DOCSLIB.ORG

Ally Sought and Converted the Negro, Often II

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Ally Sought and Converted the Negro, Often II THE DO YOU KNOW . of students and other young adults who are interested in graduate work in a theological seminary with whom Garrett could get in contact? The pastor and other staff members of a church are the best recruiters for full-time work in the church. The alumnus is the best recruiter of students for the seminary. Many times applicants refer the pastors who are graduates of Garrett as the reason for their interest in Garrett. You can help by sending to us the name and address of any person with whom we should communi- cate as a prospective student. Send the list to: Dir-ector of Admissions Garrett Theological Seminary 2121 Sheridan Road Evanston, Illinois 60201 GARRETT THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY Evanston, Illinois 60201 December 1966 TilE ABBETT TOWER • •.............•................•................................•.• AN APPRECIATION . • ~ NEGRO LEADERS IN EARLY To Dr. Frederick A. Norwood, +1 professor of history of Christianity at Garrett since 1952, who has as- AMERICAN METHODISM sisted in planning and editing this +1 Methodist bicentennial issue of The by Grant S. Shockley Tower. One of the most significant develop- I The Editor + with a slave named "Punch" in South Car- t ments in the early history of Methodism •••••••••• ~~+~+ ••••••• olina in 1788, who became "a great light in America is the changing character of its among his people, leading many to Christ." conception of the Negro as a leader and He later converted his overseer, who the gradual evolution of that leadership. "joined the church, became an exhorter, It will be the pur- and later a preacher." 2 Stevens mentions pose of this paper to the evangelistic work of "a colored man" trace briefly this de- named "Jacob" who was "both preacher velopment and evo- and leader of a Methodist class he had lution in the bio- helped to organize. This class was a part graphical sketches of of a Society that was visited by one of selected Negro lead- William McKendree's circuit riders on the ers in various set- great Western district between 1796 and tings during the first 1804." 3 Wightman refers to "some ex- century of the bi- traordinary colored men" who served with centennial history of great effectiveness among Negroes in Methodism. South Carolina (ca. 1811). Their names The thesis of the were: Castile Selby, Amos Baxter, Tom paper may be stated Smith, Peter Simpson and others! as follows: Methodism, which initially sought and converted the Negro, often II. Itinerant Local Preachers denied to him authentic community and leadership responsibility. The early Negro evangelists and preach- ers were slaves or indentured servants liv- I. Leaders Among the Slaves ing on plantations under the authority of overseers and masters, and thus exerted The earliest Negro leaders to appear on the only kind of leadership that was pos- the American Methodist scene were slaves sible for them under such circumstances. ex-slaves, or indentured servants wh~ Soon to emerge was another type of pr~ac.hedand evangelized in the East but leader from among the freed men-the prmClpally in the South. Many of the itinerant evangelist. The sketches of four THE GAR It E T T T 0 \V E R ~ll1es of these leaders are unknown but of these pioneers should illustrate the Volume 42 • December 1966 • Number I t~OIl1the records that do exist it is learned quality of manhood and ministry that the ~t they were often men of ability, piety, Negro offered to Methodism in her infant an Courage. Finley mentions a Negro days. Published Quarterly by ~rvant in Virginia "in an early day in Garrett Theological Seminary, Evanston, Illinois 60201 c e hIstory of Methodism in the western Hern-y Evans Second-class postage paid at Evanston, Illinois "unOuntry". whose name was "Cuff" who was (ca. 1740.1810) Subscription price, sixty-five cents the year, one dollar for two years lead~lffio~ly selected by his brethren to Wh III relIgIOUSexercIses at the meeting Methodism was introduced into Fayette- ville, North Carolina, by Henry Evans, a Editor .... .Henry E. Kolbe p .en no (white) preacher was present." 