The African American Religious Experience

ADAPTED FROM ESSAYS BY IAN STRAKER

THE AFRICAN PAST

The slave trade brought an estimated ten to forty million Africans to the Americas. Among the religions these Africans carried with them were the Yoruba and Bakongo belief systems and Islam. Change in the religious beliefs and practices of these displaced Africans was inevitable, given the altered circumstances of life in the western Atlantic world.

However, in the Caribbean and South America, a number of factors combined to preserve Yoruba and Bakongo religious practices in the forms of Voodoo (Haiti), Santeria (Cuba), and Candomble (Brazil). Perceived similarities between Catholic saints and the orishas —deities in African religions—allowed for the worship of African gods under the guise of Christian worship. The high ratio of Africans to Europeans, and a slave population that was constantly replenished by new arrivals from Africa, also contributed to the retention of African religions.

North America proved to be less fertile ground for the cultivation of African-based religions due to a strong Protestant presence and the fact that a much higher percentage of slaves were born in the thirteen British colonies. Still, some African religious practices can be discerned in the African American traditions of conjure and hoodoo, and particularly in the ring shout, which combines African rhythms and dance-like movements with Christian expressions.

CONVERSION TO CHRISTIANITY: THE GREAT AWAKENING

The nonexclusive nature of African religions made the slave population open to other religious perspectives. This tendency eventually led to the adoption of Christianity during the series of revivals—known collectively as the Great Awakening—that swept the colonies in the latter half of the eighteenth century.

Organized attempts to convert the slaves in North America began as early as 1701 with the formation of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG), which was the missionary arm of the Church of England. In its efforts to reach slaves, the SPG encountered resistance by slaveholders, who had two major concerns: first, that slaves who were baptized would have to be freed; and second, that sharing church membership with slaves and thus requiring them to learn to read would make them unruly and ungovernable. Early missionaries to slaves tried to convince slave masters that religion would create a more productive and docile work force. Legislation was passed to ensure that baptism and church membership would have no bearing on slave status. Nevertheless, this did not result in more slave conversions, as the staid form of worship and the literacy requirement still proved to be impediments for most slaves.

Success in slave conversions came with the revivals of the Great Awakening and new efforts by converted slaves and by Methodist and Baptist evangelists. The evangelists stressed a personal conversion experience rather than the memorization of catechisms, and their more active worship style appealed to the African American slaves. Preaching was conducted in the language of ordinary people and not the prose of theologically trained scholars. Thus the language of the preacher was more readily understood by both black and white congregants, who were encouraged to participate in worship by praying, singing, exhorting or giving testimony, and even preaching.SEE PRIMARY SOURCE DOCUMENT Letter from a Slave on the Subject of Religion

Some of the Baptist and Methodist preachers no doubt attracted slaves by their condemnation of slavery. But intense opposition by slaveholders to the mission of these early reformers soon caused them to abandon abolition as an immediate goal and to focus instead on the conversion of both slave and master. Underlying this strategy was the hope that Christian masters would treat their slaves more benevolently.

Some African Americans received licenses to preach and became popular with both black and white audiences. The illiterate preacher Harry Hosier (1750-1806), who often accompanied Bishop Francis Asbury (1745-1816) on his tours of Methodist societies, was praised by the Oxford-trained Thomas Coke (1747-1814) as being "one of the best preachers in the world. "By the early nineteenth century, a number of African American women responded to a divine call to preach and became itinerant evangelists, among them Jarena Lee (b. 1783) and Zilpha Elaw (b. circa 1790). Other early African American preachers earned places in history by establishing independent African American churches.SEE PRIMARY SOURCE DOCUMENT Excerpt from The Life and Religious Experience of Jarena Lee, A Coloured Lady

INDEPENDENT AFRICAN AMERICAN CHURCHES

The earliest independent African American church was started between 1773 and 1775 by David George (1743-1810) in Silver Bluff, Georgia. George left Georgia with retreating British forces during the Revolutionary War, moving on to Nova Scotia and later Sierra Leone. In each location he established a black Baptist church. After the war, the church in Silver Bluff, under the leadership of Jesse Galphin, relocated to Augusta as the First African Baptist Church.

While these events were taking place in the South, events in the North were leading to the creation of the first African American denomination. In 1787, African Americans walked out of St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia after one of them, Absalom Jones (1746-1817), was dragged from his knees during prayer for violating the church's segregated seating policy. Jones separated from the Methodists, received ordination in the Episcopal church, and established the St. Thomas African Episcopal Church, the first African American church in that denomination. But others, under the leadership of Richard Allen (1760-1831), remained within the Methodist fold and built the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church.

In a number of other cities, black Methodists who refused to tolerate second-class status in a church they had supported with their time, talents, and tithes had also withdrawn from predominantly white churches. In 1816, at a meeting of delegates from several of these groups, a new denomination—the African Methodist Episcopal Church (A.M.E.)—was organized with Richard Allen as its first bishop. In 1821, several other black Methodist groups that were uncomfortable with Allen's leadership formed the nation's second black denomination, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. From their inceptions, these denominations condemned slavery and became advocates for the rights of African Americans.

SLAVE RELIGION

In the antebellum South, slave preachers were implicated in a number of plots and insurrections. The Gabriel Prosser plot in Richmond, Virginia, in 1800 included Gabriel's brother Martin, a preacher. Denmark Vesey, a free man and A.M.E. class leader in the Charleston, South Carolina, church, was the leader of an aborted plot that resulted in the arrest of 131 Africans and African Americans in 1822. In both incidents, religious meetings were used to help organize a rebellion, and appeals to scripture were made to justify the attack against slavery. In retaliation for Vesey's plot, the local African Methodist church, which had over three thousand members, was burned to the ground and its pastor, Rev. Morris Brown, who was later elected bishop, was forced to flee the state.

The most famous slave rebellion took place in 1831 in Southampton County, Virginia. Its leader was a literate slave preacher named Nat Turner (1800-1831). Observing miraculous signs and hearing the voice of the Spirit directing him to fight, Turner laid plans with five others and struck on August 21. The plotters were joined by about seventy other slaves in a rebellion that saw fifty-seven whites killed before it was crushed. In its wake, the religious activities of slaves were severely curtailed, and slave preachers were prohibited from leading services without white supervision. From these incidents and others, it is apparent that Christianity, contrary to what the slave masters had hoped, did not make slaves more docile or less willing to seek and embrace freedom.

During the Civil War, the first collections of African American spirituals were compiled. Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1823-1911), the commanding officer of one of the Union army's black regiments, wrote down the songs sung by his men, many of whom were newly freed slaves. In his collection, he noted the prevalence of images from Exodus and the Book of Revelation. The story of Moses and the liberation of the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage held special meaning for slaves. The violent images of the Apocalypse and the image of Jesus as a valiant warrior who would conquer the enemies of God were also especially relevant to an enslaved people who turned to God in faith and hope for deliverance from the evils of slavery.

Other whites, like William Kephart, a Union army chaplain, observed the religious life of the ex-slaves and wrote northern sponsors about the "excessive effervescence of emotional feeling" and the lack of theological sophistication among them. Kephart complained that African Americans in Alabama saw Jesus as a physical liberator and not a spiritual one. Similarly, it was reported that Moses was often confused with Lincoln. Although these observations were meant disparagingly, they also reveal that, in their clandestine worship services, slaves made Christianity their own by resisting the interpretations emphasized by their owners, using the Bible selectively with a focus on freedom.

SEE PRIMARY SOURCE DOCUMENT A Former Slave Discusses the Importance of Religion

THE ANTEBELLUM NORTH

In the antebellum North, religious African Americans continued to oppose slavery and to fight racism and discrimination. David Walker (1785-1830), a free merchant in Boston, wrote an Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the United States in which he used the Bible to prove that slavery was wrong, to sanction resistance on the part of slaves, and to warn of divine retribution against the United States if the sin of slavery did not cease. Rev. Henry Highland Garnet (1815-1882), who, as a young boy, had escaped slavery with his family and resisted slave catchers in the North, wrote a well-known address in which he urged slaves to violently resist their masters as part of their Christian obligation before God. Other northern churchmen like Samuel Cornish (1795-1859) started newspapers and benevolent organizations for their congregants.SEE PRIMARY SOURCE DOCUMENT Preamble to Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the United States by David Walker

EMANCIPATION AND THE NADIR

After the Civil War, both black and white missionaries descended on the South to work among the newly freed population, spreading literacy, middle-class values, and "proper" religion. The A.M.E. and A.M.E. Zion denominations expanded into the South and accepted as members some who were both pulled and pushed out of the white Methodist Episcopal Church, South. For not only did some southern black Methodists welcome a chance to affiliate voluntarily with churches that were controlled by African Americans, but a number of southern white churchmen were also uncomfortable having to share church membership with a recently enslaved people whom they would now have to treat as equals. With some assistance from the white denomination, a new church was formed, the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church (now the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church).

The excitement and hopes of the former slaves as they gained their freedom were dashed within a generation. The end of Radical Reconstruction and the rise of disenfranchisement, Jim Crow, lynching, sharecropping, economic uncertainty, and immigration ushered in the era known as "the nadir. "During this time, there was renewed interest in Africa as a place where African Americans could thrive without the shackles of discrimination. Some African Americans earnestly debated the prospects of colonizing Africa, and a few did manage to make the arduous journey across the Atlantic. Bishop Henry McNeil Turner (1834-1915), a former Civil War chaplain and member of the Georgia legislature during Reconstruction, used his position as the editor of the A.M.E. publication the Christian Recorder to advocate a return to Africa. He received much criticism from other leaders who recognized that African Americans were in many ways more American than African and had earned a right to share in the wealth and destiny of the United States because of their long years of service and servitude.

Relatively few clergy joined Turner's call for an exodus to Africa, but many did try to understand God's purpose in allowing African Americans to experience the horrors of slavery and its aftermath. Rev. Francis J. Grimke (1850-1937) castigated the white American church for its tolerance of racism but continued to have hope in the power of Christianity to transform the nation and enable African Americans to assume their rightful place.

Many preachers turned to Psalm 68:31—"Princes shall come out of Egypt and Ethiopia shall soon stretch forth her hands unto God"—as a prophecy of African American destiny. Some concluded that through the trials of slavery, African Americans had been exposed to Christianity in order to "redeem" Africa and the world. The Anglican cleric Rev. Alexander Crummell (1819-1898), who was a proponent of this view, spent twenty years in Africa as a missionary. African American theologians like Theophilus Gould Steward (1843-1924) and J. Theodore Holly (1829-1911) concluded that an age dominated by a corrupt, racist Christianity would soon come to a close and be followed by a new age, in which a pure faith carried by the African race would realize the Kingdom of God on earth.

During this period, African American Baptists founded the National Baptist Convention as a separate black denomination. Five years later, in 1900, Baptist women formed a separate women's convention that worked alongside the Baptist men. Under the leadership of trained women like Nannie Helen Burroughs (1879-1961), the convention supported schools and other educational projects designed to uplift the race. Concern for the negative stereotypes of African American women as immoral—stereotypes that exposed them to a variety of harms—led convention women to emphasize middle-class values as part of their agenda. These women also built on the legacy of Jarena Lee and others by interpreting the Bible in ways that emphasized the important role of women. Inevitably, their efforts presented both a formal, intellectual challenge to the male-dominated church hierarchy and a mirror image of it.

THE URBAN NORTH

With the Great Migration at the beginning of the twentieth century, thousands of African Americans moved to the North and brought their religious beliefs and practices with them. They swelled the numbers of established black churches, which increased personnel and expanded programs to meet the wide-ranging needs of the newcomers. The Sunday school enrollment of Olivet Baptist Church in Chicago grew to three thousand, and church membership to over eight thousand. The work of the church and its forty-four departments was directed by its pastor, Rev. Lacey Kirk Williams (1871-1940), and five assistant pastors.

Churches were the center of African American social and political life, due largely to the lack of social services available from other sources. Drama clubs, sewing clubs, day-care centers, employment bureaus, and athletic teams were some of the programs that many churches added to their schedule of worship and Bible study. The number of storefront churches grew as migrants who missed the intimacy and leadership opportunities available in their smaller rural churches sought to recreate that atmosphere in the urban North.

Urban life offered African Americans a number of options not available in the premigration South. Dissatisfaction with northern ghetto life has been credited with feeding enthusiasm for Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). A number of African American clergymen supported the UNIA (among them Rev. Earl Little, the father of Malcolm X), which had as its chaplain general Rev. George McGuire, an Episcopal priest who later founded the African Orthodox Church. The UNIA published a Universal Negro Catechism, which debunked religious arguments for Negro inferiority and highlighted the role of prominent African Americans, as well as promoting the mission and purposes of the organization.

A number of new African American religious groups arose at the turn of the century, including the Church of God in Christ. This Pentecostal group was founded in Memphis by Rev. Charles H. Mason after he had returned to his church from a trip to the Azusa Street revival in Los Angeles. At the revival, he experienced the gift of speaking in tongues that has become a defining characteristic of Pentecostal churches. Today, the predominantly black Church of God in Christ, with over two million members, is one of the two largest Pentecostal denominations in the world. Smaller groups, like the United House of Prayer under Bishop Charles Emmanuel "Daddy" Grace (1882-1960), the Father Divine Peace Mission Movement, the Church of God/Saints of Christ (Black Jews) led by Prophet William Crowdy (1847-1908), and the Moorish Science Temple (Black Islam) founded by Noble Drew Ali (b. 1886), also sprouted in the urban North and gained a significant number of followers.

