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MIAMI UNIVERSITY The Graduate School

Certificate for Approving the Dissertation

We hereby approve the Dissertation

of

David Jason Childs

Candidate for the Degree:

Doctor of Philosophy

______Director (Dr. Kate Rousmaniere)

______Reader (Dr. Mark Giles)

______Reader (Dr. Kathleen Knight-Abowitz)

______

______

______Graduate School Representative (Dr. Carla Pestana) ABSTRACT

The and African American Education: The African Methodist Episcopal Church Educating for Liberation, 1816-1893

By David J. Childs

Many Americans in the nineteenth century argued for limited education for blacks –or no education at all for African Americans in the south. As a result, black churches took up the role and pushed for education as a means to liberate African Americans.1 The African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church stands as a good exemplar for a black denomination that explicitly expressed in their policies that they understood the connection of education to African American liberation. This study is a historical analysis of the AME Church’s advocacy of African American empowerment through education from 1816 to 1893. In the AME Church’s nineteenth century doctrinal statements and publications the leaders explicitly stated that education was a necessary component for black liberation. In this dissertation I argue that, although there were other organizations that pushed for African American education in the nineteenth century, the African Methodist Episcopal Church stood at the fore in advocating for education and connecting it to African American liberation. My primary question is: How did the AME Church connect their advocacy for black education to liberation for African Americans in the nineteenth century? The dissertation will explore two aspects of liberation in the nineteenth century. During the first half of the nineteenth century–from the AME Church’s founding in 1816 through the end of the Civil war in 18652–the Church worked toward a liberation that was

1 Elliot, G.M. “We Must Educate”. AME Church Review. (April 1885): 330-34. 2 Chapter Three begins in 1816 with the founding of the AME Church and ends in 1865 the end of the Civil War. 1865 is also significant because was officially abolished in December of the same year with the passing of the 13th Amendment. focused on the abolition of slavery and overcoming racial oppression. In the latter half of the nineteenth century from 1865 to 1893 –with the death of Bishop Payne– the AME Church focused on a liberation that was geared toward the notions of uplift and self- agency within the black community, namely black social, economic, and political advancement. The last chapter will examine how this historical analysis has implications for transforming African American education in present times. The text will examine the black church and its ability to empower the African American community through education, focusing on research that has been done on the role of the contemporary black church in African American education. THE BLACK CHURCH AND AFRICAN AMERICAN EDUCATION: THE AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH EDUCATING FOR LIBERATION, 1816-1893

A DISSERTATION

Submitted to the Faculty of Miami University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Department of Educational Leadership

by

David Childs Miami University Oxford, 2009

Dissertation Director: Kate Rousmaniere

©

David Childs

2009

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT………………………………………...………………………………...……. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.……………………………………..…………….………….v DEDICATION…………….……………………………………..…………….………..viii

CHAPTER

I. “A CHOSEN GENERATION, A PECULIAR PEOPLE” THE BLACK CHURCH IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY………………………….….…..1

The Author’s Autobiographical Statement…………………………………….….2 Opening Narrative: Discrimination against Black Methodist Episcopal Members ……………...…………………………………………………………….……….5 Introduction………………………………………………………………….…….6 Scope of the Dissertation………………………………………………………….8 Implications of Dissertation………………………………………………..……..9 Definition of Key Terms and Concepts………………………………………….10 Historiography of the Black Church Prior to the Twentieth Century……………21 Historiography of the African Methodist Episcopal Church Prior to the Twentieth Century…………………………………………………………………………...28 Historiography of the Black Church and Education Prior to the Twentieth Century ……………………………………………………………………………………31 Chapter Outline……………………………………………………………….….40

II. “MY PEOPLE ARE DESTROYED FOR LACK OF KNOWLEDGE”: AFRICAN AMERICAN EDUCATION IN THE NINTEENTH CENTURY……………………………………………………….…………..…..42

Narrative of the First School Owned by African Americans……….…………....44

ii Introduction………………………………………………………………………45 Black Education Prior to the Twentieth Century………………………………...46 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………….....66

III. “WHERE THERE IS NO VISION THE PEOPLE PERISH”: THE AME CHURCH AND EDUCATION FOR LIBERATION, 1816-1865……………....67

Opening Narrative of the Life of AME Bishop ………..…………69 Introduction…………………………………………………………...………….71 The AME Founding and the Church’s Position on Slavery……...…....………...72 The Antebellum AME Church Educating for Liberation………………..………77 AME and Education in the …………………………..………81 Richard Allen and Antebellum Black Education………………………………...83 Conclusion……………………………………………………………...….…….90

IV“THE FEAR OF THE LORD IS THE BEGINNING OF KNOWLEDGE”: THE AME CHURCH AND EDUCATION FOR LIBERATION, 1865-1893…………………………………………………...…………….…...... 91 Educational Biography of AME Bishop Payne…………………...……………..93 Introduction…………………………………………………………...……….....94 Black Education after the Civil War……………………….………….………....98 The AME Church and Liberal Education …………………….…..……..……..103 The AME Church Establishing Institutions of Higher Education for Liberation…………………………………………………………….…..……..104 The AME Church Educating for Liberation after the Civil War……………….110 Conclusion……………………………………………………………...………124

V. “THE CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE MATTER”: HISTORIC BLACK CHURCH VALUES TRANSFORMING CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN AMERICAN EDUCATION………………………….…………………….…..126

iii The State of Contemporary African American Education and the Black Church’s Ability to Transform it…………..…………….…………...…..…...…..………128 The Role of the Black Church in Contemporary Education………….………...132 African American Liberation and Education…………………………….……..145 Summary and Conclusion of Dissertation……………………………...………146

VI. BIBLIOGRAPHY………………..………..………………………….…….153

iv Acknowledgements

A good educational program goes beyond the standard, traditional, prescribed course of study and compels one to think critically about the world and teaches one to grow as a human being. It offers a journey and experience that is life changing. My experience as a doctoral student at Miami University has provided me with such a rich education. This particular journey I have traveled has been wrought with pain, struggle, joy and exhilaration. But I would not have been able to come to the end of this season of my life without the very special people who have helped me along the way. I would first like to acknowledge Jesus Christ my Lord and savior, who has given me the strength to overcome such a heavy burden called a Ph.D. program. I have grown closer in my relationship with him. Theorizing, pondering life, praying and meditating on God’s word for the last four years has helped me grow spiritually. I still remember being that kid lost in second grade in an inner city classroom, struggling with this notion of academics. God has given me the strength and wisdom today, to overcome those struggles, to use education as a tool to empower others who are like me. I would like to give special thanks to my wife Alundra Childs. She is a woman of God, with seemingly endless patience. During the many years that I have been in graduate school, she has stood by me, supported me, loved me, and prayed for me. Alundra, you are beautiful on the inside and out. I share this Ph.D. with you. Thanks to my wonderful children who are very near and dear to me. I don’t know where I would be without them. My daughter Symone is very special, she is the little intellectual who troubled and challenged me with questions for which I often did not have the answers. David is my only begotten son. He is smart, quiet, creative, inventive, and thoughtful. He kept me grounded throughout this process. Little, sweet Hannah, my baby daughter, made me laugh, when I was so stressed out from the dissertation that I could scream. I also reserve special thanks for Granny (Susie Jordan) who is no longer with us, but I leaned on her many times during this process. I am sincerely grateful to my doctoral committee at Miami University. Thank you for your honesty, patience, frankness, intelligence and reasonableness. Dr. Kate Rousmaniere (my dissertation chair and doctoral advisor), is an impressive scholar and

v first rate historian, who balances many different tasks at once, but still makes one feel special and gives them the utmost personal attention. That attribute is one of the things that I have always liked about her, and has gotten me through my doctoral studies. Dr. Mark Giles is an excellent scholar, and shared a tremendous wealth of knowledge on African American studies and history with me; thanks. Dr. Kathleen Knight-Abowitz, is one of the hardest workers I know. I have great respect for her attention to detail, and her knowledge of philosophy of education. I am glad she was on my committee. Dr. Pestana is one of the finest, most detail-oriented historians I know. She was my advisor for some time in the history department and she has helped me develop as a historian, and assisted me in learning to pay attention to detail within my sources. I would not have wanted to do a historical monograph without Dr. Pestana; thanks. There were many other faculty and staff members at Miami, and other universities that poured their knowledge and heart into me, to whom I am indebted. Some of those folks include: Dr. Denise Taliafarro-Baszille –I thank her for her real-ness, Dr. Ellen Bueschel –for her incredible kindness and excellent teaching abilities, Dr. Michael Dantley, for his mentorship and spiritual guidance, Dr. Richard Quantz –one of the most intelligent scholars I know, Dr. Edwin Yamauchi –one of the foremost ancient historians of our times, Dr. Tammy Schwartz and her work with the Urban Teacher Cohort, and Dr. Mary Jane Berman–my mother in the academy. I would like to thank Dr. Jacqueline Brown at the archives, for her patience and expertise. I also offer my gratitude to Dr. Pamela Hoff at the College of Mount Saint Joseph for her guidance and leadership in the Upward Bound Program. I am also indebted to my colleagues in the doctoral program at Miami University. Their insight, intellectual discussions, and camaraderie were invaluable to me. These folks include Donovan Webber –a scholar, Christian and a friend in his own right, James Campbell (B-Fam), Baptiste –my fellow brotha’ in the doctoral struggle, Dr. Moses Rumano, Andrea Tyler, Kevin Smith, and Kweku Ocran. I will be forever indebted to my family. I will forever appreciate my dad Hezekiah Childs Jr. and the countless wisdom he poured into me, and for his spiritual leadership. Thanks to my mom, Jacqueline Childs, for the decades that she prayed for me and loved me. I would not be here without my wonderful and Godly parents. I cannot forget my

vi seven brothers and sisters who have always been my friends: Angie, Tim, Hezekiah III, Stephanie, Leah, Michael, and Jackie. I am also grateful to my best friends Marcus Richardson, Deacon William Sherman, and Shareef As-samad for all of their support throughout the years. Thanks to all my partners from back in the day: Adam Childs, Bryant Richardson, Anthony Smith, Hosea Burnett, Bruce Curtis, Elder Bradford, Elder Jason Smith, C.J. Simmons, and Minister Jeff Neal. Thanks to all of my students and all of the people I have forgotten. This one is for you guys.

vii Dedication

I dedicate this work to my beautiful and gifted wife, Alundra, the finest piano player I’ve ever met. This is also a tribute to my son David Jalen –“boss”– and my beautiful daughters, Alundra Symone and Hannah Marie for their patience and unshakable faith in me. Always remember that we “can do all things through Christ, who strengthens us”. I also dedicate this work to “the great cloud of witnesses” that have gone before us. One such person was Susie Jordan “Granny”, who went home to be with the Lord over a year before I completed my doctoral program.

Susie Jordan July 2, 1914 — February 19, 2008

viii

CHAPTER 1 “A CHOSEN GENERATION, A PECULIAR PEOPLE”: THE BLACK CHURCH IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY3

3 The phrase “a chosen generation, a peculiar people” derives from 1 Peter 2:9 in the James Bible. Here I chose to use this phrase because it is a common verse used in the African American church to indicate special-ness, and uniqueness of the African American Christian experience. In this way, despite the persecution, discrimination and hardships African Americans experience in life, God has still chosen them for a special task in his kingdom and loves them unconditionally.

1 THE AUTHOR’S AUTOBIGRAPHICAL STATEMENT OF THE BLACK CHURCH AND EDUCATION

I experienced the transformative educational work of the black church first hand, having spent my childhood in a predominantly African American church that I will call Mount Zion Community Church. I attended the modest church throughout my childhood and teenage years during the 1980s and 1990s. Mount Zion Church was located in inner city Ohio, in a small store front building that held about 40-50 people at capacity. My father told me that the building had been an old doctor’s office in the mid twentieth century. The old edifice was converted into what the “saints” called “a house of prayer.”4 Mount Zion had many of the characteristics of historic black churches of the nineteenth century. The theme of liberation and overcoming one’s troubles in life economically, socially and politically through spiritual means was ever present. Also like black churches of old, Mount Zion was often a center of social life.5 Outside of the worship services, dinners and banquets were conducted, counseling sessions were held, plays and concerts were performed, weddings and funerals took place, legal matters were resolved and just good old fashioned heart to heart talks and fellowship was conducted. These activities were all a part of the church’s role. The people that attended the church came from a variety of economic situations. They were a genuinely honest and sincere group, many came from working class

4 The black church had an entire language and vernacular of its own, that often differed from mainstream Christendom. Much of the popular jargon of the black church came from scriptural references. For example, the common practice of generally naming a church “house of prayer” comes from the scripture found in Matthew 21:13 when Jesus says “It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer.” Thus African American have adopted this phrase to describe their places of worship. Another example of the unique jargon within the black church is the practice of calling the members of the church who have been converted to “saints”. 5 A number of scholars have written about the importance of the black church as a center of African American social life. See Timothy E. Fulop and Albert Raboteau, eds., African American Religion: Interpretive Essays in History and Culture (New : Routledge, 1999) for a comprehensive collection of essays on the role of the black church in African American life. See Carter G. Woodson, The History of the Negro Church, (Washington D.C: Associated Publishers, 1921). Although Woodson’s work is dated it is still one of the definitive works on the subject. He devotes a chapter to a discussion of the various social roles played by the black church. He argues that the church offers a space for socialization that was not available in any other place for blacks during the nineteenth and early twentieth century during his time. Also see C. Eric Lincoln’s work The Black Church in the African American Experience (Durham: Duke University, 1990) for a detailed analysis of this phenomenon. Also see E. Franklin Frazier, The Negro Church in America, (New York: Schocken Books, 1974).

2 backgrounds and others were unemployed, looking for work; some were often living on public assistance. In many cases the Church provided or found employment opportunities for those in need. The leaders of Mount Zion had secured good, steady secular employment outside of the ministry. This allowed them to have the financial means to assist with the material needs of the membership as much as possible. The pastor usually did not receive any type of salary or compensation from the church; he earned his income from a secular job. The church was not designed for profit but was oriented to service the downtrodden and underprivileged in society. Mount Zion Community Church provided food, clothes, shelter, counseling, prayer and other natural and spiritual resources for those in need who attended the church, as well as many in the neighborhood who did not attend the church. One of the primary services provided free of charge was adult basic education and early childhood education. Many of the congregants had migrated from the south and only had a meager education.6 Mount Zion Church provided various types of formal and informal education. The Sunday school program was an institution established at Mount Zion’s inception –a tradition that has carried on for hundreds of years within the black church–. The Sunday school primarily provided systematic weekly courses in Christian education throughout the year. The curriculum was designed to address spiritual and material needs, and gave attention to practical and tangible solutions for day to day problems. Because many of the congregants were on various educational levels, many other academic skills were taught. For example, one consistent pedagogical practice by the teachers in the Sunday school classes was to have students read aloud from the Bible and other literature to improve their reading skills. The adult and youth instructors performed academic tasks such as offering historical knowledge during the lessons, offering essay questions that tested student retention of the course material, giving writing prompts and administering traditional tests periodically. In the primary level class some of the children who attended the church were very poor readers, reading below grade level in school; they were often able to supplement these shortcomings within church educational programs. Bible studies and summer

6 In more recent years a large Mexican immigrant population moved to the neighborhood and they too receive many of the social services offered by Mount Zion.

3 programs also fulfilled the role of raising student’s academic and intellectual abilities. Tuesday night bible study also allowed a more in-depth opportunity to address secular academic material such as literacy, writing and comprehension. In the time I have spent on my career in the academy I have noticed that much of the educational foundation I have received has come from my in the black church. My epistemology and ontology have been formed by my upbringing in the church. The oratorical platform I was frequently given at Friday night youth services honed my public speaking skills. The historical education I received in church emphasizing biblical as well as black history broadened my understanding of oppression and historical trends. The years of theological and philosophical discussions and text analysis I engaged in during Bible studies helped develop my critical thinking skills. In short, the black church fostered and acknowledged my intellectual capabilities when public schools did not. My life experiences have been instrumental in my academic development. When developing this historical dissertation it was necessary that I go back to my roots. My life and experiences in the black church have informed this research project. Everyone writes autobiographically to some extent. In other words, an individual’s experience and life story shapes their worldview and consequently influences how they write or what they write about. This is the case whether they do this consciously or unconsciously.7 My life experiences have led me to further explore the phenomenon scholars call the black church, and explore its role in African American education.

7 Diane O. and Olivia Frey, eds. Autobiographical Writing Across the Disciplines: A Reader (Durham: Duke University Press, 2003). The text offers a wonderful collection of essays of scholars who include themselves and their culture within their scholarship.

4 OPENING NARRATIVE: DISCRIMINATION AGAINST BLACK METHODIST EPISCOPAL MEMBERS, 1787

On a November Sunday morning in the year 1787 a group of African Americans attended the weekly worship services at the Old St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church8 in .9 Old St. George’s Church officials had reserved a section for African Americans, moving Reverend Richard Allen and other blacks to the gallery of the church. Upon arriving at worship that morning the church sexton directed the blacks into the gallery. After which, he informed them that as they went in that direction they would realize the appropriate places to sit. As the group continued toward the gallery they intended to sit in the seats in which they usually sat, not realizing things had changed. As the public prayer commenced, controversy arose. The white church leaders were indignant that the African Americans were sitting in the wrong section. The situation escalated when one of the officials began to physically remove -an African American minister- from his knees while he prayed, urging him repeatedly to get up, as he was not allowed to kneel in that section. In response, Absalom Jones replied “wait until prayer is over.” As another church official began to pull another black congregant from his knees the prayer was ending. By this time the African American congregants had decided they had had enough and exited the church in unison. In his autobiography Richard Allen expressed the African American congregants’ response in the following way: “we all went out of the church in a body, and they were no more plagued with us in the church.”10

8 The Methodist Episcopal Church was founded in 1787 by Bishop Asbury. The ME Church was noted in its inception for its appeal to African Americans and the working class. For more information on Methodist history see John H. Wigger, Taking Heaven by Storm: and the Rise of Popular Christianity in America. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998). 9 Richard Allen, The Life, Experience, and Gospel Labors pf the Right Reverend Richard Allen. (Philadelphia: AME Book Concern, n.d., 1833). 10 Ibid., 20.