1 rIce recalls Francis Asbury's encounter Negro local preacher. Evans, a native of Virginia, a freed man, and a shoemaker by Copyright, Garrett Biblical Institute, 1967 December 1966 3 trade, was converted in his home state and John Charleston is known of his parentage or background received a call to preach, which he fol- (ca. 1766-18 ? ) Probably the greatest distinction that except that he became free as a young Methodist history will accord him is to say lowed while continuing to work at his man, heard Asbury preach, and was con- Atkinson in his Centennial History Of that he was present at the Christmas Con- trade. After the Revolutionary War, free verted. Soon after this he became a local American Methodism (1884) relates that ference. Also recorded for history is Negroes found it difficult to secure em- preacher and Asbury's traveling compan- an 1828 issue of the Methodist MagaZine Coke's statement about Hoosier as a ployment in the heavily populated slave containing the first annual report of the ion. preacher: sections of the upper South and many Harry was not a large man. He has been Sunday School Union of the MethOdist "I really believe that he is one of migrated to the deep South. Evans decided described as perfectly black, with keen Episcopal Church states that under Bishop the best preachers in the world-there to go to Charleston, South Carolina. En- Francis Asbury's authorization, Methodist eyes and gifted with eloquent speech. is such an amazing power (that) at- route he stopped at Fayetteville, North preachers were to organize Sunday schools The first mention that is made of Harry tends his words, though he cannot read Carolina, "saw the wickedness which "for the benefit of the slaves from the occurs in Asbury's Journal entry for June abounded" and decided to remain there and he is one of the humblest crea- South." 29, 1780, written in Todds, North Carolina: tures I ever saw." and preach. The power and influence of The first of these Sunday schools is said "Read several chapters in Isaiah. I This was Harry Hoosier called by some his preaching was such that he aroused have thought if I had two horses and to have been organized in the home of "one of the greatest prodigies of those the suspicion and hostility of the town Harry (a coloured man) to go with Thomas Crenshaw (who had once pro- early days among Methodists." One won- fathers. Until they saw that his preaching vided asylum for Freeborn Garretson dur- and drive on, and meet the black peo~ ders what the realm of his influence might made their servants better and not worse, ing the Revolutior.ary War) in Hanover pie, and to spend about six months in have been if he could have had a full and he was harassed. Soon, however, the Virginia and the Carolinas, it would County, Virginia, in 1786. The first con- independent career as an itinerant. climate of opinion began to change. Evans vert of this Sunday school was John be attended with a blessing." Hoosier died in 1806. His funeral sermon was permitted to preach in the town Charleston, a native Virginia Negro, later Harry was not only a dutiful traveling was delivered by a Christopher Atkins be- proper. Indeed, later few visitors would to become an outstanding preacher and companion and body servant, but an ex- think of coming to Fayetteville without fore burial in Kensington, near Phila- missionary. cellent preacher. Asbury is said to have delphia, Pennsylvania. going to hear Evans preach. Joseph Travis The Rev. Stith Mead, a friend and bene- remarked that one certain way of insuring (1786-1838), the first regularly appointed factor of Charleston, has the following to a large congregation was to announce that pastor of Methodism in Fayetteville, re- John Stewart say about him: Harry would preach since "more came to (ca. 1786-1823) lates in his autobiography how Evans "by "I took with me round my circuit hear him than myself." His preaching was earnest effort . succeeded in getting a the last time, an African preacher, fervent, oratorical, and thoroughly Wes- The most notable free Negro preacher- meeting house where he preached to all named John Charleston, a man whose 1eyan.Asbury records in his Journal after missionary of early Methodism was John who would come to hear." Evans preached liberty I had been instrumental in ob- a meeting in Virginia (May 21, 1781): Stewart. Born in Powhatan County, Vir- to both Negroes and whites. Travis con- taining, by soliciting contributions for "I preached in the afternoon ... Harry ginia, of free Negro parents, he became tinues: that purpose, between 1805 and 1809. spoke to the negroes (sic), some of the founder of Methodism's first successful "He began more and more to elicit the This African brother has been a whom came a great distance to hear mission to the Wyandott Indian tribe and attention of the white population. Ulti- preacher of no ordinary rank for him; certain sections are greatly dis- the instigator of the formation of the Mis- mately a white married lady of good thirty-nine years. He was ordained a pleased with him because he tells them sionary and Bible Society of the Methodist mind and accomplished manners-a deacon by Bishop McKendree soon they may fall from grace and that Episcopal Church. celebrated school mistress in the town after his liberation from slavery ... they must be holy." Stewart received religious training from -joined the Methodist Episcopal Hundreds and thousands have been A time came later in Harry's life when his parents and attended such schools as Church ..
