"Fifty Years of Freedom"
An Historical Address
FROM
DAVID GEORGE TO RICHARD BOYD
BY
REV. WILLIAM HENRY MOSES, D. D.
ksks
of Negro Baptist Church History; from the
founding of the first Negro Church on thi A-
merican Continent by David George in 1774
until the making of the Sixteenth Annual Re¬
port of the National Baptist Publishing
Board by Richard Henry Boyd to the Nation
al Baptist Convention in its Thirty-third
Session at Nashville Tann., Sept. 1913 dur¬
ing the celebration of our FIFTl Y/'ARS
OF FREEDOM
♦ ♦ ♦♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Robert W. Woodruff
Library
EMORY UNIVERSITY
Special Collections & Archives
"Filty Years ol Freedom"
An Historical Address
FROM
DAYID GEORGE TO RICHARD BOYD
BY
fiEY. WILLIAM HEHRY MOSES, D. D.
Reviewing a hundred and thirty-nine years
of Negro Baptist Church History; from the
founding of the first Negro Church on the A-
merican Continent by David George in 1774
until the making of the Sixteenth Annual Re¬
port of the National Baptist Publishing
Board by Richard Henry Boyd to the Nation¬
al Baptist Convention in its Thirty-third
Session at Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 1913, dur¬
ing the celebration of our FIFTY YEARS
OF FREEDOM.
FROM DAVID GEORGE TO
RICHARD BOYD.
This Thirty-Tbird Annual Session of
the National Baptist Convention, in the
"Fiftieth Year of Our Freedom," is a fitting
time for us to survey the hundred and
thirty-nine years of Negro Baptist church
history—from the time of David George to
the time of Richard Boyd.
AN APOLOGY FOR THE TERM NEGRO BAPTIST
CHURCH.
On account of possible criticism of the
term, "Negro Baptist Church," excluding
the spirit of Christian brotherhood in its
full sense an apology may not be out of
place.
UNIVERSAL CHURCH DEFINED.
The universal Christian church, as you
know, includes a vast number of organized
churches, eadli of which partakes of the
character and vitality of the whole; aiming
at unity with the purpose of bringing the
(3)
whole world under the dominion of Christ
by free convictions expressing the spiritual
liberty of its component parts; consistent
with difference of conditions and environ¬
ments with Christ as the inspiring guide to
men, both in their duties to God and obli¬
gations to humanity.
THE TENDENCY TO RACIAL CHRISTIANITY.
In each Christian era tlhere has been a
tendency toward national and racial Chris¬
tianity responding to the awakening thirst
for righteousness and truth and the desire
ihat it be propagated by the people to be
Christianized.
The Negro Baptist church is an evidence
of flexibility of Christianity, and its ten¬
dency to adjust itself to our cosmopolitan
communities does not lesson the fact
that we are integral parts of the body of
Christ in which there is neither Jew nor
Greek, bond nor free. Our labors must be
pointed and effectual 'along lines of approved
racial organizations and alliances or be lost
in a vague universalism.
THE NEGRO BAPTIST CHURCH THE GREATEST
NEGRO ORGANIZATION IN THE WORLD.
The Negro Baptist church, in my opinion,
is the greatest and most piomising institu¬
tion in the world for the temporal and eter¬
nal salvation of our race, because it reaches
4
the race as no organization is able to reach
it. Negro Baptists have dedicated more
property to God for the race than any other
organization in the world. They have more
educated Negroes actively engaged in Chris¬
tian work than any other organization.
And the strength and beauty of it is, that
they have organized, built and own many
and varied institutions which they operate
from stem to stern. The determination to
do this is a precious legacy handed down
from our fathers, who in the dark days of
slavery took the seed of the gospel and, in
tears sowed them, the result of which is
the harvest we are reaping to-day.
THE WHITE PREACHER NOT THE PROTOTYPE
OF THE NEQRO BAPTIST PREACHER.
The prototypes of the princely Negro Bap¬
tist preachers, professors iamdi reformers,
who are marhaling the forces of to-day,
are not to be found in the white preachers
cf the past century, but in those crude,
earnest and fiery ante-bellum cabin preach¬
ers. For ever since the African found on
the American shores a friend in the lowly
Jesus, the tide of our religious life has been
rising; some waves have gone farther up
tne shore and some back into the sea, but
the tide has ever risen and will continue to
rise, not because men say we may rise, but
because God says we must rise, rise, rise,
by our own migiht; rise because we have
5
been chosen for the knighthood of service
by the Almighty.
MUCH CREDIT DUE WHITE MEN, WOMEN AND
CHILDREN.
While much credit is due white Baptist
preachers, North and South, for the mag¬
nificent success which has crowned the ef¬
forts of Negro Baptists, but, in my opinion,
more credit is due to the white wonem
and children of the South, who took the
slaves at their knees and taught them the
warf and the woof of Christianity than to
any other external agency.
MORE CREDIT IS DUE THE OLD NEGRO
FATHERS.
We are primarily indebted to our fathers,
who laid the foundation of what we are do¬
ing to-day. American white Christians
bcve never attempted on a large scale to
evangelize the Negroes of this country.
