Dark Salvation: Methodism Comes to America

As I spoke to my mother on the telephone this week, I shared with her some of the history of the Methodist circuit riders. She told me of a time when I was just a small child when Stroudsburg United Methodist Church had celebrated an anniversary of the denomination with an historical visit by a circuit rider.

What made you want to research the church's history, she asked.

Being raised in the United Methodist Church, I had never been taught the history of Methodism . . . not even in Confirmation classes. So, what would make me want to search for its formation in America when my research is focused on African American family and local history?

On our last visit with my husband's cousins following the 2009 George Family Reunion, Cousin Hattie said,

We were always Methodists. . . .

 Hattie is gone now. . . and I honor her memory by keeping my promise to tell the story.

CHAPTER III: Methodism Comes to America


When early local church histories are sketchy due to a lack of documents and living witnesses, we must go back further, to the origins in America. From this we can gain insight from well-documented narratives and diaries of ministers and lay leaders, and imagine how it might have played out in our particular locality.

The time frame is approximately one hundred years prior to the founding of the African American Episcopal Zion Church South of the County.

In 1760 a group of persons from Ireland arrived in New York City. They were of German descent, their ancestors having fled Germany a century before to escape religious persecution . . . . In the group . . . were two persons who were to play a large part in planting Methodism in America. One was Philip Embury, who had been a Methodist class leader and local preacher in Ireland, and the other was Barabara Heck, Embury's cousin . . . . Embury's home soon became too small for the numbers that attended. A room was rented, but after a year they undertook to build a "meeting house." Contributions were solicited. In the list of contributors there are the names of several Negro slaves . . . . The Society started in Embury's house eventually became the John Street Church in New York City, known as the mother church of Methodism. By 1795 there were 155 black members . . . . it was from this group of blacks that some members withdrew in 1801 to organize the African Chapel which eventually became the African Methodist Episcopal Church Zion denomination (Richardson, pp. 36-37).

When missionary Francis Asbury arrived in America there were 600 Methodists in the colonies. Two years later there were 1,600. Three years after this in 1776, at the outbreak of the American Revolution, there were 4,921; in 1786, 20,689; and in 1800 there were 63,958. In 1771 there were ten traveling preachers; in 1800 there were nearly two hundred. The growth was neither automatic nor easy. It was due to tireless, sacrificial labors of the preachers . . . . These men at first were ordinary laymen, some of them poorly educated . . . . They preached in homes and churches, "meeting houses" or open fields. They preached on crowded streets or by country lanes; on jailhouse steps or, as in the case of Asbury, from a hangman's gallows after a public hanging. They preached to receptive crowds or in spite of attacks by brutal, violent mobs. They did this with little thought of personal safety or reward (pp. 37-38).

The chapter borrows freely from Abel Stevens' histories of the MEC, and the dramatic first-hand accounts of inter-racial worship illustrate the true spirit of Galatians 3:28: 

There is neigher Jew nor Greek, 
there is neither bond nor free,
there is neither male nor female:
for ye are all one in Christ Jesus (KJV).

It was not until nearly a century later, following the invention of the cotton gin at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, when the severe Negro Codes began to deepen and broaden the racial dividing line in places of worship. The discontent which arose in the souls of blacks was largely what caused them to desire an end to segregation in the House of God, and to establish separate places of worship.

For additional reading:
Abel Stevens, History of the Religious Movement of the 18th Century (1858).
Abel Stevens, History of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States of America (1866).
W. J. Walls, The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (1974).

Dark Salvation: Faith in Chains

While the Carter and George families were free people of color since the 1730s, living in a community made up of a majority of free people of color, I have at times wondered how they must have felt--beyond the obvious--about their enslaved brethren.

As we learned in the series entitled, Ministers & Preachers of Township 5, black preachers recorded in the Census did not show up until 1880. This was mainly due to laws of segregation which made it necessary for ordained white ministers to oversee unordained black preachers. In addition, following Emancipation, many illiterate preachers joining organized denominations were required to seek education at a theological seminary which would prepare them for ordination.

The following chapter in Dark Salvation examines how the origins of enslaved people affected their spiritual identity in the New World.