5 INTRODUCTION

The above incident lead to the founding of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, the first church organization owned by African Americans in the . The account is indicative of the racist climate of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. This type of discrimination carried on throughout the everyday life of African Americans and was perhaps most distinct when it came to the area of education. This study is a historical analysis of the AME Church’s advocacy of African American empowerment through education from 1816-1893. African Americans have struggled to obtain adequate education since the arrival of the first in 1619. When white fear of slave escapes and revolts began to heighten in the U.S., laws were passed in the south making it illegal for African Americans to obtain an education. For example, in Mississippi one could be jailed or whipped with “thirty-nine lashes” for teaching an African American to read, as pro-slavery advocates understood that if slaves learned to read it would not be long until they began to think about freedom and liberation.11 As a result of the discriminatory society that restricted education for blacks, there were few adequate or sufficient institutions of education for them. Government organizations such as the Freedman’s Bureau and various state boards of education established small schools for African Americans in some communities, but the resources were often inadequate and the buildings were often quickly closed down.12 While proponents for universal education such as Horace Mann began to advocate for common schools –which were ostensibly public schools for all– they primarily served white males. Due to their exclusion from new government supported schools African Americans saw the church as the only consistently available institution to house formal education for blacks.

11 See Laws of the State of Mississippi. (Jackson, Miss: Passed at the Sixth Session of the General Assembly. 1823): p.60. See also Heather A. Williams, Self-Taught: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005). 12 James Anderson offers an excellent text on black education in the nineteenth century south that discusses other institutions and organizations besides the black church that facilitated formal black education. However, most reliable sources demonstrate that the black church was the primary institution that housed African American education in the nineteenth century. See James Anderson, The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988).

6 The advocacy for education in the black church can be noted in publications that were produced by African American church denominations in the nineteenth century. In the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church’s early publications its leaders and writers explicitly stated in their doctrinal statements and literature that literacy and education were a necessary component for black liberation. For example, an AME document from the Ohio Conference of the AME published in 1833 notes the Church’s clear stance on advocating for black education. It reads: “Resolved first, as the sense of the house, that common schools, Sunday schools, and temperance societies are of the highest importance to all people, but more especially to our people.”13 In the April 1885 edition of the AME Church Review G.M. Elliott Principal of a Normal School in Selma , in his article entitled “We Must Educate”, made the case for the literacy of African Americans and its connection to freedom. He states:

We remark, we can never be a people without education. If we are to this very day nothing but “hewers of wood and drawers of water,” what is the cause of it? Is it not from the very fact that we are not educated? And does this state of things indicate that we will never be anything else? We reply that education is the only means to bring us out of this condition. If we shut our eyes to opportunities before us, and fail to use the means at hand, the next twenty years will find us still in the treadmill.

Elliot made the case that it is the Christian’s responsibility and moral duty to educate people and not leave them ignorant, thus arguing that the church has an obligation to provide education for all people, namely African Americans. 14 Since many white churches argued for limited education for African Americans –or no education at all for many blacks in the south– the black churches had to take up this role. The black church was the major institution that supported and pushed for education as a means to liberate African Americans.

13 Cited by D.K. Harley, Bishop : Educating Black Saints in Ohio ((Masters Thesis, 2002), p.45, 2002. 14 Elliot, G.M. “We Must Educate”. AME Church Review. (April 1885): 330-34.

7 The AME Church stands as a good exemplar for a black denomination that explicitly expressed in their policies that they understood the connection of education to African American liberation. In the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church’s nineteenth century doctrinal statements and publications the leaders and writers explicitly stated that education was a necessary component for black liberation. In this dissertation I argue that, although there were other organizations that pushed for African American education in the nineteenth century (primarily through the auspices of black denominations) the African Methodist Episcopal Church stood at the fore in advocating for education and connecting it to African American liberation. While the dissertation will refer to the black church in a general way through out the various chapters, it will primarily focus on the educational work of the AME Church. My primary question is: How did the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church connect their advocacy for black education to liberation for African Americans in the nineteenth century? The remainder of this chapter will present the scope of the dissertation and the implications it has for contemporary African American education. A second section will introduce key terms and concepts that will be used through out this work, in order to help readers get a better sense of the topic. A third section will offer a historiography of the works that have been written on the black church and on the role of the black church in education during the nineteenth century, thereby situating the work within the intellectual discourse of African American history. The last section will provide a brief outline of the remaining chapters within the dissertation.

SCOPE OF THE DISSERTATION:

The dissertation will focus specifically on the AME Church’s advocacy for African American education in the nineteenth century in both formal and informal spaces in the United States. This is a study of the AME Church’s nineteenth century educational initiatives. While the AME was strongest and more popular in the north, this dissertation has a national scope, examining the intellectual history of the Church’s advocacy for education. The study will primarily address the role of the AME Church in elementary, secondary, and to some extent post-secondary education. This study will center on

8 various AME initiatives in black education including: an examination of AME Sunday schools and private schools, the Church’s relationship to common schools and normal schools, and some aspects of the Church’s involvement in African American higher education. Chapter Four will include a section on the AME Church and higher education, but it will not be the major focus of the study. The goal of the dissertation is to shed light on the educational opportunities that were available to nineteenth century African Americans and determine how the AME church advocated for African American education and liberation.

IMPLICATIONS OF DISSERTATION

In today’s society many of the problems that arise are a result of humanity not learning from past mistakes. For example, in the international arena in the area of human rights, nations or leaders repeat such tragedies as political scandals, wars or genocides. Leaders or governments are permitted to commit the same mistakes over and over again. While nations set up institutions to remind people of human rights catastrophes, the crimes are often repeated over and over again. This is also the case in education in regard to social justice and race relations in the Unites States. Specifically, many educational leaders seem to ignore the legacy of slavery, and segregation in the U.S., and the violent, dangerous effects they have had on black education even up to present times. Indeed, African American youth are often blamed for educational problems that are clearly systemic; and when viewed from a historic context can be readily identified as such. Thus the rationale for conducting this historical study is to show how the AME Church used education to liberate African Americans in the nineteenth century. This research has implications for discussing how the black church can similarly use education to liberate African Americans in contemporary times. The historical discussion throughout this dissertation will lay the framework for such a conversation. The educational efforts of the AME Church stand as a good example for present day educational reform. While this study focuses primarily on the AME Church, it can be said that the black church in general and its historic efforts in social justice can be the optimal

9 space for change in modern black education. Chapter Five will explore this project in more detail.

DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS

African American Education In this volume education has a very broad and multi-faceted meaning. In one sense, education includes industrial training that allowed free blacks to learn a trade for economic gain, and gave slaves the means to purchase their freedom15. It also encompasses basic literacy training and elementary academic tasks such as reading, writing, and arithmetic. In addition, it includes higher levels of learning in the classical sense, such as Greek, Latin and advanced mathematics education16. The AME Church and other black denominations of the nineteenth century had a spiritual understanding of education for African Americans as well. Thus, the definition for education in this study also consists of a moral and Biblical epistemology. For the church, learning was equated to a character education that was rooted in a Christian worldview. In other words, education was intertwined with scriptural knowledge and a spiritual understanding of society. Literacy was synonymous with ones ability to read the Bible and acquire spiritual growth17. In short, an educated person within the context of the nineteenth century AME Church was one who had received a good Christian education, and had access to liberal arts and industrial training. This broad understanding of education could liberate blacks physically through the practical benefits of being educated, and could also bring about freedom socially, economically, politically and spiritually.

15 Daniel A. Payne, Recollections of Seventy Years (Nashville: Publishing House of the AME Sunday School Union, 1888). Payne discusses the idea of blacks obtaining a trade to make a living during the nineteenth century. 16 Daniel A. Payne, A History of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (Nashville: Publishing House of the A. M. E. Sunday School Union, 1891). In Payne’s comprehensive volume of the early history of the AME Church he discusses the fact that many of the AME educational institutions offered elementary education, industrial education and a liberal arts education to African Americans. ` 17 , “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” The Classic Slave Narratives. ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (New York: Penguin Group, 2002). Jacobs’ autobiography of her life as a slave sheds light on the way slaves connected education to spiritual growth. See also Payne, A History of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

10 Black Church In this work I use the term “black church” in a very specific way. In theological language Christians understand in theory that there is one church and that the organization is one body in Christ.18 However, in keeping with the popular saying that 11am Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in the United States, racial prejudice has shaped Christian history in the U.S. for centuries and has allowed the forgery of two very distinct legacies.19 The term “black church” refers to predominantly African American Christian churches that facilitate the services and worship of black communities in the United States. While some black churches, such as the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, are black-controlled denominations, many individual black church congregations are a part of denominations controlled by whites. For example, there are some black Presbyterian churches such as McClintock Presbyterian Church in North Carolina. The McClintock Presbyterian Church came about as a result of the racial discrimination by white Presbyterian leaders against blacks during slavery. Very few white Presbyterian ministers spoke out against slavery; many of the clergy themselves were among the cruelest of slave owners. As a result of such hypocrisy, some black Presbyterians founded their own individual congregations, under the auspices of the larger white Presbyterian organization.20 Like the black Presbyterian churches, other black separatist churches within larger denominations came about as a result of the racial discrimination of white leaders. In addition, there are some black owned denominations such as the National Baptist Convention and the . Critical to any understanding of the black church is the centrality that the institution plays in African American life. Black social, political and cultural lives are often inseparable from their church world and spiritual lives.21 Carter G. Woodson elaborated on the role the black church played in African American social and cultural life. He pointed out that “the Negro church as a social force” has long been a part of

18 The Apostle Paul teaches this idea in Romans 12:5 he states “So we, [being] many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. 19 Fulop and Raboteau, Eds., African American Religion. 20 Inez Moore Parker, The Rise and Decline of the Program of Education for Black Presbyterians of the United Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., 1865-1970 (San Antonio: Trinity University Press, 1977). 21 See Lincoln, The Black Church in the African American Experience for a detailed analysis of this phenomenon. Also see Frazier, The Negro Church in America.

11 African American life. Before emancipation the black church was the sole institution whereby African Americans could freely live out their own culture without fear of reprisal. “Offering the only avenue for expressional activities of the race, the church answered many a social purpose for” for blacks.22 It was a place where friends could meet, socialize, and get caught up on the latest news and so forth. Indeed, the young African American “must go to church to meet his sweetheart”, the black farmer attends church services “to find out the developments in the business world”, and the mechanic learns “the needs of his community and how he may supply them” through regular church attendance. This sort of social interaction with acquaintances was often not available with the harsh demands of slavery; the non-threatening atmosphere of the church helped to cultivate such relationships. Many African American organizations aligned themselves with the black church. Early black leaders and associations were directly linked to the church. One prominent example included the True Reformers Fraternity founded by the minister W.W. Browne. Another example was AME minister John R. Hawkins who was a major pioneer among African American bankers.23 The African American church has been the center of black political life since antebellum times. Early slave revolts and political protests such as the controversy and the Nat Turner uprising had their impetus in the black church.24 Much has also been written about the role of the black church in the through out the mid twentieth century. This historic relationship between the black church and politics has become a commonsense notion within African American consciousness and social thought.25

African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) The AME Church came about in reaction to the prevalent racism that African Americans had experienced in the white controlled Methodist Episcopal (ME) Church. The ME Church developed from the practice of “Methodism” within the Anglican

22 Woodson, History of the Negro Church, 267. 23 Ibid., 268. 24 Powers discusses in detail how AME class meetings in Charleston were used to plan the Denmark Vesey controversy. See Bernard E. Powers, Black Charlestonians: A Social History, 1822-1885 (Fayetville: The University of Arkansas, 1994), Daniel A. Payne, Recollections of Seventy Years (Nashville, TN: Publishing House of the AME Sunday School Union, 1888). 25 Fulop and Raboteau, eds., African American Religion.

12 Church in Great Britain during the revivals of the 1730’s and 1740’s. The Church officially organized in the Unites Stated in 1784 and was lead by Frances Asbury and . The early Methodist movement attracted many blacks and even allowed African Americans and slaves to become licensed ministers and lay exhorters, serving both black and white congregations. “Methodists preachers invariably preached extemporaneously and instinctively understood the importance of speaking in the vernacular. Their message was framed in terms that made sense to the multitude of both whites and African Americans.”26 Many Methodist Churches in the south became all black congregations, as licensed black ministers were permitted to pastor slaves on plantations. A good example of this was the church founded and built by the free black shoemaker Henry Evans at the end of the eighteenth century. Evans was licensed to preach in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He was well known as a gifted orator and preacher, and soon amassed a great following among slaves and free blacks. In 1802 Evan’s congregation built their own church building, funding the entire project themselves. The notable thing about Evans –as well as many other black Methodist preachers in antebellum times– was that many white congregants soon began to follow him, and became members of his predominantly black church.27 As the numbers of black Methodist Episcopal congregants in the north and south grew in the late eighteenth century, racial prejudice also increased. This sentiment came to a head when in 1787 African American abolitionist Absalom Jones at St. George’s Church in Philadelphia was physically removed from the altar because he was praying in the white section. From this incident Absalom Jones and Richard Allen –another African American Methodist minister- formed the nondenominational .28 The Free African Society (FAS) was a non-sectarian Christian community whose purpose was to aid African Americans that had been freed from slavery. The organization

26 Methodism emerged from ’s teaching of and holiness, which emphasized piety and moral purity as a sign of true salvation. For more on this and the history of the Methodist Episcopal Church see Wigger, Taking Heaven by Storm, 126. For AME History and more on ME history see Dennis C. Dickerson, A Liberated Past: Explorations in AME Church History (Nashville, A.M.E. Sunday School Union, 2003), 129. 27 Ibid., 131. 28 Curtis Alexander, Richard Allen: The First Exemplar of African American Education (New York: ECA Associates, 1985).

13 operated as a church, charity agency and a local government. FAS was responsible for a number of services in the black community including providing marriage counseling, teaching Christian values, and helping African Americans adjust to city life. From the Free African Society Richard Allen founded the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1793.29 The Bethel Church body initially considered itself to be a part of the Methodist Episcopal Church –adhering to their teachings and rules of governance; members distinguished themselves specifically as African Methodists. In 1794 Allen was sanctioned by ME Church officials as pastor; however, the African Methodists desired independence from the white owned ME organization. In order to gain the right of black ownership, Richard Allen fought in courts in 1807 and again in 1815 and successfully obtained the right to operate as an independent denomination. The AME Church was officially established in 1816, becoming the first church organization controlled by people of African decent in the United States. Richard Allen was elected the first AME Bishop that same year. Although the Church’s name implies it is solely for folks of African decent it is open to all races and is not limited to just blacks. It was established to give African Americans a space to worship God without the burden of racial prejudice and discrimination.30

The Role of Christian Organizations in Black Education

In conjunction with secular educational programs many Christian associations were involved in educating African Americans. One of the primary groups that were most noted for their work in the education of blacks before and after the Civil War was the American Missionary Association (AMA). The AMA was a northern abolitionist organization and perhaps the most well known freedmen’s aid group. During antebellum times the AMA was largely known for sending teachers to instruct slaves in reading and writing, often using the Bible to do so. The AMA would go on to do a much larger work

29 Charles Eric Lincoln and Lawrence Mamiya. The Black Church in the African-American Experience. (Duke University Press: Durham, NC, 1990). 30 Dickerson, A Liberated Past.

14 during reconstruction in educating ex-slaves.31 While the group was nondenominational it worked very closely with the Congregationalists and Presbyterian Churches. Church denominations such as Presbyterians also founded a few schools for blacks before the Civil War. Zion Presbyterian Church in the south housed an African American school called Wallingford Academy; but it was not officially established until the war’s end in 1865. An AMA missionary was surprised when visiting in the mid nineteenth century; she witnessed a school at Plymouth Church that was lead by black superintendents and teachers.32 Black also were involved on a small scale in African American education, establishing their own private schools and literary societies. Afro-Baptists played a significant role after the Civil War when they joined the Methodist Episcopal and the African Methodist Episcopal Churches to help maintain freedmen schools during reconstruction.33

The Methodist (ME) Church and Black Education Even as a white-owned organization, the Methodist Episcopal (ME) Church has long played a prominent role in African American education. As early as the late eighteenth century the ME Church had been instrumental in facilitating an environment for African American literacy and education. The structure of the Methodist Episcopal Church as an institution facilitated black education. It divided its congregants into small religious educational groups known as “classes.”34 The Methodist classes were designed to teach its members the doctrine and guidelines of the Methodist Episcopal organization. They were made up of 10-15 members and were lead by a person known as a class leader. The leader’s responsibility was:

to inquire how their souls prosper; to advise, reprove, comfort or exhort, as occasion may require; to receive what they are willing to give toward the relief of the preachers, church, and poor. To meet the ministers and the stewards of the

31 Clara Merritt DeBoer, His Truth is Marching On: African Americans Who Taught the Freedmen for the American Missionary Association, 1861-1877 (New York: Garland Pub., 1995), and Powers, Black Charlestonians. 32 Ibid. 33 Sarah Coprich Johnson, The Role of the Black Church in Family Literacy (Peter Lang: New York, 1999). 34 Powers, Black Charlestonians, 34, 35.