From the very first the Negro Baptists
have been foremost in the evangelization
of their race in this country. In support of
the above, let me call your attention to four
periods in the history of the Negro Bap-
tis4" churches: (1) The Ante Bellum Period.
(2) The Great Revival Period. (3) The
Grelat Church-Building' Period (4) The
Present Period of Denominational Enter¬
prises.
ti
I—THE ANTE-BELLUM PERIOD.
The historians tell us that in the mixed
churches of the ante-bellum period, the
Negro members had no voice in the affairs
of the church except in the reception and
discipline of their own race. It was a
church within a church so far as Negro
Baptists were concerned. It was inconsis-
ent with the institution of slavery for a
servant to discipline his master. Baptist
churches have always been democratic.
There are no priestly orders'—ministers are
solemnly set apart without official distinc¬
tion or authority one over the other. Minis¬
ters and laymen are admitted into churches
on the same basis and without any official
discipline of the mixed churches or the
in legislative or deliberative bodies.
Master and slave often sat under the
same sermon and sometimes special ser¬
vices were held for tlhe slaves by white min¬
isters, and sometimes Negro churches had
white pastors. But the fact that it was
unlawful to teach Negroes the Scriptures
and the principles of Baptist democracy or
to allow them to have equal voice in the
discipline of the mixed churches or the
7
ante-bellum period she/, that they were
never an organic part of the white Baptist
churches.
THE NEGRO BAPTIST CHURCHES CAME FROM
THE QUARTERS.
The real Negro Baptist church was born
m the log cabin of the quarters covered
with slabs and having dirt floors, stick
chimneys and seated with stumps, stools
and rails, and lighted with pine torches.
There the multitude met from miles around,
when the day's work was done, and told
God tlmr troubles; not knowing for what
to pray, as they ought, the Spirit made in¬
tercession! for them as with groans they ut¬
tered the desire of their souls which in
words they could not so well express. They,
our fathers vowed their vows, 'and said
that if God would give them bread to eat
and clothes to wear, then He would be their
God.
EARLY OPPOSITION TO NEGRO BAPTIST
CHURCHES.
Well-meaning Christians were opposed to
the early efforts of Negro Baptists work¬
ing out their own salvation. It was said
that they were ignorant and incompetent,
that they were the laughing stock of the
world, and that much evil grew out of their
gatherings. There was much truth in this.
8
But our fathers felt that of two evils they
would chose the lesser. They also felt that
if they could not enjoy full fellowship with
their white brethren, nor tind scope fov
the exercises of their spiritual gifts they
would exercise tlhe fundamental Baptist
principle, that the individual soul of every
believer is competent to deal with God; and
they held their independent meetings,
though they had to pay the penalty of a lac¬
erated back at the hands of the midnight
patrol.
WHY IT WAS PERMITTED BY WHITE CHRIS¬
TIANS.
It was permitted without public protest
cn the part of white Baptists because the*'
themselves were being persecuted on ac
count of their stand for religious liberty in
America, 'and because they were laboring
under the same delusion from which sr
many well-meaning Christians have not yet
recovered, namely, that the Negro is inca¬
pable of working out his own salvation
without being closely nursed by the white
race.
There are numbers of white and Negro
Christians to-day who seem to forget that
he whom the Son sets free is free indeed,
and that the gospel must have a free scope
to develop a fruitful religious life.
THE ANTE-BELLUM PREACHERS HAD HEALTHY
HEARTS.
Our burden-bearing fathers, who blazed
the way for the Negro Baptist churches of
9
lo-day, were earnest souls with healthy
hearts, strong feelings and vivid imagina¬
tions ; they were men upon whom the bur¬
den of life weighed heavily; and who signed
and prayed for this day, and longer for the
promise which tarried in the distance till
their siad hearts drove them forth in the
midnight hours in search of an Eye to pity
and a strong Arm to save; they were plain
self-helping sons of the plantation, strug¬
gling upward to racial manhood and to God.
THEY WERE ORIGINAL PREACHERS.
They did not beilieve in a stereotyped gos¬
pel, nor a hearsay religion. They believed in
people knowing God for themselves. If God
had manifested himself to Moses and Elias
in the mountain and Daniel in the lion's
den, they expected him to manifest himself
to them. In those dark days, when the race
stood in the background of American civili¬
zation with bruised backs and bleeding
hands, fatherless outcasts in a country dedi¬
cated to liberty and domineered by the devil
of bondage, while Paine and Ingersol told
them to curse God and die, and Douglass be¬
gan to think God was dead, our Christian
fathers ever hopeful said, "Though he slay
me, yet will I trust Him."
DAVID GEORGE, THE FATHER OF NEGRO
BAPTISTS.
There were men of maiked ability in the
Negro Baptist Churches, North and South
10
long before Emancipation. Rev. David
George, of Silver Bluff, S. C., will rank well
among the leading churchmen of any race
of modern times. He was pastor of the
first Negro church of any kind on the
American continent. He was pastor of the
Silver Bluff Baptist Church, <of Aiken, Co.,
S. C., in 1774.
In 1778 David George carried fifty mem¬
bers from the Bluff Baptist Church
on account of the Revolutionary War, to
Savanniah, Ga., out of which was organzied
rhe first African Baptist church of Savan¬
nah.