Part I: Background
Chapter II: The Slave and His Religion: Faith in Chains


Richardson states that:

Most of the Negroes who were brought into the Western Hemisphere came from the west coastal regions of central or sub-Saharan Africa, roughly the section that extends from Senegal (Dakar) in the north to Angola in the south. . . . The people of West Africa had well-developed religions (p. 14).

 Professor Gayraud Wilmore stated

. . . that the African religions. . . . are mature, enlightened beliefs and practices common to many religions and similar in many ways to contemporary Christian faith. . . . It is a continent comprising many nations and multiplicity of tribes large and small, each with its own language or dialect, its own culture and its own history. . . .  Even today in the city of Accra, a five-minute radio news broadcast takes thirty minutes. It must be given in five tribal languages in addition to English. Only in the broadest sense can one speak of anything as commonly or uniformly "African" (p. 15).

As a multi-culturalist, this has been my understanding for years; although, to some is is taken as an offense. The French professor and African scholar, Roger Bastide, warns that

care must be taken not to write ideas and phenomena of our own time into the history of three centuries ago, and not to arrange such knowledge as we do have to suit contemporary interests and biases (p. 15-16).

With this concept in mind, we must understand that from the African perspective, there was no separation between the secular and the sacred. Life was viewed as a whole...in unity. Their religions included elaborate moral and ethical systems, just as we find of the Hebrews in the book of Leviticus; and they understood that a creative God gave life and order to the natural world. Some accounts bore striking similarities or at least were compatible with the Genesis account.

I have heard it said many times that some feel that just as Africans' family identity, language, culture and religion were stripped from them in a repressive society, that Christianity--"the religion of white Europeans"--was forced upon them. Throughout my research I have seen a dichotomy in this respect. The planters were afraid that if a slave became baptized and given a Christian name that he would learn to read, giving him more power than they desired him to obtain.

It was in this system that black people, some originally from Africa, but many more born in America, tried to find meaning and purpose in existence. It was in this system that some slaves tried to find God (p. 23).

For this reason, Methodist ministers had to teach orally. Upon conversion, blacks participated in segregated white churches, sitting in the balcony or in the back, and taking communion after the whites.

It was this faith in the ultimate righteousness of God that enabled the slave to bridge the contradiction between the good god as taught by the missionaries and the god who would let His black children suffer. They believed in heaven and hell. Heaven let them look to a good end to this painful life, if not here, then at least hereafter. Hell let them believe in the ultimate righting of wrongs (p. 28).

Dark Salvation: The Story of Methodism as It Developed Among Blacks in America, by Harry V. Richardson (1976)

This is the first post in a new series about the development of post-Emancipation African-American Methodist Churches. When the direct approach toward research yields small fruits, than a broader, more generalized approach must be taken.

This is the most recent book I've read on the subject, and since it has offered much, I now share with you my gleanings.  There may be many points that I do not address which might interest you; but, I will be focusing on those aspects which will help me to recreate how things might have been for my husband's ancestors in their small, timber and farming community in coastal North Carolina.

PART I: Background
Chapter I: The Beginnings of Methodism


Since the most basic origins of the Methodist Church are commonly known, i.e. its founders, the beginnings of  The Holy Club at Christ Church College, and the derisive nickname attributed toward them, I will gloss over these. What I found interesting was that their initial missions proved unsuccessful. Both John and Charles Wesley came to the colony of Georgia in 1735,

John to serve as a missionary to the Indians and chaplain to the settlement at Savannah, and Charles to serve as secretary to General Oglethorpe and chaplain to the settlers at Frederica (p. 5).

Because Georgia had been settled as a debtors' colony, it was thought that the introduction of slaves would prove counterproductive. Those newly settled in the colony had been largely city-dwellers, inexperienced as farmers, and unaccustomed to working the types of crops that could grow in that soil and climate. The only "Negroes" found within the colony were runaways from neighboring colonies; and for this reason, the Wesleys had little contact with them. Yet John Wesley wrote his opinion of them in his antislavery pamphlet, Thoughts Upon Slavery.

Following the Wesleys' conversion experience,

They preached with such vigor, and aroused such "excessive" emotional response in the hearers, that they were soon excluded from the churches. Undaunted, they took to the open fields, and to the streets, anywhere a crowd could come together. Great numbers flocked to hear them, expressing their feelings with cries, tears, prostrations, and "fits." Many were converted (p.11).