SEE PRIMARY SOURCE DOCUMENT The Autobiography of Omar ibn Said

ISLAM

The Nation of Islam soon eclipsed the Moorish Science Temple. It is not known whether W. D. Fard, the founder of the Nation of Islam, had any contact with Nobel Drew Ali. In the 1930s, Fard converted and enlisted Elijah Poole (1897-1975), who came to be known as the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and took over the movement after Fard's disappearance in 1934. The Black Muslims taught that white men were devils and that Islam was the true religion of African Americans.

The conversion and rise to leadership of Malcolm X (formerly Malcolm Little) (1925-1965) spurred an increase in the membership and visibility of the Nation of Islam. Conflicts between Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad, which led to Malcolm's dismissal from the Nation of Islam, are suspected to have also led to his assassination. Malcolm X had adopted a more orthodox form of Islam and was pressing publicly for the human rights of African Americans. Upon the death of Elijah Muhammad, the Nation of Islam split into two factions. Muhammad's son Wallace steered one faction, the inter-racial American Muslim Mission, toward a more traditional form of Islam. The other faction, the Nation of Islam, has been led by Louis Farrakhan (b. 1933), who continues to espouse the separatist ideas of Elijah Muhammad.

Nation of Islam leaders have consistently faced controversy. When Malcolm X had his falling out with Elijah Muhammad and was ultimately murdered, members of the black community wondered about the involvement of Elijah Muhammad's faction in Malcolm X's assassination. More recently, media organizations historically controlled by whites have targeted the Nation of Islam, in part because its tenets fall outside of mainstream public opinion. Despite these controversies, the Nation of Islam has provided a belief system of "uplift" for disenfranchised African Americans, encouraging a life of intense personal organization, mutual respect, and hard work.The Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad is largely responsible for uniting the disparate threads of Islamic faith within the United States under a powerful rubric with a centralized message. In addition, while it has been disparaged in the decades following the civil rights era, there can be no doubt that the organization, personified for a period by the figure of Malcolm X, was a key party in the civil rights struggle.

GOSPEL MUSIC AND RELIGIOUS IDENTITY

Urbanization not only brought about an explosion in the number of religious options available to African Americans; it also brought about new styles of worship. Perhaps the most important of these has been the rise of modern gospel music, credited to the untiring efforts and ingenuity of Thomas Andrew Dorsey (1899-1993), now called "the Father of Gospel Music."

Dorsey was born into a religious family in rural Georgia. At the same time, he was exposed and attracted to blues music and became a popular blues piano player, backing up singers like Gertrude "Ma" Rainey (1886-1939). The death of his wife and child inspired his song "Precious Lord, Take My Hand. "This personal crisis, among others, pushed him permanently into the religious-music arena. His songs, which married blues rhythms and chords with religious lyrics, met much resistance in established churches, but Dorsey eventually found a home at Chicago's Ebenezer Baptist Church, under Rev. J. H. L. Smith.

Rev. Smith welcomed a music that was more familiar to some of the newly arrived migrants from the South. Many African American churches in the North had copied European forms of worship, incorporating classical music into their services and leaving behind spirituals and the more lively music and worship styles associated with slavery. The forerunners of this Europeanization were a number of nineteenth-century African American clergymen who had worked to move black worship as far as possible from its slave roots. Prominent among these clergymen was the A.M.E. bishop Daniel Alexander Payne (1811-1893), who railed against the ring shout and "fist and heel worshipers."

Dorsey, from his new base at Ebenezer (and later Chicago's Pilgrim Baptist), set out to promote his music with the singer Sallie Martin (1896-1988). He became a cofounder and first president of the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses, and through its activities he did much to popularize gospel music. Other gospel music pioneers include Roberta Martin (1912-1969), Clara Ward (1924-1973), Lucie Eddie Campbell (1885-1962), and Rev. William Herbert Brewster (1897-1987). Groups like the Soul Stirrers, the Pilgrim Travelers, and the Swan Silvertones and soloists like Mahalia Jackson (1911-1972), Marion Williams (1927-1994), and Willa Mae Ford Smith became quite popular as they helped move gospel music out of the church and onto the concert stage. In the early 2000s, gospel music is a multimillion-dollar industry that has launched the careers of many rhythm-and-blues and soul artists, including Sam Cooke (1935-1964) and Aretha Franklin (b. 1942).

RELIGION AND THE MODERN CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

The modern Civil Rights movement had deep roots in the African American church tradition. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) was a third-generation Baptist preacher who was well acquainted with African American religious culture. He continually portrayed civil rights (and later, militarism and poverty) as a profoundly moral and religious issue. His emphasis on non-violence as an active strategy required by a Christian ethic of love helped to establish a firm religious base for the movement.

However, it must not be forgotten that African American clergy had long debated with other African American leaders about the efficacy of nonviolence. Howard Thurman (1900-1981), the dean of the Howard University Chapel, and his wife, Sue Bailey, traveled to India in 1935 to meet with Gandhi (1869-1948), followed in 1936 by Benjamin Mays (1895-1984), the dean of the Howard University School of Religion. Upon returning to the United States, they wrote and lectured about Gandhi and his movement. Although Mordecai Johnson (1890-1976), the president of Howard University, had championed Gandhi as a model for African Americans since the 1920s, his own trip to India did not take place until the late 1940s. King later credited a sermon by Johnson with introducing him to the methods and tactics pioneered by Gandhi.

Themes articulated by King in his speeches echo ideas found throughout the African American religious tradition. For example, in his "Letter from Birmingham Jail," he decried the hypocrisy and impotent faith of white churchmen, as Grimke and others had done generations earlier. Although arguably muted, the voices of Alexander Crummell (1819-1898), J. Theodore Holly, and Theophilus Gould Steward can be heard in King's "I Have a Dream" speech, as he envisions a nation redeemed and transformed by the power of love as practiced by African Americans. On the eve of his assassination, when he spoke of having seen the promised land, King evoked the vivid biblical imagery of the Exodus that has been central to African American religious thought from antebellum days.

The rhythmic and forceful African American preaching style of King and other leaders of the Civil Rights movement, along with the rich African American sacred music traditions adapted to new circumstances, mobilized large numbers of people, black and white. That marriage of preaching style and sacred music became a powerful instrument, trumpeting the message of civil rights and human justice that was the goal of the movement—a message of hope needed to sustain weary warriors who faced violence, brutality, and a host of indignities as part of the ongoing struggle.

It was to be expected that the African American church would play a key role in the modern Civil Rights movement. As noted above, the independent African American church, from its inception, has been in the forefront of the struggle for freedom and equality. There are a number of reasons for this, and an obvious one is that church buildings, owned and operated by African Americans, have been the most available, accessible, and secure spaces for meetings in the African American community. African American preachers, effective public speakers holding the respect and confidence of their church members, have consequently been elected to public office since the days of Reconstruction. Henry McNeil Turner was only one of many mid-nineteenth-century clerics who established patterns followed by twentieth-century pastors and preachers like Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (1908-1972), Walter Fauntroy (b. 1933), William Gray, Floyd Flake (b. 1945), and Jesse Jackson (b. 1941).

Although male preachers have been prominent, there are countless laypersons, both female and male, who have acquired critical skills in public speaking and organization through their nurture in, and association with, the African American church. When private and public secular institutions denied services to persons of color and excluded them from leadership, the African American church filled the need with its own resources. As times have changed, secular institutions have become more inclusive, and a wider variety of African American organizations has been established. The public role of the African American church will thus change, even though the persistence of racism and poverty presents a constant challenge to all African American organizations and people. The church's independence from whites, as well as the relative autonomy of its leadership and finances, continues to make it an ideal instrument for social action on behalf of the community it serves and is served by.

THE AFRICAN AMERICAN PREACHER/LEADER: JESSE JACKSON AND AL SHARPTON

During the second half of the twentieth century, African Americans found themselves in a continual struggle between the legacy of religious and social traditions and the growing desire to see their leaders make real progress in the nation's two-party political system. This struggle has contributed to the career of the Reverend Jesse Jackson, a savvy and skilled politician who has carried with him, at least in the eyes of the nation's memory, the legacy of having been at Martin Luther King Jr.'s side at the time of his assassination.

It is no mistake—and a very particular element of African American political history—that virtually all of the African American leaders who have captured the nation's attention, particularly those regarded as possible presidential candidates, have been associated with the church. In the age-old puritan dynamic of the nation, prominent African American political figures fell into one of two categories: that of the preacher or that of the revolutionary/criminal, an example of the latter being Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver. Some have gone as far as to speculate that African Americans will have a presidential candidate, but only when a star athlete and national hero along the lines of a Michael Jordan is in the running. There can be no doubt that mainstream America has been willing to embrace only a very select range of African American figures.

This unwillingness on the part of mainstream America brings into perspective an uneasiness that America has with itself, its history, and the collective choices of the nation over the centuries. It has been argued that Jackson, in spite of his qualifications, reminds the electorate of the turmoil and shame of the King years and that period of assassination. Despite his opposition to the views of Malcolm X, Jackson may bring to mind for a certain segment of middle America the tirades of the militant black leader that were broadcast on national television during the 1960s, despite Jackson's efforts over twenty years to free hostages, negotiate peace, and help war-torn nations and peoples in crisis.

Based on election returns, the Reverend Al Sharpton at various times in his career had the ear of more than 85 percent of African Americans and 35 percent of the Democratic voters as a whole in New York City—easily enough to be a contender in any mayoral race—and still failed to make it onto the national radar of the news media. It is disturbing that a man who has comported himself in an essentially dignified way, while championing the issues that fell on his side of the color line, has been accused of political/religious shilling for the disenfranchised for his own personal gain. All of this makes for a curious indicator of the nebulous and enduring prevalence of racial stereotypes during the twentieth and earlier centuries.

In times of racial injustice and unrest, Sharpton has assumed the role of leader and spokesperson. For example, he led protestors following two infamous cases involving the New York City Police Department. The first concerned Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant who was brutally sodomized with a toilet plunger in the bathroom of a New York Police Department station house in 1997. Two years later, police shot and killed Amadou Diallo, an unarmed African immigrant who worked two jobs. Officers fired forty-one times at Diallo, who was standing on the front step of his apartment building, striking him with nineteen bullets. Both incidents occurred during the administration of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who had won over the public while launching an all-out assault on so-called "quality of life" crimes (jaywalking, panhandling, and prostitution). The cases of Louima and Diallo served as lightning rods for the sentiment among the city's poorer citizens that the economic good times and the experience of Giuliani's "new New York" heralded by so many, did not extend to them. Following each incident, Sharpton spoke out against the violence to thousands who attended rallies where many contended that the New York City Police Department had a history of abusing and harassing civilians.

It should be pointed out that as Sharpton's career has progressed, he has brought a more dignified and serious tone to his leadership, which has caused the media to struggle with their portrayal of him. For many African Americans it is precisely this type of contradiction that makes for continuing proof that the nation turns a deaf ear where issues of importance to the black populace are concerned. In the late 1980s and early 1990s there was a sense that the nation had failed to come to understand or appreciate the very traditions that underpinned the history of African Americans in the United States. For example, many felt that the subtle reverence with which the media might treat the figure of an Irish priest or policeman certainly did not extend to the figure of a reverend of African American descent who was doing double duty as a public figure and political leader. With the very real changes in the quality of African American life in the second half of the twentieth century, this is a prime example of the subtle and tenacious kinds of prejudicial attitudes so deeply embedded in the fabric of American culture.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Allen, Richard. The Life Experience and Gospel Labors of the Rt. Rev. Richard Allen. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1960.

Aptheker, Herbert. American Negro Slave Revolts. New York: International Publishers, 1987.

Cone, James H., and Gayraud S. Wilmore, eds. Black Theology: A Documentary History. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1979.

Higginbotham, Evelyn Brooks. Righteous Discontent: The Women's Movement in the Black Baptist Church, 1880-1920. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993.

Mullin, Gerald. Flight and Rebellion: Slave Resistance in Eighteenth-Century Virginia. New York: Oxford University Press, 1972.

Raboteau, Albert J. Slave Religion: The Invisible Institution in the Antebellum South. New York: Oxford University Press, 1978.

Walker, David. David Walker's Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the United States. New York: Hill and Wang, 1995.

PRIMARY SOURCE DOCUMENT

Letter from a Slave on the Subject of Religion

INTRODUCTION

Religion has long been understood to be an integral part of African American life. During slavery, religion had many functions and meanings. An agency of social control by white masters, religion was for many slaves a refuge from a hostile world. Slaves were not unaware of this contradiction. Many, in their testimony about slavery, noted that whites used religion in selective ways as a means to shape their workers' behavior. Only limited portions of the Bible were read to slaves—sections that emphasized subservience and docility. But the slaves themselves forged their own unique forms of religion hidden from the watchful eyes of their masters. And as they used religion to help them understand their world, slaves found ways to critique whites' hypocrisy.

This letter was written by a slave to a prominent white preacher in North Carolina. The slave astutely points to the underlying concerns of most masters. Rather than acting as Christians, owners are focused on the money that they can make off of slave labor. For the man writing this letter, such behavior contradicts the meaning of religion.