In 1780 'he was preaching in Charleston,
helping to sow the seed from which the
great Morrist Street Baptist and otT '
churches have grown.
In 1782 David George sailed from Charle¬
ston to Nova Scotia, where he preached for
ten years to the Negro people who had gone
Lhere from the States. He organized the
first African Baptist Church, of Shelburn,
and preached at Burch town, Ragged Island
and in St. Johns, New Brunswick.
In 1792 David George carried twelve
thousand Negro people to British Central
Africa and staited the Colony of Seirra
Leone. And one of the first things he did
in that country was to organize a Negro
Baptist church.
Bill's history enrolls David George amon^
the pulpit pioneers of Canada. Dr. Brooks
well says: "Had the Silver Bluff Church
11
done nothing more than produce this earn¬
est Christian man, this faithful preacher
of Christ, this potent factor in the planting
of a colony under the British flng, it would
not have, existed in vain.'"
HISTORIC DISCIPLES OF DAVID GEORGE.
The Silver Bluff African Baptist Church
gave the world Rev. Geroge Lyle, who pas-
tored that the part of the Silver Bluff con¬
gregation which went to Savannah during
the Revolutionary War. In 1784 ne organiz¬
ed the First African Baptist Church, of
Kingston, Jamaica, British West Indies.
Cook's history says: "The first Baptist
preacher in Jamaica was a black man, who,
though a slave, had been pastor of a Baptist
churdh in Georgia. He was brought to Ja¬
maica in 1782."
Silver Bluff Baptist Church gave the
world the Rev. Jesse Peter, who revived
the Silver Bluff Church after the Revolu¬
tionary War and transferred its place of
meeting, on account of persecution, across
the Savannah River into Augusta, Ga.,
where it became the present Springfield
congregation, the oldest Negro congrega¬
tion of any kind on the American conti¬
nent. Benedict's History says; "This
church seems to have been raised up by
Jesse Peter, a black preacher of respectable
talents and amiable character."
The Silver Bluff Church gave the world
12
the gifted Henry Francis, the founder of
the Ogechee Baptist Ghruch on the Ogchee
River, fourteen miles from Savannah, in
1803. Rev. Andrew Bryant wrote of him
in 1800, saying, "Another dispensation of
Providence has greatly strengthened our
handis and increased our means of informa¬
tion: Rev. Henry Francis, lately a slave of
the widow of the late Col. Leroy Hammian;
of Augusta, has been purchased by a few
humane gentlemen, of this place, and lib¬
erated to exercise the handsome ministerial
gifts he possesses among us,, and to teach
our youth to read and write. Rev. Fran¬
cis has been in the ministry fifteen years."
AMONG THE PIONEER PREACHERS OF THE
SOUTH, BEFORE AND IMMEDIATELY AF¬
TER THE CIVIL WAR. WERE
Cunningham, Jasper, Cary 'and King, of
Ya. Cowan, Morris, Boykin, Wallace 'and
Broekenton of the Carolinas. Bryant Mar¬
shal, Inman. Bryant, Walker, Dwelley and
Quariles, of Ga. Martin Dunbar, Black and
Epps, of Miss. Saunders, Kelley, Nelson
Merry, Owen, and Vanderval, of Tenn.
Heath, Gaddie, Green, Campbell and Dupree
of Ky., I. S. Campbell, J. J. Rhineheart, Rev
Cobbs, Sheldom Watlow, Massey McPher-
son Vanerable and Boyd, of Texas, and; other
powerful preachers in every section of the
South.
IS
STRONG NEGRO BAPTISTS OF THE NORTH
BEFORE EMANCIPATION.
There were strong Negro Baptists in the
North long before the Emancipation.
Among them were Revs. J. B. Marcham,
Tlhomas Paul, Sampson White, Leonard
Grimes, William Thomson, William Clayton,
Jeremiah Asher, Theodore D. Miller, ftufus
M. Peirry, Duke William Anderson and oth¬
ers who organized the American Missionary
Convention, the present New England
Convention, in 1846.
THESE WERE THE MEN WHO KINDLED THE
FIRES.
The minds of our fathers became an in¬
carnated longing to begin and go on artic¬
ulating forever in their service to God. They
were the iheralds of a better day after a
leng and dreary night. They felt the fires
of freedom burning in their bosoms and
muttering like a charged thunder storm.
The day of their redemption was drawing
nigh; the dogs of war were turned loose,
and the Lord bade the race stand still and
see the salvation of God. Those responsi¬
ble for the black man's bondage had to
atone therefor with their blood. Their
wives were made untimely widows and their
children orphans, and their land desolate
for the nation's greatest sin—human slav¬
ery And with a mighty hand God shook
14
the shackles of slavery from Ethiopia's
blameless race, and our fathers went forth
into freedom's light, saying:
"O freedom, O freedom,
I love thee, I love thee!
"And before I'd be 'a slave,
I'd be buried in my grave,
And go home to my father, and be free.'
AFRICAN BAPTISTS OLDER THAN AFRICAN
METHODISTS.