In order to understand the episcopacy of the African-American offshoots of the Methodist Episcopal Church, we must first understand the method John Wesley used to organize the body of converts. First they were divided into Societies, and those were divided into classes headed by leaders. Unordained lay preachers were appointed to instruct and inspire the Societies. As the groups spread out across a region, itinerant preachers, or circuit riders who were ordained ministers, traveled between churches within a district and oversaw the preaching and instruction of Society members. Even today, it is common for most UMC ministers to remain in one location for no more than 3-4 years.

In a letter to Francis Asbury of September 30, 1785, he said: "Were I to preach three years together in one place, both the people and myself would grow as dead as stones (p. 12). 

Because the lay preachers were unordained, they were unable to serve communion, and thus the need arose to have ordained preachers within each church.

One item of notes gave clarity to the phrase, "annual conference."

Note: "The term 'annual conference' has three meanings as it is used within Methodism. In the first sense it refers to the administrative body which has jurisdiction over two or more district conferences. In the second sense it refers to the geographical territory administered by the conference. In the third sense, the term is used to refer to the meeting itself which is held once a year by this body for the purpose of regulating the affairs of all the churches located within the territory."  From an unpublished manuscript by Yorke S. Allen, Jr. (p. 13).

For additional reading:
John Wesley, Thoughts Upon Slavery, 1774, a pamphlet, printed in The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M., John Emory, ed., (1835).

The next step in church history

I have come to a close on the research of ministers and preachers in Township 5 through Census documentation. A friend who is interested in matters of church history and development asked me recently about the books I have been reading in this area.

For the next several posts, I will devote attention to these. You will also find them grouped together on the Relevant Books & Authors page.

I hope you'll stop by, and I encourage discussion on this...

Developing parameters for researching family church history

A cousin asked today. . .

Question for you...I was raised in a White Methodist Church...A black Presbyterian Church...and in the Summers I would be at the AME Church with my Grandmother. I did visit the Black Baptist Churches and have visited at least 40 to 50 other churches through campaigning.I know they all have their own church histories. My question to you is...are you looking at all the various types of Black Churches in the Harlowe, Craven County area, and also looking at the Political make-up of each church? 

Good questions! The purpose of my particular research is to reconstruct the greater religious and social atmosphere of the area where my husband's ancestors lived, which acts as a backdrop for the book I am writing. It also allows me to become more sympathetic with specific struggles and victories within the community.

So, to answer the first part of this question:

No, I do not plan to examine all the various types of Black churches in the area. I plan to focus on the older family churches formed by Northern missionary efforts during Reconstruction which have significant impact on our ancestry. 

 Let's take a look at the older family churches found within the Havelock, NC area.

• Piney Grove AME Zion, Temple's Point Road
• Hyman Chapel AME Zion, Highway 101
• Zion Temple AME, Adams Creek
• Green Chapel Missionary Baptist, Hickman Hill Road
• Craven Corner Missionary Baptist Church
• Pilgrim Rest United Church of Christ, U.S. Highway 101
• Purvis Chapel, Craven Street, Beaufort

While there are many other churches in the greater New Bern/Havelock/Beaufort area of Craven County, the above churches have cemeteries which have been recorded on family death certificates, and which have been spoken about by living family members. 

So, the first step in establishing which churches you need to focus your historical research on is to make a list of those recorded in your ancestors' obituaries (church membership) and death certificates (church cemeteries).

To answer the second part of this question: 

My only interest in the church's political involvement came from my readings about  Bishop James Walker Hood, who advocated for equal educational opportunities for Blacks. In 1864, free public education was a new notion; however, most articles in the North Carolina Times, such as the following one, advocated for education of white children:

North Carolina Times, New Berne, Wednesday, Mar. 16, 1864

It appears, however, that the provision "for the moral and religious training of the colored children of North Carolina" came from a combined effort of the Union Army and Northern philanthropy. And years later, Bishop Hood strongly advocated for the education of Blacks.

North Carolina Times, New Berne, Saturday, March 25, 1864

Early Stages of Forming a Reconstruction Church & Social History

When I first began my search for histories of the local churches in eastern Craven County, North Carolina I had very little to go on. 