15 society once a week, in order: to inform the minister of any that are sick, or of any that walk disorderly and will not be reproved; to pay the stewards what they have received of their several classes in the week preceding.35

The ME Church was quite progressive in that they let blacks lead the classes. As a result of this liberality many African Americans rose to prominent positions and had a great deal of autonomy in the Church. African Americans re-appropriated the Methodist class meetings to not only be a space for day to day church activities but also to create formal spaces of education. They often used such classes to meet the unique needs of the black community. The Methodist classes allowed African Americans to obtain some basic literacy, to facilitate community meetings, and to organize political protest movements prior to the Civil War. While the class meetings offered blacks a limited education, Methodist Sunday Schools provided the most comprehensive secular education for blacks. Sunday Schools were educational centers within the ME Church, held within the houses of worship. The curriculum was based on a Christian educational model. African Americans utilized the Sunday Schools to offer more extensive literacy training as well as elementary education. The schools were often held in church basements during services or at night when regular church services were not in session.

The African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church and Black Education The African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church’s organizational structure and policy made it very clear that it was specifically dedicated to promoting African American education.36 Black Baptists, Presbyterians, Pentecostals and other denominations did not advocate for education to the extent that the AME Church did during the nineteenth century.37 The Church’s leading historical role in African American education is testament to this fact. For example, when the AME Church’s founder

35 The General Rules of the Methodist Church, ed. Dennis Bratcher (1808). 36 Daniel A. Payne, A History of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (Nashville: Publishing House of the A. M. E. Sunday School Union, 1891). 37For a further discussion of the Afro-Baptists of the nineteenth century see Johnson, The Role of the Black Church in Family Literacy. For primary source documents of nineteenth century AME Church records and policies on education see the Levi Jenkins Coppin Collection at Carnegie Library, (Wilberforce, Ohio: Casper LeRoy Jordan Publishing, 1958).

16 Richard Allen started the first African American church in the United States (Bethel Church in Philadelphia) he promptly began instructing youth and adults in basic literacy and elementary education in the church as well, establishing a formal African American school. Indeed, when African Methodists acquired their autonomy they first adopted the educational practices and organizations that they had been exposed to in the ME Church and then expanded upon them. The AME established educational institutions of their own including: colleges, normal schools (teachers colleges), Methodist class meetings and Sunday schools. A year after the Civil War in 1866 the Church “owned and operated 11 colleges and normal schools with more than 2,000 students. The church operated Sunday schools that, by the end of 1885, were serving some 200,000 students.” Williams notes the important role Sunday schools played in providing basic African American education. “The Sunday schools were not just places to park children while their parents went to church. In addition to providing basic religious instruction, they also helped young and old to learn to read, speak and understand facts and ideas of a secular nature.”38 Along with the educational institutions, many of the nineteenth century AME publications such as the Christian Recorder and the AME Review contained eloquent essays dedicated to the cause of black education. While the black church as a whole has been instrumental in the education of nineteenth century African Americans, the AME Church can be most clearly identified as specifically advocating for the education of the black community.39

Liberation The term liberation has specific historical meaning for African Americans. Blacks have long identified with the concept and language of liberation or freedom. Biblical language such as “now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty”40 or “stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage”41 have long been a part of the African American discourse and their struggle for freedom. Freedom for blacks has taken on both

38 Anthony Williams, The Christian Recorder, Newspaper of the African Methodist Episcopal Church: History of a Forum for Ideas, 1854-1902 (London: McFarland & Company, 1996), 49. 39 Curtis, Richard Allen. 40 II Corinthians 3:17, King James Bible. 41 Galatians 5:1, King James Bible.

17 a natural and spiritual dimension. The Biblical narrative of the children of Israel being oppressed by the Egyptians and God ultimately redeeming his people has always resonated with blacks who were under the bondage of white society.42 Thus, in keeping with the historic African American tradition of struggle and freedom this dissertation utilizes the term liberation. Taking a more in-depth look at the term liberation can further clarify its usage in the context of this volume. The root word of liberation, liberate, comes from the Latin liberatus, a past participle of liberare, from liber, meaning to free. As has been noted above the African American’s greatest longing has been to be free. The conventional definition according to the Oxford English and Miriam Webster dictionaries define liberate as: 1.The act of setting one free from “imprisonment or bondage.” 2. The act of freeing a nation or area from control by an oppressive government. 3. Freeing a “group or individual from social or economic constraints or discrimination, especially arising from traditional role expectations or bias.” Some scholars have used the term “liberation” to discuss African American freedom from slavery and oppression. Blacks desired to be physically set free from “imprisonment or bondage” throughout their history in the U.S. until the abolition of slavery in 1863 and the passage of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments. People of African descent during slave times also articulated a longing to be free from the control of “a nation…or an oppressive government” and “…from social or economic constraints or discrimination that has arisen from traditional role expectations or bias.” Liberation thus means freedom from physical bondage and from, social and economic discrimination.43 From antebellum times throughout the civil rights movement the theme of freedom has been a part of the African American discourse and has been synonymous

42Historians have identified the incorporation of Biblical discourses –Old and narratives– in African American social thought and consciousness through out history. Indeed African Americans drew upon Christian concepts to overcome violence wrought by slavery and racial oppression. Raboteau points to narratives that antebellum blacks identified with, such as Moses as a liberator of slaves, the Egyptians and Pharaoh representing the oppressive slave system in the south and so on, see Albert Raboteau, Slave Religion (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978). Levine offers an analysis of slave songs that also reveals the African American identification with Biblical narratives. He demonstrates how slaves in their songs called upon Biblical characters such as Daniel, Jesus, Satan and Judas to articulate their struggle as bondsmen, Lawrence Levine, “Slave Songs and Slave Consciousness: An Exploration in Neglected Sources”, see also Fulop and Raboteau, African American Religion, 57-87. 43 See Oxford English dictionary, Miriam-Webster 2007-2008 dictionary, and dictionary.com, 2008.

18 with liberation. The theme of freedom was a major part of the African American nineteenth century ontology and epistemology and made its way into many of the Negro spirituals.44

Oh freedom! Oh freedom! Oh freedom, I love thee! And before I’ll be a slave, I’ll be buried in my grave! And go up unto my Lord and be free!

This spiritual entitled Oh Freedom exemplifies the African American’s historic desire to be free. The phrase “and go up unto my Lord and be free” implies a dual understanding of liberation in both the natural and the spiritual sense.45 Closely linked to the notion of liberation is the concept of “uplift” in the African American community. Uplift was a well known concept that African Americans adopted early in their history. The notion of uplift implied that African Americans could rely on the collective black community to advance the individual person as well as the group economically, socially and politically in life.46 As an example, African Americans often acquired their own resources and banded together to educate themselves, building their own schools in the south, as education was highly esteemed in the black community.47 Because white America offered them little help, blacks relied on themselves and their community to transform their world. Education was central to racial uplift. It offered African Americans the resources to help acquire their own social, economic, political and spiritual freedom from oppression. AME founder Richard Allen discussed the notion of

44 Negro spirituals were a collection of informal religious songs that developed during slave times that often had double meanings. These songs had both secular and sacred significance, signifying a call for physical and spiritual liberation. 45 James Cone offers a wonderful historical analysis on Negro spirituals in The Spirituals and the Blues, (New York: Seabury Press, 1992). 46Latricia E. Scriven, “The Motif of Redemption in the Nineteenth Century Educational Philosophy of the African Methodist Episcopal Church” (Ph.D. diss., Purdue University, 2003). 47 Heather A. Williams, Self-Taught: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005).

19 “self-reliance” to describe the African American situation in the nineteenth century. He specifically advocated for the use of education to bring about that self-reliance.48 This understanding of liberation is not to be confused with the contemporary liberation theology movement that was prominent in throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Liberation theology has a Marxist overtone and differs from my understanding of liberation. Classical Marxism portrays society in economic terms and emphasizes class conflict. The discussion of freedom in this volume is centered on the African Americans’ desire to emerge from bondage through use of education and spirituality.49 James Cone’s work analyzes the historic African American religious experience as it relates to black liberation and can work as a wonderful framework to help complete this working definition of liberation. In his Speaking the Truth: Ecumenism, Liberation, and Black Theology Cone argues that black theologians have primarily discussed the black church as liberating only in the political realm and from a “worldly” only perspective. Cone sees this as a limited understanding of the black religious experience. He adds a spiritual dimension to the discourse on liberation, arguing that these oppressed people were also spiritually liberated during the act of worship. In discussing this spiritual style of worship, Cone hearkened to the and spirit lead church among blacks in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.50 In further exemplifying this point, Cone states “liberation is not exclusively a political event but also an eschatological happening…Liberation is no longer a future event, but a present happening in the worship itself.”51 In late nineteenth century black churches, this spiritual liberation was often connected to literacy and education. In this way, learning to read was more often than not associated with learning to read the Bible, thus bringing one closer to

48 Curtis, Richard Allen. 49 For a thorough discussion of liberation theology see Miguel A. De La Torre, Handbook on US Theologies of Liberation (Danvers, MA: Chalice Press, 2004), and Christian Smith, The Emergence of Liberation Theology: Radical Religion and the Social Movement Theory (: Press, 1991). 50 James Cone, Speaking the Truth: Ecumenism, Liberation, and Black Theology (Grand Rapids, Mich.: WB Eerdmans Pub. Co.,1986). For an in-depth study and history of the holiness-Pentecostal movement see Vincent Synan The Holiness-Pentecostal Tradition: Charismatic Movements in the Twentieth Century (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), See also Cheryl J. Sanders, Saints in Exile: The Holiness-Pentecostal Experience in African American Religion and Culture (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996). 51 Cone, Speaking the Truth: Ecumenism, Liberation, and Black Theology, 20.

20 God.52 Slave spirituals often contained double meanings –as in the earlier example of Oh Freedom. Likewise, in the Negro spiritual When I Can Read My Title Clear the song expresses both the literal and spiritual understanding of literacy.

When I can read my title clear to mansions in the skies, I’ll bid farewell to ev’ry fear, And wipe my weeping eyes.53

Thus the definition of liberation encompasses slaves being freed from slavery and racial oppression, and being liberated economically, socially, politically and spiritually. The AME educational efforts played a major role in educating for liberation.

HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE BLACK CHURCH PRIOR TO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Serious study of the black church has taken place since the early twentieth century54. One of the primary debates of recent times has centered on whether the institution of slavery has damaged African American religion to a point where no African culture remains. In order to shed light on this debate and adequately understand the role the black church played in education, it is necessary to offer a survey of important contemporary works on black church history. This historiography will examine the black church up to the close of the nineteenth century. Albert J. Raboteau in Slave Religion discusses the history of the African American church during slave times starting from the origins of slavery in the seventeenth century. Historically it has been the primary institution that facilitated and brought about social, economic and political agency for African Americans. It was “an

52 See Raboteau, Slave Religion. 53 The Psalms, hymns and Spiritual Songs of Reverend Isaac Watts (1817). 54 For early studies of the black church see W.E.B. Dubois, The Negro Church (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1903); Carter G. Woodson, The History of the Negro Church (Washington D.C.: The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, 1921); , The Negro Church (New York: Institute of School and Religious Research, 1933); E. Franklin Frazier, The Negro Church in America (New York: Schocken, 1963).

21 agency of social control, a source of economic cooperation, an arena for political activity”, and was the primary source of education through out African American history. Raboteau contends that the history of the African American church had been largely ignored despite the major role the black church had played in the community and society55. He further contends that the history of what he calls the “invisible institution” – the African American church during slave times– had received even less attention than the study of mainstream church history. The author explored several primary questions in relation to slave religion, which include: What are the historical roots of black religion in America? What aspects of African religion did slaves retain, if any? How were African slaves evangelized and converted to Christianity? What were the forms of Christianity and other religious systems to which the slaves were converted? What was noteworthy and distinctive about religion in the slave quarters? Overall, Raboteau examined the nature of slave religion and the factors that made it distinct from mainstream American religion. Jon Butler argues in the tradition of some mid-twentieth century historians such as Frazier56 and Elkins57, who argued that indigenous African culture has been virtually destroyed by the institution of American slavery and is no longer present in black religion. Butler, in his 1990 text Awash in a Sea of Faith: Christianizing the American People argued that the religious history of African Americans and Afro-Caribbeans began upon the arrival of the first slave ships into the New World. No Western or Central African culture and religious practices survived with the arrival of Africans in America. Instead African cultural practices were eradicated by the experience and the brutal institution of slavery in the Americas.58 Butler argued that slavery was such a violent institution that very little –if any– remnants of African belief systems and practices had any impact on black Christianity and black church culture. In contrast to Butler, Raboteau in Land, meticulously discusses various African religious traditions and customs and observes how they may have been translated

55 Raboteau, Slave Religion, ix. 56 Frazier, The Negro Church in America. 57 Stanley M. Elkins, Slavery: A Problem in American Institutional and Intellectual Life (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1959). 58 Jon Butler, Awash in a Sea of Faith: Christianizing the American People (Cambridge, HarvardUniversity Press, 1990).

22 to the New World in various forms. The author challenges Butler’s notion that slaves rapidly lost all of their African culture upon being assimilated into white society in the Americas. Although in the “New World slave control was based on the eradication of all forms of African culture…African beliefs and customs persisted and were still transmitted by slaves to their descendants.”59 Acknowledging the strong presence of African culture among the slaves is a direct challenge to Butler’s argument that “West and Central African religious systems were shattered beyond repair as a result of the Middle Passage.” This shattering of religion happened in a process that Butler described as a “holocaust.”60 Butler sees African culture as being virtually unrecognizable in American slaves after only a short time under bondage. In contrast, Raboteau argues that “elements of African folklore, music, language, and religion were transplanted in the New World by the African diaspora” throughout African American history.61 Raboteau argues against the absence of African influence by detailing the similarities of African religions in worship styles, theology and customs. He utilizes ethnographic accounts, slave testimonies, church records and other primary source documents to show the influence of African spirituality on slave religion (observing its influence primarily on black Christianity). Like Raboteau, Margaret Washington Creel examines the religion of black slaves in A Peculiar People, analyzing the “sociohistorical relationship between community, religion, and resistance as they affected” the Gullah slave population in the “coastal region of [the] South Carolina low country.”62 Arguing from a similar position as Raboteau, Creel holds that some of the spiritual practices and rites derived from West African secret societies became intertwined with many of the Gullah slave’s interpretations of Christianity. This synthesis of spiritual traditions formed a unique slave spirituality that was instrumental in helping the Gullah people both cope with the hardships of slavery and establish mindsets and practices of resistance. The author’s thesis is three tiered. She examines the notions of community, religion, and resistance as

59 Ibid., 4. 60 Sylvia R. Frey & Betty Wood, Come Shouting to Zion: Protestantism in the American South and British Caribbean to 1830 (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina, 1998), xi. 61 Raboteau, Slave Religion, 4. 62 Margaret Washington Creel, A Peculiar People: Slave Religion and Community-Culture Among the Gullahs (New York: New York University Press, 1988), 1, 15.

23 they relate to the Gullah population and their interpretation of Christianity. Creel sees “religion as a determining factor in Gullah ideas of liberation, resistance-culture, and community organization.”63 She argues that Christianity had at times produced a “social order based on the observance of mutual duty, slave to slave master.”64 Slaves actively resisted white paternalism and hegemony through the slave religion that developed among the Sea Islands. Creel found an abundance of sources on the duty of the slave’s obedience but very little that spoke to the master’s responsibility. Some of Creel’s primary sources included old slave spirituals, letters, diaries, missionary reports, church records and indigenous folk tales. One example included excerpts from a Missionary Sketch written by Thomas D. Turpin for the Christian Advocate Journal dated from January 31, 1834. This account described in detail a group of Gullah slaves who were technically under the auspices of the Baptist church, but according to Turpin they rarely attended the services of the white Baptists. Instead they had meetings and “societies organized among themselves” that were very “corrupt” and had similarities to Roman Catholic rituals.65 Creel also used a source entitled “Jane’s Prayer” which was the written prayer of a Gullah slave woman pleading to Jesus to guide her through the hardships of slavery. Creel’s main point was that Christian religious instruction as presented by white clergy was “intended as a conservative element in slave life, and clearly did not provide the bonds people with a successful ideology of revolt.” 66 However Creel argues that African American slaves re-appropriated white religious instruction and made it transformative in their own lives. The fusion of African traditional religion and Christianity provided a framework that facilitated a progressive and resistance mentality among the Gullahs. The author saw the Gullah’s version of Christianity as a means of preserving the sense of community, the culture, as well as the spirit during the troubling times of slavery. Furthermore, Creel argues that even though religion was at the center of Gullah life “this did not imply total acceptance of a Judeo-Christian concept of reality.”67

63 Ibid., 8. 64 Ibid., 7. 65 Ibid., 335. 66 Ibid., 324. 67 Ibid., 325.

24 On the contrary, the indigenous African spirituality had a prominent role in helping the Gullahs to shape Christianity in such a way that it could facilitate their needs. In a departure from Raboteau and Creel’s work, Janet Cornelius in Slave Missions and the Black Church in the Antebellum South discusses the missionary efforts of white Christians to evangelize slaves in the antebellum south. Missionaries expanded their agenda to include an outreach to slaves that would incorporate them into their churches. This phenomenon reached a climax in the 1850s “when blacks were paraded as an example of the south’s divine mission as a redeemer nation.”68 She also offers a great deal of information on the black church in general. Cornelius explores the worship and religious gatherings of slaves, the Baptist and Methodist church activities in the slave south, the black church and freedom and other topics related to slavery. One of her major themes was that the missionary efforts remained separate between denominations and thus a united southern-wide organization was never brought to fruition. Her primary argument is that blacks were able to perceive that “the slave mission offered them an opportunity to create a small space in the oppressive conditions of slavery.” 69 The missions allowed slaves to facilitate their own meetings, take advantage of leadership opportunities, have access to literacy and education, and to strengthen the black community as a whole. Cornelius begins each chapter with a documented narrative of a southern missionary effort that is related to the chapter’s subject. For example, in her chapter on “Sunday schools, catechisms, and the print culture” she begins the discussion by highlighting an account of Alexander Glennie, a Protestant rector and missionary teaching at a catechism house at Frances Marion Weston’s plantation in South Carolina. The narrative depicts a day of classes and ritual that was typical of Protestant Episcopal schools in antebellum times. In describing the class, the text states that the “catechism class of one hundred children approached in an orderly procession, dressed in uniform style, holding hands, and marching in pairs, with martial step.”70

68 Janet Duitsman Cornelius, Slave Missions and the Black Church in the Antebellum South (South Carolina: The University of South Carolina Press, 1999), 2. 69 Ibid., 3. 70 Ibid., 125.