It was thought for a long time, by some
people, that the African Methodist Episco¬
pal denomination was the first denomination,
in modern times, to organize independent
Negro churches. Extreme modesty and
indifference about the matter permitted the
error to find its way into some histories
without protest. And while we do not wish
to give the facts in the spirit of boasting,
nor to make any unfavorable comparison,
it is a fact that there were several large
historic independent African Baptist
churches in this country a generation be¬
fore the African Methodist Church was or¬
ganized. What is called the heroic period
cf the A. M. E. Church is reckoned from
1778 to 1816. During that time Allen's
clasc of forty Negroes was under the St.
George M. E. Church (white,) ofPhiladel-
phia, Pa. The convention was not called to
organize the A. M. E. Church until 1816
15
The First African Baptist Church, of
Silver Bluff, S. C., was organized in George
Golphin's mill, Aiken County, S. C., twelve
miies from Augusta, in 1774. That was
fourteen years before Allen organized his
class and forty-two years before the con¬
vention was called in 1816 to organize the
A. M. E. Church.
The Springfield Baptist Church, of Au¬
gusta, Ga., is forty-two years older than the
A. M. E. Church. The first African Church,
of Savannah, is thirty-seven years older
than the A M. E. Church; the First Afri¬
can Baptist Church, of Kingston, is thirty-
two years older; the Second Church of
Savannah, Ga., is twenty-eight years older;
the First African Church, of New Provi¬
dence, is twenty-five years older and had
eight hundred members when Bethel was
born; the African Baptist Church, of Shel¬
by, is thirty-four years older; the First
Baptist Chuch, Sierra Leone, is twenty-
four years older; the Independent Church,
of Boston, the Butte Street Church, of Nor¬
folk, and the Harrison Street Church, of
Petersburg, Va., are eleven years older; the
Abyssinian Baptist Church, of New York,
is eight years older; the First African Bap¬
tist, of Philadelphia, is seven years older
than the A. M. E. Church. And we could
name others of less prominence.
All indications point to the probability
that the A. M. E. Church was inspired by
16
the successful Independent African Baptist
churches to "Go, and do likewise."
NEGRO BAPTISTS NEARLY AS OLD AS WHITE
AMERICAN BAPTISTS AND METHODISTS.
The first white Methodist meeting house
in America was dedicated October 30th,
1768; that was just six years before the
Silver Bluff African Baptist Church, of
South Carolina, was organized! in 1774. "In
1762, when the great Baptist persecution
began in Virginia, there were only three
thousand Baptists, black and white, in the
whole country." that was only twelve years
before the Silver Bluff Baptist Church was
organized. And a large number of those
must have been Negroes, because Baptists
were exceedingly unpopular among the
white Americans in those dlays. It was the
period of persecution.
In 1845, twenty years before the Emanci¬
pation, the First Baptist Church, of Char¬
leston, S. C., where the first wlhite church
was organized in the South, reported six¬
teen hundred and forty-three members, of
whom thirteen hundred and eighty-two
were Negroes.
The First Baptist Church, of George¬
town, S. C., reported eight hundred and
thirty-one, of whom seven hundred and
ninety-eight were Negroes.
The First Baptist Church, of Beaufort,
17
S. C., reported three thousand three hun¬
dred and twenty-three members1, of whom
two-thirds were Negroes.
The Sunberry Association reported four
thousand and three hundred members, of
whom less than five hundred were white.
The Central Association, of Mississippi,
reported the same year, 1845, two thousand
members, of whom more than one-half
were Negroes.
I
NEGRO ANTEDATES WHITE BAPTISTS IN
SOME PLACES.
.In Petersburg, Va., the Negro Baptists
antedated white Baptists by many years
In 1848 they had three churches in that city
witjh two thousand five hundred members.
In 1846 the First African Baptist Church
of Richmond, Va., bad two thousand mem¬
bers. In 1848 the Bryan Baptist Church,
of Savannah, had twelve hundred mem¬
bers. In 1845 the Springfield Church, of
Augusta, Ga., (the original Silver Bluff
Church, of South Carolina), had eleven 'hun¬
dred and forty-three members. In 1846
the First African Church, of Lexington,
Ky., had eleven (hundred members. And so
could we name many others in the North
and West with strong memberships, aside
from those who had theiir names on the roll
of white cJhurches, though they generally
18
worshipped, either in the independent Ne¬
gro churches or the cabin meetings where
the Negro churches were available.
THE STATE ATTEMPTS TO SUPPRESS INDE
PENDENT NEGRO MEETINGS.
In 1800, sixty-five years before Emancipa->
tion, Negro congregations and churches had
become iso strong until the legislature of
South Carolina imposed restrictions on re¬
ligious meetings of the Negro people. That
these independent Negro congregations
were doing good work is shown in the fact
1hat the Charleston Baptist Association
(white) petitioned the legislature the' fol¬
lowing year to repeal the laws against
them, and renewed the petition the follow¬
ing year, 1802, with some degree-of success.
The Negro Baptists were organized to help
themselves as early as the white Baptists,
North or South, were organized to. help
them.