Load more

Recommended publications
  • About Absalom Jones Priest 1818
    The Reverend Absalom Jones November 7, 1746 – February 13, 1818 The life and legacy of The Reverend Absalom Jones, first African American priest of The Episcopal Church is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit, his faith, and his commitment to the causes of freedom, justice and self-determination. Jones was born into slavery in Sussex County, Delaware on November 6, 1746. During the 72 years of his life, he grew to become one of the foremost leaders among persons of African descent during the post-revolutionary period. In his younger years in Delaware, Absalom sought help to learn to read. When he was 16, his owner Benjamin Wynkoop brought him to Philadelphia where he served as a clerk and handyman in a retail store. He was able to work for himself in the evenings and keep his earnings. He also briefly attended a school run by the Quakers where he learned mathematics and handwriting. In 1770, he married Mary Thomas and purchased her freedom. It was until 1784 that he obtained his own freedom through manumission. He also owned several properties. During this period, he met Richard Allen, who became a life-long friend. In 1787, they organized the Free African Society as a social, political and humanitarian organization helping widows and orphans and assisting in sick relief and burial expenses. Jones and Allen were also lay preachers at St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church, Philadelphia, PA where their evangelistic efforts met with great success and their congregation multiplied ten-fold. As a result, racial tensions flared and ultimately they led an historic walk out from St.
    [Show full text]
  • Freeborn Garrettson and African Methodism
    Methodist History, 37: 1 (October 1998) BLACK AND WHITE AND GRAY ALL OVER: FREEBORN GARRETTSON AND AFRICAN METHODISM IAN B. STRAKER Historians, in describing the separation of Africans from the Methodist Episcopal Church at the tum of the 19th century, have defined that separation by the possible reasons for its occurrence rather than the context within which it occurred.' Although all historians acknowledge, to some degree, that racial discrimination led to separate houses of worship for congregants of African descent, few have probed the ambivalence of that separation as a source of perspective on both its cause and degree; few have both blamed and credited the stolid ambiguity of Methodist racial interaction for that separation. Instead, some historians have emphasized African nationalism as a rea­ son for the departure of Africans from the Methodist Episcopal Church, cit­ ing the human dignity and self-respect Africans saw in the autonomy of sep­ arate denominations. Indeed, faced with segregated seating policies and with the denial of both conference voting rights and full ordination, Africans struck out on their own to prove that they were as capable as whites of fully con­ ducting their own religious lives. Other historians have placed the cause for the separation within the more benign realm of misunderstandings by the Africans about denominational polity, especially concerning the rights of local congregations to own and control church property. The accuracy of each point of view notwithstanding, black hnd white racial interaction in early Methodism is the defining context with which those points of view must be reconciled. Surely, a strident nationalism on the part of Africans would have required a renunciation, or even denunciation, of white Methodists and "their" church, which is simply not evident in the sources.
    [Show full text]
  • NOTES and DOCUMENTS the African Methodists of Philadelphia
    NOTES AND DOCUMENTS The African Methodists of Philadelphia, 1794-1802 The story of the exodus of the black Methodists from St. George's Church in Philadelphia in the late eighteenth century and the subse- quent founding of Bethel African Methodist Church was first told by Richard Allen in a memoir written late in his life.1 Allen's story, fa- mous as a symbol of black independence in the Revolutionary era, il- lustrates the extent to which interracial dynamics characterized social life and popular religion in post-Revolutionary Philadelphia. The birth of Allen's congregation in the city was not an accident: Philadelphia's free black population had grown rapidly with the migration of ex-slaves attracted by Pennsylvania's anti-slavery laws and jobs afforded by the city's expanding commercial economy. The founding of the church also highlights the malleable character of American religion at this time; the ways religious groups became rallying points for the disenfranchised, the poor, and the upwardly mobile; and the speed and confidence with which Americans created and re-created ecclesiastical structures and enterprises. Despite the significance of this early black church, historians have not known the identities of the many black Philadelphians who became Methodists in the late eighteenth century, either those joining Allen's *I want to thank Richard Dunn, Gary Nash, and Jean Soderlund for their thoughtful comments, and Brian McCloskey, St. George's United Methodist Church, Philadelphia 1 Richard Allen, The Life Experience and Gospel Labours of the Rt. Rev Rtchard Allen (Reprint edition, Nashville, TN, 1960) My description of the black community in late eighteenth-century Philadelphia is based on Gary B Nash, "Forging Freedom The Eman- cipation Experience in the Northern Seaport Cities, 1775-1820" in Ira Berlin and Ronald Hoffman, eds., Slavery and Freedom tn the Age of the American Revolution, Perspectives on the American Revolution (Charlottesville, VA, 1983), 3-48.