Beginning with the Hezekiah Carter Timeline: 1874-1922, I started filling in the gaps with bits of religious history I came across. According to the online history of Piney Grove AME Zion Church, Rev. James Walker Hood arrived in New Bern, NC on January 20, 1864.

In order to learn more about this period, I first read the book, For God and Race: The Religious and Political Leadership of AMEZ Bishop James Walker Hood, by Sandy Dwayne Martin. The biography divides Hood's life into six parts, starting at 1831 and ending with 1918. 

I focused my attention on Part II: Chapter Two: Hood's Religious Activities in the South, 1864-1872. Martin's attention, however, is fixed on the first two AMEZ churches established in New Bern and Beaufort, NC. No mention is made of visits inland to the forested areas of North Harlowe and Havelock. 

The question remains:

As a missionary, did Hood preach in the rural areas of the county, or did representatives of the community go to the city to hear him preach and then report back to their church family? 

Making sense of a community's church & social history

My voice has remained silent for about a month now, but I have not been on a true hiatus. I've been searching microfilmed newspaper reels...

   ...reading the sermons of James Walker Hood...
     
                 ...searching out sources on WorldCat.org...

                         ...ordering and now reading several books
                                            via InterLibrary Loan....

You may also notice that I've tinkered with the pages at the top of the navigation bar. 

I've decided that in order to thoroughly prepare for writing the book, I must forego my former routine of serial GeneaBlogging for:

• Amaneunsis Monday: The Civil War Pension Files of Isaac Carter, and
• Treasure Chest Thursday: Beginning an Inventory

Beginning this Fall I will be using my Craven County, North Carolina resources to illustrate how you can develop a social/religious history of your ancestors in their own communities. And you will be able to find links to these posts on the African-American Church History page.

Once this initial phase is completed, I will continue with The Civil War Pension File of Isaac Carter.

I hope you'll stop by...and please feel free to interact for our mutual benefit!

Talented Tuesday -- The music of our heritage...blues & spirituals

As I began researching the church history of my husband's family church, I ordered a copy of The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Bicentennial Hymnal. The book I am currently working on is structured by thematic songs. For the segment on church history, I chose the Spiritual, "I Want Jesus to Walk With Me."

In this age we are blessed with the ability to tap into technology and hear almost any song you might like to listen to by searching YouTube or Google Videos. In my search, I came across an artist whose rendition gives me a feeling of what life might have been like in days gone by.

Here is Eric Bibb, the son of Leon Bibb, the Godson of Paul Robeson...

Church Record Sunday -- A Call for Volunteers

While researching the descendants of Capt. John KING of Hartford, CT and Northampton, MA, I thoroughly appreciated the availability of Church history resources found at Forbes Library. At the link provided, you can search finding aids, including the Guide to Microfilm Resources at Forbes Library. A few highlights include the following, among many others:

• The Judd Manuscript (reel 15H) records marriages by Mr. Hooker;
• The First Church of Christ, Northampton (reels 22-23) includes Church records from the Old 1st Book (1661-1846) and 3rd Book (thru 1924), list of members. Original record books are kept in the Hampshire Room for Local History and Genealogy;
• First Baptist Church, Northampton, MA (reel 160) includes the Church clerk's records, Church covenant, constituent membership list, detailed meeting records, and a brief history of events leading up to the founding of the church (1826-1848);

In addition to microfilmed and original manuscripts are bound, typewritten transcriptions from the original manuscripts. These were largely compiled by members of The Daughters of the American Revolution, who volunteered their time to preserve and distribute local Church history. Two which I used quite frequently are:

• Congregational Church Records, Southampton, Massachusetts, 1743-1937;
• Church Records of the Town of Chesterfield, Massachusetts, 1st Book, 1762-1820.

Since Northampton was the beginning point of my genealogical gleanings, I had taken for granted that most communities were as rich in Church history resources as Massachusetts towns were; but when I moved South, I found that few churches, especially African-American churches, had such well-preserved records available to the public. 

My research focus for the past four years has been on Craven County, North Carolina. I have found that New Bern-Craven County Public Library houses numerous books of Church records for Virginia, and some for South Carolina, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Connecticutt, and even Barbados. 