Before the American Home Mission So¬
ciety was organized in 1832, the Negro Bap¬
tists of South Carolina and Georgia had es¬
tablished churches from Canada to the West
Indies. Before that great Society bqgan
work among the freedmen of the South, our
old fathers had -taken the leading1 part in
bringing four hundred thousand Baptists
into the Baptist fold.
NEGRO BAPTISTS, THE PIONEERS IN MODERN
FOREIGN MISSIONS.
Nine years before the Baptist Missionary
Society of England was organized in 1792,
19
and sent out William Carey to India, Moses
Baker and George Gibbons two Negro Bap¬
tists, left America in 1783 as voluntary mis¬
sionaries to the West Indies.
Twenty years before the American Bap¬
tist Missionary Union was organized, in
1814, land sent out Judson to Burma, Rev.
Hector Patera and Sampson Colbert, two
more Negro Baptists, left America in 1790
as voluntary missionaries to West Africa.
Twelve years before the white Methodist
Church sent cut its first foreign missionary
in 1833, Lott Carey bad bought his freedom
and, in company with Rev. Collin Teague,
loft America in 1821 as voluntary mission¬
aries to Liberia, Africa.
In other word's, Negro Baptists were do¬
ing foreign mission work nine yearsi before
the American white Baptists 'and fifty years
before the white Methodists.
When the first gun of freedom was fired
at Sumter, S. C., in 1861, the Negro Bap¬
tists had been preparing for freedom eigh¬
ty-seven years. When the geot revival
period began in 1862, the Negro Baptists
were the best prepared denomination in all
thei world to bring Negroes to Christ. And
to-day the Government census of 1910
shows that Negro Baptists havo a million
more members than all other Negro denom¬
inations combined.
20
II.—THE GREAT REVIVAL PERIOD.
From about 1862 to 1882 there was a
great Pentecostal awakening among Ne¬
groes from Canada to Mexico. Churches
and cabins were crowded with sinners
seeking salvation. Christians were bur¬
dened about the salvation of souls. Nearly
every home was a semi-house of public
prayer for inquirers after salvation. Nearly
every Christian wias working on some par¬
ticular sinner. They often made the words
of their songs as they sang, and sang as
they felt. When they could find no words
to express their deepest emotions they
found relief that comes from the Negroes'
melancholy moan—m-m-m-m-m-m-m-m!
In the cotton bottoms of Mississippi the
eanebrakes of Louisiana, the rice swamps
of the Carolinas 'and the tobacco fields of
Virginia could be heard the fathers calling
tihe race to Christ in such plaintive and soul-
stirring melodies as this:
"Steal away, steal away,
Steal away to Jesus;
Steal away, steal away home,
I adn't got long to stay here."
(21)
The abuse of wealth and power about
them, the mad and greedy rush for gold
that sacrified the souls and bodies of black
men to Mammon disgusted them. All that
was mere worldly success. The higher
strivings of the race were expressed in the
song:
"Give me Jesus, give me Jesus,
You may have all the world,
Give me Jesus."
THEY WERE SOUND IN BAPTIST DOCTRINE.
The preachers stood behind their crude
pulpits and told -the simple story of the
Cross, closing with the cardinal doctrines of
•the New Testament: "Ye must be born
again;" "Repent ye, for the kingdom of
heaven is at hand;" "He that believeth and
is baptized shall be saved;" "He that be¬
lieveth not shall be damned;" "Son of Man
cail these dry bones live?" etc.
They kept at it till thousand of sinners
were convicted of sin, and for days and
weeks and months they went with heavy
hearts and hung down heads hunting for
_the Lord; meditating day and night over
the washtub, at the plow, in the fields in
the silent woods and dreary graveyards.
V/hen the light of truth flashed in their
souls and kindled a flame of sacred love in
their heartsi they went into ecstacies or re¬
ligious raptures. They went from house to
22
house as they did in apostolic days saying:
"Glory to God and the Lamb forever." "I
jicoked at my hands and my hands looked
new; I looked at my feet and they looked
so too. My feet have been plucked out of
the mire and the clay and placed on the
rock of eternal ages where the winds may
blow and the storms may rise but nothing
shall frighten me from the shore. I have
been redeemed, I have been redeemed,. &nd
washed in the blood of the Lamb. I aim free
I am free; free to live and free to die; free
in Jesus' name." in
THE GREAT HARVEST OP SOULS.
The world gathered around our churches
and meeting houses and made fun of our
fathers, but they kept pressing! the race
into tihe kingdom, leaving the worldly-wise
and prudent out.
From 1862 to 1882 the Negro Baptists
increased one hundred per cent; And the
Negro population increased fifty per cent.1
In 1862 there were four hundred thousand'
colored Baptists in America. In 1882 they
had increased to eight hundred thousand.
