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Copyright by Paul Andre' Minifee 2007 Copyright by Paul Andre’ Minifee 2007 The Dissertation Committee for Paul Andre’ Minifee certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Roots of Black Rhetoric: African Methodist Episcopal Zion’s Pioneering Preacher-Politicians Committee: Linda Ferreira-Buckley, Co-Supervisor Joanna Brooks, Co-Supervisor Helena Woodard John Ruszkiewicz Patricia Roberts-Miller Cleophus LaRue Roots of Black Rhetoric: African Methodist Episcopal Zion’s Pioneering Preacher-Politicians by Paul Andre’ Minifee, B.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of Graduate School of the University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2008 Acknowledgements First, I give honor to God who has brought me thus far and never forsaken me during this long and arduous journey. Thank you, Lord, for giving my life purpose. To my parents, Dr. Paul K. and Pamela K. Minifee, thank you for your countless sacrifices, which enabled me to seek and achieve my educational and career goals, and for instilling in me strong values and a sense of ambition. You are my models of success. My dynamic siblings, Kristin, Christopher, and Michael, grandmother, Carrie Thompson, and wonderful aunts and cousins, I thank you all for your encouragement, love, and prayers. I dedicate this dissertation to my grandmother, Ollie Mae Minifee, who recently passed. She was a venerable teacher and strong believer in the virtues of education and prayed many a night that I would reach this point. Even before I’d begun my doctoral studies she insisted on proudly announcing me as “Professuh Minifee.” And to my grandfathers, Willie D. Minifee and Roy Thompson, who now look down from Heaven, I have never forgotten your lessons on how to be a responsible man of integrity and compassion. To my distinguished supervisors, Linda Ferreira-Buckley and Joanna Brooks, I thank you for your belief in me and the value of my work, and for your tireless dedication to making me a better scholar and teacher. And to committee members, Helena Woodard, John Ruszkiewicz, Patricia “Trish” Roberts-Miller and Cleophus LaRue, I am grateful for your investment of time, thought, and energy in my project, and for the fruits of our many conversations that will undoubtedly prepare me for the next phases of my journey. I want to particularly acknowledge John’s role in “recruiting” me to rhetoric, even while I was an undergrad, and for Helena’s part in introducing me to my life hero, Fredrick Douglass. iv I am especially grateful for the support of many colleagues at the University of Notre Dame who awarded me three different fellowships, the Erskine Peters Dissertation Fellowship, John S. Marten Program in Homiletics Fellowship, and University Writing Program Pre-Doctoral Fellowship. To Richard Pierce, Hugh Page, John Cavadini, John Melloh, Stuart Greene, and John Duffy I thank you all for facilitating the development of my research, for acculturating me into academia, and for modeling how to balance scholarship, citizenship, family, and self. I consider my years at Notre Dame to be the most crucial to my growth as a servant of God and man. And to my dear friend Reanna Ursin, who helped me survive three bone-chilling years in South Bend, thank you for holding me accountable to being my best self. I have numerous mentors, colleagues, and friends to acknowledge. First, to Rev. Thurmond and Cora Coleman, I thank you for your love and prayers over the years and for taking me in as one of your own children. Dr. Margarita Arellano, you were the first to greet me and believe in my potential when I stepped onto UT’s campus as a freshman and you were there when I walked across the stage to receive my doctorate. For sixteen years you have been my mentor, campus “mother,” and inspiration. You are appreciated. To my fellow Longhorns with whom I studied hard and danced even harder—Olin Bjork, Lee Rumbarger, Jan Fernheimer, and Veronica House, to name a few—thanks for being such loyal and encouraging friends, for always lending a listening ear, and for helping me to stay focused when I needed to be. I also wish to thank my dearest friends Keith Huang, John Bailey, and Carla Palmer, who gave me shelter while I conducted research in New York City and D.C. and never let me forget who I am and where I came from. v I would like to acknowledge the invaluable resources at the Schomburg Library in Harlem, Union Theological Seminary in New York City, the U.S. Library of Congress, and the University of North Carolina’s Documenting the American South Project. Without these archives my project would not have been possible. Finally, I want to thank my colleagues and friends at San Diego State University, particularly Glen McClish and Jacqueline Bacon, whose consistent sacrifices and genuine support enabled me to finally transform a promising dissertation into a “done” dissertation. Thank you for believing in me and for graciously welcoming me to my new job and home in San Diego. And to Rev. Diedrick Graham, thank you for “harmonizing” with me, for reminding me that God can make beautiful music with broken