    [Show full text]
  • Beginnings of a Black Theology and Its Social Impact Black Theology Was the Stream of African Theology That First Developed in America As a Layman Philosophy
    Beginnings of a Black Theology and its Social Impact Black Theology was the stream of African Theology that first developed in America as a layman philosophy. For African Americans, the Bible at that time was the main source of information on Africa. The Psalm 68:31 served as the basis for the construction of an entire ideology of “Ethiopia” with which they meant, Africa. Out of it, Absalom Jones and Richard Allen composed: "May he who hath arisen to plead our cause, and engaged you as volunteers in the service, add to your numbers until the princes shall come from Egypt and Ethiopia stretch out her hand unto God.”1 This entire complex of beliefs and attitudes towards Africa, missions and the Back-to Africa impetus was very much incarnated in the person and work of Bishop Henry McNeal Turner (1834- 1915). In 1851, he joined the Methodist Church where he was later assigned deacon and elder and even, bishop. When Turner heard a speech of Crummell, this marked a turning point in his young life. But he first started a military and political career in the States until appointed chaplain by President Abraham Lincoln and later elected twice into the House of Representatives in Georgia. Here, he and other Blacks were prohibited from taking their seats.2 The ideas of African American missionary work in Africa and the return to this continent as the only way for Blacks to find justice; became Turner’s motivating force. He called for reparations for the years of slavery in order to finance the repatriation.
    [Show full text]
  • On Absalom and Freedom February 17, 2019: the Sixth Sunday After the Epiphany the Rev. Emily Williams Guffey, Christ Church Detroit Luke 6:17-26
    On Absalom and Freedom February 17, 2019: The Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany The Rev. Emily Williams Guffey, Christ Church Detroit Luke 6:17-26 Yesterday I was at the Cathedral along with several of you for the Feast of Blessed Absalom Jones, who was the first black person to be ordained as an Episcopal priest. Absalom Jones had been born into slavery; he was separated from his family at a very young age, when his master sold his mother and all of his siblings, and took only Absalom along with him to a new city--to Philadelphia--where Absalom worked in the master’s store as a slave. The master did allow Absalom to go to a night school there in Philadelphia for enslaved people, and there Absalom learned to read; he learned math; he learned how to save what he could along the way. He married a woman named Mary and, saving his resources, was able to purchase her freedom. He soon saved enough to purchase his own freedom as well, although his master did not permit it. It would be years until his master finally allowed Absalom to purchase his own freedom. And when he did, Absalom continued to work in the master’s store, receiving daily wages. It was also during this time that Absalom came to attend St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. Since Methodism had grown as a form of Anglicanism back in England, this was a time before the Methodist Church had come into its own denomination distinct from the Episcopal Church.
    [Show full text]
  • History of Religions in Freehold Township
    HISTORY OF RELIGIONS IN FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP Compiled By Father Edward Jawidzik of St. Robert Bellarmine Catholic Church For Freehold Township Historic Preservation Commission Compiled In 2003 (Updated 2016) BETHEL AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH 3 WATERWORKS RD. PO BOX 541 FREEHOLD, N.J. 07728 PHONE 732-462-0826 FAX 732-462-7015 HISTORY Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church was founded in 1867. A new structure was completed in 1988. The church was relocated to its present location. Bethel Church was an Episcopal form of church government where bishops of the African Methodist Episcopal Church appoint pastors. It is a worldwide church denomination with congregations in South America, Europe, Africa, Canada, Bermuda, The Caribbean Islands and the United States. Founded In 1787 By Rev. Richard Allen. This first leader was a former slave. The African Methodist Episcopal Church is divided into 19 Episcopal Districts. It was under the pastoral leadership of Rev. Malcolm S. Steele that Bethel experienced its greatest progress, development and growth. Rev. Steele was appointed to Bethel in 1966 and served until his retirement in 2000. COLTS NECK REFORMED CHURCH 72 ROUTE 537 W. P.O. BOX 57 COLTS NECK, N.J. 07722 PHONE 732-462-4555 FAX 732-866-9545 WEBSITE: http://www.cnrc.info--email: [email protected] HISTORY The First Reformed Protestant Church of Freehold, now known as Old Brick Reformed Church of Marlboro and was founded In 1699. Preaching in the area that is now Colts Neck; however was done in homes, barns and schoolhouses for the next 150 Years. The Colts Neck Reformed Church was organized as a sister congregation of the Freehold Church on Tuesday, April 22, 1856.