Wayne County, Ga., 26 June 1821

Master John I want permition if you pleas to speak A few words to you—I hope you will not think me too bold sir, I make my wants known to you because you are, I believe, the oldist and most experienced that I know of in the first place I want you to tell me the Reson you all-ways preach to the white folks and keep your back to us. is it because they sit up on the hill we have no chance a mong them there must we be for goten because we cant get near enoughf without getting in the edg of the swamp be hind you. we have no other chance because your stand is on the edg of the swamp, if I should ask you what must I do to be saved, perhaps you would tel me pray let the bible be your gide this would do very well if wee could read I do not think there is one in fifty that can read but I have been more fortunate than the most of the black people I can read and write in my way as to be understood I hopes I have a weak mind about the dutys of religious people If god sent you to preach to siners did he direct you to keep your face to the white folks constantly or is it because they give you money if this is the cause we are the very persons that labor for this money but it is handed to you by our masters did god tell you to have your meeting housis just larg enoughf to hold the white folks and let the black people stand in the sone and rain as the brooks in the field we are charged with inatention it is imposibal for us to pay good attention with this chance in fact some of us scars think we are preached to at all money appears to be the object we are carid to market and sold to the highest bider never once inquire whither you sold to a heathon or christian if the question was put did you sel to a christian what would be the answer I cant tel what he was gave me my prise thats all was interested in Is this the way to heavin if it is there will a good meny go there if not there chance will be bad for there can be many witnesses against them If I understand the white people they are praying for more religion in the world oh may our case not be forgoten in the prairs of the sincear I now leave it to you and your aids to consider or I hope you will reade it to the chearch if you think proper it is likely I never will hear from you on this subject as I live far from you I don't wish you to take any of these things to your self if nothing is due do your god justis in this case and you will doo me the same.

PRIMARY SOURCE DOCUMENT

Excerpt from The Life and Religious Experience of Jarena Lee, A Coloured Lady

INTRODUCTION

Jarena Lee was born to free parents in 1783 in New Jersey and, like other children of the time, put out to service at a young age. Alone and unguided, Lee nevertheless had a strong sense of right and wrong, but it was not until 1804, at the age of twenty-one, that she experienced Christian conversion. Dissatisfied with the English church, she began to attend services at Richard Allen's Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia and soon felt called to preach to the congregation. Richard Allen turned down her request, arguing that women could not preach in the Methodist church.

Undeterred, Lee remained firm in her belief in her own spiritual authority and the spiritual authority of women in general, and in 1818 Bishop Allen finally granted her request. In the years that followed, Lee traveled widely, preaching to audiences of men and women, black and white.

Her Life and Religious Experience of Jarena Lee, a Coloured Lady, published in 1836, may well be the first autobiography by an African American woman. It bears strong witness to her own spiritual life and to her belief in the power and effectiveness of women's spirituality.

And it shall come to pass…that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons, and your daughters shall prophecy.

Joel ii. 28

I was born February 11th, 1783, at Cape May, state of New Jersey. At the age of seven years I was parted from my parents, and went to live as a servant maid, with a Mr. Sharp, at the distance of about sixty miles from the place of my birth.

My parents being wholly ignorant of the knowledge of God, had not therefore instructed me in any degree in this great matter. Not long after the commencement of my attendance on this lady, she had bid me do something respecting my work, which in a little while after, she asked me if I had done, when I replied, Yes—but this was not true.

At this awful point, in my early history, the spirit of God moved in power through my conscience, and told me I was a wretched sinner. On this account so great was the impression, and so strong were the feelings of guilt, that I promised in my heart that I would not tell another lie.

But notwithstanding this promise my heart grew harder, after a while, yet the spirit of the Lord never entirely forsook me, but continued mercifully striving with me, until his gracious power converted my soul.

The manner of this great accomplishment was as follows: In the year 1804, it so happened that I went with others to hear a missionary of the Presbyterian order preach. It was an afternoon meeting, but few were there, the place was a school room; but the preacher was solemn, and in his countenance the earnestness of his master's business appeared equally strong, as though he were about to speak to a multitude.

At the reading of the Psalms, a ray of renewed conviction darted into my soul. These were the words, composing the first verse of the Psalms for the service:

Lord, I am vile, conceived in sin, Born unholy and unclean. Sprung from man, whose guilty fall Corrupts the race, and taints us all.

This description of my condition struck me to the heart, and made me to feel in some measure, the weight of my sins, and sinful nature. But not knowing how to run immediately to the Lord for help, I was driven of Satan, in the course of a few days, and tempted to destroy myself.

There was a brook about a quarter of a mile from the house, in which there was a deep hole, where the water whirled about among the rocks; to this place it was suggested, I must go and drown myself.

At the time I had a book in my hand; it was on a Sabbath morning, about ten o'clock; to this place I resorted, where on coming to the water I sat down on the bank, and on my looking into it; it was suggested, that drowning would be an easy death. It seemed as if some one was speaking to me, saying put your head under, it will not distress you. But by some means, of which I can give no account, my thoughts were taken entirely from this purpose, when I went from the place to the house again. It was the unseen arm of God which saved me from self murder.

But notwithstanding this escape from death, my mind was not at rest—but so great was the labour of my spirit and the fearful oppressions of a judgment to come, that I was reduced as one extremely ill. On which account a physician was called to attend me, from which illness I recovered in about three months.

But as yet I had not found him of whom Moses and the prophets did write, being extremely ignorant: there being no one to instruct me in the way of life and salvation as yet. After my recovery, I left the lady, who during my sickness, was exceedingly kind, and went to Philadelphia. From this place I soon went a few miles into the country, where I resided in the family of a Roman Catholic. But my anxiety still continued respecting my poor soul, on which account I used to watch my opportunity to read in the Bible; and this lady observing this, took the Bible from me and hid it, giving me a novel in its stead—which when I perceived, I refused to read.

Soon after this I again went to the city of Philadelphia; and commenced going to the English Church, the pastor of which was an Englishman, by the name of Pilmore, one of the number, who at first preached Methodism in America, in the city of New York.

But while sitting under the ministration of this man, which was about three months, and at the last time, it appeared that there was a wall between me and a communion with that people, which was higher than I could possibly see over, and seemed to make this impression upon my mind, this is not the people for you.

But on returning home at noon I inquired of the head cook of the house respecting the rules of the Methodists, as I knew she belonged to that society, who told me what they were; on which account I replied, that I should not be able to abide by such strict rules not even one year;—however, I told her that I would go with her and hear what they had to say.

The man who was to speak in the afternoon of that day, was the Rev. Richard Allen, since bishop of the African Episcopal Methodists in America. During the labors of this man that afternoon, I had come to the conclusion, that this is the people to which my heart unites, and it so happened, that as soon as the service closed he invited such as felt a desire to flee the wrath to come, to unite on trial with them—I embraced the opportunity. Three weeks from that day, my soul was gloriously converted to God, under preaching, at the very outset of the sermon. The text was barely pronounced, which was: "I perceive thy heart is not right in the sight of God" [Acts 8:21], when there appeared to my view, in the centre of the heart one sin; and this was malice, against one particular individual, who had strove deeply to injure me, which I resented. At this discovery I said, Lord I forgive every creature. That instant, it appeared to me, as if a garment, which had entirely enveloped my whole person, even to my fingers ends, split at the crown of my head, and was stripped away from me, passing like a shadow, from my sight—when the glory of God seemed to cover me in its stead.

That moment, though hundreds were present, I did leap to my feet, and declare that God, for Christ's sake, had pardoned the sins of my soul. Great was the ecstasy of my mind, for I felt that not only the sin of malice was pardoned, but all other sins were swept away together. That day was the first when my heart had believed, and my tongue had made confession unto salvation—the first words uttered, a part of that song, which shall fill eternity with its sound, was glory to God. For a few moments I had power to exhort sinners, and to tell of the wonders and of the goodness of him who had clothed me with his salvation. During this, the minister was silent, until my soul felt its duty had been performed, when he declared another witness of the power of Christ to forgive sins on earth, was manifest in my conversion.

From the day on which I first went to the Methodist church, until the hour of my deliverance, I was strangely buffetted by that enemy of all righteousness—the devil.

I was naturally of a lively turn of disposition; and during the space of time from my first awakening until I knew my peace was made with God, I rejoiced in the vanities of this life, and then again sunk back into sorrow.

For four years I had continued in this way, frequently labouring under the awful apprehension, that I could never be happy in this life. This persuasion was greatly strengthened, during the three weeks, which was the last of Satan's power over me, in this peculiar manner: on which account, I had come to the conclusion that I had better be dead than alive. Here I was again tempted to destroy my life by drowning; but suddenly this mode was changed, and while in the dusk of the evening, as I was walking to and fro in the yard of the house, I was beset to hang myself, with a cord suspended from the wall enclosing the secluded spot.

But no sooner was the intention resolved on in my mind, than an awful dread came over me, when I ran into the house; still the tempter pursued me. There was standing a vessel of water—into this I was strongly impressed to plunge my head, so as to extinguish the life which God had given me. Had I have done this, I have been always of the opinion that I should have been unable to have released myself; although the vessel was scarcely large enough to hold a gallon of water. Of me may it not be said, as written by Isaiah, (chap. 65, verses 1,2.) "I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not. "Glory be to God for his redeeming power, which saved me from the violence of my own hands, from the malice of Satan, and from eternal death; for had I have killed myself, a great ransom could not have delivered me; for it is written—"No murderer hath eternal life abiding in him "[1 John 3:15]. How appropriately can I sing—

"Jesus sought me, when a stranger, Wandering from the fold of God; He to rescue me from danger, Interposed his precious blood."

But notwithstanding the terror which seized upon me, when about to end my life, I had no view of the precipice on the edge of which I was tottering, until it was over, and my eyes were opened. Then the awful gulf of hell seemed to be open beneath me, covered only, as it were, by a spider's web, on which I stood. I seemed to hear the howling of the damned, to see the smoke of the bottomless pit, and to hear the rattling of those chains, which hold the impenitent under clouds of darkness to the judgment of the great day.

I trembled like Belshazzar, and cried out in the horror of my spirit,"God be merciful to me a sinner. "That night I formed a resolution to pray; which, when resolved upon, there appeared, sitting in one corner of the room, Satan, in the form of a monstrous dog, and in a rage, as if in pursuit, his tongue protruding from his mouth to a great length, and his eyes looked like two balls of fire; it soon, however, vanished out of my sight. From this state of terror and dismay, I was happily delivered under the preaching of the Gospel as before related.

This view, which I was permitted to have of Satan, in the form of a dog, is evidence, which corroborates in my estimation, the Bible account of a hell of fire, which burneth with brimstone, called in Scripture the bottomless pit; the place where all liars, who repent not, shall have their portion; as also the Sabbath breaker, the adulterer, the fornicator, with the fearful, the abominable, and the unbelieving, this shall be the portion of their cup.

This language is too strong and expressive to be applied to any state of suffering in time. Were it to be thus applied, the reality could no where be found in human life; the consequence would be, that this scripture would be found a false testimony. But when made to apply to an endless state of perdition, in eternity, beyond the bounds of human life, then this language is found not to exceed our views of a state of eternal damnation.

During the latter part of my state of conviction, I can now apply to my case, as it then was, the beautiful words of the poet:

"The more I strove against its power, I felt its weight and guilt the more; 'Till late I hear'd my Saviour say, Come hither soul, I am the way."

This I found to be true, to the joy of my disconsolate and despairing heart, in the hour of my conversion to God.

During this state of mind, while sitting near the fire one evening, after I had heard Rev. Richard Allen, as before related, a view of my distressed condition so affected my heart, that I could not refrain from weeping and crying aloud; which caused the lady with whom I then lived, to inquire, with surprise, what ailed me; to which I answered, that I knew not what ailed me. She replied that I ought to pray. I arose from where I was sitting, being in an agony, and weeping convulsively, requested her to pray for me; but at the very moment when she would have done so, some person rapped heavily at the door for admittance; it was but a person of the house, but this occurrence was sufficient to interrupt us in our intentions; and I believe to this day, I should then have found salvation to my soul. This interruption was, doubtless, also the work of Satan.

Although at this time, when my conviction was so great, yet I knew not that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, the second person in the adorable trinity. I knew him not in the pardon of my sins, yet I felt a consciousness that if I died without pardon, that my lot must inevitably be damnation. If I would pray—I knew not how. I could form no connexion of ideas into words; but I knew the Lord's prayer; this I uttered with a loud voice, and with all my might and strength. I was the most ignorant creature in the world; I did not even know that Christ had died for the sins of the world, and to save sinners. Every circumstance, however, was so directed as still to continue and increase the sorrows of my heart, which I now know to have been a godly sorrow which wrought repentance, which is not to be repented of. Even the falling of the dead leaves from the forests, and the dried spires of the mown grass, showed me that I too must die, in like manner. But my case was awfully different from that of the grass of the field, or the wide spread decay of a thousand forests, as I felt within me a living principle, an immortal spirit, which cannot die, and must forever either enjoy the smiles of its Creator, or feel the pangs of ceaseless damnation.

But the Lord led me on; being gracious, he took pity on my ignorance; he heard my wailings, which had entered into the ear of the Lord of Sabaoth. Circumstances so transpired that I soon came to a knowledge of the being and character of the Son of God, of whom I knew nothing.

My strength had left me. I had become feverish and sickly through the violence of my feelings, on which account I left my place of service to spend a week with a coloured physician, who was a member of the Methodist society, and also to spend this week in going to places where prayer and supplication was statedly made for such as me.