instruments. vi Roots of Black Rhetoric: African Methodist Episcopal Zion’s Pioneering Preacher-Politicians Publication No. ________ Paul Andre’ Minifee, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2008 Supervisors: Linda Ferreira-Buckley and Joanna Brooks In his seminal work The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B DuBois aptly states, “The Preacher is the most unique personality developed by the Negro on American soil.” At once a spiritual leader, social-political activist, educator, idealist, and businessman, the antebellum black preacher was the idiosyncratic product of a soil contaminated with racism and sullied with hate. Despite this antagonistic environment, what enabled his ascension to the head of black culture was “a certain adroitness with deep-seated earnestness” and “tact with consummate ability.” As shepherd and statesman, the black preacher embodied virtues and talents representative of the potential of his people and set the standards for community investment and civic action. He was the model of character for the race. My dissertation introduces scholars to an overlooked yet monumental institution in African American history, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, as well as two of its pioneering preacher-politicians, Bishop Jermain W. Loguen and Bishop James W. Hood. My study of these nineteenth-century AME Zion preacher-politicians exposes overlooked features of black rhetoric, challenges predominant perceptions of the black vii preaching tradition, and provides an alternative perspective on how to examine the persuasive appeals of black rhetoricians. Through rhetorical analyses of letters, speeches, and sermons—archival materials from the Schomburg Library and Union Theological Seminary in New York—I show that in addition to employing emotional appeals to draw the sympathies of whites and allay the lamentations of blacks, these black ministers also effectively wielded logical arguments to demonstrate their capabilities as reasoners in philosophical debates and intellectuals with original thoughts. However, most importantly, these black preachers’ ethical appeals in written texts, public sermons and speeches, and actions as model citizens served multiple practical and salutary ends for the uplift of African Americans. viii Table of Contents Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………...iv Abstract………………………………………………………………………vii Introduction: Men of Letters, Ministers of Character………………………....1 Part One Man of Letters, Minister of Freedom: Rhetoric of Rev. Jermain W. Loguen …………………………………………………………………………………33 Part Two Rhetoric of Rev. James W. Hood: AME Zion’s Pioneering Preacher-Politician …………………………………………………………………………………98 Conclusion: Content of Character……………………………………………180 Works Cited…………………………………………………………………..193 Vita……………………………………………………………………………205 ix Introduction: Men of Letters, Ministers of Character 1 Introduction: Men of Letters, Ministers of Character The Negro church of today is the social centre of Negro life in the United States, and the most characteristic expression of African character. W.E.B. DuBois The Souls of Black Folk Besides leading thousands of African American slaves of the nineteenth century to freedom, playing key roles in abolitionist movements and the Underground Railroad, what else do freedom fighters Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and Frederick Douglass have in common? They were all active members of an African Methodist Episcopal Zion church. Founded in 1796 in New York City by James Varick and Abraham Thompson, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, like its denominational rival the African Methodist Episcopal Church, spawned from the dissatisfaction among people of color congregating at predominately white churches. Denied religious liberty and subjected to various discriminatory practices, black members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in New York City felt it necessary to form their own church (and denomination), one “dedicated to the liberation of the human spirit.” Known as the “Freedom Church,” the AME Zion church endeavored for spiritual, social, political and economic emancipation among people of all races and stood at the forefront of the antislavery movement. William Walls, a historiographer of the A.M.E. Zion Church, notes that: When the doors of all the other churches and the public halls and theaters were closed to abolitionists and friends of emancipation, the doors of the Zion church were always open to them. It naturally became the forum of the proudest triumphs of Afro-American orators. (141) While most northern white and black churches shut their doors to heated slavery debates, AME Zion churches welcomed and fueled the fiery orations of abolitionists in search of public forums. By far the most eminent speaker ever to deliver an oration in a Zion 2 church was Frederick Douglass. In fact, it was in a little school-house church, known as Zion, in New Bedford, Massachusetts where Douglass first received the training that would prepare him for his career as an orator and abolitionist.
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