The Gospel Horse in the Valley: Evangelical Slavery and Freedom in the Chattahoochee Valley, 1821-1877 by Stephen Presley Barber A dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Auburn University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Auburn, Alabama May 9, 2011 Keywords: Slavery, Religion, Baptists, Methodists, Georgia Copyright 2011 by Stephen Presley Barber Approved by Charles A. Israel, Chair, Associate Professor of History Kenneth W. Noe, Draughon Professor of History Anthony G. Carey, Associate Professor of History Abstract This dissertation examines the introduction of evangelical religion into the Chattahoochee Valley of Georgia during the frontier era, the formation and characteristics of biracial churches during the antebellum period, and the post-bellum racial separation and organization of independent black churches. It will document the attitudes, ideas, and actions of evangelicals as they formed, organized, and maintained biracial churches in the Chattahoochee Valley. In these churches, black and white evangelicals practiced “evangelical slavery,” defined as the manifestation of chattel slavery in the context of evangelical Christianity as practiced by slaveholders and slaves. This study also discloses the complexities of interactions of blacks and whites and their experiences as they grappled with the uncertainties and conflict brought about by emancipation. This dissertation is the first narrative of the religious history of the Chattahoochee Valley from the beginnings of white settlement to the end of Reconstruction. It is a subset of larger works on southern religion, but uniquely examines the continuity of southern evangelical religion between the time of the invasion of the Chattahoochee Valley by Methodist missionaries in 1821 and the practically complete institutional religious separation by 1877, thus augmenting and challenging previous interpretations of processes and chronology by revealing local patterns of behavior by black and white southern evangelicals. ii Acknowledgments I sincerely thank Dr. Charles A. Israel, for his exceptional direction, guidance and attentive patience. I also extend sincere gratitude to my other dissertation committee members, Dr. Kenneth W. Noe, Dr. Anthony G. Carey, and Dr. James Ryan. My parents, Dan and Nell Barber, gave me life-long support, continued encouragement and, on several occasions, a much needed boost of morale. I owe much to my father-in-law, John Baggett, for his proof-reading skills and thoughtful comments. My mother-in-law, Carolyn Baggett, provided support with words of encouragement and a calming presence. I also give a special thanks to my extended family for their interest and encouragement. My children and grandchildren have also provided inspiration to me in ways that can neither be measured nor adequately described. My research has paralleled the lives of Sarah and John, and they are relieved that I have finally finished “that paper.” Finally, words cannot fully describe the debt I owe to my wonderful wife, Janet. She has been a part of so much of my work. Her words of encouragement came at times when I most needed them and she always said what I needed to hear. Her confidence in me exceeded that of my own and I drew immeasurable strength from her loving support. iii Table of Contents Abstract ..…………………………………………………………………………...……. ii Acknowledgements.……………………………………………………………………...iii List of Tables ………………………………………………………………………..…....v Introduction …………………………………………………………………………….....1 Chapter 1 - “We Are Native Americans”: The Methodists Come to the Valley ………………………………….…...17 Chapter 2 – “God‟s Horse Was Tied To the Iron Stake”: The Creation of the Evangelical Valley ……………………………….…..51 Chapter 3 – “How Could Anybody Be Converted On Dat Kind Of Preachin‟?”: The Practice of Evangelical Slavery ……………………………………....85 Chapter 4 – “I Saw the Gospel Horse Begin to Paw”: The Fortification and Declension of Evangelical Slavery …………….…126 Chapter 5 – “I Saw the Smile of God”: Methodists and Religious Reconstruction ………………………………..176 Chapter 6 – “He Finally Broke Loose”: Baptists and Religious Reconstruction ………………………...……..….222 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………..…262 Bibliography …………………………………….…………………………………..