25 In conjunction with the theme of missionary efforts to the slaves, Cornelius also offers a comprehensive discourse on the antebellum black church. She devotes sections to prayer, singing, preaching and other religious activities that were indicative of the black church. In this way Cornelius’ work is consistent with the works of Creel and Raboteau who spent a great deal of time detailing the life and religion of slaves. Sylvia Frey and Betty Wood in Come Shouting to Zion provide an in depth study of how Protestantism came to the African American community in the American South and the British Caribbean. They differ from Raboteau and Creel in that they offer a discussion of the impact of Protestantism on the African American community, but do not discuss black religion in general. They begin their discussion by tracing the origins of Christianity in beginning in the fifteenth century and ending with the rise of Protestantism among African Americans in the early nineteenth century. The text explores the “conversion of African Americans to Protestant Christianity”, while outlining how slaves combined Christianity with traditional African religious practices, also building on Raboteau’s work. Frey and Wood argued that this aspect of the African American experience is a forgotten chapter in the intellectual history of the eighteenth century south, and the defining moment of the history of blacks in the U.S. Frey and Wood’s primary claim is that religious change and conversion did not occur in a vacuum but happened in a process of reciprocity between African religions and Christianity, in more of a mutual relationship “rather than of conversion by confrontation.”71 Africans, African Americans, and Afro-Caribbeans were not simply passive recipients of conversion to Protestant Christianity but they were involved “in their own transformation.” The author also highlights the critical role that women played in the creation of the early revival culture, pointing out how they formulated meaningful ritual worship, established “institutional foundations” in the early black church and dispersed religious values that spanned across generations.72 The authors expand upon work that challenges Jon Butler’s argument –stated earlier– that no original African religious culture remains in the African American

71Frey and Wood, Come Shouting to Zion, xii. 72 Ibid., xii.

26 community because of the destructive nature of slavery.73 In this argument, Africans and African Americans are depicted as having been passively shaped by Protestant Christianity and reacting to their circumstances, as opposed to having shaped Christianity. Frey and Wood draw from recent scholarship that places blacks at a more prominent role in shaping Protestant religious history in the Caribbean and in the U.S. They recognize “the existence and the significance of their agency, and emphasize both the continuance and adaptation of West and West Central African beliefs and rituals in the shaping of various New World religious cultures.”74 Frey and Wood build upon the work of Genovese and Mechal Sobel who discuss the relationship of black and white southerners during slave times as reciprocal and each influencing the culture and social life of the other. Other scholars that influenced the volume worked from the fields of cultural anthropology and comparative religion, which included Robin Horton, T.O. Ranger, and Ann Hilton. These individuals offered the resources for Frey and Wood to do a comparative analysis of indigenous African religions and Protestant Christianity as they relate to how Africans and African Americans reinterpreted Christianity. Frey and Wood also give insight into early missionary and Christian efforts in Africa, highlighting the first conversions and introduction to Christianity in the region. They go as far back as the fifteenth century before the Protestant Reformation in discussing Catholicism in Africa. The authors conclude by arguing that the advent of Protestantism among African Americans during slave times is much more complicated than was originally thought by early scholars. Some scholars present conversion as a solely imperialist venture whereby slaves had their indigenous religion usurped and Christianity was forced upon them. This may have been the case for some, but Frey and Wood conclude that the situation was much more complex and that African religions often had similarities to certain forms of Christianity such as early Methodism and Baptist rites. This amongst many other complex reasons caused slaves to openly embrace certain forms of Protestantism. This historiography has offered a thorough analysis of African American religion in general before the twentieth century. This research is significant to the study because it

73 Ibid., xi. 74 Ibid., xxi.

27 sheds light on the history of the black church throughout the nineteenth century. It contextualizes the study of the relationship between the black church and African American education, by helping readers understand the early development of African American religion.

HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH PRIOR TO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

The last few works in this literature review will deviate from the works that have been discussed heretofore. The former works have offered an analysis of African American religion in general before the twentieth century. The following works look specifically at the history of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in order to help offer a better sense of the history of the Church’s development and thereby shed light on their educational work. Larry Rivers and Canter Brown’s Laborers in the Vineyard of the Lord offers a comprehensive history of the African American Episcopal Church in Florida from the close of the Civil War in 1865, through reconstruction, to the closing of the nineteenth century in 1895. Rivers and Brown argue that AME ministers were heavily involved in mid to late nineteenth century politics in the state of Florida. The authors hoped “to underscore and illustrate the critical role played by AME ministers and lay people in state and local affairs, as well as dynamics within the Church and society that either assisted or undermined church initiatives.”75 The questions the authors explore in the text include how the personal characteristics of clergy helped or hindered the development of the church, and how rivalries between church authorities and bishops affected the Church. The authors point out that the AME Church in Florida began to flourish, in contrast to the meager beginnings of the black church during slave times. From its inception the AME Church was committed to the cause of social justice for and thus they championed education as a catalyst to this policy. Elder Charles H. Pearce –appointed as an early overseer to the Florida district in 1866– from the very beginning

75 Larry Eugene Rivers and Canter Brown Jr., Laborers in the Vineyard of the Lord: The Beginnings of the AME Church in Florida, 1865-1895. (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 2001), xix.

28 of his appointment was “intent upon working a revolution in matters religious, educational and political.”76 Many of the later leaders of the AME Church were from upper middle class backgrounds. In regards to these more privileged leaders, John Little in his Disciples of Liberty calls these individuals “the black religious bourgeoisie.”77 However, some of the earlier AME leaders did not come from privileged backgrounds. An example was Bishop A. Grant who emerged from slavery and went on to complete a Doctorate of Divinity and achieve high status in the AME church in the late nineteenth century. In spite of the humble beginnings of the AME Church, it had grown to what some would call an elitist bureaucratic organization in contrast to the poor black church of slave times. One can understand the unique nature and role of the AME Church in Florida during the mid to late nineteenth century by comparing and contrasting its experience in this era to black churches during antebellum times, such as Baptists and early Methodist Episcopal churches. John Wigger in his text entitled Taking Heaven by Storm offers a glimpse into early Methodism and how its tenets contrasted with the AME Church’s later leanings toward intellectualism and elitism. Early evangelical Methodism was characterized by its emotional and experiential fervor and was “enthusiastic, egalitarian, entrepreneurial, and lay oriented.”78 These are the primary characteristics that attracted blacks to the movement. However, as Rivers and Brown point out, many blacks rejected early Methodism in the south because of its overt racial discrimination, which contrasted with many northern churches who fought against the institution of slavery. Consequently, Rivers and Brown go on to highlight the difficulty the early church fathers had in trying to establish the AME church in Florida. Rivers and Brown point out that although the Black Baptist Church was once in rivalry with the AME Church, by “1895 they had gained so much strength in Florida that they could afford to extend a hand to the struggling AME Church.”79 The Baptist Church in contrast was less hierarchical and less structured than the AME Church.

76 Ibid., 34. 77 Lawrence S. Little, Disciples of Liberty: The African Methodist Episcopal Church in the Age of Imperialism, 1884-1916. (Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 2000), xii. 78 Wigger, Taking Heaven by Storm, 7 79 Larry Eugene Rivers & Canter Brown Jr., Laborers in the Vineyard of the Lord: The Beginnings of the AME Church in Florida, 1865-1895. (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 2001), xvii.

29 Lawrence Little’s Disciples of Liberty examines the role of the AME church in the age of imperialism from 1884 to 1916. The AME Church found itself in an awkward position in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. On one hand, they were committed to the American ideas of democracy and the free market; on the other hand, they saw American actions and often their own actions in contradiction with their explicit commitment to freedom and equality. Little explores the AME response to U.S. imperialism in the Caribbean and Pacific regions, in areas such as Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and in American Indian territories. Little’s primary argument is that the AME’s commitment to economic expansion for the black community often contradicted their agenda of social justice and equity. However, even with this contradiction the church was still able to offer a valid critique of American imperialism. In order to gain a clearer picture of the AME church during the late nineteenth century it is necessary to compare and contrast Little’s text with Rivers and Brown’s Laborers in the Vineyard of the Lord. While Rivers and Brown’s text focused primarily on the AME Church in Florida, the content they presented afforded the reader a sense of the condition of the AME Church in the late 1800s. One of the primary notions that one could glean from both authors is their view that the AME Church membership had joined the ranks of the middle class and were perhaps elitist in their ideology. Rivers and Brown spend a great deal of time discussing the Church’s commitment to education in conjunction with its social agenda. Little highlighted the church’s efforts toward social and economic advancement giving one the impression that the organization championed middle class values and the notion of progress. In what Little calls “the paradox of patriotism” he demonstrates how the AME Church’s support of westward expansion infringed upon the rights of Native Americans80. When the AME Church urged the black community to move toward a policy of economic prosperity they began to align with the free market ideology of America. The downfall of westward migration was that the areas to which they were expanding often “amounted to foreign lands within the border of North America” namely Native American lands. Little argues that “through genocidal warfare, forced removal, cultural destruction, and the reservation system, the U.S. government, which originally

80 Little, Disciples of Liberty, 86.

30 treated Native Americans as sovereign nations, by the 1890s had reduced Native Americans to a quasi-colonial status.”81 These practices deviated from the church’s history of advocating for oppressed peoples (namely African Americans). Rivers and Brown also detailed the role the AME leaders played in politics. By the 1870s they had aspirations of being completely involved in the political process. In Florida the leaders were under the false impression that AME clergy could dominate politics in a few short decades. By the early twentieth century African Methodist leaders would discover that this was not the case. The humble origins and freedom mindedness of the black race is what made African American Christianity unique or “authentic.”82 Little argues that when the AME church began to embrace imperialistic ideals however, they began to venture in the wrong direction. In spite of this fact he points out that although the AME church subscribed to imperialistic principles they were still committed to empowering blacks and combating racism. They were very aware of the imperialist atrocities that were committed by the U.S.; thus they were involved in both critiquing and complying with American principles. Among the few historians that have written about the AME Church, Little is very forward-thinking in discussing the influence of imperialism on the Church’s development and policies. Central to his argument was the fact that even early black organizations as they began to enjoy success, could hardly resist the allure and attraction of the spoils that one might gain from conquest and imperialistic ventures83.

HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE BLACK CHURCH AND EDUCATION PRIOR TO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

The African American community has historically recognized the black church as the primary institution advocating for African American education. Scholars have explored this phenomenon to a limited extent; only a few scholars have specifically examined the educational efforts of the AME Church. A historiography of literature on

81 Ibid., 85. 82 Slave Religion, 86. 83 Little, Disciples of Liberty.

31 the role of the black church in education can help position this dissertation in the fields of history and education. Some early texts on Methodism and education examine the efforts of white Methodists in black education in the nineteenth century. One of the first major works that explores the role of the Methodist movement as it relates to African Americans and education was the early twentieth century work by Jay S. Stowell, Methodist Adventures in Negro Education (1922). Stowell wrote about the ME church’s historical role in education. While this text did not discuss the AME church, specifically, Stowell’s findings are important because a large element of the black church84 was under the auspices of the white-owned Methodist Episcopal Church. Stowell’s work gives insight into the educational work Methodists did in the African American community.85 In Two Centuries of Methodist Concern: Bondage, Freedom, and Education of Black People, James P. Brawley examined the Methodist movement in general and its influence in bringing African Americans from enslavement to emancipation through education. This work is important because very few scholars had acknowledged or written about the connection of spirituality to education as important to African American freedom. Brawley’s work sheds some light on the thesis of this project in that he made the connection of the Methodist Church (although not explicitly AME) to education and African American liberation in the nineteenth century. Like Stowell however, Brawley did not discuss the emergence of the AME church. Brawley discusses how northern Methodists who separated themselves from the pro-slavery southerners established schools and colleges for blacks. Although, the northern ME Church was largely anti- slavery, racism was very prevalent within the institution, and the leaders were often unapologetic about this attitude.86 Despite the incomplete discussion of African Methodism in the nineteenth century, Brawley offers a further sense of the important role the Methodist Episcopal Church played in advancing black education. This information

84 By the definition of the “black church” proposed earlier in the chapter the Methodist Episcopal Church encapsulated some elements of this grouping, as some ME churches had 100% African American membership, often having African American pastors. 85 Jay S. Stowell, Methodist Adventures in Negro Education ((New York: The Methodist Book Concern, 1922)). 86 James P. Brawley Two Centuries of Methodist Concern: Bondage, Freedom, and Education of Black People (New York: Vantage Press, 1974).

32 can help one understand the legacy of the AME Church and education, and its connection to African American liberation. A specific examination of texts highlighting the role of other black denominations in education can expand upon the earlier discussion of other Christian organization’s involvement in black education. Inez Moore Parker’s 1977 book The Rise and Decline of the Program of Education for Black Presbyterians of the United Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., 1865-1970 offers a detailed history of the education of African American Presbyterians. She examines how Presbyterians initiated education for African Americans in the late nineteenth century. Their program waned by the 1970s when many African American parochial schools closed because of the lack of funding. Northern Presbyterians after the Civil War started a network of parochial schools designed to educate the freedmen. Parker points out that some of the early schools formed for African Americans founded in 1870 still exist, but most had closed down by the 1930s. Parker highlights a few of the schools that were closed down such as the Mount Zion Parochial School in and the Russell Grove School in . This work offers insight into how education was perceived among blacks in other Christian denominations outside of the AME. For example, Presbyterians offered a limited education to African Americans that emphasized their status as slaves.87 Lawrence H. Williams’ The Charles H. Parrishes Pioneers in African-American Religion and Education, 1880-1989 examines the role of several early black church leaders in education, focusing on the black Baptist Church.88 Through Lawrence William’s text one can note that the Afro-Baptist Church of the nineteenth century also played an important role in black education. Like the Presbyterian and AME Church, the black Baptists established educational institutions for African Americans. Afro-Baptist educational institutions differed from the Presbyterian schools in that they have remained strong from their inception in the nineteenth century.

87 Parker, The Rise and Decline of the Program of Education for Black Presbyterians of the United Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., 1865-1970. James Anderson in his Educating Blacks in the South emphasizes the debate in Nineteenth century education between . Washington who thought blacks were only capable of a limited education that focused on manual labor versus W.E.B. Dubois who argued that blacks should be afforded a classical education and were just as capable as their white counterparts. 88 Lawrence H. Williams, The Charles H. Parrishes: Pioneers in African American Religion and Education, 1880-1989 (2003).

33 Other studies discuss the black church’s role in family, education, and literacy. Janet Duitsman Cornelius’s 1991 text, When I Can Read My Title Clear: Literacy, Slavery, and Religion in the Antebellum South explores the relationship between religion and literacy in . Cornelius focuses on white society’s lack of concern for slave literacy and black persistence in pursuing literacy at any cost. Cornelius’ work shows the connection of the church and spirituality to black education, and highlights the direct connection between education and black spiritual liberation. As Cornelius argues, one of the primary reasons many African Americans wanted to learn to read was to understand the Bible, in an effort to know God and ultimately be spiritually liberated. While Cornelius helps readers see the important role religion played in African education she did not specifically discuss the role of the black church in education. The text is primarily about literacy among African Americans, with the role of religion being a subtext of the volume. Pertinent to this dissertation, this work does articulate the inseparable role of the black church and African American education in antebellum times.89 Similar to Cornelius’ work, Sarah Coprich Johnson in The Role of the Black Church in Family Literacy looks at the connections of family, the church and literacy in the African American community. Johnson offers a history of the major black denominations and their role in literacy and education in the late nineteenth century. She argues that the nineteenth century AME Church was one of the primary black church organizations that promoted the importance of education, emphasizing the important role of the black church in African American educational success.90 Charity A. Freedman examines the “collective traditions of literacy, spirituality, and struggle, as articulated in the spiritual autobiographies and sermons of selected African-American Holiness/Pentecostal women” from 1830 to 2000. This work highlights the importance of women within the black church tradition and their role in education and literacy. Freedman takes a rarely visited view and argues that women have

89 Janet Duitsman Cornelius When I Can Read My Title Clear: Literacy, Slavery, and Religion in the Antebellum South (South Carolina: The University of South Carolina Press, 1999). 90 Johnson, The Role of the Black Church in Family Literacy.

34 played a major role within the black church for several centuries.91 Her work shows the literacy efforts African American church women have contributed to the black community from the early nineteenth century into present times. Like Cornelius and Johnson, Phyllis M. Belt-Beyan discusses the importance of the African American community and family in her dissertation The Emergence of African American Literacy Traditions: Family and Community Efforts in the Nineteenth Century, devoting chapters to the Black Church’s educative role. Belt-Beyan offers readers a unique glimpse of the black church as an extension of the black community in the nineteenth century. She discusses the role of the church as a facility for informal and formal education, connecting it to the high value placed on literacy by African Americans.92 For example she discusses how in early African Methodist and Baptist Churches, congregations became literate by regular church attendance where they “picked up reading through observation of weekly or daily church rituals and services.”93 Other studies examine the role of missionary organizations in slave and freedmen education. Clara Merritt DeBoer’s His Truth is Marching On: African Americans Who Taught the Freedmen for the American Missionary Association, 1861-1877 explores the history of missionary teachers who taught slaves how to read and write during the mid nineteenth century. Like Cornelius’ work, DeBoer demonstrates how black literacy was directly connected to the church and religion. Of particular interest is her analysis of the white southerner’s refusal to use the Bible to instruct blacks. Some southerners understood that offering them biblical instruction would imply that slaves could be Christians. One of the major arguments abolitionists used was that if slaves could be converted into Christianity this implied that they had souls and were thus equal to whites in God’s eyes. This thinking had radical implications for nineteenth century southern society. Other major themes DeBoer explores included the American Missionary Association’s educational work during reconstruction, African Americans and the AMA

91 Charity A. Freeman, Earnestly contending for the faith: The collective traditions of literacy, spirituality, and struggle, as articulated in the spiritual autobiographies and sermons of selected African-American Holiness/Pentecostal women, 1830-2000. (2003). 92 Phyllis M. Belt-Beyan, The Emergence of African American Literacy Traditions: Family and Community Efforts in the Nineteenth Century (2004). 93 Ibid, 185.