Through this means I had learned much, so as to be able in some degree to comprehend the spiritual meaning of the text, which the minister took on the Sabbath morning, as before related, which was, "I perceive thy heart is not right in the sight of God."Acts, chap. 8, verse 21.

This text, as already related, became the power of God unto salvation to me, because I believed. I was baptized according to the direction of our Lord, who said, as he was about to ascend from the mount, to his disciples, "Go ye into all the world and preach my gospel to every creature, he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved" [Mark 16:15-16].

I have now passed through the account of my conviction, and also of my conversion to God; and shall next speak of the blessing of sanctification.

A time after I had received forgiveness flowed sweetly on; day and night my joy was full, no temptation was permitted to molest me. I could say continually with the psalmist, that "God had separated my sins from me, as far as the east is from the west" [Ps. 103:12]. I was ready continually to cry,

"Come all the world, come sinner thou, All things in Christ are ready now."

I continued in this happy state of mind for almost three months, when a certain coloured man, by name William Scott, came to pay me a religious visit. He had been for many years a faithful follower of the Lamb; and he had also taken much time in visiting the sick and distressed of our colour, and understood well the great things belonging to a man of full stature in Christ Jesus.

In the course of our conversation, he inquired if the Lord had justified my soul. I answered, yes. He then asked me if he had sanctified me. I answered, no; and that I did not know what that was. He then undertook to instruct me further in the knowledge of the Lord respecting this blessing.

He told me the progress of the soul from a state of darkness, or of nature, was threefold; or consisted in three degrees, as follows:—First, conviction for sin. Second, justification from sin. Third, the entire sanctification of the soul to God. I thought this description was beautiful, and immediately believed in it. He then inquired if I would promise to pray for this in my secret devotions. I told him, yes. Very soon I began to call upon the Lord to show me all that was in my heart, which was not according to his will. Now there appeared to be a new struggle commencing in my soul, not accompanied with fear, guilt, and bitter distress, as while under my first conviction for sin; but a labouring of the mind to know more of the right way of the Lord. I began now to feel that my heart was not clean in his sight; that there yet remained the roots of bitterness, which if not destroyed, would ere long sprout up from these roots, and overwhelm me in a new growth of the brambles and brush-wood of sin.

By the increasing light of the Spirit, I had found there yet remained the root of pride, anger, self-will, with many evils, the result of fallen nature. I now became alarmed at this discovery, and began to fear that I had been deceived in my experience. I was now greatly alarmed, lest I should fall away from what I knew I had enjoyed; and to guard against this I prayed almost incessantly, without acting faith on the power and promises of God to keep me from falling. I had not yet learned how to war against temptation of this kind. Satan well knew that if he could succeed in making me disbelieve my conversion, that he would catch me either on the ground of complete despair, or on the ground of infidelity. For if all I had passed through was to go for nothing, and was but a fiction, the mere ravings of a disordered mind, then I would naturally be led to believe that there is nothing in religion at all.

From this snare I was mercifully preserved, and led to believe that there was yet a greater work than that of pardon to be wrought in me. I retired to a secret place (after having sought this blessing, as well as I could, for nearly three months, from the time brother Scott had instructed me respecting it) for prayer, about four o'clock in the afternoon. I had struggled long and hard, but found not the desire of my heart. When I rose from my knees, there seemed a voice speaking to me, as I yet stood in a leaning posture—"Ask for sanctification. "When to my surprise, I recollected that I had not even thought of it in my whole prayer. It would seem Satan had hidden the very object from my mind, for which I had purposely kneeled to pray. But when this voice whispered in my heart, saying, "Pray for sanctification," I again bowed in the same place, at the same time, and said,"Lord sanctify my soul for Christ's sake?" That very instant, as if lightning had darted through me, I sprang to my feet, and cried,"The Lord has sanctified my soul!" There was none to hear this but the angels who stood around to witness my joy—and Satan, whose malice raged the more. That Satan was there, I knew; for no sooner had I cried out, "The Lord has sanctified my soul," than there seemed another voice behind me, saying,"No, it is too great a work to be done. "But another spirit said, "Bow down for the witness—I received it—thou art sanctified!" There first I knew of myself after that, I was standing in the yard with my hands spread out, and looking with my face toward heaven.

I now ran into the house and told them what had happened to me, when, as it were, a new rush of the same ecstasy came upon me, and caused me to feel as if I were in an ocean of light and bliss.

During this, I stood perfectly still, the tears rolling in a flood from my eyes. So great was the joy, that it is past description. There is no language that can describe it, except that which was heard by St. Paul, when he was caught up to the third heaven, and heard words which it was not lawful to utter.

My Call To Preach The Gospel

Between four and five years after my sanctification, on a certain time, an impressive silence fell upon me, and I stood as if some one was about to speak to me, yet I had no such thought in my heart. But to my utter surprise there seemed to sound a voice which I thought I distinctly heard, and most certainly understood, which said to me "Go preach the Gospel!" I immediately replied aloud. "No one will believe me. "Again I listened, and again the same voice seemed to say,"Preach the Gospel; I will put words in your mouth, and will turn your enemies to become your friends."

At first I supposed that Satan had spoken to me, for I had read that he could transform himself into an angel of light, for the purpose of deception. Immediately I went into a secret place, and called upon the Lord to know if he had called me to preach, and whether I was deceived or not; when there appeared to my view the form and figure of a pulpit, with a Bible lying thereon, the back of which was presented to me as plainly as if it had been a literal fact.

In consequence of this, my mind became so exercised that during the night following, I took a text, and preached in my sleep. I thought there stood before me a great multitude, while I expounded to them the things of religion. So violent were my exertions, and so loud were my exclamations, that I awoke from the sound of my own voice, which also awoke the family of the house where I resided. Two days after, I went to see the preacher in charge of the African Society, who was the Rev. Richard Allen, the same before named in these pages, to tell him that I felt it my duty to preach the gospel. But as I drew near the street in which his house was, which was in the city of Philadelphia, my courage began to fail me; so terrible did the cross appear, it seemed that I should not be able to bear it. Previous to my setting out to go to see him, so agitated was my mind, that my appetite for my daily food failed me entirely. Several times on my way there, I turned back again; but as often I felt my strength again renewed, and I soon found that the nearer I approached to the house of the minister, the less was my fear. Accordingly, as soon as I came to the door, my fears subsided, the cross was removed, all things appeared pleasant—I was tranquil.

I now told him, that the Lord had revealed it to me, that I must preach the gospel. He replied by asking, in what sphere I wished to move in? I said, among the Methodists. He then replied, that a Mrs. Cook, a Methodist lady, had also some time before requested the same privilege; who it was believed, had done much good in the way of exhortation, and holding prayer meetings; and who had been permitted to do so by the verbal license of the preacher in charge at the time. But as to women preaching, he said that our Discipline knew nothing at all about it—that it did not call for women preachers. This I was glad to hear, because it removed the fear of the cross—but not no sooner did this feeling cross my mind, than I found that a love of souls had in a measure departed from me; that holy energy which burned within me, as a fire, began to be smothered. This I soon perceived.

O how careful ought we to be, lest through our bylaws of church government and discipline, we bring into disrepute even the word of life. For as unseemly as it may appear now-a-days for a woman to preach, it should be remembered that nothing is impossible with God. Any why should it be thought impossible, heterodox, or improper, for a woman to preach? seeing the Saviour died for the woman as well as the man.

If a man may preach, because the Saviour died for him, why not the woman? seeing he died for her also. Is he not a whole Saviour, instead of a half one? as those who hold it wrong for a woman to preach, would seem to make it appear.

Did not Mary first preach the risen Saviour, and is not the doctrine of the resurrection the very climax of Christianity—hangs not all our hope on this, as argued by St. Paul? Then did not Mary, a woman, preach the gospel? for she preached the resurrection of the crucified Son of God.

But some will say, that Mary did not expound the Scripture, therefore, she did not preach, in the proper sense of the term. To this I reply, it may be that the term preach, in those primitive times, did not mean exactly what it is now made to mean; perhaps it was a great deal more simple then, than it is now:—if it were not, the unlearned fishermen could not have preached the gospel at all, as they had no learning.

To this it may be replied, by those who are determined not to believe that it is right for a woman to preach, that the disciples, through they were fishermen, and ignorant of letters too, were inspired so to do. To which I would reply, that though they were inspired, yet that inspiration did not save them from showing their ignorance of letters, and of man's wisdom; this the multitude soon found out, by listening to the remarks of the envious Jewish priests. If then, to preach the gospel, by the gift of heaven, comes by inspiration solely, is God straitened; must he take the man exclusively? May he not, did he not, and can he not inspire a female to preach the simple story of the birth, life, death, and resurrection of our Lord, and accompany it too, with power to the sinner's heart. As for me, I am fully persuaded that the Lord called me to labour according to what I have received, in his vineyard. If he has not, how could he consistently bear testimony in favour of my poor labours, in awakening and converting sinners?

In my wanderings up and down among men, preaching according to my ability, I have frequently found families who told me that they had not for several years been to a meeting, and yet, while listening to hear what God would say by his poor coloured female instrument, have believed with trembling—tears rolling down their cheeks, the signs of contrition and repentance towards God. I firmly believe that I have sown seed, in the name of the Lord, which shall appear with its increase at the great day of accounts, when Christ shall come to make up his jewels.

At a certain time, I was beset with the idea, that soon or late I should fall from grace, and lose my soul at last. I was frequently called to the throne of grace about this matter, but found no relief; the temptation pursued me still. Being more and more afflicted with it, till at a certain time when the spirit strongly impressed it on my mind to enter into my closet, and carry my case once more to the Lord; the Lord enabled me to draw nigh to him, and to his mercy seat, at this time, in an extraordinary manner; for while I wrestled with him for the victory over this disposition to doubt whether I should persevere, there appeared a form of fire, about the size of a man's hand, as I was on my knees; at the same moment, there appeared to the eye of faith a man robed in a white garment, from the shoulders down to the feet; from him a voice proceeded, saying:"Thou shalt never return from the cross. "Since that time I have never doubted, but believe that god will keep me until the day of redemption. Now I could adopt the very language of St. Paul, and say that nothing could have separated my soul from the love of god, which is in Christ Jesus [Rom. 8:35-39]. From that time, 1807, until the present, 1833, I have not yet doubted the power and goodness of God to keep me from falling, through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth.

My Marriage

In the year 1811, I changed my situation in life, having married Mr. Joseph Lee, Pastor of a Coloured Society at Snow Hill, about six miles from the city of Philadelphia. It became necessary therefore for me to remove. This was a great trial at first, as I knew no person at Snow Hill, except my husband; and to leave my associates in the society, and especially those who composed the band of which I was one. Not but those who have been in sweet fellowship with such as really love God, and have together drank bliss and happiness from the same fountain, can tell how dear such company is, and how hard it is to part from them.

At Snow Hill, as was feared, I never found that agreement and closeness in communion and fellowship, that I had in Philadelphia, among my young companions, nor ought I to have expected it. The manners and customs at this place were somewhat different, on which account I became discontented in the course of a year, and began to importune my husband to remove to the city. But this plan did not suit him, as he was the Pastor of the Society; he could not bring his mind to leave them. This afflicted me a little. But the Lord soon showed me in a dream what his will was concerning this matter.

I dreamed that as I was walking on the summit of a beautiful hill, that I saw near me a flock of sheep, fair and white, as if but newly washed; when there came walking toward me, a man of a grave and dignified countenance, dressed entirely in white, as it were in a robe, and looking at me, said emphatically, "Joseph Lee must take care of these sheep, or the wolf will come and devour them. "When I awoke, I was convinced of my error, and immediately, with a glad heart, yielded to the right way of the Lord. This also greatly strengthened my husband in his care over them, for fear the wold should by some means take any of them away. The following verse was beautifully suited to our condition, as well as to all the little flocks of God scattered up and down this land:

"Us into Thy protection take, And gather with Thine arm; Unless the fold we first forsake, The wolf can never harm."

After this, I fell into a state of general debility, and in an ill state of health, so much so, that I could not sit up; but a desire to warn sinners to flee the wrath to come, burned vehemently in my heart, when the Lord would send sinners into the house to see me. Such opportunities I embraced to press home on their consciences the things of eternity, and so effectual was the word of exhortation made through the Spirit, that I have seen them fall to the floor crying aloud for mercy.

From this sickness I did not expect to recover, and there was but one thing which bound me to earth, and this was, that I had not as yet preached the gospel to the fallen sons and daughters of Adam's race, to the satisfaction of my mind. I wished to go from one end of the earth to the other, crying, Behold, behold the Lamb! To this end I earnestly prayed the Lord to raise me up, if consistent with his will. He condescended to hear my prayer, and to give me a token in a dream, that in due time I should recover my health. The dream was as follows: I thought I saw the sun rise in the morning, and ascend to an altitude of about half an hour high, and then become obscured by a dense black cloud, which continued to hide its rays for about one third part of the day; and then it burst forth again with renewed splendour.

This dream I interpreted to signify my early life, my conversion to God, and this sickness, which was a great affliction, as it hindered me, and I feared would forever hinder me from preaching the gospel, was signified by the cloud; and the bursting forth of the sun, again, was the recovery of my health, and being permitted to preach.

I went to the throne of grace on this subject, where the Lord made this impressive reply in my heart, while on my knees: "Ye shall be restored to thy health again, and worship God in full purpose of heart."