    [Show full text]
  • AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORIC PLACES in SOUTH CAROLINA ////////////////////////////// September 2015
    AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORIC PLACES IN SOUTH CAROLINA ////////////////////////////// September 2015 State Historic Preservation Office South Carolina Department of Archives and History should be encouraged. The National Register program his publication provides information on properties in South Carolina is administered by the State Historic in South Carolina that are listed in the National Preservation Office at the South Carolina Department of Register of Historic Places or have been Archives and History. recognized with South Carolina Historical Markers This publication includes summary information about T as of May 2015 and have important associations National Register properties in South Carolina that are with African American history. More information on these significantly associated with African American history. More and other properties is available at the South Carolina extensive information about many of these properties is Archives and History Center. Many other places in South available in the National Register files at the South Carolina Carolina are important to our African American history and Archives and History Center. Many of the National Register heritage and are eligible for listing in the National Register nominations are also available online, accessible through or recognition with the South Carolina Historical Marker the agency’s website. program. The State Historic Preservation Office at the South Carolina Department of Archives and History welcomes South Carolina Historical Marker Program (HM) questions regarding the listing or marking of other eligible South Carolina Historical Markers recognize and interpret sites. places important to an understanding of South Carolina’s past. The cast-aluminum markers can tell the stories of African Americans have made a vast contribution to buildings and structures that are still standing, or they can the history of South Carolina throughout its over-300-year- commemorate the sites of important historic events or history.
    [Show full text]
  • Sixty–First Commencement Exercises
    Sixty–First Commencement Exercises INTERDENOMINATIONAL THEOLOGICAL CENTER Saturday, the Twenty-Seventh of February Two Thousand and Twenty-One One O’Clock P.M. ET VIRTUAL COMMENCEMENT Rev. Matthew Wesley Williams, M.Div., '04, President Interdenominational Theological Center Commencement, February 27, 2021 COMMENCEMENT The term “commencement” is derived from a practice in the medieval university where it was customary for a candidate for an academic degree (bachelor’s, master’s, or doctorate) to present a public lecture of disputation to the faculty and other scholars gathered to hear it. If the disputation was successfully defended and accepted, the candidate was granted the degree with all the rights, privileges, and responsibilities pertaining thereto. The first public lecture of disputation was originally called an “inception.” It signified the beginning or commencement of the scholar’s academic career in the area in which a degree had been granted. The ceremony surrounding this inception or “graduation” from “bachelor” to “master” and eventually to “doctor” has subsequently come to be called Commencement. Today, the Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC) celebrates the Sixty-First Commencement Convocation. ____________________________________________________________________ THE CEREMONIAL MACE During the Middle Ages, the mace was an effective weapon in battle, but as newer and more powerful military arms developed, it was transformed into a symbol of authority. The earliest ceremonial maces were borne by bodyguards of 12th Century English and French kings. By the end of the 16th Century, they were used widely by officials of English cities and towns. Today, the ceremonial mace is found in the British Houses of Parliament and is frequently carried in ecclesiastical processions and in university convocations and commencement ceremonies.
    [Show full text]
  • Richard Allen and the Prehistory of Engaged Community Learning at Hbcus
    © 2011, Elizabeth Kimball. Richard Allen and the Prehistory of Engaged Community Learning at HBCUs Elizabeth Kimball, Drew University This essay argues that African American church founder Richard Allen (1760-1831) developed a rhetorical pedagogy that prefigures the community literacy partnerships of later Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). While Allen did not enjoy the material opportunities of institutionalized higher learning, we can interpret passages from his autobiography as a rhetorical pedagogy that affirms the ways of knowing in language of his community, suggests a relationship between language and the truth, and points toward a community pedagogy rooted in language. Allen also figures as •••••••••••••••••••••••••• a rhetor whose own higher literacy is sponsored by his community, and who returns his rhetorical power to the community for its own betterment. These same dimensions can be witnessed in the pedagogies of later nineteenth-century African American educators, particularly that of Fanny Jackson Coppin of the Institute for Colored Youth, and Daniel A. Payne of Wilberforce University. Moreover, Allen’s very lack of formalized schooling affords us a way of reframing contemporary efforts in university and community partnerships, and offers compelling precedent for Linda Flower’s model of inquiry. For African American higher learning, community literacy partnerships are not merely an additive element of a traditional curriculum; instead, •••••••••••••••••••••••••• they are the lifeblood of the school itself.