35 Colleges, High and Normal Schools, as well as prejudice and paternalism by white missionaries toward freedmen.94 Like Brawley’s work the text does not deal primarily with the black church but explored the important role white Christians played in African American education.95 Joyce Hollyday’s text On the Heels of Freedom: the American Missionary Association's Bold Campaign to Educate Minds, Open Hearts, and Heal the Soul of a Divided Nation offers a comprehensive history of the AMA and special focus on the organization’s mission of educating blacks. Like DeBoer, Hollyday outlines a historical account of the educational efforts of the missionaries who taught African Americans after slavery. Some of the missionaries even went so far as to establish freedmen schools in the south after the Civil War. The American Missionary Association made very important contributions to nineteenth century African American education. A key point that can be noted that is relevant to this dissertation is that the AMA often collaborated with the AME Church and other denominations in its educational efforts.96 A small number of studies discuss the AME Church’s efforts in black education. E. Curtis Alexander’s 1985 book specifically explores the AME Church and education among African Americans. Richard Allen: The First Exemplar of African American Education is a biography of the AME church’s founder Richard Allen that focuses specifically on the Church’s role in black education in the nineteenth century, and Allen’s role as an educational advocate. In discussing the role the AME Church’s first bishop played in African American education, Alexander offers insightful and telling information on Allen, revealing his humble origins. Richard Allen had always been an advocate of education, even during the time he was a slave on a southern plantation. Early on he pushed for an education based on Christian ethics. Alexander states that for Allen “education was motivated by the belief

94 Clara Merritt DeBoer, His Truth is Marching On: African Americans Who Taught the Freedmen for the American Missionary Association, 1861-1877 (New York: Garland Pub., 1995). Brawley points out in Two Centuries of Methodist Concern: Bondage, Freedom, and Education of Black People that many of the freedman society projects that DeBoer mentions were sponsored and run by northern Methodists during the nineteenth century. However, Brawley omits the fact that the southern ME Church was explicitly pro- slavery and the northern church implicitly and institutionally racist. 95 DeBoer, His Truth is Marching On. 96 Joyce Hollyday. On the Heels of freedom: The American Missionary Association's Bold Campaign to Educate Minds, Open Hearts, and Heal the Soul of a Divided Nation. (South Carolina: The University of South Carolina Press, 2005).

36 that Christian character depended on Christian education and that if you educated a man, he would be a better Christian.” Like other African Americans during his time Allen’s “educational ideas and practices” were intertwined with his “religious ideas.” For him education could act as “the weapon to develop the mind of the African to advance the welfare of his people.” In order for education to become an effective weapon one had to be committed to God, and not simply seek education “just to fulfill one’s own desires and needs.”97 Alexander includes a number of primary source materials that give another level of depth to the text. He draws upon Richard Allen’s autobiography, letters and documents from the AME church, church member journals, and government records to develop his text. Alexander’s work is still one of the few works that specifically examines the AME’s involvement in nineteenth century African American education.98 Like Alexander, Lori B. Jacobi saw a very clear connection between the AME Church and African American education in her essay “More Than a Church: The Educational Role of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Indiana, 1844-1861.” While Alexander limited his study to a biography of AME founder Richard Allen and his role in black education, Jacobi looked at the educational efforts of the AME Church in Indiana. The text focuses on the AME Church and the various organizations that enhanced African American education in Indiana, highlighting the Church’s educational programs (both formal and informal). Jacobi discusses the very broad role the AME Church in Indiana played in the black community. AME Church leaders realized the magnitude and importance of their role as facilitators of education among African Americans and demonstrated this through their actions. Jacobi pointed out that AME “preachers of the Indiana Conference had great respect and hope for education” and spearheaded educational initiatives. Reverend Elisha Weaver’s work was a notable example. In 1858, Weaver set up a boarding school at his church that offered -as he advertised- a “chance for a good education, in Indianapolis, Ind.” The school curriculum included subjects such as “spelling, reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, geography,

97 Alexander, Richard Allen, p.98. 98 Ibid.

37 history, anatomy, physiology, [and] hygiene.” 99 Jacobi specifically highlights how the church community is intimately connected to black education, and the educational institutions are simultaneously the houses of worship. Gilbert Anthony Williams also looked specifically at the AME Church in his volume The Christian Recorder, Newspaper of the African Methodist Episcopal Church: History of a Forum for Ideas, 1854-1902. He offers an analysis of the Christian Recorder, one of the AME Church’s first journals dating from the 1850’s through today. Of particular interest to this study is the role The Recorder had in the education of the African American community. Like Jacobi and Alexander, Williams gives detailed information on the AME Church and education. Williams shows the AME’s commitment to education by analyzing the role of the Recorder as an intellectual and educative vehicle. He details the scholarly work of early AME intellectuals and critically examines the Christian Recorder as a key publication for African American liberation.100 By detailing the intellectual discourse and the educational work of the Church –highlighted in the Christian Recorder, Williams demonstrates the powerful role the AME Church played in African American education. Danielle K. Harley in her Masters thesis noted how early AME ministers strongly pushed for black education. In the work entitled Bishop Daniel Payne: Educating Black Saints in Ohio, Harley offers a history of the AME Church and education during the nineteenth century, focusing primarily on Ohio, and highlighting the legacy of well- known AME Bishop Daniel Payne. She discusses the climate of anti-intellectualism within the African American church in the nineteenth century, and the strategies that Payne used to help blacks understand the importance of higher education to Negro progress. This work shed’s light on the fact that the AME Church understood the importance of education to African American liberation from slavery, racial discrimination and spiritual bondage.101

99 Lori B. Jacobi, “More Than a Church: The Educational Role of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Indiana, 1844-1861” in Indiana’s African American Heritage: Essays form Black History News and Notes (1993), 7,8. 100 Gilbert Anthony Williams, The Christian Recorder, Newspaper of the African Methodist Episcopal Church: History of a Forum for Ideas, 1854-1902 (1996), 49. 101 D.K. Harley, Bishop Daniel Payne: Educating Black Saints in Ohio (Masters Thesis, University of Dayton, 2002).

38 Mark Kelly Tyler in his dissertation Bishop Daniel Alexander Payne of the African Methodist Episcopal Church: The Life of a 19th Century Educational Leader, 1811-1865 expands upon the work of Harley, examining the critical role that Bishop Daniel Payne played in African American education during the nineteenth century. This text offers a more comprehensive historical analysis of Payne’s life and the important role of the AME Church and education.102 Latricia D. Scriven examines the AME Church’s educational philosophy during the nineteenth century and the impact it had on the African American community. In her doctoral dissertation The Motif of Redemption in the Nineteenth Century Educational Philosophy of the African Methodist Episcopal Church Scriven gives a brief history of the African American church and specifically focuses on more metaphysical aspects of education within AME doctrine. Scriven highlights a notion of what she calls “redemption” and discusses how it was connected to African American education in the nineteenth century. For Scriven, redemption has a Biblical connotation; it is “a means of salvation from physical bondage and social oppression, as well as salvation from sin and guilt.” 103 African Americans have historically drawn from the Judeo-Christian themes of protest and action against oppression, which are a major part of the redemption of the black community. Her primary argument is that the nineteenth century AME Church brought about this redemption through education. This notion has “been reflected in its educational accomplishments, its institutions, its publications, its economic support, its missions, and its goals.”104 In this way, Scriven’s work reiterates the primacy of education in early AME policy and hints at education’s connection to African American liberation.

Summary of Historiography The current literature provides a strong foundation in the history of the black church, black education and literacy. My dissertation examines the overlap of this research in my study of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in the nineteenth

102 Mark Kelly Tyler, Bishop Daniel Alexander Payne of the African Methodist Episcopal Church: The Life of a 19th Century Educational Leader, 1811-1865 (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Dayton, 2006). 103 Latricia D. Scriven, The Motif of Redemption in the Nineteenth Century Educational Philosophy of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (Ph.D. Dissertation, Purdue University, 2003), 12. 104 Ibid, VII.

39 century and its advocacy for education as a vehicle for African American liberation. There are some works that specifically point to the role of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in black education. While these works show the role of the black church in education, none of the works specifically discuss the connection of black education to liberation. This dissertation will not only expand the discussion on the educational work of the AME Church in the nineteenth century, but will examine the African Methodist Episcopal Church and its push for black education as a means of liberating African Americans.

CHAPTER OUTLINE

The subsequent chapters will continue to build upon the themes introduced in this introductory chapter. Chapter Two –entitled “My People are Destroyed for Lack of Knowledge”: History of the Black Church and Education– will offer a more in-depth historical analysis of the black church and the history of African American education, and will contain five major sections. The first section will discuss African American education up to the twentieth century. The section will examine the antebellum laws and obstacles that prevented blacks from obtaining an adequate education. The second section will discuss the informal educational opportunities that blacks took advantage of before the Civil War. This section will be followed by a discussion of formal educational opportunities available to blacks both before and after the Civil war. The fourth section will discuss the competing ideas of black education, analyzing the Hampton educational model versus the liberal arts curriculum. The last section will discuss the notion of black education as social capital in the nineteenth century African American community. Chapter Three “Where there is No Vision the People Perish”: The AME Church and Education for Liberation, 1816-1865 will delve more specifically into AME history and the Church’s role in the advocacy of education. This chapter will consist of three main sections that will focus on the African Methodist Episcopal Church’s push for education as a means of liberating blacks from slavery and racial discrimination. The first section will examine the AME Church’s stance on the issue of slavery and how it is connected to their educational policy. The last two sections will discuss the Church’s

40 advocacy for African American education more specifically. In these sections I examine AME primary source documents, and also analyze the lives of significant AME leaders Richard Allen and . Chapter Four The Fear of the Lord is the Beginning of Knowledge: The AME Church and Education for Liberation, 1865-1893 is a continuation of Chapter Three and the theme of education as a vehicle for African American liberation. This chapter will explore the AME’s policy on education and liberation after slavery was outlawed, outlining five sections. The opening section will compare and contrast the lives of AME leaders Daniel Payne and Richard Allen, and end with a discussion of the competing ideas about black education. This will lay the groundwork for understanding the educational climate of the era. The second section will explore the side of the educational debate in which the AME primarily subscribed too and advocated for. The third section will discuss the AME Church’s role in establishing institutions of higher learning for blacks. It will primarily focus on Wilberforce University after the Civil War. The fourth section will examine more specifically how the AME Church linked black education to the social, political and economic uplift of the community. In Chapter Five The Conclusion of the Whole Matter: Historic Black Church Values Transforming Contemporary Black Education I will summarize my historical analysis and discuss how it has implications for transforming African American education in contemporary times. The first section will examine the black church in the present and its ability to transform African American education. This section will focus on research that has been done on the role of the church in black education. The second section will revisit the theme of liberation and discuss how the notion of education for liberation can transform the twenty-first century African American community. The last section will serve as a summary for the entire work and discuss the implications it has for contemporary black education.

41

CHAPTER 2 “MY PEOPLE ARE DESTROYED FOR LACK OF KNOWLEDGE”: AFRICAN AMERICAN EDUCATION IN THE NINTEENTH CENTURY105

105 As a child growing up in the black church I heard the ministers quote Hosea 4:6 “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” to exemplify the fact that one can perish or suffer greatly by not being informed about a situation. Indeed they could undergo great harm as a result of not acquiring critical knowledge or wisdom. In this volume I have associated this with the historic struggle of African Americans to obtain an education; as the lack of formal education has historically caused black folk great harm socially, politically and economically.

42 “During this time, my copy-book was the board fence, brick wall, and pavement; my pen and ink was a lump of chalk. With these, I learned mainly how to write…By this time, my little Master Thomas had gone to school, and learned how to read and write, and had written over a number of copy books…My mistress used to go to class meeting at the Wilk Street meeting-house every Monday afternoon, and leave me to take care of the house. When left thus, I used to spend the time in writing in the spaces left in Master Thomas’s copy-book, copying what he had written…Thus after a long, tedious effort for years, I finally succeeded in learning how to write.”106

-Frederick Douglas, 1845-

106 Frederick Douglas, “Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglas”, The Classic Slave Narratives. (New York: Penguin Group, ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., 2002), 369, 379.

43 NARRATIVE OF THE FIRST SCHOOL OWNED BY AFRICAN AMERICANS

On a morning in 1795 sixty African American children eagerly filed into the newly opened one-room school at Bethel Church in Philadelphia for the first time.107 They were going to receive a formal education despite the strong sentiment in society against educating blacks. The curriculum consisted of basic reading and writing, utilizing the Bible108 and other texts such as Blue-Backed Spellers.109 The free African American community of Philadelphia awoke that morning with excitement, a sense of pride and a new resolve, as the Bethel school was the first school solely owned and established by African Americans for the purpose of educating black children. Mothers, grandmothers, fathers and uncles sent their children off to school with high expectations, as blacks viewed education and literacy as sacred. Also present on that fateful day was the school’s founder Richard Allen, an ex-slave who had established Bethel Church three years earlier. He had valued literacy and education from an early age and saw it as a key component of African American liberation. As a slave he was unable to obtain a formalized education, thus he obtained basic literacy at the churches and camp meetings he attended that were popular throughout the south during the period known as the Great Awakenings.110 Thus, with the establishment of Bethel school, Allen was carrying on an

107 Bethel Church would by 1816 become the head quarters of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, the first African American owned denomination in the US. See Carol V.R. George Segregated Sabbaths; Richard Allen and the Rise of the Independent Black Churches, 1760-1840 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1973). 108 Protestant Christianity was an ideology that was embedded into early American school curriculum and was thought of as necessary for a good education. Thus the Bible was generally a staple textbook in most schools. For more on nineteenth Century textbooks for African Americans See John W. Alvord, Semi- Annual Reports on Schools for Freedmen: Numbers 1-10, January 1866-July 1870. Vol. 1 of Freedmen’s Schools and Textbooks (New York: AMS Press, 1980). See Carl F. Kaestle Pillars of the Republic: Common Schools and American Society, (New York: Hill & Wang, 1983), for more information on common schools. 109 Blue back spellers were one of the first widely published American textbooks during the common school movement of the nineteenth century. Slaves often learned to read in secret as blue back spellers were small enough to hide easily from the overseers. See E. Jennifer Monaghan in “A Common Heritage: Noah Webster's Blue-Back Speller” The Journal of American History, 70, (December, 1983): 659-660. The McGuffey Reader was the first American textbook produced by nineteenth century education advocate Williams Holmes McGuffey. The McGuffey Reader likely would not have been used at the Bethel school, as major circulation of the text did not occur until the mid nineteenth century, over 50 years after the establishment of Bethel School in 1795. 110 The Great Awakening was a series of Protestant revivals that took place during eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Historians often distinguish between a First, Second, Third and Fourth Awakening, signifying different time periods from the eighteenth through the nineteenth centuries. See William G.

44 important legacy of the black church; and that legacy is, the major role the church has played in educating African Americans.111

INTRODUCTION

African Americans have historically held education in high esteem; this sentiment has long been a part of black culture. Because extreme punishments were often meted out for those slaves or freed persons that obtained an education, blacks had to endure many hardships in order to obtain both informal and formal schooling. However, the fact that whites tried to deter African American zeal for learning seemed to only fan the flames of their passion for knowledge. Historians have shown that as early as the seventeenth century blacks were educating themselves individually and collectively, and by the eighteenth century starting their own private schools. This chapter will expand upon the first chapter and continue to lay a historical framework in support of the thesis and question which examines how the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church connected their advocacy for black education to liberation for African Americans in the nineteenth century. Broadly speaking, the chapter will consist of a thorough discussion of African American education up to the end of the nineteenth century and the many complexities involved in the process. To adequately discuss black education the chapter will be divided into five major sub-sections. The first section will discuss black education before the twentieth century, focusing on the obstacles that hindered African Americans from receiving a proper education before the Civil War. The section will primarily examine some of the laws that prohibited black education. The second section will examine the informal educational opportunities blacks initiated during antebellum times. The following section will look at the formal

McLoughlin, Revivals, Awakenings, and Reform: An Essay on Religion and Social Change in America, 1607-1977 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978). 111 This narrative was constructed from several sources including Richard Allen, The Life Experience and Gospel Labors of the Right Reverend Richard Allen (Philadelphia: AME Book Concern, 1833), Curtis Alexander, Richard Allen: The First Exemplar of African American Education (New York: ECA Associates, 1985), James P. Brawley Two Centuries of Methodist Concern: Bondage, Freedom, and Education of Black People (New York: Vantage Press, 1974), Sarah Coprich Johnson, The Role of the Black Church in Family Literacy (Peter Lang: New York, 1999.), and Latricia E. Scriven, “The Motif of Redemption in the nineteenth century Educational Philosophy of the African Methodist Episcopal Church” (Ph.D. dissertation, Purdue University, 2003).

45 educational initiatives that were available before and after the Civil war. The fourth section will discuss the conflicting ideas of black education, focusing on the Hampton educational model and problems surrounding it. The last section will examine the idea of nineteenth century black education as social capital in the African American community.

