great celebration in
accordance with the festive ideas of the Indians, trying to bring them
back to their old habits. Becoming discouraged, John Stewart preached
his farewell sermon and returned to Marietta. But he came back to Upper
Sandusky after an absence of a few months and devoted the rest of his
life to work among the Wyandot Indians. Fortunately he was then filled
with enthusiasm and the word which he preached did not return void. As
his mission was then a success, he appealed for help to the higher
conference, then meeting at Urbana, in March, 1817. J. B. Finley was
chosen to work in this field. Stewart had planned for a thorough
elevation of these people, including industrial training, which centered
around the erection of a sawmill and the purchase of a farm upon which
he taught agriculture. A log structure was soon built for school
purposes, and there soon followed Miss Harriet Stubbs, who volunteered
to teach the Indians. Subsequent reports show that the work was in good
condition in 1822. The religion of Jesus Christ was flourishing and
everywhere the Indians were living upright lives. At this time, however,
Stewart's health had failed him, as he had well run his course, having
been exposed to all sorts of hardships. He passed away on the 17th of
December, his hand in that of his wife. His last words, addressed to the
sorrowing people about his bed, were: "Oh, be faithful."
Lemuel Haynes, another pioneer preacher, was born July 18, 1753, at West
Hartford, Connecticut. His father was a man of unmingled African
extraction and his mother a white woman of respectable New England
ancestry. As he was a natural son, the mother abandoned him in infancy,
but he fortunately found asylum at the home of one Haynes, whose name he
took and with whom he lived until at the age of five months, when he was
bound out to David Rose of Granville, Massachusetts, where Lemuel grew
to manhood.
Lemuel was given the rudimentary training in the backwoods schools of
the community, in which he learned to read and write. These meager
advantages led him to seek an extension of his knowledge through the
reading of good books. As these were scarce, he had to be content with
the Bible, the Psalter, the writings of Watts and Doddridge, and Young's
_Night Thoughts_. Before his education could be completed, however,
Lemuel, having been prostrated with grief because of the loss of the
wife of his kind master, entered the continental army, first as a minute
man in 1774 and then as a regular soldier after the battle of Lexington.
Returning from the war, Lemuel engaged in agriculture; but he had early
been given a pious trend and soon decided to study theology in
anticipation of the designs of Providence concerning him. For some time
he had been accustomed to read the Bible and sermons of others on the
occasions of conducting family prayers in the home of David Rose. From
this exercise he mustered sufficient courage to read one of his own
sermons, and finally to preach before the local congregations, which
marveled at the power of his words. To prepare himself thoroughly to
preach, Haynes once planned to attend Dartmouth College, but shrank from
it. After studying privately under Daniel Farrand of Canaan,
Connecticut, and William Bradford of Wintonbury, Haynes spent a short
period teaching a school for whites. He was licensed to preach in the
Congregational Church in 1780 and was ordained soon thereafter,
beginning his ministry at Middle Granville, where he labored five years.
Here Bessie Babbit, a white woman of considerable education and piety,
offered him her heart and they were married in 1783.
From this small charge Haynes was called to Torrington, Connecticut. A
leading citizen was much displeased that the church should have a
"nigger minister," and to show his lack of respect for the new incumbent
this man went into the church and sat with his hat on. "He had not
preached far," said the man, "when I thought I saw the whitest man I
ever knew in that pulpit, and I tossed my hat under the pew." Haynes was
then called to take charge of the Congregational Church in West Rutland.
Here his usefulness was appreciated and his efforts were extended to
other towns through his revivals, one of the most successful of which he
conducted in Pittsfield. Having developed such power, he was employed,
in 1804, by the Connecticut Missionary Society to labor in the
destitute sections of Vermont. In 1809 he was appointed to a similar
service by the Vermont Missionary Society. In 1814 he preached
extensively in Connecticut, appearing before crowded houses, having in
his audience on one occasion President Dwight of Yale.
With such standing in the church Haynes was expected to manifest
interest in the great questions at issue in New England. One of these
was the Stoddardian principle of admitting moral persons without
credible evidences of grace, to the Lord's Supper, and the half-way
covenant by which parents though not admitted to the Lord's Supper were
encouraged to offer their children in baptism. In this debate Haynes,
with his eloquence and logic, vanquished the famous Hosea Ballou by his
powerful sermon based on the text _Ye shall not surely die_. There was
also a difference of opinion with respect to the operations of the Holy
Spirit, but Haynes stood with Edwards and Whitefield. Being thus active
in dispelling clouds of doubt, he brought many back to a more righteous
conduct.
Becoming involved in the partisan strife which characterized the rise of
political parties after Washington's inauguration, Haynes alienated the
affections of some of his communicants by his bold advocacy of the
principle conducive to a strong national government as administered in
the beginning by George Washington, whose policies Haynes admired. He
then left West Rutland and preached a while in Manchester, Vermont,
until 1822, when he accepted a call to Granville, New York. There he
spent usefully the last eleven years of his life.
In spite of the fact that Lemuel Haynes was working altogether among
white people, however, he was successful wherever he was stationed. His
eloquence and Christian nobility won him much attention. "He always
showed himself a man of a feeling heart, sensibly affected by human
suffering," says Cooley, his biographer. "At home he was industrious,
his family government was parental. He was the embodiment of piety and
honesty." Churches and associations were strengthened by his labors.
Their membership increased and the influence of the gospel was extended.