From 1882 to 1906 the Negro Baptists in¬
creased from eigfht hundred thousand to two
millions, two hundred and siixty-one thou¬
sand, six" hundred and seven, according to
the Government statistics. While the race
lias increased less than fifty per cent since
1882 (certainly not more than fifty per
23
cent) Negro Baptists- have increased nearly
three hundred per cent since 1882. And
that does not include either the Free Will
Baptists, of the Primitive Baptists. Neither
do Baptists count babies nor probationists
as churdh members. Thus you see that
more than two-thirds of the entire Negro
population of America are under the in¬
fluence of Negro Baptist churcihes. Two
and one-half million Negro Batpists placed
two yards apart four abreast would make
a line over six hundred and forty-tiwo
miles long. If we place them the same
distance apart single file the line would be
over two thousand and five hundred miles
long. It would reach from Charleston to
bpartanburg, S. C., more than twelve times.
The line would extend across the continent
from Charleston through Georgia, Ala¬
bama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Indian Terri¬
tory, Oklahoma, Northern Texas, North
Mexico, Arizona and California to the
Pacific Ocean, and then have enough to ex¬
tend up the Atlantic coast through North
Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware
to Trenton, N. J.
INSIST ON AN EXPERIENCE OF GRACE.
That vast number was converted under
the preaching of black men; not white men.
They insisted on an experience of grace
told in the candidate's own words and in
his own way to the satisfaction of the
24
whole church. Those converted went every¬
where witnessing for the Lord. And where-
ever Baptists went to work for a few
months they started & Baptist church. They
did not wait to be called to preach or be
licensed, or to be sent by some Board, they
simply exercised the privilege of every Mis¬
sionary Baptist to start a church whenever
and wherever one saw fit.
Nearly all Negro Baptist churches have
been started by laymen and local preachers.
And when they have grown strong enough
they have called some ordained ministers to
labor for them wholly in word and doctrine.
25
III.—THE GREAT CHURCH-BUILDING
PERIOD.
Quite naturally that vast number of con¬
verts had to be housed and built up in the
faith. While the revival period has not
closed and never will close, so long as men
are being born, yet the winning of souls is
no longer the whole burden of the Negro
Baptist churches. The Negro Baptist be¬
gan building churches in 1774 and built an
•average of about four churches, a year for
one hundred years before the Emancipation.
At the close of the war there were about
four hundred churches and four hundred
thousand members. All of the four hun¬
dred thousand did not belong to Indepen¬
dent Negro churches; some of them be¬
longed to the white churches, though they
in reality worshipped primarily with the
Negro congregations, either in Negro
churches or in the cabin meetings.
From 1862 to 1882 they built three thou¬
sand more churches at a cost of three mil¬
lion dollars, but most of these were tempo¬
rary buiLIings. Nearly all of the large Ne¬
gro congregations have built or remodeled
their churches since 1882.
(26)
A COMPARISON WITH AFRICAN METHODISTS.
Thus the church-building period may be
reckoned from in 1882 to 1902. During that
period the Negro Baptist churches in¬
creased over 500 per cent. The government
statistics of 1906 sihow that Negro Baptists
have eighteen thousand five hundred and
thirty-four (18,534) churches, the value of
which is twenty-four million, four hundred
and thirty-seven thousand, two 1 hundred
and seventy-two (24,437,272) dollars. That
does not include the Free Will and Primi¬
tive Baptists.
The African Baptists have thirteen mil¬
lion one hundred and thirty-three ($13,133,-
783) dollars more church property than the
African Methodists, and nineteen million
six hundred and four thousand and sixty-
five (19,604,065) dollars more than the Zion
Methodist Church.
WHAT THEY DID A YEAR.
The Negro Baptists built on an average
633 churches a year for twenty-four years
(between 1882 and 1906), raised and paid
on them an average of eight hundred and
ninety-three thousand one hundred and sev¬
enty-eight ($893,178) dollars each year.
They dedicated on an average 12 churches
every Sunday for twenty-four years and
paid seventeen thousand one hundred and
seventy-six ($17,176) dollars on them each
27
Sabbath, besides paying the preachers and
keeping up expenses.
THE SOUTHERN WHITE PEOPLE HELPED.
It must be said to the everlasting credit
of the white people among whom we live,
that while tney did not give much through
any organized channel to build Negro
churches, they have given Negroes of all
denominations thousands of dollars to help
buiild their churches. All kinds of white
people gave to help build Nagro churches.
They gave without letting their left hand
know what their night hand did. Some of
them gave Negroes more money to build
churches than they gave to iouild their own
churches. The Southern people have never
been prejudiced to Negroes having good
churches.
THEY HELPED MUCH INDIRECTLY TO BUILD
NEGRO CHURCHES.
The Southern business men granted us
business favors to build our churches. I
dare say, there is not to be found a re¬
spectable Negro church building in this
country that had not been financiered by
some white business concern. Tfhey grant¬
ed us loans and took care of our church pa¬
pers when we did not know how to handle
notes and bond's. The white women helped
through their servants; they gave them
28
money; and in spite of the poverty caused
by the war they divided food and fagot
with their black sisters and gave them the
encouraging words that inspired them to
sacrifice for the upbuilding of God's king¬
dom.
THE GREAT SACRIFICE OUR FATHERS MADE.