This manifestation was so impressive, that I could but hide my face, as if someone was gazing upon me, to think of the great goodness of the Almighty God to my poor soul and body. From that very time I began to gain strength of body and mind, glory to God in the highest, until my health was fully recovered.

For six years from this time I continued to receive from above, such baptisms of the Spirit as mortality could scarcely bear. About that time I was called to suffer in my family, by death—five, in the course of about six years, fell by his hand; my husband being one of the number, which was the greatest affliction of all.

I was not left alone in the world, with two infant children, one of the age of about two years, the other six months, with no other dependance than the promise of Him who hath said—"I will be the widow's God, and a father to the fatherless" [Ps 68:5]. Accordingly, he raised me up friends, whose liberality comforted and solaced me in my state of widowhood and sorrows. I could sing with the greatest propriety the words of the poet.

"He helps the stranger in distress, The widow and the fatherless, And grants the prisoner sweet release."

I can say even now, with the Psalmist, "Once I was young, but now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread" [Ps. 37:25]. I have ever been fed by his bounty, clothed by his mercy, comforted and healed when sick, succoured when tempted, and every where upheld by his hand.

The Subject Of My Call To Preach Renewed

It was now eight years since I had made application to be permitted to preach the gospel, during which time I had only been allowed to exhort, and even this privilege but seldom. This subject now was renewed afresh in my mind; it was as a fire shut up in my bones. About thirteen months passed on, while under this renewed impression. During this time, I had solicited of the Rev. Bishop Richard Allen, who at this time had become Bishop of the African Episcopal Methodists in America, to be permitted the liberty of holding prayer meetings in my own hired house, and of exhorting as I found liberty, which was granted me. By this means, my mind was relieved, as the house was soon filled when the hour appointed for prayer had arrived.

I cannot but relate in this place, before I proceed further with the above subject, the singular conversion of a very wicked young man. He was a coloured man, who had generally attended our meetings, but not for any good purpose; but rather to disturb and to ridicule our denomination. He openly and uniformly declared that he neither believed in religion, nor wanted anything to do with it. He was of a Gallio disposition, and took the lead among the young people of colour. But after a while he fell sick, and lay about three months in a state of ill health; his disease was consumption. Toward the close of his days, his sister who was a member of the society, came and desired me to go and see her brother, as she had no hopes of his recovery; perhaps the Lord might break into his mind. I went alone, and found him very low. I soon commenced to inquire respecting his state of feeling, and how he found his mind. His answer was,"O tolerable well," with an air of great indifference. I asked him if I should pray for him. He answered in a sluggish and careless manner, "O yes, if you have time. "I then sung a hymn, kneeled down and prayed for him, and then went my way.

Three days after this, I went again to visit the young man. At this time there went with me two of the sisters in Christ. We found the Rev. Mr. Cornish, of our denomination, labouring with him. But he said he received but little satisfaction from him. Pretty soon, however, brother Cornish took his leave; when myself, with the other two sisters, one of which was an elderly woman named Jane Hutt, the other was younger, both coloured, commenced conversing with him, respecting his eternal interest, and of his hopes of a happy eternity, if any he had. He said but little; we then kneeled down together and besought the Lord in his behalf, praying that if mercy were not clear gone forever, to shed a ray of softening grace upon the hardness of his heart. He appeared now to be somewhat more tender, and we thought we could perceive some tokens of conviction, as he wished us to visit him again, in a tone of voice not quite as indifferent as he had hitherto manifested.

But two days had elapsed after this visit, when his sister came for me in haste, saying, that she believed her brother was then dying, and that he had sent for me. I immediately called on Jane Hutt, who was still among us as a mother in Israel, to go with me. When we arrived there, we found him sitting up in his bed, very restless and uneasy, but he soon laid down again. He now wished me to come to him, by the side of his bed. I asked him how he was. He said,"Very ill;" and added,"Pray for me, quick?" We now perceived his time in this world to be short. I took up the hymn-book and opened to a hymn suitable to his case, and commenced to sing. But there seemed to be a horror in the room—a darkness of a mental kind, which was felt by us all; there being five persons, except the sick young man and his nurse. We had sung but one verse, when they all gave over singing, on account of this unearthly sensation, but myself. I continued to sing on alone, but in a dull and heavy manner, though looking up to God all the while for help. Suddenly, I felt a spring of energy awake in my heart, when darkness gave way in some degree. It was but a glimmer from above. When the hymn was finished, we all kneeled down to pray for him. While calling on the name of the Lord, to have mercy on his soul, and to grant him repentance unto life, it came suddenly into my mind never to rise from my knees until God should hear prayer in his behalf, until he should convert and save his soul.

Now, while I thus continued importuning heaven, as I felt I was led, a ray of light, more abundant, broke forth among us. There appeared to my view, though my eyes were closed, the Saviour in full stature, nailed to the cross, just over the head of the young man, against the ceiling of the room. I cried out, brother look up, the Saviour is come, he will pardon you, your sins he will forgive. My sorrow for the soul of the young man was gone; I could no longer pray—joy and rapture made it impossible. We rose up from our knees, when lo, his eyes were gazing with ecstasy upward; over his face there was an expression of joy; his lips were clothed in a sweet and holy smile; but no sound came from his tongue; it was heard in its stillness of bliss, full of hope and immortality. Thus, as I held him by the hand his happy and purified soul soared away, without a sign or a groan, to its eternal rest.

I now closed his eyes, straightened out his limbs, and left him to be dressed for the grave. But as for me, I was filled with the power of the Holy Ghost—the very room seemed filled with glory. His sister and all that were in the room rejoiced, nothing doubting but he had entered into Paradise; and I believe I shall see him at the last and great day, safe on the shores of salvation.

But to return to the subject of my call to preach. Soon after this, as above related, the Rev. Richard Williams was to preach at Bethel Church, where I with others were assembled. He entered the pulpit, gave out the hymn, which was sung, and then addressed the throne of grace; took his text, passed through the exordium, and commenced to expound it. The text he took is in Jonah, 2d chap. 9th verse,—"Salvation is of the Lord. "But as he proceeded to explain, he seemed to have lost the spirit: when in the same instant, I sprang, as by an altogether supernatural impulse, to my feet, when I was aided from above to give an exhortation on the very text which my brother Williams had taken.

I told them that I was like Jonah; for it had been then nearly eight years since the Lord had called me to preach his gospel to the fallen sons and daughters of Adam's race, but that I had lingered like him, and delayed to go at the bidding of the Lord, and warn those who are as deeply guilty as were the people of Ninevah.

During the exhortation, God made manifest his power in a manner sufficient to show the world that I was called to labour according to my ability, and the grace given unto me, in the vineyard of the good husbandman.

I now sat down, scarcely knowing what I had done, being frightened. I imagined, that for this indecorum, as I feared it might be called, I should be expelled from the church. But instead of this, the Bishop rose up in the assembly, and related that I had called upon him eight years before, asking to be permitted to preach, and that he had put me off; but that he now as much believed that I was called to that work, as any of the preachers present. These remarks greatly strengthened me, so that my fears of having given an offence, and made myself liable as an offender, subsided, giving place to a sweet serenity, a holy job of a peculiar kind, untasted in my bosom until then.

The next Sabbath day, while sitting under the word of the gospel, I felt moved to attempt to speak to the people in a public manner, but I could not bring my mind to attempt it in the church. I said, Lord, anywhere but here. Accordingly, there was a house not far off which was pointed out to me, to this I went. It was the house of a sister belonging to the same society with myself. Her name was Anderson. I told her I had come to hold a meeting in her house, if she would call in her neighbours. With this request she immediately complied. My congregation consisted of but five persons. I commenced by reading and singing a hymn, when I dropped to my knees by the side of a table to pray. When I arose I found my hand resting on the Bible, which I had not noticed till that moment. It now occurred to me to take a text. I opened the Scripture, as it happened, at the 141st Psalm, fixing my eye on the 3d verse, which reads: "Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth, keep the door of my lips. "My sermon, such as it was, I applied wholly to myself, and added an exhortation. Two of my congregation wept much, as the fruit of my labour this time. In closing I said to the few, that if any one would open a door, I would hold a meeting the next sixth-day evening; when one answered that her house was at my service. Accordingly I went, and God made manifest his power among the people. Some wept, while others shouted for joy. One whole seat of females, by the power of God, as the rushing of a wind, were all bowed to the floor at once, and screamed out. Also a sick man and woman in one house, the Lord convicted them both; one lived, and the other died. God wrought a judgment—some were well at night, and died in the morning. At this place I continued to hold meetings about six months. During that time I kept house with my little son, who was very sickly. About this time I had a call to preach at a place about thirty miles distant, among the Methodists, with whom I remained one week, and during the whole time, not a thought of my little son came into my mind; it was hid from me, lest I should have been diverted from the work I had to, to look after my son. Here by the instrumentality of a poor coloured woman, the Lord poured forth his spirit among the people. Though, as I was told, there were lawyers, doctors, and magistrates present, to hear me speak, yet there was mourning and crying among sinners, for the Lord scattered fire among them of his own kindling. The Lord gave his handmaiden power to speak for his great name, for he arrested the hearts of the people, and caused a shaking amongst the multitude, for God was in the midst.

I now returned home, found all well; no harm had come to my child, although I left it very sick. Friends had taken care of it which was of the Lord. I now began to think seriously of breaking up housekeeping, and forsaking all to preach the everlasting Gospel. I felt a strong desire to return to the place of my nativity, at Cape May, after an absence of about fourteen years. To this place, where the heaviest cross was to be met with, the Lord sent me, as Saul of Tarsus was sent to Jerusalem, to preach the same gospel which he had neglected and despised before his conversion. I went by water, and on my passage was much distressed by sea sickness, so much so that I expected to have died, but such was not the will of the Lord respecting me. After I had disembarked. I proceeded on as opportunities offered, toward where my mother lived. When within ten miles of that place, I appointed an evening meeting. There were a goodly number came out to hear. The Lord was pleased to give me light and liberty among the people. After meeting, there came an elderly lady to me and said, she believed the Lord had sent me among them; she then appointed me another meeting there two weeks from that night. The next day I hastened forward to the place of my mother, who was happy to see me, and the happiness was mutual between us. With her I left my poor sickly boy, while I departed to do my Master's will. In this neighborhood I had an uncle, who was a Methodist, and who gladly threw open his door for meetings to be held there. At the first meeting which I held at my uncle's house, there was, with others who had come from curiosity to hear the coloured woman preacher, an old man, who was a deist, and who said he did not believe the coloured people had any souls—he was sure they had none. He took a seat very near where I was standing, and boldly tried to look me out of countenance. But as I laboured on in the best manner I was able, looking to God all the while, though it seemed to me I had but little liberty, yet there went an arrow from the bent bow of the gospel, and fastened in his till then obdurate heart. After I had done speaking, he went out, and called the people around him, said that my preaching might seem a small thing, yet he believed I had the worth of souls at heart. This language was different from what it was a little time before, as he now seemed to admit that coloured people had souls, whose good I had in view, his remark must have been without meaning. He now came into the house, and in the most friendly manner shook hands with me, saying, he hoped God had spared him to some good purpose. This man was a great slave holder, and had been very cruel; thinking nothing of knocking down a slave with a fence stake, or whatever might come to hand. From this time it was said of him that he became greatly altered in his ways for the better. At that time he was about seventy years old, his head as white as snow; but whether he became a converted man or not, I never heard.

The week following, I had an invitation to hold a meeting at the Court House of the County, when I spoke from the 53d chap. of Isaiah, 3d verse. It was a solemn time, and the Lord attended the word; I had life and liberty, though there were people there of various denominations. Here again I saw the aged slaveholder, who notwithstanding his age, walked about three miles to hear me. This day I spoke twice, and walked six miles to the place appointed. There was a magistrate present, who showed his friendship, by saying in a friendly manner, that he had heard of me; he handed me a hymnbook, pointing to a hymn which he had selected. When the meeting was over, he invited me to preach in a schoolhouse in his neighbourhood, about three miles distant from where I then was. During this meeting one back-slider was reclaimed. This day I walked six miles, and preached twice to large congregations, both in the morning and evening. The Lord was with me, glory be to his holy name. I next went six miles and held a meeting in a coloured friend's house, at eleven o'clock in the morning, and preached to a well behaved congregation of both coloured and white. After service I again walked back, which was in all twelve miles in the same day. This was on Sabbath, or as I sometimes call it, seventh-day; for after my conversion I preferred the plain language of the quakers: On fourth-day, after this, in compliance with an invitation received by note, from the same magistrate who had heard me at the above place, I preached to a large congregation, where we had a precious time: much weeping was heard among the people. The same gentleman, now at the close of the meeting, gave out another appointment at the same place, that day week. Here again I had liberty, there was a move among the people. Ten years from that time, in the neighbourhood of Cape May, I held a prayer meeting in a school house, which was then the regular place of preaching for the Episcopal Methodists; after service, there came a white lady of the first distinction, a member of the Methodist Society, and told me that at the same school house, ten years before, under my preaching, the Lord first awakened her. She rejoiced much to see me, and invited me home with her, where I staid till the next day. This was bread cast on the waters, seen after many days.

From this place I next went to Dennis Creek meeting house, where at the invitation of an elder, I spoke to a large congregation of various and conflicting sentiments, when a wonderful shock of God's power was felt, shown everywhere by groans, by sighs, and loud and happy amens. I felt as if aided from above. My tongue was cut loose, the stammerer spoke freely; the love of God, and of his service, burned with a vehement flame within me—his name was glorified among the people.

