In 1864 there were four Colored Missionary Baptist Churches in Alabama,
owning property worth about $10,000. Two of these were located in
Mobile city--the Stone and the St. Louis Street Churches. Another was
located in Selma, and is now known as the First Colored Baptist Church.
[Illustration: Rev. L. S. Steinback in the Act of Baptism.]
Of course there was no association, no convention, no graded school
of learning. The colored people of Mobile enjoyed superior advantages
over those of other sections of the State and hence many of them had
made fair attainments in letters. But in all the State there was but
one Baptist preacher, to the writer’s knowledge, in April, 1865, who
could, with any degree of honesty, claim to be an educated Baptist
negro preacher. This was one Rev. Moses B. Avery. I think he is now
in Mississippi. Anyhow I know that soon after the close of the war he
joined the Methodist brethren and left the State. It will be seen,
therefore, that he was no help to the Colored Baptists of Alabama.
The change which the war had wrought as to the civil status of the
black man, changing him from slave to freedman, affected his church
standing, so that ex-master and ex-slave did not quite fit each other
in the old “meeting house,” as they had done in days of yore. There
was restlessness on one side, and suspicion on the other. The black
man wanted to go out and set up housekeeping for himself, while the
white man in most cases feared and hesitated to lay on the hands of
ordination. We did not know each other. The “negro preacher” on one
side of the river had but little opportunity to know his brother on the
other side. Truly our beginning was dark and chaotic.
It is said that necessity is the mother of invention. In all ages
of the world, and with all peoples, want--a sense of need--has gone
before human creations. The black man of the South was like, in this,
the balance of human kind. When set at liberty, he was for some time
lost in looking upon the wonderful changes that had passed over him.
But when he came to himself he began slowly to realize his needs.
He began, for example, to feel the need of church and of school,
and out of this feeling of want on these lines there arose thought,
discussion, plan, action. Those who were of like faith and gospel
practice began to meet for prayer and for conference, and at last to
unite in church covenant, forming churches. Then churches, under the
leadership of progressive men, were joined in associational compacts.
They met first only to sing and pray, and listen to talks from white
brethren. Want increased; burdens increased; the horizon of duty and
possibility widened. Under a sense of duty and repeated exercise, mind
and heart developed into greater strength and into greater capacity
for thought, plan, speech, and execution. Kindred spirits sought each
other’s fellowship and counsel, and talked about the work which might
be done. Soon it was felt by some that a general State Convention
was both necessary and possible. The desire, plan and call for such
an organization ripened among the brethren at and around the Capital
City. Perhaps Montgomery was foremost, for the reason that here was
the legislature, and here the colored people saw most of deliberative
bodies, and heard most about their needs and opportunities.
[Illustration: Mrs. Dinah Smith Jordan, Birmingham, Ala.]
_II. THE STATE CONVENTIONS_