Short History of the American Negro - Benjamin Brawley |
125. Sorcery.—Negro slaves brought with them from Africa to America a strong tendency toward nature worship and belief in witchcraft. Some had a vague conception of a supreme being, and here and there may have been found a Mohammedan or a Christian. Some native priests were transported; others assumed the functions of priests, and soon a degraded form of African religion and witchcraft appeared in the West Indies. From this developed the Voodooism whose effect is still directly traceable in many parts of the United States. The older and more crafty priests possessed some skill in medical or poisonous plants which well qualified them for imposition upon the weak and credulous. These sorcerers threw a veil of mystery over their incantations and plied an exceedingly lucrative trade. Ultimately the whole system, which at first had some basis in real religion, developed into mere imposture. Although slavery in America destroyed completely almost every spontaneous social movement among the Africans, the Negro priest became an important figure on the plantation, and "found his function as the interpreter of the supernatural, the comforter of the sorrowing, and as the one who expressed rudely, but picturesquely, the longing and disappointment and resentment of a stolen people." From such beginnings rose and spread the Negro Church; and in course of time it not unnaturally became the center of amusement and economic activity as well as of religion.
126. Beginnings of the Negro Church.—Early Negro churches came into being in one of the following ways:
The Moravian, or United Brethren, were the first who formally attempted the establishment of missions for Negroes, but these were not very successful. The Presbyterians began work in 1735. Methodism was introduced in New York in 1766 and almost from the first it made converts among the Negroes. At any rate there were in 1786, among the regular members of Methodist churches in this country, 1,890 Negroes, and four years later the number had increased to 11,682. Not unnaturally, however, the Baptist denomination, being extremely democratic, established the first distinctively Negro churches. There has been much discussion as to which was the very first Negro Baptist church. Common acceptance long supported the claim of the First Bryan Baptist Church, of Savannah, founded by Andrew Bryan January 20, 1788. It appears that in 1832 the larger part of the congregation left this church and formed what is now the large First African Baptist Church of Savannah. The most recent student of the subject, however, has shown not only that there was a distinctively Negro Baptist church in Savannah as early as 1779-82, but that there was a Negro Baptist church at Silver Bluff ("on the South Carolina side of the Savannah River, in Aiken County, just twelve miles from Augusta, Ga.") founded "not earlier than 1773, not later than 1775." Another investigator has placed the first organization in Williamsburg, Va., in 1776. The St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Philadelphia was organized in 1791; Bethel Church in Philadelphia in 1794, and the Zion Methodist Church in 1796.
127. Early Preachers.—Some remarkable men were instrumental in these beginnings. Easily foremost was Richard Allen, father of African Methodism. Born a slave, this man was licensed to preach in 1782, and in 1816 at the General Conference of the African Methodist churches in Philadelphia, he was elected their first bishop. As an organizer he possessed talents of the highest order. He was actively identified with every forward movement among Negroes, irrespective of denomination, and was one of the promoters of the first national convention of Negroes ever held in the United States, that in Philadelphia in 1830. Associated with Allen at first was Absalom Jones, who, serving later at St. Thomas, became the first Negro Episcopal rector in the United States. Prominent also was John Gloucester, of Kentucky, the first Negro Presbyterian minister. This man was distinguished by his rich musical voice, and himself became the father of four Presbyterian ministers. Foremost among the early Negro Baptists was Lott Carey, of Virginia, a man of massive and erect frame, with the bearing of a prince. Born a slave in 1780, Carey worked for some years in a tobacco factory in Richmond, leading a wicked life. Converted in 1807, he made rapid advance in scholarship, was licensed to preach, organized the first missionary society in the country, and then went himself as a missionary to the colony of Liberia.
128. Baptists.—It is now time to attempt to review the progress made by the different religious denominations among Negroes. The Baptists now number 2,500,000. All but a very few are what are known as Regular Baptists. These people hold that as the church is a spiritual institution, membership and baptism should be confined to believers, among whom of course infants cannot be included. They also maintain that baptism should be by immersion, and their doctrine of congregational independence is held to render unnecessary any general creed, though it is assumed that their ministers accept the principles of liberty of conscience and of the divine authority of Scripture. The first state convention of Negro Baptists was organized in North Carolina in 1866; others soon followed. In 1880 the Negro Baptists withdrew from their white brethren in missionary enterprises, and organized in Montgomery their own national convention. The most remarkable result of their united efforts has been the Home Mission work, including the National Baptist Publishing Board in Nashville, which was organized in 1895 and which now publishes almost all of the literature used in Negro Baptist churches and Sunday-schools. From Pennsylvania throughout the South weekly newspapers are published in interest of the denomination. Among the more prominent of these are the Christian Banner in Philadelphia, the Georgia Baptist in Augusta, Ga., and the American Baptist in Louisville. Negro Baptists, having such a large and varied membership as they possess, are generally representative of the advance of Negroes in the United States. While a great many of the most intelligent leaders of the race belong to the denomination, much yet remains to be done for the education of its ministry; and the large influence of the Baptist minister and his dose contact with the masses make his education of the highest importance in any consideration of questions relating to the Negro.
129. Methodists.—Because of some important divisions in the church, the history of the Methodists is slightly more complicated than that of the Baptists. In 1816 a number of Negroes under the leadership of Richard Allen organized in Baltimore the African Methodist Episcopal Church. They withdrew from the parent body, the Methodist Episcopal Church, in order that they might have more freedom of action among themselves than they believed they could secure in continued association with their white brethren. Allen became their first bishop. As early as 1793-34 this man had purchased a lot near the corner of Sixth and Lombard streets in Philadelphia for the erection of the first Negro Methodist church in the country. "In doctrine, government, and usage, this church does not differ from the body from which it sprang. It has an itinerant and a local or non-itinerant ministry, and its territory is divided into annual conferences." It did not meet with a large measure of success until the close of the Civil War made it possible for it to extend its activities into the Southern states. Pennsylvania, however, was not the only state in which Negro Methodists revolted from the parent organization. In 1820 a union of churches in and near New York resulted in the formation of what is known as the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. The polity of this organization is slightly different from that of the A.M.E. Church. In it representation of the laity has been a prominent feature. "Laymen are in its annual conferences as well as in its general conferences, and there is no bar to the ordination of women."