But here I feel myself constrained to give over, as from the smallness of this pamphlet I cannot go through with the whole of my journal, as it would probably make a volume of two hundred pages; which, if the Lord be willing, may at some future day be published. But for the satisfaction of such as may follow after me, when I am no more, I have recorded how the Lord called me to his work, and how he has kept me from falling from grace, as I feared I should. In all things he has proved himself a God of truth to me; and in his service I am now as much determined to spend and be spent, as at the very first. My ardour for the progress of his cause abates not a whit, so far as I am able to judge, though I am now something more than fifty years of age.

As to the nature of uncommon impressions, which the reader cannot but have noticed, and possibly sneered at in the course of these pages, they may be accounted for in this way: It is known that the blind have the sense of hearing in a manner much more acute than those who can see: also their sense of feeling is exceedingly fine, and is found to detect any roughness on the smoothest surface, where those who can see can find none. So it may be with such as am, who has never had more than three months schooling; and wishing to know much of the way and law of God, have therefore watched the more closely the operations of the Spirit, and have in consequence been led thereby. But let it be remarked that have never found that Spirit to lead me contrary to the Scriptures of truth, as I understand them. "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God."—Rom. viii. 14.

I have now only to say, May the blessing of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, accompany the reading of this poor effort to speak well of his name, wherever it may be read. AMEN.

PRIMARY SOURCE DOCUMENT

A Former Slave Discusses the Importance of Religion

INTRODUCTION

Elizabeth was born a slave in Maryland in1766. At age eleven, she was separated from the rest of her family and sent to another plantation some miles away. This event was to have a profound impact on Elizabeth's life. Her loneliness and despair first led her to attempt a clandestine reunion with her mother. Although she managed to spend a few days with members of her family before being returned to her new home, Elizabeth realized that she needed to face a life without them. Having no one else, Elizabeth turned to God for support.

Though Elizabeth received her freedom about twenty years later, she continued to seek comfort and strength in religion. Like many other slaves and free blacks living in the antebellum period, she found a rare comfort in the promise of a better world in the afterlife. Elizabeth's memoir illustrates the importance of religion in the lives of many African Americans who attempted to understand why society forced them into an inferior status.

I was born in Maryland in the year 1766. My parents were slaves. Both my father and mother were religious people, and belonged to the Methodist Society. It was my father's practice to read in the Bible aloud to his children every sabbath morning. At these seasons, when I was but five years old, I often felt the overshadowing of the Lord's Spirit, without at all understanding what it meant; and these incomes and influences coutinued to attend me until I was eleven years old, particularly when I was alone, by which I was preserved from doing anything that I thought was wrong.

In the eleventh year of my age, my master sent me to another farm, several miles from my parents, brothers, and sisters, which was a great trouble to me. At last I grew so lonely and sad I thought I should die, if I did not see my mother. I asked the overseer if I might go, but being positively denied, I concluded to go without his knowledge. When I reached home my mother was away. I set off and walked twenty miles before I found here. I staid with her for several days, and we returned together. Next day I was sent back to my new place, which renewed my sorrow. At parting, my mother told me that I had "nobody in the wide world to look to but God. "These words fell upon my heart with pondrous weight, and seemed to add to my grief. I went back repeating as I went,"none but God in the wide world. "On reaching the farm, I found the overseer was displeased at me for going without his liberty. He tied me with a rope, and gave me some stripes of which I carried the marks for weeks.

After this time, finding as my mother said, I had none in the world to look to but God, I betook myself to prayer, and in every lonely place I found an altar. I mourned sore like a dove and chattered forth my sorrow, moaning in the corners of the field, and under the fences.

I continued in this state for about six months, feeling as though my head were waters, and I could do nothing but weep. I lost my appetite, and not being able to take enough food to sustain nature, I became so weak I had but little strength to work; still I was required to do all my duty. One evening, after the duties of the day were ended, I thought I could not live over the night, so threw myself on a bench, expecting to die, and without being prepared to meet my Maker; and my spirit cried within me, must I die in this state, and be banished from Thy presence forever? I own I am a sinner in Thy sight, and not fit to live where thou art. Still it was my fervent desire that the Lord would pardon me. Just at this season, I saw with my spiritual eye, an awful gulf of misery. As I thought I was about to plunge into it, I heard a voice saying,"rise up and pray," which strengthened me. I fell on my knees and prayed the best I could the Lord's prayer. Knowing no more to say, I halted, but continued on my knees. My spirit was then taught to pray, "Lord, have mercy on me—Christ save me. "Immediately there appeared a director, clothed in white raiment. I thought he took me by the hand and said,"come with me. "He led me down a long journey to a fiery gulf, and left me standing upon the brink of this awful pit. I began to scream for mercy, thinking I was about to be plunged to the belly of hell, and believed I should sink to endless ruin. Although I prayed and wrestled with all my might, it seemed in vain. Still, I felt all the while that I was sustained by some invisible power. At this solemn moment, I thought I saw a hand from which hung, as it were, a silver hair, and a voice told me that all the hope I had of being saved was no more than a hair; still, pray, and it will be sufficient. I then renewed my struggle, crying for mercy and salvation, until I found that every cry raised me higher and higher, and my head was quite above the fiery pillars. Then I thought I was permitted to look straight forward, and saw the Saviour standing with His hand stretched out to receive me. An indescribably glorious light was in Him, and He said, "peace, peace, come unto me. "At this moment I felt that my sins were forgiven me, and the time of my deliverance was at hand. I sprang forward and fell at his feet, giving Him all the thanks and highest praises, crying, Thou has redeemed me—Thou hast redeemed me to thyself. I felt filled with light and love. At this moment I thought my former guide took me again by the hand and led me upward, till I came to the celestial world and to heaven's door, which I saw was open, and while I stood there, a power surrounded me which drew me in, and I saw millions of glorified spirits in white robes. After I had this view, I thought I heard a voice saying, "Art thou willing to be saved?" I said, Yes Lord. Again I was asked,"Art thou willing to be saved in my way?" I stood speechless until he asked me again, "Art thou willing to be saved in my way?" Then I heard a whispering voice say, "If thou art not saved in the Lord's way, thou canst not be saved at all;" at which I exclaimed, "Yes Lord, in thy own way. "Immediately a light fell upon my head, and I was filled with light, and I was shown the world lying in wickedness, and was told I must go there, and call the people to repentance, for the day of the Lord was at hand; and this message was as a heavy yoke upon me, so that I wept bitterly at the thought of what I should have to pass through. While I wept, I heard a voice say, "weep not, some will laugh at thee, some will scoff at thee, and the dogs will bark at thee, but while thou doest my will, I will be with thee to the ends of the earth."

I was at this time not yet thirteen years old. The next day, when I had come to myself, I felt like a new creature in Christ, and all my desire was to see the Saviour.

I lived in a place where there was no preaching, and no religious instruction; but every day I went out amongst the hay-stacks, where the presence of the Lord overshadowed me, and I was filled with sweetness and joy, and was as a vessel filled with holy oil. In this way I continued for about a year; many times while my hands were at my work, my spirit was carried away to spiritual things. One day as I was going to my old place behind the hay-stacks to pray, I was assailed with this language,"Are you going there to weep and pray? what a fool! there are older professors than you are, and they do not take that way to get to heaven; people whose sins are forgiven ought to be joyful and lively, and not be struggling and praying. "With this I halted and concluded I would not go, but do as other professors did, and so went off to play; but at this moment the light that was in me became darkened, and the peace and joy that I once had, departed from me.

About this time I was moved back to the farm where my mother lived, and then sold to a stranger. Here I had deep sorrows and plungings, not having experienced a return of that sweet evidence and light with which I had been favoured formerly; but by watching unto prayer, and wrestling mightily with the Lord, my peace gradually returned, and with it a great exercise and weight upon my heart for the salvation of my fellow-creatures; and I was often carried to distant lands and shown places where I should have to travel and deliver the Lord's message. Years afterwards, I found myself visiting those towns and countries that I had seen in the light as I sat at home at my sewing,—places of which I had never heard.

Some years from this time I was sold to a Presbyterian for a term of years, as he did not think it right to hold slaves for life. Having served him faithfully my time out, he gave me my liberty, which was about the thirtieth year of my age.

As I now lived in a neighborhood where I could attend religious meetings, occasionally I felt moved to speak a few words therein; but I shrank from it—so great was the cross to my nature.

I did not speak much till I had reached my forty-second year, when it was revealed to me that the message which had been given to me I had not yet delivered, and the time had come. As I could read but little, I questioned within myself how it would be possible for me to deliver the message, when I did not understand the Scriptures. Whereupon I was moved to open a Bible that was near me, which I did, and my eyes fell upon this passage,"Gird up thy loins now like a man, and answer thou me. Obey God rather than man," &c. Here I fell into a great exercise of spirit, and was plunged very low. I went from one religious professor to another, enquiring of them what ailed me; but of all these I could find none who could throw any light upon such impressions. They all told me there was nothing in Scripture that would sanction such exercises. It was hard for men to travel, and what would women do? These things greatly discouraged me, and shut up my way, and caused me to resist the Spirit. After going to all that were accounted pious, and receiving no help, I returned to the Lord, feeling that I was nothing, and knew nothing, and wrestled and prayed to the Lord that He would fully reveal His will, and make the way plain.

Whilst I thus struggled, there seemed a light from heaven to fall upon me, which banished all my desponding fears, and I was enabled to form a new resolution to go on to prison and to death, if it might be my portion: and the Lord showed me that it was His will I should be resigned to die any death that might be my lot, in carrying his message, and be entirely crucified to the world, and sacrifice all to His glory that was then in my possession, which His witnesses, the holy Apostles, had done before me. It was then revealed to me that the Lord had given me the evidence of a clean heart, in which I could rejoice day and night, and I walked and talked with God, and my soul was illuminated with heavenly light, and I knew nothing but Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

One day, after these things, while I was at my work, the Spirit directed me to go to a poor widow, and ask her if I might have a meeting at her house, which was situated in one of the lowest and worst streets in Baltimore. With great joy she gave notice, and at the time appointed I appeared there among a few coloured sisters. When they had all prayed, they called upon me to close the meeting, and I felt an impression that I must say a few words; and while I was speaking, the house seemed filled with light; and when I was about to close the meeting, and was kneeling, a man came in and stood till I arose. It proved to be a watchman. The sisters became so frightened, they all went away except the one who lived in the house, and an old woman; they both appeared to be much frightened, fearing they should receive some personal injury, or be put out of the house. A feeling of weakness came over me for a short time, but I soon grew warm and courageous in the Spirit. The man then said to me,"I was sent here to break up your meeting. Complaint has been made to me that the people round here cannot sleep for the racket. "I replied,"a good racket is better than a bad racket. How do they rest when the ungodly are dancing and fiddling till midnight? Why are not they molested by the watchmen? and why should we be for praising God, our Maker? Are we worthy of greater punishment for praying to Him? and are we to be prohibited from doing so, that sinners may remain slumbering in their sins?" While speaking these few words I grew warm with heavenly zeal, and laid my hand upon him and addressed him with gospel truth,"how do sinners sleep in hell, after slumbering in their sins here, and crying,'let me rest, let me rest,' while sporting on the very brink of hell? Is the cause of God to be destroyed for this purpose?" Speaking several words more to this amount, he turned pale and trembled, and begged my pardon, acknowledging that it was not his wish to interrupt us, and that he would never disturb a religious assembly again. He then took leave of me in a comely manner and wished us success. After he was gone, I turned to the old sisters who by this time were quite cheered up. You see, said I, if the sisters had not fled, what a victory we might have had on the Lord's side; for the man seemed ready to give up under conviction. If it had not been for their cowardice, we might have all bowed in prayer, and a shout of victory had been heard amongst us.

Our meeting gave great offence, and we were forbid holding any more assemblies. Even the elders of our meeting joined with the wicked people, and said such meetings must be stopped, and that woman quieted. But I was not afraid of any of them, and continued to go, and burnt with a zeal not my own. The old sisters were zealous sometimes, and at other times would sink under the cross. Thus they grew cold, at which I was much grieved. I proposed to them to ask the elders to send a brother, which was concluded upon.

We went on for several years, and the Lord was with us with great power it proved, to the conversion of many souls, and we continued to grow stronger.

I felt at times that I must exercise in the ministry, but when I rose upon my feet I felt ashmed, and so I went under a cloud for some time, and endeavoured to keep silence; but I could not quench the Spirit. I was rejected by the elders and rulers, as Christ was rejected by the Jews before me, and while others were excused in crimes of the darkest dye, I was hunted down in every place where I appointed a meeting. Wading through many sorrows, I thought at times I might as well be banished from this life, as to feel the Almighty drawing me one way, and man another; so that I was tempted to cast myself into the dock. But contemplating the length of eternity, and how long my sufferings would be in that unchangeable world, compared with this, if I endured a little longer, the Lord was pleased to deliver me from this gloomy, melancholy state in his own time; though while this temptation lasted I roved up and down, and talked and prayed.