    [Show full text]
  • Pastor of Bethel A, M. E. Church
    —B"2"— REV, JOSEPH S. THOMPSON, Pastor of Bethel A, M. E. Church. PHILADELPHIA; PA, 5 ll.I.ori ,). Holland, Book and Job Printer, HEM bombard Stri $3? 1881. «Q iOM BETHEL K -B"2T— REV. JOSEPH S. THOMPSON Pastor of Bethel A, M, E, Church. PHILADELPHIA, PA. Robert J. Holland, Book and Job Printer, 1034 Lombard Street. 1881. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1881, by JOSEPH S. THOMPSON, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washing'on, D. C. BETHEL GLEANINGS. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I —Why and when was the A. M. E. Church founded, and who the founders were. CHAPTER II.—Biography of Rt. Rev. Richard Allen. CHAPTER III.—Bethel A. M. E. Church, Philadelphia, Pa. Sketches of some of her prominent members with a record of the different pastors, official members, and general officers of the connection. BETHEL GLEANINGS. INTRODUCTION. One by one the old land-marks are removed. New faces, new buildings appear, and soon the last representatives of an age filled with trials, and struggles, will have passed away. It is therefore necessary to seize time by the forelock and collect what we can in order that some record may be preserved, for the bene­ fit of those who are about to take the place of those who have finished their course. The present generation has no conception of the trials of the generations which preceded them. To-day every door is opened, the way is clear and all is peace. When we look back fifty years we find nothing but utter darkness, and almost despair.
    [Show full text]
  • Theologian, Musician, Author and Educator
    Theologian, Musician, Author and Educator The gift collections of Dr. Jon Michael Spencer A Catalogue of Books, Microfilm, Journals and Vertical Files Donated to the L. Douglas Wilder Library Virginia Union University Compiled by Suzanne K. Stevenson, Special Collections Librarian Michelle A. Taylor, Technical Services Librarian Library Bibliography Series ©Spring 2002 1 PREFACE Since 1998, Dr. Jon Michael Spencer has donated more than 1,100 books from his personal research library as well as selected journals, microfilm of historic papers and research documentation to the L. Douglas Wilder Library at Virginia Union University. The subject areas reflect his specialties in the history and theology of African-American sacred and secular music, African history and slave culture, and African-American history and sociology. The collection includes a significant number of hymnals from various denominations. The former University of Richmond music and American studies professor is now a professor of religious studies at the University of South Carolina. He earned a music degree from Hampton University and completed graduate work in music composition as well as theology at Washington University and Duke Divinity School. Spencer donated this extensive collection to VUU for several reasons. Until the summer 2000, he was a resident of Richmond and VUU was the city’s African American university. As well, VUU has a School of Theology and Spencer has published extensively in the area of religion. Finally, his architect father, John H. Spencer, participated in the design of the Wilder library. It is in the elder Spencer’s name that Dr. Spencer has donated his collections. The books are housed in the library’s closed collections.
    [Show full text]
  • METHODIST HISTORY April 2020 Volume LVIII Number 3
    METHODIST HISTORY April 2020 Volume LVIII Number 3 The Reverend Absalom Jones (1746-1818) EDITORIAL BOARD Christopher J. Anderson, Yale Divinity School Library Morris Davis, Drew University Sharon Grant, Hood Theological Seminary A. V. Huff, Furman University Russell Richey, Duke Divinity School James M. Shopshire, Sr., Wesley Theological Seminary Emeritus Ian Straker, Howard University Douglas Strong, Seattle Pacific University Robert J. Williams, Retired GCAH General Secretary Anne Streaty Wimberly, Interdenominational Theological Center Charles Yrigoyen, Jr., Wesley Theological Seminary Assistant Editors Michelle Merkel-Brunskill Christopher Rodkey Nancy E. Topolewski Book Review Editor Jane Donovan Cover: The cover image is a grayscale version of an oil on paper on board portait painted by Raphaelle Peale in 1810. See article by Anna Louise Bates (p. 133) detailing the Methodist response to the yellow fever outbreaks in Philadelphia in the 1790s. Absalom Jones and Richard Allen were key Methodist figures in organizing the African-American community to assist during this crisis. METHODIST HISTORY (ISSN 0026-1238) is published quarterly for $35.00 per year to addresses in the U.S. by the General Commission on Archives and History of The United Methodist Church (GCAH), 36 Madison Avenue, Madison, NJ 07940. Printed in the U.S.A. Back issues are available. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to METHODIST HISTORY, P.O. Box 127, Madison, NJ 07940 or email [email protected]. Methodist History, 58:3 (April 2020) “GIVE GLORY to GOD BEFORE HE CAUSE DARKNESS:” METHODISTS AND YELLOW FEVER IN PHILADELPHIA, 1793–1798 Anna Louise Bates In 1793, an outbreak of yellow fever swept through Philadelphia, the young American Republic’s capital city and foremost urban center.
    [Show full text]