In the Vertical Files Subject Headings one finds several headings for churches, but only one for AME Zion, with no particular churches listed. 

Among the microfilmed records appear several collections for Methodist, Episcopal, Baptist, Presbyterian and Catholic churches. . . . but none for AME Zion churches.

In speaking with several cousins who attend or have held office in the African-American churches of the Havelock, NC area, I discovered that early records do not exist largely because of the following factors:

• lower levels of literacy during the Reconstruction period,
• fires which destroyed records,
• and church secretaries and officers who had limited foresight in the value of such records in the years to come, who either didn't keep good records, or disposed of them.

Of all the African-American churches located in the Havelock area, only one--Piney Grove AME Zion Church-- has a website, and offers a brief historical account of its founding and development. There is, however, no comparison between such an account and the church records made available of white churches, and especially those of the North, and of New England.

It is my hope that someone with ties to the following churches would have the desire and foresight to gather the existing church records into a manuscript, similar to those created by members of the DAR, so that generations of history are not lost forever:

Craven Corner Missionary Baptist,

Green Chapel Missionary Baptist Church,

Hyman Chapel, 

Pilgrim Rest United Church of Christ, and

Piney Grove AME Zion Church.

"Re"- Sorting Saturday--Digging to expand on church history

When I first relocated from Southern New England to Western North Carolina, I spent every day I had off from work, and some nights after work when I got out early enough to take the bus into town, at Pack Memorial Library on Haywood Street in Asheville. I treated each visit as though my last was not too far ahead... I believe this was due to the previous six months when I had to prepare to relocate from Northampton, MA to Asheville, NC. My KING ancestors' information would remain in the North unless I could immerse myself in their records and bring them along with me.

And so I photocopied anything and everything that minutely corresponded to the history of Free Negroes in Craven County from the Colonial Period to the present. When I returned to the North Carolina Room one day, about three years into my research, the local history librarian said, "I thought you'd just about exhausted everything we had." Yes, I thought so too...but there's always some new connection...laws and Negro Codes and Jim Crow; transportation, railroads and boating; wars and battles; elections, voting and Census records; geography and geologic formations, land and platting; turpentine distillation, Craven Corn distillation and logging. . . finally religion and churches.

After pulling the boxes and sifting through the files, I was surprised to find that I had only one file labeled "Church History." This is what I discovered there:

• "Black Religion In North Carolina From Colonial Times to 1900," in The Heritage of Blacks in North Carolina, Volume I, 1900, pp. 75-80.
• "The AME Zion Church celebrates its bicentennial," by Lisa Jones Townsel; [online].<http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1077/is_n12_v51/ai_18736489/print> Available 1 June 2007, 3 pages.
• "Historic African American Churches in Craven County, North Carolina: 1864-1947," National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Documentation Form, prepared by M. Ruth Little, Ph.D.
• The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, by William J. Walls. Charlotte, NC: A.M.E.Zion Publishing House, 1974.
• Francis Asbury in North Carolina: The North Carolina Portions of The Journal of Francis Asbury. Nashville, TN: The Parthenon Press. 
• History of Methodism in North Carolina, From 1772 To the Present Time [1905], by W. L. Grissom. Nashville, TN: Publishing House of the M. E. Church, South, 1905.
• "Some Aspects of Negro Life in North Carolina During the Civil War," by B. H. Nelson, in The North Carolina Historical Review, pp. 143-167.
• "The History of Piney Grove African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, 1864 thru 1992," by Eilatan. [online]. <http://pineygroveamez.tripod.com/history.html> Available 1 June 2007.
• A Guide to Researching the History of Religion in North Carolina. UNC University Libraries. [online]. <http://lib.unc.edu/ncc/ref/study/religion.html> Available 14 February 2010.
• Several articles related to pulpwood, timber and lumber companies. . . How did they get in there?!

Combining these sources with the clues from emails I had recently collected, I have just enough information to barely construct a loose interpretation of what religious life was like in the isolated area of North Harlowe, Craven County, North Carolina from Colonial days through Reconstruction. 

So much information lies dormant in dusty rooms, shut off from the world because of budgetary cuts. My only hope is to connect with someone who has viewed the sources I have yet to seek and hope that they will be willing to share information. 

In the meantime, I believe I must go with what I have and begin the writing.