African American Religious History: A Documentary Witness

607 Pages·2000·36.56 MB·English

by  Milton C. Sernett

AFRICAN AMERICAN
RELIGIOUS HISTORY
THE
C. ERIC LINCOLN SERIES
ON THE
BLACK EXPERIENCE
AFRICAN AMERICAN
RELIGIOUS HISTORY
A DOCUMENTARY WITNESS
SECOND EDITION
Edited by
MILTON C. SERNETT
Duke University Press
Durham and London
1999
© 1999 DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper 00
Designed by Amy Ruth Buchanan
Typeset in Minion by Keystone Typesetting, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
appear on the last printed page of this book.
Permission notices, if required, appear
in the source note of the essay.
lli'-r
CONTENTS ~
Preface to the Second Edition IX
Introduction 1
I. FROM AFRICA THROUGH EARLY AMERICA
1 OLAUDAH EQUIANO, Traditional Ibo Religion and Culture 13
2 BRYAN EDWARDS, African Religions in Colonial Jamaica 20
3 FRANCIS LE JAU, Slave Conversion on the Carolina Frontier 25
4 JUPITER HAMMON, ''Address to the Negroes in the State of
New York" 34
5 GEORGE LIELE AND ANDREW BRYAN, Letters from Pioneer Black
Baptists 44
6 LEMUEL HAYNES, A Black Puritan's Farewell 52
II. SLAVE RELIGION IN THE ANTEBELLUM SOUTH
7 PETER RANDOLPH, Plantation Churches: Visible and Invisible 63
8 SISTER KELLY, "Proud of that 'Ole Time' Religion" 69
9 HENRY BIBB, Conjuration and Witchcraft 76
lO JAMES W. C. PENNINGTON, "Great Moral Dilemma" 81
11 NAT TURNER, Religion and Slave Insurrection 89
12 FREDERICK DOUGLASS, Slaveholding Religion and the Christianity
of Christ lO2
13 THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON, Slave Songs and Spirituals 112
III. BLACK CHURCHES NORTH OF SLAVERY AND THE
FREEDOM STRUGGLE
14 RICHARD ALLEN, "Life Experience and Gospel Labors" 139
15 CHRISTOPHER RUSH, Rise of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion
Church 155
16 JARENA LEE, A Female Preacher among the African Methodists 164
17 NATHANIEL PAUL, African Baptists Celebrate Emancipation in New
York State 185
Contents
18 DAVID WALKER, "Our Wretchedness in Consequence of the Preachers of
Religion" 193
19 MARIA STEWART, "Mrs. Stewart's Farewell Address to Her Friends in
the City of Boston" 202
20 PETER WILLIAMS, "To the Citizens of New York" 211
21 CHARLES B. RAY, Black Churches in New York City, 1840 218
22 JEREMIAH ASHER, Protesting the "Negro Pew" 224
23 JERMAIN W. LOGUEN, "I Will Not Live a Slave" 228
24 DANIEL ALEXANDER PAYNE, "Welcome to the Ransomed" 232
IV. FREEDOM'S TIME OF TRIAL: 1865-WORLD WAR I
25 ISAAC LANE, From Slave to Preacher among the Freedmen 245
26 LUCIUS H. HOLSEY, "The Colored Methodist Episcopal Church" 251
27 WILLIAM WELLS BROWN, Black Religion in the Post-Reconstruction
South 256
28 DANIEL ALEXANDER PAYNE, "Education in the A.M.E. Church" 261
29 AMANDA SMITH, The Travail of a Female Colored Evangelist 270
30 ALEXANDER CRUMM ELL, "The Regeneration of Africa" 282
31 HENRY MCNEAL TURNER, Emigration to Africa 289
32 AFRICAN AMERICAN CATHOLICS, The First African American Catholic
Congress, 1889 296
33 ELIAS C. MORRIS, 1899 Presidential Address to the National Baptist
Convention ~01
34 ELSIE W. MASON, Bishop C. H. Mason, Church of God in Christ 314
35 w. E. B. DUBOIS, "Of the Faith of the Fathers" 325
36 REVERDY C. RANSOM, "The Race Problem in a Christian State, 1906" 337
37 ROSA YOUNG, "What Induced Me to Build a School in the Rural
District" 347
V. FROM THE GREAT MIGRATION TO WORLD WAR II
38 AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL COUNCIL OF BISHOPS, Address on
the Great Migration 359
39 LETTERS ON THE SECOND EXODUS: "Dear Mary" and "My dear
Sister" 364
40 S. MATTIE FISHER AND MRS. JESSIE MAPP, Social Work at Olivet
Baptist Church 368
-vi-
Contents
41 LACY KIRK WILLIAMS, Effects of Urbanization on Religious Life 372
42 NANNIE H. BURROUGHS, Report of the Work of Baptist Women, 376
43 JASPER C. CASTON, Address to the Suehn Industrial Mission,
Liberia 403
LULA E. COOPER, A Letter from the "Foreign Field" 410
44 CARTER G. WOODSON, "Things of the Spirit" 415
45 BENJAMIN E. MAYS AND JOSEPH W. NICHOLSON, "The Genius of the
Negro Church" 423
46 ST. CLAIR DRAKE AND HORACE R. CAYTON, "The Churches of
Bronzeville" 435
VI. TWENTIETH-CENTURY RELIGIOUS ALTERNATIVES
47 MARCUS GARVEY, Garvey Tells His Own Story 453
48 MILES MARK FISCHER, "Organized Religion and the Cults" 464
49 RABBI MATTHEW, Black Judaism in Harlem 473
50 FATHER DIVINE, "The Realness of God, to you-wards ..." 478
51 HERBERT MORRISOHN SMITH, Elder Lucy Smith 487
52 WALLACE D. MUHAMMAD, "Self-Government in the New World" 499
VII. CIVIL RIGHTS, BLACK THEOLOGY, AND BEYOND
53 JOSEPH H. JACKSON, "National Baptist Philosophy of Civil Rights" 511
54 MARTIN LUTHER KING JR., "Letter from Birmingham Jail-April 16,
1963" 519
55 MAHALIA JACKSON, Singing of Good Tidings and Freedom 536
56 HOWARD THURMAN, "The Anatomy of Segregation and Ground of
Hope" 548
57 NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF BLACK CHURCHMEN, "Black Power"
Statement, July 31, 1966, and "Black Theology" Statement, June 13,
1969 555
58 JAMES H. CONE, "Black Theology and the Black Church: Where Do We
Go from Here?" 567
59 LAWRENCE N. JONES, "The Black Churches: A New Agenda" 580
Index 589
-vu-

A- PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION -A
Martin Marty said of the first edition of this documentary witness, published
nearly fifteen years ago, that it helped establish the canon of African American
religious studies. This and similar accolades warmed the heart, but perhaps
the most enduring words of encouragement have come from the many stu
dents with whom I have shared the original edition of the anthology. Students
have told me that the readings gave them a surety, a historical warrant, as it
were, to speak of their own faith and religious background. Some have gone
back to their families and home congregations with a renewed appreciation of
the religious legacy bequeathed to them by their parents and grandparents.
Others, some of whom acknowledge no traditional Christian identity or who
have embraced the tenets of alternative religious cultures (for example, Islam),
tell me of the rewards they obtained from finding in the collection you are
about to read a better picture of the diverse contributions peoples of African
descent have made to the pluralistic religious landscape of America.
The first edition of the anthology has been used in varied venues. Univer
sity and college professors, notably those in departments of African American
studies, variously named, history, and religion, have employed the anthology
as a text. One professor told me that he taught a course on African American
history with the documentary source book as his principal text, a choice I'm
not sure even I would have made, but one that underscores Carter G. Wood
son's thesis that a thorough examination of the religious history of black
Americans is tantamount to studying African American history. On perhaps a
dozen occasions since the publication of Afro-American Religious History: A
Documentary Witness in 1985, pastors of predominantly African American
churches have told me that they purchased the volume for their own libraries
and were attempting to employ it in educational forums within their con
gregations. Further afield, a Japanese professor of American studies when a
Fulbright scholar at Syracuse University took several volumes home with her,
and I have learned that the anthology is also in use in Denmark, Italy, Ger
many, England, and other European countries. African scholars visiting Syr
acuse also tell me that the 1985 edition is in use in their home institutions.
Given the generally positive reception to the first edition of this anthology, I
have struggled with how to improve it without adding inordinately to its length
and, ultimately, cost. This second edition includes more documentary witnesses