Tlhie world never witnessed greater sac¬
rifice than Negro Baptists made to build
their churches. They lhad no such help as
was given the Negro Congregationalists
Presbyterians, Methodists, Episcopalians
and Catholics, The race came out of slav¬
ery crude, without a week's rations, a
change of garment, homeless and without a
dime struggling for existence beside the
strongest race of modern times, in a country
devastated by the war, and a reconstruc¬
tion aggravated by aliens, and the readjust¬
ment of the whole economic system of the
South. The men worked for less than fifty
cents per day aWd the women for less than
25 cents; there were no big salaries for any
one; they ate corn bread and molasses, and
considered themselves fortunate when all
the family had1 enough of plain food. The
women wore cotton dresses to church and
the men "Kentucky Genes." They went
bare-footed two-thirdis of the year, and
wore brogain shoes to church while trying
to buy stock and send their children to
school and buy homes. They made sacri-
29
fices that should make us ashamed in these
days of plenty. More than once thousands
of our people have given their last penny
on the church debt, not knowing from
.whence the next meal would come.
THE GREAT SACRIFICING NEGRO DEACONS AND
TRUSTEES.
The self-sacrificing deacons and trustees
deserve double honor. They gave their
time and talent freely and often carried the
notes far the whole church year after year
and kept their personal credit weighted
down to the waters edge on church notes
so they could not borrow for themselves at
the banks. Every church can point to some
good deacon and trustee who stood shoulder
to shoulder with their pastors in the great
cfiurcih-buildling period.
NONE SACRIFICED SO MUCH AS THE NEGRO
BAPTIST PREACHERS.
The Negro Baptist pastors have the
glory of the greatest suffering in building up
the house of the Lord. In those days there
was but little .salary promised; people
had not been educated up to the point of
paying preachers anything much. They oft¬
en went without the little they did promise
when building debts were pressing. The
pastor was always put off till these debts
were settled. He had to turn his hand to
ZO
very single thing that was to be done about
the building. Many of them wore them¬
selves out, suffered all kinds of reverses and
died of neglect and want. Yet they re¬
joiced that they were called to the kingdom
at such a time, to help build up the first Ne¬
gro churches of modern times.
THE ROLL CALL OF THE BUILDERS.
I wish I could call the roll of the worthy
Negro Baptist builders. I would like to tell
of Dixon, Wisher, Wynn, Morris and
Simms, of New York; Creditt, Jordan,
Johnson, Jones, Fox 'and others, of Penn¬
sylvania ; Johnson, Alexander and Watkins,
of Maryland; Bishop Johnson, Taylor, How¬
ard and others, of Washington; Holmes,
Jasper, Wells, Binga and others, of Rich¬
mond; Bowling, Armstead, Spiller and
Dixon, of Tidewater, Va.; Jordan, Smith,
Ashburn and Madison, of Middle Virginia;
Morris, Gordan and Tyree, of Lynch*
burg; Burke, Brown, Jones and Fox, of
the Virginians, Hills anu others of that
great plate of Negro Baptist churches.
I would like to tell of Wallace, White¬
head, Tobin and others, of Union, S. C. Bay-
for, Mills, Sari, Leak and others, of Spartan¬
burg; Brawley, Maloy and others, of Green¬
ville; McMorris, Robertson, Moore and
others, of Anderson; Oliver, at Belton, and
Honea Path, Daniels, at Princeton; Mar¬
shal at Greenwood and Ninety-Six; Wal-
31
lace, at Newberry; Dunbar, Daniels and
Baylor, ac Columbia; Gilmore and Hall, at
Rock Hill; Chisolm, Bowen and Daniels, at
Chester; Boykin, at Camden; Williams, at
Rock Hill; Brochenton, at Darlington;
Prince, at Bennettsville; Roberts, at Flor¬
ence; Bacote, at Society Hill; Nix, at
Orangeburg; Calahan, Watson and Jones,
at Bonwell; Pinson and1 Johnson, at Sum¬
ter; Kemp and Jenkins, at Charleston, Wal-
den and Ford, McKenney and Holman, of
Fla.; Carter, Bryant, Williams, Johnson,
Walker and others of Georgia, Goodgame,
Fisher, Stokes, Maderson, Walker and
others of Alabama; Campbell, Light, Wil¬
liams, Barbour and others of Texas; Morris
Robinson and others of Arkansas, Bacote,
Hurst, and others of Missouri and Kansas;
Carter, Vann, Hurst and others of Tenn.;
Fisher and Thomas, of Illinois; Shepherd,
N. C., and thousands of others equally
worthy of mention but the story cannot be
properly told until we all meet in the gen¬
eral assembly of the church the first born
in heaven.
32
continue to prize noble gifts used1 for the
highest purposes, to applaud lofty speech
used for the upbuilding of humanity and the
advancement of the race,
Then o'er their mounds,
A sanctity shall broode,
Till the stars sicken;
At the day of doome.
APPENDIX.