BLACK EDUCATION PRIOR TO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

From the beginning of African American history, blacks had adopted the earnest desire to learn. Indeed, the legacy of literacy and education had become a part of black culture since the early seventeenth century. Chris Span and James Anderson in The Quest for Book Learning: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom argue that the earliest slaves learned quickly that education offered them access to political, economic and social freedom. Span and Anderson tell the remarkable story of Anthony Johnson who arrived in Virginia as a slave in 1620 and in twenty year’s time had purchased his freedom, learned the legal system, and used it to his advantage. Johnson’s story is a testament to the fact that the desire to be educated has always been a major theme within African American culture. It also demonstrates the adversities that many African Americans overcame to obtain an education.112 In order to gain a more thorough understanding of the history of African American education, it is necessary to explore the many laws and restrictions that were placed on blacks in the south before the Civil War.

The Denial of Education to African Americans during Antebellum Times Resistance to black education had stemmed from the south’s political and social obstructions that were intended to inhibit African American progress. Many of the laws in the antebellum south were designed to reinforce and perpetuate the system of slavery. Laws of that era made it illegal for slaves to be educated and punished those who taught them. Regardless of the many perils slaves faced, thousands of them still learned to read and write. Blacks possessed a strong desire to be educated, at any cost. In describing the chief importance of education among African Americans, author

112Christopher Span and James Anderson, “The Quest for Book Learning: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom”, in A Companion to African American History, ed. A. Hornsby Jr., 296 (Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2002).

46 observed that freed slaves “rushed not to the grog-shop but to the schoolroom–they cried for the spelling-book as bread, and pleaded for teachers as a necessity of life113.” At the advent of American slavery in the seventeenth century there were no laws in place that strictly prohibited the education of blacks. Christian ministers were one of the first groups to teach slaves reading and writing. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel believed that “all children of God should be baptized.” Thus they were instrumental in teaching thousands of slaves the fundamentals of Christianity and basic literacy. “Fearing baptism equated to , and that time spent learning catechism meant time away from the plantation work, South Carolina slaveholders” put pressure on their government to pass laws against teaching slaves.114 In 1740, North Carolina was the first state to pass a law against black education. Shortly afterward, nearly every American colony had passed similar laws. The desire to prohibit black education in the south lasted past American independence in 1776. By 1830 the state of Georgia had established laws that punished anyone caught educating blacks by publicly whipping, fining, or jailing them. An account by a North Carolina slave Harriet Jacobs, who ultimately escaped to freedom in the north also indicated that one could be “whipped and imprisoned” for teaching a slave to read.115 A law in Mississippi in 1823 forbade the education of “slaves or free negroes”. The law was very specific in that it called for the prohibition of:

all meetings or assemblies of slaves, or free negroes, or mulattoes, mixing and associating with such slaves above the number of five, at any place of public resort, or any meetinghouse or houses, in the night, or at any school or schools, for teaching them reading or writing, either day or night, under whatsoever pretext, shall be deemed and considered an unlawful assembly.

113 Ibid., 5. 114 Span and Anderson, “The Quest for Book Learning”, 296. 115 Harriet Jacobs, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” The Classic Slave Narratives. ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., (New York: Penguin Group, 2002), 521.

47 The Mississippi law gave public officials the right to “inflict corporal punishment on the offender or offenders, at the discretion of the peace, not exceeding thirty-nine lashes.”116 In his autobiography AME Bishop Daniel Payne also took note of the unjust laws that prohibited black education. He pointed out that an 1835 South Carolina law stated that “if any persons of color or slave shall keep any school or other place of instruction for teaching any slave or free person of color to read or write, such free person of color or slave shall be liable to the same fine, imprisonment, and corporal punishment.”117 Southern leaders did everything within their power to prevent slave literacy, for they too realized the connection between education and the slave’s freedom. These laws made the risk very high for slaves who wanted to learn to read and write. As evident from the various laws, slaves and many free blacks in the south could be imprisoned, physically assaulted or killed if they attempted to obtain an education and were caught. A slave named Gordon Buford remembered that they never learned to read because their master threatened to “skin them alive” if they were ever caught learning to read. In many cases, if a slave was caught writing he suffered the penalty of having his forefinger cut off. One slave stated that his owner “hung the best slave he had for trying to teach others how to spell.” Charlie Grant was beaten by his mistress with a cowhide because she saw him with a book. Another slave was kicked by her master with his muddy boot after she was found studying a blue-back speller.118 Many of the cruel laws and punishments stemmed from white fear of blacks. Rumored slave uprisings and actual revolts invoked a hysteria and apprehension in the south that ultimately led to an increase in racial prejudice and discrimination against blacks. The Denmark Vesey controversy was a major catalyst for much of the white hysteria that spread throughout the south. The fear of slave insurrection haunted many slave owners; it was among their greatest worries.119 The Denmark Vesey controversy was a plot allegedly orchestrated by Vesey and over three hundred conspirators (both

116 “Laws of the State of Mississippi, 1823” in Sociocultural Studies in Education, ed. Kathleen Knight Abowitz, (McGraw Hill: , 2006), 283. 117 Daniel A. Payne, Recollections of Seventy Years (Nashville: Publishing House of the AME Sunday School Union, 1888). 118 Heather Williams, Self-Taught: African American Education in Slavery and in Freedom (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005). 119 Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848, (Oxford: Oxford University, 2005).

48 slaves and freemen) in Charleston in the early nineteenth century. Sparked by enlightenment thought and uprisings such as the French Revolution of the 1780s and the of 1791, Vesey planned an elaborate scheme of black liberation that was to take place on Bastille Day July, 14 1822.120 The plan called for a slave uprising that would liberate all slaves in the city of Charleston and kill the white slave owners as retribution. After liberating all of the African Americans, Vesey and his followers planned to escape to to avoid punishment. Two slaves opposed Vesey and informed Charleston officials of the plan. The plot ended in disaster when 131 blacks were charged in the controversy; 67 were convicted, and Vesey along with 34 other African Americans were hanged.121 As a result of the Vesey conspiracy, fear gripped southern states, and authorities began to brutally suppress any efforts to educate slaves. The public understood that literacy and “book learning” could give blacks the mental capacity to plan escapes, or worse, carry out brutal insurrections, as did Nat Turner who was similarly inspired to rebellion.122 This rise in oppression seemed to only urge blacks to seek education even more diligently. African Americans exercised an incredible level of resistance and defiance in seeking out education. While slave masters and southern state officials were doing everything within their power to prevent blacks from being educated, African Americans continued to overcome the obstacles that hindered their progress. In short, because African American education was frowned upon and outlawed in the south, blacks had to come up with ingenious ways to obtain literacy and education.

120 Bastille Day is a National French holiday celebrated annually on July 14 that commemorates the storming of the historic Bastille fortress prison in France by peasants and working class citizens during the French Revolution in 1789. The Bastille event was known as a symbol of the rising of the modern French republic, and the fall of the old monarchy in eighteenth century France. For an in depth discussion and analysis of the Bastille and the French Revolution see Hans-Jurgen Lusebrink & Rolf Reichardt, The Bastille: A History of a Symbol of Despotism and Freedom (Durham: Duke University Press, 1997), Norbert Shurer (Trans). Stuart Andrews, The British Periodical Press and the French Revolution, 1789-99, (New York, Palgrave, 2000). 121 Douglas R. Egerton, He Shall Go Out Free: The Lives of Denmark Vesey, (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004). 122 Nat Turner was a slave who orchestrated one of the largest rebellions in the antebellum south. Turner amassed a large following through out Southampton County, Virginia, which ultimately resulted in the deaths of 55 white civilians. The rebellion was put down within 48 hours, Turner after remaining in hiding for much longer was eventually caught and hung. 56 other blacks were executed, along with 200 others who were tortured and beaten. For a thorough analysis and discussion of the Turner rebellion see Scott French. The Rebellious Slave: Nat Turner in American Memory. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004).

49 Informal Antebellum Educational Initiatives Even though society discouraged their progress, blacks still understood the value of education and its connection to freedom. Heather Williams offers insight into some of the clever ways that African Americans obtained education despite white resistance. Possessing the knowledge to read and understand the written word intrigued enslaved blacks; “it revealed a world beyond bondage in which African Americans could imagine themselves free to think and behave as they chose.” Learning to read and write most often happened secretly, consequently obtaining literacy became a subversive act that undermined the institution of slavery. “Once literate, many used this hard-won skill to disturb the power relations between master and slave, as they fused their desire for literacy with their desire for freedom.” Though slaves faced many perils and hardships the rewards they received made the suffering worthwhile, as “literacy provided the means to write a pass to freedom, to learn of abolitionist activities, or to read the Bible.”123 In this way one can also understand how education became an important instrument of “resistance and liberation” for slaves.124 Despite the laws against teaching enslaved people to read and write a small number obtained literacy “through ingenuity and will”, overcoming tremendous obstacles and opposition. Slaves obtained a type of literacy by eavesdropping on their master’s conversations when they spoke of politics or affairs that involved African American conditions. Slave children would often memorize conversations with earnest, return to their parents and repeat the discourse verbatim. Slave masters spelled words that they did not want slaves to know; blacks would memorize those words and meet up with a literate slave to recite them and learn what the words meant. There were many accounts of blacks who learned to read by informal means. Some learned while fighting in the Civil War as union soldiers. In other circumstances union soldiers left slaves newspapers to read, much to the chagrin of their masters. Another way slaves learned to read was by hiding blue- back spellers under their hats while working in the fields. Allen Allensworth’s mother encouraged him to “play school” with his young master who attended school everyday.125

123 Douglass, “Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass”, 369, 379, 7. 124 Ibid., 8. 125 Ibid., 20.

50 Many of the narratives written by slaves have been well preserved and offer great insight into the variety of ways that slaves obtained literacy. Former slave offered a very telling account of how he learned to read. As a child Douglass was a slave of the Hugh family for about seven years. He discusses in detail how he obtained literacy subversively while enslaved. Douglass states “I succeeded in learning to read and write. In accomplishing this, I was compelled to resort to various stratagems. I had no regular teacher.” There was much opposition from slave masters toward their bonds people learning to read and write. Douglass spoke of his interactions with his master’s wife in regard to education:

My mistress, who had kindly commenced to instruct me, had, in compliance with the advice and direction of her husband, not only ceased to instruct, but had set her face against my being instructed by anyone else…She now commenced to practice her husbands precepts. She finally became even more violent than her husband himself…Nothing made her more angry than to see me with a newspaper…I have had her rush at me with a face made all up of fury, and snatch from me a newspaper, in a manner that fully revealed her apprehension. She was an apt woman; and a little experience soon demonstrated, to her satisfaction, that education and slavery were incompatible with each other126.

Thanks to his mistress Douglass had already been exposed to the seeds of literacy and education. Regardless of how much his mistress tried to prevent it he was determined to further his education at any cost. He later went on to explain how he continued to learn and become more educated. Douglass was very artful in the ways he devised to obtain literacy. He made friends with “all the little white boys whom [he] met in the street.” These boys became his teachers in a classroom that was everywhere but no where in particular. They held grammar lessons on the street at play and used the ground and a stick as their chalk and blackboard. Douglass writes: “As many of these as I could, I converted into teachers. With their kindly aid, obtained at different times and in different places, I finally succeeded in learning to read.” His master often sent him on various

126 Ibid., 367-368.

51 errands throughout the neighborhood, and Douglass was sure to bring his “lesson book” when carrying out such tasks. However, the neighborhood boys did not teach Douglass for free. He used the one thing he had in abundance as a slave boy and that was food. He exchanged food for impromptu school lessons from his white friends. He writes:

I used also to carry bread with me, enough of which was always in the house, and to which I was always welcome; for I was much better off in this regard than many of the poor white children in our neighborhood. This bread I used to bestow upon the hungry little urchins, who, in return, would give me that valuable bread of knowledge… I used to talk this matter of slavery over with them [the poor white children]. I would sometimes say to them, I wished I could be as free as they would be when they got to be men.127

Consider the words of Douglass as he expressed the great difficulty he experienced trying to obtain literacy as a slave. He stated that “education and slavery were incompatible with each other.” In this way one can note that education and freedom of the mind equated to freedom of the body from slavery and oppression. From Douglass’ passage one can further understand how blacks in antebellum times connected education to liberation from slavery and racial oppression. By and large both black and white society began to understand that the more African Americans became literate the closer they became to becoming free. Indeed when Douglass’ master found out that his wife was teaching a slave to read he said to her that “learning would spoil the best n----r in the world.”128 Another account, by ex-slave Harriet Jacobs, sheds light on the sacred regard slaves held toward literacy. The text demonstrates the tremendous effort enslaved blacks applied to obtaining an education. In her autobiography Jacobs exemplified the high esteem African Americans placed on education and also the danger of teaching slaves to read in her society. A pious, elderly slave she affectionately called “Uncle Fred” had “an earnest desire to read.” One night “Uncle Fred” expressed to Jacobs his aspirations on becoming literate. In her narrative she states that his “piety and childlike trust in God

127 Ibid., 368. 128 Ibid., 364.

52 were beautiful to witness…He thought he should know how to serve God better if he could only read the Bible. He came to me and begged me to teach him to read.” Here one can notice Uncle Fred’s high regard for reading that was common among nineteenth century African Americans. Jacobs goes on to say “he said he could not pay me, for he had no money; but he would bring me nice fruit when the season for it came.” Jacob’s response is very telling as it offers testament of the perils of slaves teaching or learning to read and write. She “asked him if he didn’t know it was contrary to the law; and that slaves were whipped and imprisoned for teaching each other to read. This brought tears into his eyes. ‘Don’t be troubled, Uncle Fred’, said I. ‘I have no thoughts of refusing to teach you’.”129 One can glean much from this passage in understanding the enslaved black’s quest for education during that era. In the mind of African Americans literacy meant growing closer to God as one could now read his sacred book and thus become more spiritually liberated. The method in which Uncle Fred learned to read was a common way that slaves obtained literacy. Jacobs had been taught to read by her mistress, a fact that became common knowledge on her plantation. Thus other illiterate slaves would seek out Jacobs to obtain a rudimentary education in secret. Similar to Jacob’s account Douglass tells the story of how he taught a group of slaves at a Sabbath school unbeknownst to their master. He describes how once he began teaching a few slaves word spread throughout the slave community and many soon became his students. Douglass “succeeded in creating in them a strong desire to learn how to read.” This informal school soon developed into a formal Sunday school. Douglass pointed out that, “This desire soon sprang up in others also. They very soon mustered up some old spelling-books, and nothing would do but that I must keep a Sabbath school. I agreed to do so, and accordingly devoted my Sundays to teaching these my fellow-slaves how to read. Neither of them knew his letters when I went there.” Slaves had high reverence for literacy and education. When it was known on the plantation that one could teach reading and writing, that teacher was much sought out by slaves. This can be noted in the autobiographies of both Douglass and Jacobs, and many other slave narratives. The slaves were quite adept at both spreading the word about a teacher on the plantation and simultaneously hiding this fact. Douglass recalled that

129 Jacobs, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”, 521-522.

53 “some of the slaves of the neighboring farms found out what was going on, and also availed themselves of this little opportunity to learn to read. It was understood, among all who came, that there must be as little display as possible.” Slave masters understood that educated blacks did not make good slaves. If slaves could read and write they could plan escapes, and even worse for whites, read abolitionist literature and read about political events that would eventually lead to the abolition of slavery. Indeed, Douglass’ slave master and others like him preferred slaves to be ignorant, shiftless and unproductive rather than have them educated and literate. It is also interesting to note the level of Christian devotion and piety of many of the slaves. Once slaves received an unbiased Christian education –by learning to read themselves or being taught by a literate slave or abolitionist minister, they quickly realized the hypocrisy of their Christian slave masters. Douglass spoke about this issue:

It was necessary to keep our religious masters at St. Michael’s unacquainted with the fact, that, instead of spending the Sabbath in wrestling, boxing, and drinking whisky, we were trying to learn how to read the will of God; for they had much rather see us engaged in those degrading sports, than to see us behaving like intellectual, moral, and accountable beings. I held my Sabbath School in the house of a free colored man…130

Fueled by racist attitudes that fostered the notion that blacks were deviant and lazy individuals, the slave masters did not encourage them to go to church and be good Christians. Instead they pushed them to be engaged in “wrestling, boxing, and drinking whisky”, activities antebellum whites associated with barbarism. Christian slave masters did not foster education and literacy among blacks that would help them understand God’s word, but they fostered ignorance in order to keep them enslaved. Douglass’s account represents the many African Americans who remained committed to their faith and the pursuit of knowledge despite the clear and present dangers that surrounded them.

130 Douglass, “Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglas”, 401.

54 Formal Antebellum and Post-bellum Educational Initiatives Americans in pre-Civil War nineteenth century had limited educational opportunities and high rates of illiteracy, especially in the southern states. While many poor and middle class whites were not educated, African Americans were in a worse state. Blacks had little to no access to education .131 Indeed the barriers that whites set up against blacks to prevent them from obtaining literacy were very real and often effective. Northern blacks faced much discrimination and hostility, and often received inadequate educational facilities due to racial prejudice. However, because of the continued legality of slavery in the south, southern blacks faired much worse. The limited opportunities that were available to African Americans in both the north and the south came largely through the auspices of the AME and other Christian churches, and in most cases black churches. Some of these educational opportunities also came from secular venues as well. There were a few well known organizations that contributed to the education of African Americans. In Daniel Payne’s autobiography he discussed the Minor’s Moralist society in Charleston, North Carolina where he obtained his childhood education. “Its object was to educate orphan or indigent colored children, and also to provide for their necessary wants. It consisted of fifty members, who contributed five dollars each at first, and paid thereafter the monthly sum of twenty-five cents each. As many as six children were at one time receiving its care and attention.” The society was in existence from 1804 to 1848. Organizations like the Minor’s Moralist society often educated free blacks in the south, but excluded slaves.132 Northern benevolent societies and the Freedman’s Bureau contributed greatly to the cause of black education and “were essential for the survival of [southern] schools, especially in the early stages.” These organizations provided many resources for schools

131 Lee Soltow and Edward Stevens, The Rise of Literacy and the Common School in the United States: A \Socioeconomic Analysis to 1870, (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1981). Soltow and Stevens give a comprehensive analysis of education and literacy in nineteenth century America, offering detailed data of the rates of literacy in various regions of the U.S. The 1840 census data reveals that the highest illiteracy rates were found in the south and among the poor in general. In 1840 nearly 30% of the population in North Carolina were illiterate, compared to only 6% in Ohio. Out of the small population of 1,828 in Houston, Georgia 76% of its residents were illiterate in 1840. The situation was more bleak for blacks, they were discouraged from trying to obtain the already limited access to education in antebellum society. 132 Daniel A. Payne, Recollections of Seventy Years (Nashville: Publishing House of the AME Sunday School Union, 1888), 13.