I often felt that I was unfit to assemble with the congregation with whom I had gathered, and had sometimes been made to rejoice in the Lord. I felt that I was despised on account of this gracious calling, and was looked upon as a speckled bird by the ministers to whom I looked for instruction, and to whom I resorted every opportunity for the same; but when I would converse with them, some would cry out,"You are an enthusiast;" and others said,"the Discipline did not allow of any such division of the work;" until I began to think I surely must be wrong. Under this reflection, I had another gloomy cloud to struggle through; but after awhile I felt much moved upon by the Spirit of the Lord, and meeting with an aged sister, I found upon conversing with her that she could sympathize with me in this spiritual work. She was the first one I had met with, who could fully understand my exercises. She offered to open her house for a meeting, and run the risk of all the church would do to her for it. Many were afraid to open their houses in this way, lest they should be turned out of the church.

I persevered, notwithstanding the opposition of those who were looked upon as higher and wiser. The meeting was appointed, and but few came. I felt much backwardness, and as though I could not pray, but a pressure upon me to arise and express myself by way of exhortation. After hesitating for some time whether I would take up the cross or no, I arose, and after expressing a few words, the Spirit came upon me with life, and a victory was gained over the power of darkness, and we could rejoice together in His love.

As for myself, I was so full I hardly knew whether I was in the body, or out of the body—so great was my joy for the victory on the Lord's side. But the persecution against me increased, and a complaint was carried forward, as was done formerly against Daniel, the servant of God, and the elders came out with indignation for my holding meetings contrary to discipline—being a woman.

Thus we see when the heart is not inspired, and the inward eye enlightened by the Spirit, we are incapable of discerning the mystery of God in these things. Individuals creep into the church that are unregenerate, and after they have been there awhile, they fancy that they have got the grace of God, while they are destitute of it. They may have a degree of light in their heads, but evil in their hearts; which makes them think they are qualified to be judges of the ministry, and their conceit makes them very busy in matters of religion, judging of the revelations that are given to others, while they have received none themselves. Being thus mistaken, they are calculated to make a great deal of confusion in the church, and clog the true ministry.

These are they who eat their own bread, and wear their own apparel, having the form of godliness, but are destitute of the power.

Again I felt encouraged to attend another and another appointment. At one of these meetings, some of the class-leaders were present, who were constrained to cry out, "Surely the Lord has revealed these things to her" and asked one another if they ever heard the like? I look upon man as a very selfish being, when placed in a religious office, to presume to resist the work of the Almighty; because He does not work by man's authority. I did not faint under discouragement, but pressed on.

Under the contemplation of these things, I slept but little, being much engaged in receiving the revelations of the Divine will concerning this work, and the mysterious call thereto.

I felt very unworthy and small, notwithstanding the Lord had shown himself with great power, insomuch that conjecturers and critics were constrained to join in praise to his great name; for truly, we had times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. At one of the meetings, a vast number of the white inhabitants of the place, and many coloured people, attended—many no doubt from curiosity to hear what the old coloured woman had to say. One, a great scripturian, fixed himself behind the door with pen and ink, in order to take down the discourse in short-hand; but the Almighty Being anointed me with such a portion of his Spirit, that he cast away his paper and pen, and heard the discourse with patience, and was much affected, for the Lord wrought powerfully on his heart. After meeting, he came forward and offered me his hand with solemnity on his countenance, and handed me something to pay for my conveyance home.

I returned, much strengthened by the Lord's power, to go on to the fulfilment of His work, although I was again pressed by the authorities of the church to which I belonged, for imprudency; and so much condemned, that I was sorely tempted by the enemy to turn aside into the wilderness. I was so embarrassed and encompassed, I wondered within myself whether all that were called to be mouth piece for the Lord, suffered such deep wadings as I experienced.

I now found I had to travel still more extensively in the work of the ministry, and I applied to the Lord for direction. I was often invited to go hither and thither, but felt that I must wait for the dictates of His Spirit.

At a meeting which I held in Maryland, I was led to speak from the passage,"Woe to the rebellious city," &c. After the meeting, the people came where I was, to take me before the squire; but the Lord delivered me from their hands.

I also held meetings in Virginia. The people there would not believe that a coloured woman could preach. And moreover, as she had no learning, they strove to imprison me because I spoke against slavery: and being brought up, they asked by what authority I spake? and if I had been ordained? I answered, not by the commission of men's hands: if the Lord had ordained me, I needed nothing better.

As I travelled along through the land, I was led at different times to converse with white men who were by profession ministers of the gospel. Many of them, up and down, confessed they did not believe in revelation, which gave me to see that men were sent forth as ministers without Christ's authority. In a conversation with one of these, he said,"You think you have these things by revelation, but there has been no such thing as revelation since Christ's ascension. "I asked him where the apostle John got his revelation while he was in the Isle of Patmos. With this, he rose up and left me, and I said in my spirit, get thee behind me Satan.

I visited many remote places, where there were no meeting houses, and held many glorions meetings, for the Lord poured out his Spirit in sweet effusions. I also travelled in Canada, and visited several settlements of coloured people, and felt an open door amongst them.

I may here remark, that while journeying through the different states of the Union, I met with many of the Quaker Friends, and visited them in their families. I received much kindness and sympathy, and no opposition from them, in the prosecution of my labours.

On one occasion, in a thinly settled part of the country, seeing a Friend's meeting house open, I went in; at the same time a Friend and his little daughter followed me. We three composed the meeting. As we sat there in silence, I felt a remarkable overshadowing of the Divine presence, as much so as I ever experienced any where. Toward the close, a few words seemed to be given me, which I expressed, and left the place greatly refreshed in Spirit. From thence I went to Michigan, where I found a wide field of labour amongst my own colour. Here I remained four years. I established a school for coloured orphans, having always felt the great importance of the religious and moral agriculture of children, and the great need of it, especially amongst the coloured people. Having white teachers, I met with much encouragement.

My eighty-seventh year had now arrived, when suffering from disease, and feeling released from travelling further in my good Master's cause, I came on to Philadelphia, where I have remained until this time, which brings me to my ninety-seventh year. When I went forth, it was without purse or scrip,—and I have come through great tribulation and temptation—not by any might of my own, for I feel that I am but as dust and ashes before my almighty Helper, who has, according to His promise, been with me and sustained me through all, and gives me now firm faith that he will be with me to the end, and, in his own good time, receive me into His everlasting rest.

PRIMARY SOURCE DOCUMENT

Preamble to Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the United States by David Walker

INTRODUCTION

David Walker was born in Wilmington,

North Carolina, in 1785, the son of a free mother and an enslaved father who died before he was born. According to the rule that the child followed the condition of the mother, Walker inherited his mother's free status. A witness to the indignities suffered by enslaved people around him, including members of his father's family, Walker also knew through his own experience how the lives of free African Americans were hobbled by racist laws and attitudes. In later years, he raised his voice on behalf of all "colored citizens," both slave and free, in the United States and elsewhere.

Walker left North Carolina as a young man, traveling for a time in the South and finally settling in Boston in 1827. He opened a secondhand clothing shop on the wharves and set about doing what he could to ameliorate the condition of his fellow African Americans—harboring fugitive slaves, contributing money to the antislavery cause, and writing for John Russworm's Freedom's Journal. In 1829, he published his Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the United States, the preamble of which is reprinted here.

Nothing like the appeal had ever appeared before. Abolitionists were fired by the sense of outrage it embodied, the excoriating intelligence it displayed on every page, its unremitting exposure of white America's hypocrisy, not just on the issue of slavery but in all racial matters. Those weary of the slow pace of change applauded Walker's call for open rebellion by slaves—among them, Henry Highland Garnet, who renewed the theme in his Address to the Slaves of the United States of America (1843). But Walker's appeal terrified southern slaveholders, who demanded its suppression and even put a price of a thousand dollars on Walker's head. Two years later, in 1831, when Nat Turner led a revolt of slaves in Southampton County, Virginia, their fears seemed to come true.

By then, Walker himself had already paid a dear price for his eloquence. In 1830, his body was discovered in the doorway of his shop, the evident victim of poisoning. The circumstances of his death remain a mystery to this day. Many have suggested, though it has never been proved, that he was murdered by proslavery forces in retaliation for his appeal. Despite the fact that Walker was born well after the revolutionary war had ended, William Nell reserved a place for him in his Colored Patriots of the American Revolution, in this way honoring the man who is now widely regarded as the first great hero and martyr of black nationalism.

Preamble.

My dearly beloved Brethren and Fellow Citizens.

Having travelled over a considerable portion of these United States, and having, in the course of my travels, taken the most accurate observations of things as they exist—the result of my observations has warranted the full and unshaken conviction, that we, (coloured people of these United States,) are the most degraded, wretched, and abject set of beings that ever lived since the world began; and I pray God that none like us ever may live again until time shall be no more. They tell us of the Israelites in Egypt, the Helots in Sparta, and of the Roman Slaves, which last were made up from almost every nation under heaven, whose sufferings under those ancient and heathen nations, were, in comparison with ours, under this enlightened and Christian nation, no more than a cypher—or, in other words, those heathen nations of antiquity, had but little more among them than the name and form of slavery; while wretchedness and endless miseries were reserved, apparently in a phial, to be poured out upon our fathers, ourselves and our children, by Christian Americans!

These positions I shall endeavour, by the help of the Lord, to demonstrate in the course of this Appeal, to the satisfaction of the most incredulous mind—and may God Almighty, who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, open your hearts to understand and believe the truth.

The causes, my brethren, which produce our wretchedness and miseries, are so very numerous and aggravating, that I believe the pen only of a Josephus or a Plutarch, can well enumerate and explain them. Upon subjects, then, of such incomprehensible magnitude, so impenetrable, and so notorious, I shall be obliged to omit a large class of, and content myself with giving you an exposition of a few of those, which do indeed rage to such an alarming pitch, that they cannot but be a perpetual source of terror and dismay to every reflecting mind.

I am fully aware, in making this appeal to my much afflicted and suffering brethren, that I shall not only be assailed by those whose greatest earthly desires are, to keep us in abject ignorance and wretchedness, and who are of the firm conviction that Heaven has designed us and our children to be slaves and beasts of burden to them and their children. I say, I do not only expect to be held up to the public as an ignorant, impudent and restless disturber of the public peace, by such avaricious creatures, as well as a mover of insubordination—and perhaps put in prison or to death, for giving a superficial exposition of our miseries, and exposing tyrants. But I am persuaded, that many of my brethren, particularly those who are ignorantly in league with slave-holders or tyrants, who acquire their daily bread by the blood and sweat of their more ignorant brethren—and not a few of those too, who are too ignorant to see an inch beyond their noses, will rise up and call me cursed—Yea, the jealous ones among us will perhaps use more abject subtlety, by affirming that this work is not worth perusing, that we are well situated, and there is no use in trying to better our condition, for we cannot. I will ask one question here.—Can our condition be any worse?—Can it be more mean and abject? If there are any changes, will they not be for the better, though they may appear for the worst at first? Can they get us any lower? Where can they get us? They are afraid to treat us worse, for they know well, the day they do it they are gone. But against all accusations which may or can be preferred against me, I appeal to Heaven for my motive in writing—who knows that my object is, if possible, to awaken in the breasts of my afflicted, degraded and slumbering brethren, a spirit of inquiry and investigation respecting our miseries and wretchedness in this Republican Land of Liberty! ! ! ! ! !

The sources from which our miseries are derived, and on which I shall comment, I shall not combine in one, but shall put them under distinct heads and expose them in their turn; in doing which, keeping truth on my side, and not departing from the strictest rules of morality, I shall endeavour to penetrate, search out, and lay them open for your inspection. If you cannot or will not profit by them, I shall have done my duty to you, my country and my God.

And as the inhuman system of slavery, is the source from which most of our miseries proceed, I shall begin with that curse to nations, which has spread terror and devastation through so many nations of antiquity, and which is raging to such a pitch at the present day in Spain and in Portugal. It had one tug in England, in France, and in the United States of America; yet the inhabitants thereof, do not learn wisdom, and erase it entirely from their dwellings and from all with whom they have to do. The fact is, the labour of slaves comes to cheap to the avaricious usurpers, and is (as they think) of such great utility to the country where it exists, that those who are actuated by sordid avarice only, overlook the evils, which will as sure as the Lord lives, follow after the good. In fact, they are so happy to keep in ignorance and degradation, and to receive the homage and the labour of the slaves, they forget that God rules in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, having his ears continually open to the cries, tears and groans of his oppressed people; and being a just and holy Being will at one day appear fully in behalf of the oppressed, and arrest the progress of the avaricious oppressors; for although the destruction of the oppressors God may not effect by the oppressed, yet the Lord our God will bring other destructions upon them—for not unfrequently will he cause them to rise up one against another, to be split and divided, and to oppress each other, and sometimes to open hostilities with sword in hand. Some may ask, what is the matter with this united and happy people?—Some say it is the cause of political usurpers, tyrants, oppressors, &c. But has not the Lord an oppressed and suffering people among them? Does the Lord condescend to hear their cries and see their tears in consequence of oppression? Will he let the oppressors rest comfortably and happy always? Will he not cause the very children of the oppressors to rise up against them, and oftimes put them to death? "God works in many ways his wonders to perform."