I am indebted to Dr. W. H. Brooks whose
historical pamphlet and references inspired
the researches upon which the address is
based, to Dr. Bishop Johnson's able "His¬
torical paper," published in the National
Baptist Union, and the following literature:
"The Popular and Critical Bible Encyclo¬
pedia;" "Reports of the Home and Foreign
Mission Boards <and! Publishing Board of
the National Baptist Convention ;" Bibbs'
"Documentary History of the American
Revolution;" Benedict's "History of the
Baptists;" Jones' "History of South Caroli¬
na;" Ramsey's History of South Carolina;
White's "Historical Collections of Georgia;"
Stephen's "History of Soutih Georgia;"
Joseph Wilson's "Emancipation;" Loves'
"First African Church of Savannah, Geor¬
gia ;" Simms' "First Colored Baptist Church
of North America;" W. H. Brooks' "Silver
Bluff Church," Furman's "History of
Charleston Baptists; "Bills" History of Cana-
49
dian Baptist;" Philopos' "Jamaica—Past
and Present;" "History of the British Bap¬
tist Society," by Cox: Havey's "Story of
Baptist Missions in Foreign Lands;" Jor¬
dan's "Up the Ladder in Missions;" "State
Papers;" "Mian Affairs;" Larn's "History
of Ready References;" "Semi-Centennial
American Baptist Home Mission Society—
1832 to 1882 ;" Appleton's "A Cyclopedia."
and Cramp's "History of the Baptists."
W. H. Moses.
Knoxville, Tenn<
50
ANNOUNC EMENTS
NEW BOOKS
FOR
Pastors, Teachers, Sunday
School Teachers and
Easter Celebrations
NOW ON SALE BY
NATIONAL BAPTIST PUBLISHING BOARD,
R. H. BOYD, D. D., Secretary,
523 Second Ave., N., Nashville, Tenn.
National Baptist Concert Quarterly—Easter
Number.—Now ready. Printed in colors-
containing Bongs, Readings and Recitations;
especially Belected for Easter Celebrations.
The National Baptist Concert Quarterly,
which is edited specially for our different
Holiday occasions is the only Concert Series
published. The Editor, Mrs. LulaJ. Boyd-
Landers, passed her usual mark in the
iast edition, namely: "The News Boy's Christ¬
mas." This Easter Edition has not fallen be¬
low the last. We are ready to fill all orders
as soon as received. Prices: Each, Sc.; per
doz.; 35c.; per hundred 93 00
Easter Book Marks.—Heart shape, beautifully
d&lgned, bearing the word, "Easter," with a
double silk cord. This makes a beautiful
Easter Gift and one that is serviceable. Price,
each, 5c.; per do* '
ILLUMl NAT ED*
Bible Stories and Toy Books.
These books are nevr in design and beanttfbl
in exeention. They are lithographed In
bright colors. They contain a TaAety *f
Bible Stories told In simple lac suae* that
Any child may be able to understand, r ::
BIbSe Series
10c Each.
4TltIes, 6 Colored 0-
lustrations, 12 pages.
Stories for Bible Children,
^hen Jesus lived on earth,
Old Testament Stories.
The Tables of Stone.
All Taken From Old Tests-
Brent.
Price 10 each; $1.
per doz.
Sunday Series
10c each.
6 Titles, 4 Colored Ilhis*
trations, 12 Pages.
When Jebus was a Child.
Children of the Bible.
The Angels' Songs.
Stories of Jesus.
Stories for Sunday.
Bible Stories.
Price ICc each. $1.00
per doz.
THE TEACHER-TRAINING SERVICE
OP THE
NATIONAL BAPTIST CONVENTION,
Adapted to tbe demands of workers in all the depart-
meats of the Sunday-school.
TEAl'HER-TRAHIHa
BEPiRTHENT,
Conducted
by the
Rational
Baptiit Pnblishint
Board.
jlHOLY BIBLE ]
IUUI
. SERVICE
tot U
Under the direc¬
tion ot
REV. N. H. PiUS. D. D..
Superintendent Train*
Ina Service,
S28 Second Ave., I.,
lASnriLLE. THV
THE TRAINING-SERVICE PLAN.
Classes Formed.—Classes may be formed as follows:—
First liy a united class of two or more Sunday-
schools In the same city, town, village or commu¬
nity.
Second. By the forming of a class of teachers, offi¬
cer- and such other persons as may desire to take the
course In an Individual Sunday-school.
Third. By the united effort of any two or more
teachers or other persons forming themselves into a
class.
Fourth. By any Individual wbo desires t« study indi¬
vidually.
Courses of Study.—The service will comprise four
courses, viz.: Primary, Intermediate, Advanced and
Normal. Each si udent shall select whichever course
he desires, but we advise that the pastor or superin¬
tendent be consulted In this matter.
How to Proceed.—Write for application blanks
and enroll vith the Superintendent of Teacher-
Training Service; purchase the books for the course
you wlshtostudy; form your class for weeklr study,
and select your instructor, the pastor heln^ consulted
In making selection. Individuals study under direc¬
tion of General Superintendent.
Membership.—Any person, male or female, who has
attained the age of 16 years and Is a member in regular
standing In my regular Baptist church, may become a
student In either course, whether he or she Is an active
Sunday-school teacher or not. The same diligent at¬
tention will be given students as to regular Sunday-
school teachers.
NATIONAL BAPTIST PUBLISHING BOARD,
R. H. BOYD, Secretary,
523 Second Avenue, North, NASHVILLE, TENN.