In 1844, because of the increasing difference between the North and the South on the subject of slavery, there was a division in the main body of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, resulted. Considerable work for the Negroes was done by this latter organization before the Civil War, the distinctively Negro bodies not then being able to advance in the South. When the war was over, however, and the way was clear for them, the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, observed a great deflection of its Negro communicants to the A.M.E. and the A.M.E.Z. churches. Accordingly it deemed it wise to establish in 1870 its own Negro branch; and thus came into being the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church. All along a great many Negroes remained in the parent body, the Methodist Episcopal Church, whose missionary activity, we remember, led to the formation of the Freedmen's Aid Society. Although there are now other small branches of Negro Methodists, such as the African Union Methodist Protestants and the Congregational Methodists, the great majority of them belong to the four organizations already considered, the M.E., A.M.E.A., A.M.E.Z., and C.M.E.churches. In 1918 articles were drawn up looking to the organic union of the A.M.E., A.M.E.Z., and C.M.E. churches by the year 1925 under the denominational title of the United Methodist Episcopal Church. The combined membership of the Methodist denominations is more than 2,000,000. The A.M.E. Church is largest, having, with the inclusion of 100,000 probationers, just about 850,000 members. Its organ is the Christian Recorder of Philadelphia, the oldest Negro periodical in the United States. This was started, though under a different name, as early as 1848. The publishing department of the church also issues the African Methodist Episcopal Review, a publication of about 100 pages. The African Methodist Episcopal Church, however, is chiefly noteworthy on account of its Board of Bishops. A board of sixteen men more or less directly wield power over 900,000 American Negroes, and indirectly over two or more millions, administer $12,000,000 worth of property, and an annual budget of $600,000. These bishops are elected for life by a General Conference meeting every four years. They are men of striking appearance; probity and intelligence have always been in the ascendency among them, and the church has prospered. Next to the A.M.E. Church stands the A.M.E. Zion Church, with about 600,000 communicants. This church publishes a weekly paper, the Star of Zion, and a quarterly, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Review. Negroes in the M.E. Church number 350,000, and in the C.M.E. Church 250,000. In the M.E. Church there has been an insistent demand for a Negro bishop; but although four missionary bishops to Africa have from time to time been elected, no Negro bishop for the church in the United States has yet been elected.
130. Presbyterians.—We turn now to the churches whose Negro membership is small in comparison with that of the large denominations already considered. The Presbyterian Church, North, has contributed largely not only to the education of teachers and preachers, but also toward the maintenance in their work of preachers as well as teachers. The result has been a ministry whose average of intelligence is high. Congregations have been gathered and churches have been organized until now the Presbyterian Board has under its care at least 3 50 Negro churches and missions, with 21,000 members. On the ground, however, that conversions are comparatively few, it has recently been considering the advisability of curtailing its work. Also deserving of consideration is the Negro branch of the Cumberland Presbyterians, with a membership of about 13,000.
131. Congregationalists.—In England and the United States the Congregational denomination is an outgrowth of Puritanism. That it is not widely different in polity from the Baptist denomination is shown by the fact that in England in times of oppression it has always formed an alliance with this body of believers. Generally it emphasizes two principles: the independence of the local church with complete control of its concerns, and the fellowship of independent churches with one another in voluntary association. The denomination now numbers among Negroes about 15,000, and the membership is above the average in intelligence.
132. Episcopalians.—The Episcopal Church was the first American church to receive Negro members, but in spite of this fact the growth of that membership has been comparatively small. This was the one great Protestant church that did not split on the slavery question, with the result that for some years before and after the Civil War its Negro membership was a delicate subject. In recent years, however, especially by the appointment of capable men to positions of great responsibility, the church has exhibited toward the Negro an attitude about whose generosity there can be no question. In the country there are to-day very nearly one hundred Negro clergymen engaged in the work of the church, and these minister to about 2 5,000 Negro communicants. This membership is in general of unusual intelligence and in a few of the very large cities of the East there are to be found congregations of noteworthy importance. St. Philip's in New York, with its strength and culture, is generally representative of the larger churches.
133. Roman Catholics.—It was in 1888 that the Roman Catholic Church appointed its first Negro priests in the United States. Since that date there have been several others. Within the last few years especially, the church has become very aggressive in its work among the Negro people, winning adherents in many places in the South where it was practically unknown before. It has established many schools and in other ways put forth definite missionary effort. As the number of Negro Roman Catholics in the United States is at present growing very fast, figures are constantly changing; but the total membership is hardly less than 250,000.
134. Summary.—Even from this brief review of the Christian church as this has been effective among the Negroes of the United States, it is to be observed that there were early tendencies toward race segregation. Later on there were tendencies toward race co-operation, and unfortunately but almost inevitably, there was some friction with the missionary boards of the great and long-established denominations. Standing out in special prominence is the African Methodist Episcopal Church, up to the present time the greatest single achievement of the race in organization; and noteworthy as an effort in racial co-operation and up-building is the movement for the bringing together of the different Negro Methodist denominations. A feature also of the work of recent years has been the rapid advance of the Roman Catholic Church. The Baptist denomination is still much the largest in numbers, and before it and the other large denominations opens a future of opportunity that one can only hope will be worthy of the noble traditions of the past.