So lived and died one of the noblest of the New England Congregational
ministers of a century ago. Of illegitimate birth, and of no
advantageous circumstances of family, rank or station, he became one of
the choicest instruments of Christ. His face betrayed his race and
blood, and his life revealed his Lord.
There served as a pioneer worker for the Presbyterians John Gloucester,
who founded the first African Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia in
1807. According to Gillett's _History of the Presbyterian Church in the
United States_, this church owed its existence, and for many years its
continued support, largely to the "Evangelical Society of Philadelphia,"
organized upon the recommendation and influence of Dr. Alexander. "Its
first pastor, although never installed," says Gillett, "was John
Gloucester, a slave of Dr. Blackburn of Tennessee. He had attracted the
attention of the latter, under whose preaching he was converted, by his
piety and natural gifts, and by him was purchased, and encouraged to
study with a view to the ministry. After having been licensed and
ordained by the Union Presbytery, he was, in 1818, received from that
body by the Philadelphia Presbytery, and, under the patronage of the
'Evangelical Society,' continued in charge of the African Church until
his death in 1822. The house of worship, located on the corner of
Shippen and Seventh Streets, was completed in 1811."
"Mr. Gloucester first commenced his missionary efforts by preaching in
private houses," continues Gillett, "but these were soon found
insufficient to accommodate his congregations. A schoolhouse was
procured near the site of the future edifice; but in clear weather he
preached in the open air. Possessed of a strong and musical voice, he
would take his stand on the corner of Shippen and Seventh Streets, and
while singing a hymn would gather around him many besides his regular
hearers, and hold their attention till he was prepared to commence his
exercises. Possessed of a stout, athletic frame, and characterized by
prudence, forbearance, and a fervent piety, he labored with unremitting
zeal, securing the confidence and respect of his brethren of the
Presbytery, and building up the congregation which he had gathered. His
freedom was granted him by Dr. Blackburn, and by his own application he
secured the means in England and this country to purchase his family. He
is said to have been a man of strong mind, mighty of prayer, and of such
fervor and energy in wrestling supplication that persons sometimes fell
under his power, convicted of sin."
To this class of Negro preachers in the South belongs John Chavis,
mentioned in another connection below. Chavis was a full-blooded Negro
of dark brown color, born probably near Oxford, Granville County, North
Carolina, about 1763. From a youth he impressed the public as a man of
unusual power and was, therefore, sent by his friends to Princeton to
see if a Negro could take a collegiate education. Some have said that he
was never a regularly enrolled student at Princeton. The records,
however, show that he was under the direction of Dr. Witherspoon, who
was soon convinced that the experiment "would issue favorably." In
keeping with the course of study of that time, he was chiefly interested
in the classics. In these fields he easily took rank as a good Latin and
a fair Greek scholar. Exactly how much work he did in the field of
theology is not known, but as the line drawn between theology and
classical studies at that time was not very definite, he could easily
lay a foundation for work in the ministry, and especially so if his
instruction were under the direction of one man, who would shape his
course of study in keeping with his practical needs rather than in
conformity with the formal training of the school.
Whether Chavis was sent to Princeton to make a minister of him or not,
however, he very soon bestirred himself in that direction. From
Princeton he went to Lexington, Virginia, to preach. In the records of
the Presbyterians for 1801, Chavis is referred to as "a black man of
prudence and piety." "For his better direction in the discharge of
duties which are attended with many circumstances of delicacy and
difficulty" some prudential instructions were issued to him by the
General Assembly, "governing himself by which the knowledge of religion
among the Negroes might be made more and more to strengthen the order of
the society." The annals of the year 1801 report him in the service of
the Hanover Presbytery as a "riding missionary under the direction of
the General Assembly." He was very soon stationed in Lexington as a
recognized preacher of official status working among his own people. In
1805, however, he returned to his native State, where as a result of the
close relations existing between the whites and blacks and his power as
an expounder of the gospel, he preached to large congregations of both
races.
Referring to his career, Paul C. Cameron, a son of Judge Duncan of
North Carolina, said: "In my boyhood life at my father's home I often
saw John Chavis, a venerable old Negro man, recognized as a freeman and
as a preacher or clergyman of the Presbyterian Church. As such he was
received by my father and treated with kindness and consideration, and
respected as a man of education, good sense and most estimable
character." Mr. George Wortham, a lawyer of Granville County, said: "I
have heard him read and explain the Scriptures to my father's family
repeatedly. His English was remarkably pure, containing no 'Negroisms';
his manner was impressive, his explanations clear and concise, and his
views, as I then thought and still think, entirely orthodox. He was said
to have been an acceptable preacher, his sermons abounding in strong
common sense views and happy illustrations, without any effort at
oratory or sensational appeals to the passions of his hearers."
In North Carolina the disastrous result of the reaction against the
Negroes handicapped Chavis in his work. As a result of the fear of
servile insurrection among the slaves after Nat Turner's uprising, the
exercise of the gift of preaching was prohibited to Negroes in North
Carolina. Chavis thereafter devoted himself to teaching, maintaining
classical schools for white persons in Granville, Wake, and Chatham
counties. He was patronized by the most aristocratic white people of
that State. In the end he counted among his former students W. P.
Mangum, afterward United States Senator; P. H. Mangum, his brother;
Archibald and John Henderson, sons of Chief Justice Henderson; Charles
Manly, later Governor of that commonwealth, and Dr. James L. Wortham of
Oxford, North Carolina.