55 that educated blacks. They offered resources such as, teachers (often northern white or southern black teachers), teacher salaries, books and other important supplies.133 The resources and financial support from these organizations helped underwrite many of the public schools that arose in the nineteenth century. Blacks often worked with these groups to begin their own educational initiatives. In 1937 an ex-slave George Washington Albright was interviewed in relation to the development of early nineteenth century black education. He stated that he was convinced that blacks in antebellum times “through their determination, appreciation of the value of education, and limited resources–collectively laid the groundwork for the rise of universal public schooling in postwar Mississippi.” Albright was an example of one of the earliest ex-slave teachers during the Civil War in Mississippi. Barely literate, he was known to have conducted his first classes under a shade tree; from there the school moved to an abandoned barn, and eventually held sessions in a church. Span contends that universal education was originally an idea introduced by blacks. To support his argument he cites Dubois who argued “public education for all at public expense was, in the south, a Negro idea.”134 In this same way Heather Williams argues that “freed people, not northern whites, initiated the educational movement in the south while the Civil War was being fought.” 135 Some historians have presented the narrative focusing on the white northern missionaries placing African Americans largely in a dependent relationship. For example, early twentieth century historian Henry Lee Swint wrote in the tradition that “celebrated the white antebellum south and was contemptuous of African Americans.” In his work Swint “concerned himself with explaining and justifying white southern hostility toward black education.”136 He expressed discontent with the northern missionaries arguing that they adhered to abolitionist beliefs and consequently ignored southern values and mores. Swint did not address the “inner workings of the missionary organizations that sponsored

133 Bernard E. Powers, Black Charlestonians: A Social History, 1822-1885 (Fayetteville: The University of Arkansas, 1994), 136. Soltow and Stevens, The Rise of Literacy and the Common School in the United States, 137-138. 134 Christopher Span, “I Must Learn or Not at All: Social and Cultural Initiatives of Formerly Enslaved African Americans in Mississippi, 1862- 1869” Journal of African American History, 87 (2002): 197. 135 Heather A. Williams, Self-Taught: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2005), 5. 136 Ibid, 3

56 teachers and that so greatly influenced the institutionalization of schools for African Americans in the south.”137 Before and after the Civil War, many educational opportunities for blacks began to arise largely due to the overwhelming enthusiasm and zeal they had for learning. Williams points out that “in community after community, state after state, [she] found freed people placing education on short lists of priorities that included land ownership, fair contracts, suffrage, and equal treatment in legal proceedings.” In many nineteenth century communities, African Americans were “building schools, teaching, paying tuition” and working together to accumulate other resources.138 Through their own efforts blacks were able to empower their own community. Education was almost inseparable from empowerment for blacks during the nineteenth century. This “coupling” of education and power was most visible in the south during the 1860s.139 In short, education was vital to African American freedom and social mobility. Government sponsored common schools often provided at least an elementary education to some free blacks, primarily in northern states. The common school movement of the nineteenth century involved a system of public schools designed to give access to all children in the United States. The program was spearheaded by educational advocate and lawyer Horace Mann. These public schools gained widespread popularity and acceptance in the 1830’s, and by the start of the Civil War became well organized in many states.140 Fueled by their eagerness to learn, ex-slaves initiated the first crusade of common schools in the mid nineteenth century. Common schools were founded primarily in response to the large population of uneducated blacks who were of school age. However, because of the opposition to black education in the south, there were not enough schools to service the educational needs of African Americans. Ex-slaves solicited the help of “Republican politicians, the freedman’s bureau, northern missionary societies, and the union army”, in order to secure the idea of universal education for all African Americans.141 Northern and southern states disagreed

137 Ibid, 4 138 Ibid, 4 139 Ibid, 5 140 Wayne J. Urban and Jennings L. Wagoner, American Education: A History, (Boston: McGraw Hill). 141 James Anderson, The Education of blacks in the South, 1860-1935 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988), 4.

57 on who was entitled to an education, however. Due to the institution of slavery in the south, many southerners did not see African Americans as human, and thus fought against educating black children. The freedmen encountered strong ideological opposition while trying to obtain an education. The southern landowning aristocracy argued that no government had the right to be involved in the education of any children because it would interfere with the natural Darwinistic social order and hierarchy of the races.142 Social Darwinists believed that rich whites could afford to pay for their own education because nature had given them the biological advantage of skills and intelligence to acquire wealth. They had no obligation to pay for the schooling of poor whites or African Americans because they had earned their own resources and could distribute wealth at their own discretion. Those that could not afford an education were subject to the natural social order of the world.143 In short, the southern landed gentry wanted to perpetuate the status quo that was steeped in . Although some southern states had adopted common schools even before the Civil War, the few southern public schools were racially segregated, and the facilities for African American students were often inadequate. In this way, common schools did not gain broad acceptance in the south until the early twentieth century.144 Before reconstruction, North Carolina was the only state to not have any “constitutional provisions for public education.” Despite this fact eight or nine public schools existed in Charleston prior to 1855, but they had very meager resources. Students rarely attended classes and the schools were known as schools for the poor or “pauper schools.” In light of this, community leaders and politicians pushed for reform, and in 1854 the Charleston School Board obtained permission to improve the public school system. These schools were largely for whites, which left blacks at an even worse state in places like North Carolina. Thus, even with the rise of the common schools there were still many limitations on African American access to a formal education.

142 Francis Galton, Natural Inheritance. New York: Macmillan, 1889. Galton was the founder of the eugenics movement and a cousin of Charles Darwin. His work was the foundation of much of the supporters of scientific racism that justified offering blacks and poor whites a lesser education. 143 William H. Watkins, The White Architects of Black Education: Ideology and Power in America, 1865- 1954 (New York: Teachers College Press, 2001). Watkins offers a comprehensive analysis of the Darwinistic ideology that underscored African American education in the south after the Civil War. 144 Urban and Wagoner, American Education.

58 Self-determination and self-help were among the core values in the nineteenth century black community that helped them overcome deficiencies in public schools. African Americans in various regions of the south began to formulate a variety of creative ways to educate themselves. They sought alternatives to the poorly run common schools that often rejected them all together. Even before the Civil War many free blacks in the south had already established their own schools, providing an African American alternative to white owned common schools. One such system of schooling was “native schools” which were “common schools founded and maintained exclusively by ex- slaves.145 One example of this was a mid nineteenth century school in Goldsboro, North Carolina founded by two black men who had educated themselves; they managed to amass over 150 students. In 1867 in Camden, South Carolina African Americans had established twenty-two schools, with over four thousand students in attendance. Unfortunately, all of the accomplishments in education made by blacks were falsely attributed to “Yankee benevolence.”146 Southerners resented the perceived educational assistance northerners gave to blacks. The planting class despised the freedmen’s education for they felt it would “spoil the nigger for work.”147 African Americans continued to educate themselves despite adversities. One black teacher in Charleston founded a school for free black children as early as 1820 and kept it in operation until the Civil War. In another case Mary F. Weston “maintained a school and on one occasion was arrested for violating the laws regulating the instruction of blacks.”148 Others fought against southern prejudice by sending their children to the north for education. In contrast, northern states were much more open, embracing the education of all children. In 1855 Massachusetts outlawed legal school segregation and gave blacks in the north even wider access to education. However, northern states had their own version of racial prejudice and set up many barriers against African American education.

145 Anderson, The Education of Blacks in the South, 7. 146 Ibid., 11. 147 Ibid., 21. 148 Powers, Black Charlestonians, 150.

59 The Rosenwald School movement and the concept of self-help were a major part of the development and strength of black education. Post Civil War times marked the beginning of this movement, where blacks with very few assets pulled their resources together and built their own schools when few whites would help. Span pointed out that “despite their landless and poverty stricken-status, the great majority of Mississippi’s freed people willingly contributed to their group’s overall educational development.” Working as laborers and in other low paying jobs, many of the freed slaves still managed to pay the one dollar a month tuition often required for their children’s education. The contributions were not always made through monetary means. Some offered assistance in the forms of “food, clothing, laundry, local transportation, shelter”, as well as resources such as labor and the donation of materials for building. The Rosenwald movement took place at a time when blacks were not even making a living wage. Furthermore they were being taxed –under the Freedmen’s Pauper Tax Law– but not reaping any of the benefits of their tax dollars. Their finances were used to fund white schools. Blacks alone were taxed under this law and none of the money went into their schools. In a word they were “double taxed.”149 There were a small number of independent freedman controlled schools scattered throughout Mississippi, many of which continued well into the 1870s. Taught by semiliterate ex-slaves or literate freed slaves, most of the private schools were held in black churches or in private homes. Many of the freedmen aid associations and missionary societies based in the north objected to the black private school phenomenon because they claimed to be places of formal academic instruction, they had influence on the state’s black populace, and they were determined “to remain virtually independent of the educational initiatives established by missionary and Bureau officials.”150 The last reason expressed was the primary reason northern officials objected to the movement. Black schools operating independently of white society gave them a sense of empowerment that was tied into the idea of education as black social capital.

149 Ibid., 202. 150 Christopher Span, “Alternative Pedagogy: The Rise of the Private Black Academy in Early Postbellum Mississippi, 1862-1870” Journal of African American History, 1727-1925, edited by Beadie and K. Tolley, 212.

60 When Freedmen’s Bureau representatives arrived in Mississippi to assist African American schools in 1864 black leaders had no choice but to accept their help due to their lack of resources. However, as many of the black private schoolteachers and educators had suspected the Bureau “used its resources to systematize, facilitate, and enforce conformity” among the black private schools.151 The methodologies and moral lessons they taught often belittled blacks, treating them as less than human. They did not teach any high academic subjects, the officials simply focused on an elementary education, which included reading, writing, and arithmetic. This emphasis on basic education was in keeping with the popular idea during that time that African Americans were only capable of being manual, unskilled laborers. Despite the negative results much good also came out of the relationship with the Freedman’s Bureau. It assisted with transportation for the teachers, bought textbooks and other school supplies, and acquired property for new schools. Joseph Warren, the first Mississippi state superintendent of the Bureau’s educational affairs established a centralized bureaucracy of staff and organizations that tended to the affairs of the freedmen’s education. By 1865 most of the black private schools had collaborated and complied with the Freedmen’s Bureau because they were in dire need of all of the resources they offered. A majority of the teachers hired by the Bureau were educated, unmarried white women from the north under the age of forty. They came with a number of motives including missionary zeal, social mobility, a desire for higher income, and a sense of moral obligation. The assistance they offered the freedmen went beyond literacy training. It often included assistance in legal affairs, the supervision of marriages and religious services, as well assisting black males in the voting process after they won the right in 1867. Even with the successes of the Freedmen’s Bureau in African American education there were still many limitations. As a result of government sponsored educational efforts failing, religious organizations both black and white took up the cause of African American education. Northern missionaries often traveled south to assist blacks in their educational endeavors. In order to receive funding and resources, former slaves and free blacks in Natchez, Mississippi collaborated with the American Missionary Society

151 Cited by Span, “Alternative Pedagogy”, 217.

61 (AMA). Some blacks were still unwilling to give up their independence and autonomy to “northern based agencies in Mississippi” and often refused their help.152 The black church was one of the primary institutions that supported African American education. Echoing these sentiments, T.K. Noble –the Freedmen Bureau’s Superintendent of education in Kentucky– in 1867 stated “the places of worship owned by the colored people are almost the only available school houses in the state.”153 A well known example of church run schools was the popular system of schools in the nineteenth century known as Sabbath schools. They held classes for blacks in the evenings or on weekends at African American churches. The Sabbath schools acted as a haven for African Americans, where they could learn as they pleased without the hindrance of racial prejudice and discrimination. Many people in society had a very limited view of black education that reflected racial prejudice. This perception of African Americans influenced how black education was defined during the nineteenth century. The next section will explore the competing notions of African American education.

Competing Ideas of African American Education after the Civil War The white south continued to actively resist the education of blacks in the late nineteenth century. Once they understood that black education was inevitable, white southerners began to try to control and manipulate the type of education African Americans would receive. The Hampton model would serve as their new racist curriculum in the post-bellum south. Founded by ex-slave Booker T. Washington and Yankee Samuel Chapman Armstrong, the “Hampton idea” was based on racist ideology which stated that the key to the south’s economic success was contingent on blacks only

152 For a discussion of the role of the American Missionary Association in nineteenth century black education see Clara Merritt DeBoer, His Truth is Marching On: African Americans Who Taught the Freedmen for the American Missionary Association, 1861-1877 (New York: Garland Pub., 1995), Powers, Black Charlestonians. See Span’s discussion of how blacks refused the help of the AMA in Mississippi to maintain their autonomy in his, “Alternative Pedagogy”, 198. 153 A number of historians point to the tremendous role the black church played in African American education. Indeed in many cases it was the only educational institution for blacks. See Johnson, The Role of the Black Church in Family Literacy. Also see Janet Duitsman Cornelius When I Can Read My Title Clear: Literacy, Slavery, and Religion in the Antebellum South (South Carolina: The University of South Carolina Press, 1999). Christopher Span includes a quote by the Superintendent of Education in Kentucky from 1867 that testifies to the fact that at one point the black church was the only educational institute for African Americans, “Alternative Pedagogy”, 13.

62 doing manual labor.154 Therefore, the Hampton/Tuskegee model did not teach a classical education such as Greek, Latin and advanced mathematics; it only offered courses in manual labor. The model did not prepare blacks to be tradesmen, but prepared them to be subservient laborers. Indeed as Armstrong stated, “the object in view is not to teach a trade but to get the work done.”155 In addition to Hampton’s curriculum of manual labor, Hampton also taught “students steady work habits, practical knowledge, and Christian morals.”156 The curriculum was characterized by three main components “the elementary academic program, the manual labor system, and a strict social discipline program.”157 The Hampton idea called for the exclusion of blacks from all sectors of politics in the south, which primarily involved movements to permanently disenfranchise them. Armstrong and Washington planned to establish schools throughout the south based on the Hampton model that convinced blacks that their role was to build the southern economy through physically grueling work. The Hamptonites were opposed “to black higher education, equal job opportunities, civil equality, and equal political rights.”158 This ideology had stemmed from northern philanthropist’s belief about African American’s subordinate “place” in the “New South.” This group of northern philanthropists helped fund the racist educational curriculum and educational model.159 They believed that there was a “racially prescribed occupational niche” for blacks; which involved plowing, hoeing, ditching, grubbing, and other agricultural tasks white society did not want to do.160 Some black leaders, such as the twelfth AME Bishop Henry McNeal Turner, bitterly decried the destructive Hampton idea. Turner argued that “Hampton deprived black students of intellectual development” in subjects such as geometry, algebra, romance languages, and the sciences.161 Others who spoke out against the Hampton/Tuskegee model included black leaders such as Harry Smith, editor of the

154 Anderson, The Education of Blacks in the South, 36. 155 Cited by James Anderson, The Education of blacks in the South, 1860-1935 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988), 55. 156 Ibid., 35. 157 Ibid., 49. 158 Ibid., 37. 159 Ibid., 36. 160 Ibid., 42. 161 Ibid., 63.