…267 iv List of Tables Table 1.1 Membership in the church at Asbury Mission ..................................................49 Table 2.1 Baptist Churches in Harris, Muscogee, and Troup counties 1828 – 1840 .........83 Table 2.2 Methodist Churches in Harris, Muscogee, and Troup counties 1828 – 1840 ....84 Table 3.1 Population of Harris County .............................................................................88 Table 3.2 Population of Muscogee County .......................................................................88 Table 3.3 Population of Troup County .............................................................................88 v Introduction In 1880, Andrew Brown, a prominent minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), reflected on the establishment of his denomination in Georgia during the later years of the Civil War. Speaking at the AME Georgia Conference in 1880, he recalled: I am not so superstitious as to claim to be a prophet, nor the son of a prophet, but I saw the AME Church in 1844 as bright as I see her tonight. I then prayed that I might outlive the surrounding circumstances, and see the church in reality as I then saw it in my mind. The day the ME Church, South split from the ME Church, while in the woods upon my knees, God showed me this church. The day was dark, but, thank God, we waited on and on. God's horse was tied to the iron stake. For a long time he failed to prance in Georgia and South Carolina. The day the first fire was made at Sumter, I saw the Gospel Horse begin to paw. He continued to paw until he finally broke loose and came tearing through Georgia. The colored man mounted him and intends to ride him. He is not particular where he goes, for he has practiced until he can and does ride him in the white man's pulpit.1 No overt slave rebellions or any demonstrative escape of slaves from the religious control of whites precipitated his vision. Rather, the event that spawned his vision was the separation of southern Methodists from their northern brethren in 1844. Brown used the term “Gospel Horse” as a metaphor for what he believed to be the manifestation of true Christianity, in which blacks could freely, independently, and equally practice their faith, unencumbered by the social, political, and religious inequity of white hegemony in the South. Eventually, black evangelicals rode the metaphorical Gospel Horse as it left the stable at the end of slavery and facilitated the creation of independent black churches. 1 Andrew Brown quoted in Wesley J. Gaines, African Methodism in the South -or- Twenty-Five Years of Freedom (Atlanta: Franklin Publishing House, 1890), 18. 1 Brown‟s Gospel Horse existed within the realm of “evangelical slavery,” defined as the manifestation of chattel slavery in the context of evangelical Christianity as practiced by slaveholders and slaves. It was based on a rigid proslavery theology that saw slavery as an institution ordained by God as part of a plan for the fulfillment of his purposes for humankind. While some evangelical slaveholders genuinely saw slaves as humans needing redemption of sins and inclusion into the body of believers, secular forces embraced the tenets of evangelical Christianity as an addition to their arsenal of strategic mechanisms used to defend slavery from abolitionist attacks. Slaves embraced evangelical Christianity for many of the same reasons as whites, but the repressive nature of slavery did not preclude unilateral individual acceptances and appropriation by slaves who sought a plenary spiritual experience outside the jurisdiction of whites. Slaves also shaped evangelical slavery by crafting a Christian experience that appeared much differently than that of whites. Both races believed in the role of God in human history, but blacks drew on the Exodus story to view their condition in slavery as that of the Israelites. Central to the experience of slaves was the hope and belief that God would one day liberate them into a Promised Land. To white evangelicals, adherence to the laws and commands of God represented the essence of their Christian belief. Black evangelicals, however, saw their deliverance from bondage as the zenith of God‟s intervention in their lives. African traditions influenced the form of slave worship away from white eyes and the content of their worship reflected perhaps more than anything the divergence of white and black Christianity because slaves knew that, as Albert J. Raboteau states, “[white] Christianity was compatible with slavery, and theirs was not.”2 2 Albert J. Raboteau, A Fire in the Bones: Reflections on African-American Religious History (Boston: Beacon Press, 1995), 27. 2 Several historians have examined the institution of slavery in the context of its existence within evangelical Christianity. Anne C. Loveland found that many southern evangelicals felt anguish toward the institution of slavery, because the harshness of slavery, yet deemed manumission as untenable in light of the perceived dependency of slaves on paternalistic whites. The emergence of a strong abolitionist movement in the north in the 1830s and the religious connotation inherent in the insurrections of Denmark Vesey and Nat Turner also affected the actions, practices and policies of