I will not here speak of the destructions which the Lord brought upon Egypt, in consequence of the oppression and consequent groans of the oppressed—of the hundreds and thousands of Egyptians whom God hurled into the Red Sea for afflicting his people in their land—of the Lord's suffering people in Sparta or Lacedaemon, the land of the truly famous Lycurgus—nor have I time to comment upon the cause which produced the fierceness with which Sylla usurped the title, and absolutely acted as dictator of the Roman people—the conspiracy of Cataline—the conspiracy against, and murder of Caesar in the Senate house—the spirit with which Marc Anthony made himself master of the commonwealth—his associating Octavius and Lipidus with himself in power—their dividing the provinces of Rome among themselves—their attack and defeat, on the plains of Phillippi, of the last defenders of their liberty, (Brutus and Cassius)—the tyranny of Tiberius, and from him to the final overthrow of Constantinople by the Turkish Sultan, Mahomed II. A.D. 1453. I say, I shall not take up time to speak of the causes which produced so much wretchedness and massacre among those heathen nations, for I am aware that you know too well, that God is just, as well as merciful!—I shall call your attention a few moments to that Christian nation, the Spaniards—while I shall leave almost unnoticed, that avaricious and cruel people, the Portuguese, among whom all true hearted Christians and lovers of Jesus Christ, must evidently see the judgments of God displayed. To show the judgments of God upon the Spaniards, I shall occupy but a little time, leaving a plenty of room for the candid and unprejudiced to reflect.

All persons who are acquainted with history, and particularly the Bible, who are not blinded by the God of this world, and are not actuated solely by avarice—who are able to lay aside prejudice long enough to view candidly and impartially, things as they were, are, and probably will be—who are willing to admit that God made man to serve Him alone, and that man should have no other Lord or Lords but Himself—that God Almighty is the sole proprietor or master of the whole human family, and will not on any consideration admit of a colleague, being unwilling to divide his glory with another—and who can dispense with prejudice long enough to admit that we are men, notwithstanding our improminent noses and woolly heads, and believe that we feel for our fathers, mothers, wives and children, as well as the whites do for theirs.—I say, all who are permitted to see and believe these things, can easily recognize the judgments of God among the Spaniards. Though others may lay the cause of the fierceness with which they cut each other's throats, to some other circumstance, yet they who believe that God is a God of justice, will believe that Slavery is the principal cause.

While the Spaniards are running about upon the field of battle cutting each other's throats, has not the Lord an afflicted and suffering people in the midst of them, whose cries and groans in consequence of oppression are continually pouring into the ears of the God of justice? Would they not cease to cut each other's throats, if they could? But how can they? The very support which they draw from government to aid them in perpetrating such enormities, does it not arise in a great degree from the wretched victims of oppression among them? And yet they are calling for Peace!—Peace! ! Will any peace be given unto them? Their destruction may indeed be procrastinated awhile, but can it continue long, while they are oppressing the Lord's people? Has He not the hearts of all men in His hand? Will he suffer one part of his creatures to go on oppressing another like brutes always, with impunity? And yet, those avaricious wretches are calling for Peace! ! ! ! I declare, it does appear to me, as though some nations think God is asleep, or that he made the Africans for nothing else but to dig their mines and work their farms, or they cannot believe history, sacred or profane. I ask every man who has a heart, and is blessed with the privilege of believing—Is not God a God of justice to all his creatures? Do you say he is? Then if he gives peace and tranquility to tyrants, and permits them to keep our fathers, our mothers, ourselves and our children in eternal ignorance and wretchedness, to support them and their families, would he be to us a God of justice? I ask, O ye Christians! ! ! who hold us and our children in the most abject ignorance and degradation, that ever a people were afflicted with since the world began—I say, if God gives you peace and tranquility, and suffers you thus to go on afflicting us, and our children, who have never given you the least provocation—would he be to us a God of justice? If you will allow that we are men, who feel for each other, does not the blood of our fathers and of us their children, cry aloud to the Lord of Sabaoth against you, for the cruelties and murders with which you have, and do continue to afflict us. But it is time for me to close my remarks on the suburbs, just to enter more fully into the interior of this system of cruelty and oppression.

PRIMARY SOURCE DOCUMENT

The Autobiography of Omar Ibn Said

INTRODUCTION

Many of the Africans who were transported to the Americas were Muslims, though the records of their lives in slavery are few. The Autobiography of Omar Ibn Said is one of those scarce records.

Omar Ibn Said, who was born around 1770, studied the Koran for twenty-five years, beginning when he was a boy of six or seven. Around the age of thirty, he had established himself as a trader and Muslim scholar in Futa Tora, south of the Senegal River. In 1807, caught up in the slave trade, he found himself on board a slave ship bound for Charleston, South Carolina, one of the last of those transported to North America prior to the banning of the slave trade. Although Said lived a long life and witnessed Emancipation prior to his death in 1864, he never returned to Africa.

A devout and gentle man, Said became well known in southern circles. Apologists for slavery used Said, or "Prince Moro," as they called him, as proof of the benign nature of the peculiar institution. Prince Moro was regularly portrayed as a royal convert to Christianity. Unwilling to acknowledge the civilization of black Islamic Africa, propagandists also falsified the truth of Said's identity, depicting him as North African—that is, not black African.

None of this was true. Omar Ibn Said was a black African, a common man, and a scholar, and his brief 1831 autobiography reveals him to have kept his Islamic beliefs long after he had been sold into slavery in a Christian country.

In the name of God, the merciful the gracious.—God grant his blessing upon our Prophet Mohammed. Blessed be He in whose hands is the kingdom and who is Almighty; who created death and life that he might test you; for he is exalted; he is the forgiver (of sins), who created seven heavens one above the other. Do you discern anything trifling in creation? Bring back your thoughts. Do you see anything worthless? Recall your vision in earnest. Turn your eye inward for it is diseased. God has adorned the heavens and the world with lamps, and has made us missiles for the devils, and given us for them a grievous punishment, and to those who have disbelieved their Lord, the punishment of hell and pains of body. Whoever associates with them shall hear a boiling caldron, and what is cast therein may fitly represent those who suffer under the anger of God. -Ask them if a prophet has not been sent unto them. They say, "Yes; a prophet has come to us, but we have lied to him. "We said,"God has not sent us down anything, and you are in grievous error. "They say, "If we had listened and been wise we should not now have been suffering the punishment of the Omniscient. "So they confess they have sinned in destroying the followers of the Omniscient. Those who fear their Lord and profess his name, they receive pardon and great honor. Guard your words, (ye wicked), make it known that God is all-wise in all his manifestations. Do you not know from the creation that God is full of skill? that He has made for you the way of error, and you have walked therein, and have chosen to live upon what your God Nasur has furnished you? Believe on Him who dwells in heaven, who has fitted the earth to be your support and it shall give you food. Believe on Him who dwells in Heaven, who has sent you a prophet, and you shall understand what a teacher (He has sent you). Those that were before them deceived them (in regard to their prophet). And how came they to reject him? Did they not see in the heavens above them, how the fowls of the air receive with pleasure that which is sent them? God looks after all. Believe ye: it is He who supplies your wants, that you may take his gifts and enjoy them, and take great pleasure in them. And now will you go in error, or walk in the path of righteousness. Say to them, "He who regards you with care, and who has made for you the heavens and the earth and gives you prosperity, Him you think little of. This is He that planted you in the earth, and to whom you are soon to be gathered. "But they say,"If you are men of truth, tell us when shall this promise be fulfilled?" Say to them, "Does not God know? and am not I an evident Prophet?" When those who disbelieve shall see the things draw near before their faces, it shall then be told them,"These are the things about which you made inquiry. "Have you seen that God has destroyed me or those with me? or rather that He has shewn us mercy? And who will defend the unbeliever from a miserable punishment? Say, "Knowledge is from God. "Say: "Have you not seen that your water has become impure? Who will bring you fresh water from the fountain?"

O Sheikh Hunter, I cannot write my life because I have forgotten much of my own language, as well as of the Arabic. Do not be hard upon me, my brother.—To God let many thanks be paid for his great mercy and goodness.

In the name of God, the Gracious, the Merciful.—Thanks be to God, supreme in goodness and kindness and grace, and who is worthy of all honor, who created all things for his service, even man's power of action and of speech.

From Omar to Sheikh Hunter

You asked me to write my life. I am not able to do this because I have much forgotten my own, as well as the Arabic language. Neither can I write very grammatically or according to the true idiom. And so, my brother, I beg you, in God's name, not to blame me, for I am a man of weak eyes, and of a weak body.

My name is Omar ibn Seid. My birthplace was Fut Tur, between the two rivers. I sought knowledge under the instruction of a Sheikh called Mohammed Seid, my own brother, and Sheikh Soleiman Kembeh, and Sheikh Gabriel Abdal. I continued my studies twenty-five years, and then returned to my home where I remained six years. Then there came to our place a large army, who killed many men, and took me, and brought me to the great sea, and sold me into the hands of the Christians, who bound me and sent me on board a great ship and we sailed upon the great sea a month and a half, when we came to a place called Charleston in the Christian language. There they sold me to a small, weak, and wicked man, called Johnson, a complete infidel, who had no fear of God at all. Now I am a small man, and unable to do hard work so I fled from the hand of Johnson and after a month came to a place called Fayd-il. There I saw some great houses (churches). On the new moon I went into a church to pray. A lad saw me and rode off to the place of his father and informed him that he had seen a black man in the church. A man named Handah [Hunter?] and another man with him on horseback, came attended by a troop of dogs. They took me and made me go with them twelve miles to a place called Fayd-il, where they put me into a great house from which I could not go out. I continued in the great house (which, in the Christian language, they called jail) sixteen days and nights. One Friday the jailor came and opened the door of the house and I saw a great many men, all Christians, some of whom called out to me,"What is your name? Is it Omar or Seid?" I did not understand their Christian language. A man called Bob Mumford took me and led me out of the jail, and I was very well pleased to go with them to their place. I stayed at Mumford's four days and nights, and then a man named Jim Owen, son-in-law of Mumford, having married his daughter Betsey, asked me if I was willing to go to a place called Bladen. I said, Yes, I was willing. I went with them and have remained in the place of Jim Owen until now.

Before [after?] I came into the hand of Gen. Owen a man by the name of Mitchell came to buy me. He asked me if I were willing to go to Charleston City. I said "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, I am not willing to go to Charleston. I stay in the hand of Jim Owen."

O ye people of North Carolina, O ye people of S. Carolina, O ye people of America all of you; have you among you any two such men as Jim Owen and John Owen? These men are good men. What food they eat they give to me to eat. As they clothe themselves they clothe me. They permit me to read the gospel of God, our Lord, and Saviour, and King; who regulates all our circumstances, our health and wealth, and who bestows his mercies willingly, not by constraint. According to power I open my heart, as to a great light, to receive the true way, the way of the Lord Jesus the Messiah.

Before I came to the Christian country, my religion was the religion of "Mohammed, the Apostle of God—may God have mercy upon him and give him peace. "I walked to the mosque before day-break, washed my face and head and hands and feet. I prayed at noon, prayed in the afternoon, prayed at sunset, prayed in the evening. I gave alms every year, gold, silver, seeds, cattle, sheep, goats, rice, wheat, and barley. I gave tithes of all the above-named things. I went every year to the holy war against the infidels. I went on pilgrimage to Mecca, as all did who were able.—My father had six sons and five daughters, and my mother had three sons and one daughter. When I left my country I was thirty-seven years old; I have been in the country of the Christians twenty-four years.—Written A.D. 1831.

O ye people of North Carolina, O ye people of South Carolina, O all ye people of America—

The first son of Jim Owen is called Thomas, and his sister is called Masa-jein [Martha Jane?]. This is an excellent family.

Tom Owen and Nell Owen have two sons and a daughter. The first son is called Jim and the second John. The daughter is named Melissa.

Seid Jim Owen and his wife Betsey have two sons and five daughters. Their names are Tom, and John, and Mercy, Miriam, Sophia, Margaret and Eliza. This family is a very nice family. The wife of John Owen is called Lucy and an excellent wife she is. She had five children. Three of them died and two are still living.O ye Americans, ye people of North Carolina—have you, have you, have you, have you, have you among you a family like this family, having so much love to God as they?

Formerly I, Omar, loved to read the book of the Koran the famous. General Jim Owen and his wife used to read the gospel, and they read it to me very much,—the gospel of God, our Lord, our Creator, our King, He that orders all our circumstances, health and wealth, willingly, not constrainedly, according to his power.—Open thou my heart to the gospel, to the way of uprightness.—Thanks to the Lord of all worlds, thanks in abundance. He is plenteous in mercy and abundant in goodness.

For the law was given by Moses but grace and truth were by Jesus the Messiah.

When I was a Mohammedan I prayed thus: "Thanks be to God, Lord of all worlds, the merciful the gracious, Lord of the day of Judgment, thee we serve, on thee we call for help. Direct us in the right way, the way of those on whom thou hast had mercy, with whom thou hast not been angry and who walk not in error. Amen."—But now I pray "Our Father", etc., in the words of our Lord Jesus the Messiah.

I reside in this our country by reason of great necessity. Wicked men took me by violence and sold me to the Christians. We sailed a month and a half on the great sea to the place called Charleston in the Christian land. I fell into the hands of a small, weak and wicked man, who feared not God at all, nor did he read (the gospel) at all nor pray. I was afraid to remain with a man so depraved and who committed so many crimes and I ran away. After a month our Lord God brought me forward to the hand of a good man, who fears God, and loves to do good, and whose name is Jim Owen and whose brother is called Col. John Owen. These are two excellent men.—I am residing in Bladen County.

I continue in the hand of Jim Owen who never beats me, nor scolds me. I neither go hungry nor naked, and I have no hard work to do. I am not able to do hard work for I am a small man and feeble. During the last twenty years I have known no want in the hand of Jim Owen.