63 Cleveland Gazette, and Alexander Crummell, editor of the ; they urged blacks to place industrial education in a secondary role and to place their primary emphasis on studying to be doctors, lawyers, scientists or other professionals. “Leading American politicians, businessmen, and philanthropists came to view Hampton and Tuskegee as pointing the way toward a national and even worldwide solution to the Negro problem.” Some of these prominent leaders included men such as James A. Garfield, George Eastman, Andrew Carnegie, William Howard Taft, John D. Rockefeller, and Ulysses S. Grant. Anderson demonstrated how these powerful men backed the Hampton idea in an ideological struggle to keep African Americans at a subservient level in society. Many northern philanthropists, in an effort to compromise with southern racism, settled for industrial education for blacks to appease the southern whites who opposed any form of African American education. The philanthropists had bought into the Hampton idea of racial subjugation. Thus, the late nineteenth and early twentieth century was characterized by a battle between the Hampton ideologues and those who wanted equal educational access for blacks. The battle was largely between northern philanthropists and the black intelligentsia. The most well known debates took place between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Dubois. By 1915 the Dubois camp had won a decisive victory in the “ideological war and prevented the Hampton idea from becoming the dominant Afro-American educational ideology.”162 The philanthropists’ primary target was normal schools. They viewed the small private black normal schools and high schools as the ideal place wherein they might infuse the Hampton ideology. These schools often had major teacher shortages and lacked the resources to establish the much-needed schools in the south; therefore, northern capitalists used their resources to coerce black schools into subscribing to their racist doctrine. This strategy was often accomplished by philanthropists bribing school officials and placing their own colleagues on school boards. Because the black schools badly needed funding they often pretended to give in to the industrial model in order to receive assistance, but secretly conducted courses that offered blacks a classical

162 Ibid., 108.

64 education. When the philanthropists found out, they often withdrew funding. The movement eventually failed because blacks would not comply. In spite of the failure of this movement many of the nineteenth and early twentieth century black high schools and private black colleges were successful and still remain today. During the beginning of reconstruction northern white benevolent societies, missionary societies, and black religious organizations founded the first system of higher education for southern blacks. There was an interrelationship between the black community and philanthropy in relation to black colleges. These early black universities became a major source for elementary, secondary and college education for African Americans.163

Nineteenth Century Black Education as Social Capital In light of the great value African Americans placed on learning, historians such as Span have identified education as a major form of social capital for blacks. The major African American educational initiatives throughout the nineteenth century that have been discussed in this chapter demonstrate how blacks utilized education as a tool for social advancement. V.P. Franklin’s definition of social capital states that it is “the network of social organizations, cultural institutions, voluntary civic associations, family and kinship groups in a community that assist in the development of an economic enterprise.” Social capital for African Americans included institutions such as churches, the family, and the make shift schools that helped contribute to the empowerment of black people in the south. Most importantly, African Americans possessed a strong sense of community, realizing that their individual actions were all tied together. Thus, everyone did their part in first trying to educate themselves and then in turn passing that education on to others. Span’s definition of social capital expands upon V.P. Franklin’s. Franklin defines it as “the sense of group consciousness that is utilized as a resource in the development of collective economic enterprises.” A good example of this “group consciousness” was African Americans in Mississippi during reconstruction. In Mississippi blacks used education to advance economically and improve their community. They built their own

163 Anderson, The Education of blacks in the South.

65 schools primarily by collaborating and consolidating their resources. The education they had received from freedmen schools and private schools empowered them to build institutions that would advance future generations; education was social capital. They valued it as the primary asset in their complete freedom and social mobility.164 Dubois stated that while poor whites saw formal education as pretentious and a luxury practiced by the wealthy, blacks saw it as essential and in turn demanded it.165 Blacks aggressively sought education and intuitively realized its value and connection to their liberation. Literacy and education allowed them to read and teach the Bible to the young, it helped them understand their legal rights, and it assisted them in buying and or leasing land. As demonstrated in examples that were given earlier, education could even help African Americans escape the horrors of slavery.

CONCLUSION

This chapter presented an extensive historical survey of African American education during the nineteenth century in order to situate the AME Church historically. The more African Americans were prevented from education, the more they fought for it. A study of these early initiatives for black education provides the background for the role that the AME Church and other black churches played in advocating for African American education and connecting it to liberation. This historical analysis of African American education demonstrated that there were not an adequate number of educational facilities for blacks and that the public education they did receive was insufficient. As a result, the AME Church took on the task of supporting African American education.

164 Span, “I Must Learn or Not at All”. 165 William Edward Burghart Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folks, (New York: Bantam Books, 1989).

66

CHAPTER 3 “WHERE THERE IS NO VISION THE PEOPLE PERISH”166: THE AME CHURCH AND EDUCATION FOR LIBERATION, 1816-1865

166 The phrase “where there is no vision the people perish” comes from Proverbs 29:18 in the King James Bible. Here I chose to use the language of a vision to indicate that the African American people strove toward the vision of liberation from slavery through education. Without education or the vision of liberation “the people perish”, they cannot be free and they perish under the institution of slavery. Furthermore, their dreams and hope perish. In this context vision represents the hope slaves had that they would one day be free.

67 “And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free…If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” -St. John 8:32, 36-

“The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers... As I read and contemplated the subject [of slavery], behold! That very discontent which Master Hugh had predicted would follow my learning to read had already come, to torment and sting my soul to unutterable anguish. As I writhed under it, I would at times feel that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing. It had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy…The silver trumpet of freedom had roused my soul to eternal wakefulness.”167

-Frederick Douglas, 1845-

167 Frederick Douglas, “Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglas”, in The Classic Slave Narratives. ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (New York: Penguin Group, 2002), 369, 379.

68 OPENING NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF AME BISHOP RICHARD ALLEN

Nearly two decades before the Revolutionary War a male slave was born in Philadelphia on the estate February 14, 1760. The child was Richard Allen. Indicative of the transient life of a slave, he, his mother, father and three siblings were sold to a farm in shortly after his birth, where he remained until he was twenty years old. While in his early twenties Allen had a dramatic conversion experience that was characteristic of early Methodists. He had been convicted by the powerful sermons he often heard about redemption from sin and eternal damnation. The experience had such an impact on him that he went from “house to house” preaching to his friends and family about the gospel of Jesus Christ. As a result of this religious awakening he joined the Methodist society, taking classes with Benjamin Wells in a nearby forest. Misfortune soon struck the family as their master came into hard times. Although he was considered to be a good master he had to sell some of his slaves.168 As a result, he sold Allen’s mother and three of his siblings. Allen and two of his brothers remained on the old plantation. Allen’s master eventually allowed him to purchase his freedom. While growing up on the plantation Allen had received an informal education, teaching himself to read and write. He primarily learned from literate individuals at church while attending worship services and class meetings. His education would become very useful when he ventured out on his own after purchasing his freedom. But his literacy would prove most valuable in his occupation as a minister. He felt early on in his adult life. He would often be awakened in the middle of the night by the Holy Spirit which invoked him to preach and pray. When he left his master’s house he was not accustomed to hard work, thus when he was employed to chop wood he developed large blisters on his hands and his body ached. This at first disturbed him greatly because he was very impoverished and this was his only visible means of income. After praying earnestly, a few days later his hands recovered and he soon became accustomed to cutting wood and hard work. Not long

168 For a detailed discussion of the turbulent family life of slaves, see John Blassingame, The Slave Community: Plantation Life in Ante-bellum South (New York: Oxford University Press, 1972).

69 afterward Allen began a regular pattern of working during the day and preaching at night. In this way he became an for the Methodist Episcopal Church. By 1784 he was traveling frequently, preaching throughout New England and the northern states. In 1787 he was also regularly attending Old St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church in his home town of Philadelphia. In that same year he and others had experienced intolerable racism at Old St. George’s. As a result, Allen and the other black congregants of the church left the worship service in protest, never to return. The experience led him to establish a meeting house wherein blacks no longer had to experience discrimination while worshipping God. Allen founded and became the first bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church by 1816.169

169 Richard Allen, The Life Experience, and Gospel labors of the Right Reverend Richard Allen, (Philadelphia, Martin and Boden, 1833).

70 INTRODUCTION

Richard Allen’s life represents the struggle that was involved in the founding and shaping of the early black church. The early pre-emancipation church was largely consumed by the issues of slavery and abolition. Allen and many other early AME leaders were born into slavery and did not have the luxury of a formal education. In antebellum times they often had to obtain an education in secret, by whatever means necessary.170 Nineteenth century AME Church history and the organization’s involvement in educating African Americans for liberation can be divided into two main categories. During the first half –from its founding in 1816 through the end of the Civil war in 1865 171–the Church was largely focused on the abolition of slavery and overcoming racial oppression, and the latter half from 1865 to 1893 –with the death of Bishop Payne– the Church largely focused on a liberation that was geared toward the notions of uplift and self-agency within the black community, namely black social, economic, and political advancement. Chapter Three will examine the first half of the nineteenth century and Chapter Four will cover the latter half. The guiding question of this study is: how did the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church connect its advocacy for black education to liberation for African Americans in the nineteenth century? In this chapter, I will explore the early history of the AME Church’s educational ventures and argue that the AME founders’ push for education was connected to African American freedom. Because of the racial climate of the early nineteenth century the liberation message of the AME Church was largely focused on the abolition of slavery and overcoming racial oppression. The Church often advanced this cause through the vehicle of education.

170 See Heather Williams, Self-Taught: African American Education in Slavery and in Freedom (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005) and Karl Kaestle, Pillars of the Republic: Common Schools and American Society (New York: Hill & Wang, 1983). 171 Chapter Three begins in 1816 with the founding of the AME Church and ends in 1865 the end of the Civil War. 1865 is also significant because slavery was officially abolished in December of the same year with the passing of the 13th Amendment. See Primary Documents in American History: The Thirteenth Amendment, Library of Congress. (Retrieved Feb. 15, 2007), http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/ 13thamendment.html.

71 As the number of black Methodist Episcopal congregants in the north and south grew in the late eighteenth century, the racial prejudice against them also increased. This sentiment came to a head when in 1787 African American clergyman and abolitionist Absalom Jones at St. George’s Church in Philadelphia was physically removed from the altar because he was praying in the white section. From this incident Absalom Jones and Richard Allen –another African American Methodist minister- formed the nondenominational Free African Society.172 The Free African Society (FAS) was a non-sectarian Christian community whose purpose was to aid African Americans that had been freed from slavery. The organization operated as a church and charity agency, and as a local government. FAS was responsible for a number of services in the black community including marriage counseling, teaching Christian values, and helping African Americans adjust to city life. From the Free African Society, Richard Allen founded the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1793.173 This chapter will explore three main themes that center on the subject of the AME Church and education for liberation from slavery and racism. The first section will examine the AME’s position on slavery and the way they connected to education. Sections two and three more specifically discuss the AME and their advocacy for education, examining AME records and documents as well as the actions of its early leaders.

THE AME FOUNDING AND THE CHURCH’S POSITION ON SLAVERY

In 1794 the Free African society became Bethel Church, consisting of an all black Methodist Episcopal membership. Richard Allen was permitted by the ME Church to be the pastor of Bethel.174 After the church became more successful and began to attract many members in the black community the congregation had an earnest desire to have a church organization independent of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Allen and his

172 Curtis Alexander, Richard Allen: The First Exemplar of African American Education (New York: ECA Associates, 1985). 173 Charles Eric Lincoln and Lawrence Mamiya. The Black Church in the African-American Experience. (Duke University Press: Durham, NC, 1990). 174 Alexander, Richard Allen.

72 congregants took their concern to the Pennsylvania courts and gained the right to be an independent denomination in 1815. The following year, in 1816, they officially established the African Methodist Episcopal Church.175 As a result, when Allen and the other members at Bethel founded their own organization they explicitly pledged to fight against racial prejudice and slavery. The AME did much work in the fight against slavery in the nineteenth century and utilized education as a major weapon to do so. When the AME Church began to have a presence in the south, the issue of slavery became a major one, as some free blacks who had joined the AME Church were slaveholders. Contrary to popular belief, all slave owners were not white. People of different races owned slaves even up into the mid nineteenth century, slave owners included Native American tribes such as the Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw and the Seminole, as well as free Blacks.176 There was a debate within the church as to whether they should allow those who owned slaves to be members.177 The discussion ultimately led to the Church taking a clear stance against slavery. Both sides of the debate were overwhelmingly for the abolition of slavery and members collectively believed that education was a major vehicle whereby this could be done. The issues of contention centered on how the Church should address those members who already had slaves before they joined the AME organization. This debate is evident in a recorded correspondence of an AME church conference in 1856. Robert Johnson, a church official at the conference argued to allow slaveholders in the church as long as the slave owner’s overall motive was to free

175 Dennis C. Dickerson, A Liberated Past: Explorations in AME Church History (Nashville, A.M.E. Sunday School Union, 2003). 176 For more on the Native Americans as slave holders see Annie Abel, The American Indian as Slaveholder and Secessionist (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992), J. B. Davis “Slavery in the Cherokee Nation”. Chronicles of Oklahoma 11(4): 1056-1072. Delilah L. Beasley, “Slavery in California,” The Journal of Negro History, (Vol. 3, No. 1, 1918), 33-44, John W. Blassingame, The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South (New York: Oxford University Press, 1972). 177 See Bernard E. Powers’ discussion of free Blacks in Charleston who owned slaves in Black Charlestonians: A Social History, 1822-1885 (Fayetteville: The University of Arkansas, 1994). Harriet Jacobs discusses how slaves were often sold to a cruel master when their benevolent master had massive debts upon their demise in Harriet Jacobs, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” The Classic Slave Narratives. (New York: Penguin Group, ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., 2002).

73 them.178 Johnson objected to the “majority” AME position on slavery. The majority position argued to deny any slaveholders under any conditions the right to become members of the AME Church body. Arguing against the majority, Johnson asserted that there were unique conditions in which one could own slaves and he thought that it was extreme to not allow slaveholders into the church under any condition. The participants at the 1856 conference were divided between the majority and minority positions. “In the long and heated discussion upon the subject we find the fear developed that the minority report was not sufficiently radical upon the subject of slavery; while, on the other hand, we find that the majority report was too much so, and might interfere with mercy and justice.”179 Despite the opposition, the majority prevailed and developed the AME policy that stated “we will not receive any person into our society as a member who is a slaveholder.” The policy also threatened the expulsion of any member suspected of being a slaveholder stating that “any that are now members that have slaves shall be expelled, without immediately emancipating the slave or slaves.” Indeed the church was very clear that as an organization it denounced slavery in general in any form. In making sure to identify slavery as a sin, the officials were explicit in this way stating that they “believe that all sins need to be immediately corrected; and we also believe slaveholding, as practised in this country, is a sin of the first magnitude, and should not for one moment be allowed in the holy communion of the Church of God.”180 At the AME conference in Rhode Island two years earlier the committee on slavery181 was explicit in their denunciation of the institution of slavery as an atrocious and sinful practice. Speaking on behalf of the black race, the AME leaders stated that “the is bent on its course of systematic oppression and injustice towards our race, robbing us of our liberty, breaking in upon the peace of our homes, carrying many

178 The slave Harriet Jacobs talked about this practice quite extensively in her narrative. In fact her white friends eventually purchased her freedom much to her chagrin. They decided to do so after her master - appealing to the fugitive slave law-began to constantly pursue her years after her escape, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” The Classic Slave Narratives. ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (New York: Penguin Group, 2002). 179 Daniel A. Payne, A History of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (vol. 1, 1891), 338. 180 Ibid., 336. 181 The AME Church had established a committee on slavery who made up the majority position in the mid nineteenth century. In 1854 the committee consisted of primarily AME clergy. See Payne, A History of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

74 of our dear friends from a land of liberty to that of cruel and merciless bondage, without due process of law, regardless of all the groans and tears of a Christian community.” The church leaders argued that slavery robs individuals of their homes and freedom and does not allow a fair hearing under the law. Further, all of these crimes are committed in the name of Christianity. The committee also pointed out that “new slave territories have been added to it, wresting a large section of country from the domain of freedom.” They appealed to the United State’s legacy of freedom stating that “a section whose freedom from slavery rested upon a historic fact in the Annals of American Legislation, but which has been denied by the slavery propaganda…” After opening with this condemnation of slavery they resolved that they as one body “in the name of Almighty God” raise a “solemn protest against slavery in all conditions.” They explicitly described the sins or “villainies” involved in the practice. The committee named the most heinous sins and state that slavery is much worse:

Take wrong, violence and injustice; take cruelty, hard-heartedness and contempt for the rights and interests of humanity; take fornication, adultery, concubinage of the different races of the human family, in all their acts--among all, there is none more cruel, more wicked, more unrighteous, than the cruel system of slavery. In its system are theft, robbery and murder. Add them all together, and the sum total will be slavery.

The church officials resolved that they “have entire confidence in the promises of God to deliver the oppressed nations of earth from the thraldom of sin and slavery, and to establish righteousness and truth, life and liberty, to all the human race.”182 In their decree against the institution of slavery the AME officials offer detailed reasons why they have spoken out against slavery, submitting an argument rooted in Christian morality. The committee positioned slavery as a sin worse than “fornication, adultery, concubinage” stating that “there is none more cruel, more wicked, more unrighteous, than the cruel system of slavery.”183

182 Payne, A History of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, 307-308. 183 Ibid., 307.

75 It is clear that one of the foremost issues on the mind of early AME officials was combating the institution of slavery. Next the committee’s statement takes on the unjust laws that perpetuate slavery and speaks out against them. The fugitive slave law was one of the laws they challenged. It was especially terrible because many free blacks were kidnapped from the north and forcibly taken back to the as slaves.184 The Church resolved that:

in the enactment and passage of the Fugitive Slave Law, and the more recent act, namely, the repealing of the Compromise of 1820, in the passage of the Nebraska Bill, in these wicked and cruel acts are burning coals of fire, which will burn to the lowest hell. Over them all hovers the dark angel of night, covering them with the dark mantle of wickedness. [We] resolve, that we have entire confidence in the promises of God to deliver the oppressed nations of earth from the thralldom of sin and slavery, and to establish righteousness, truth, and life, to all of the human race.

Despite seemingly insurmountable forces against African Americans, AME officials were optimistic that one day God would eradicate the practice of slavery. This ultimate retribution against those advancing the institution of slavery and participating in its practices was verbalized in the biblical metaphor of “burning coals of fire” upon the head of one’s enemy.185 This analogy alludes to the fact that when an innocent captive is kind to their cruel oppressor, the oppressor will receive a much worse punishment in the “lowest hell”. Indeed, much of the early AME literature and black church writing on the subject of slavery often spoke of a future time when slavery would be no more and the advocates of slavery would be punished.186 The AME Church argued that education was a very realistic and practical tool to ultimately bring about the liberation for African Americans from slavery.

184 McPherson in his comprehensive text on the early to mid nineteenth century and the Civil War Era spends some time discussing the horrors of the fugitive slave law and efforts to repeal it. See James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988). 185 The phrase is taken from Romans 12:20, King James Version “Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head”. 186 Payne, A History of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, p. 307.

76 The AME Church’s position on slavery informed its decision to become major advocates for the education of blacks, as they understood the connection between the education of African Americans and their freedom from slavery. Evidence of their educational advocacy can be seen in learning institutions they founded as well as in AME documents. AME officials and writers often used moral language and scripture to expose the evils of slavery and to also speak of the importance of giving Africans Americans access to education.187 Further discussion of the AME Church’s role in education will clarify how the Church saw it as being able to bring about black liberation from the “peculiar” institution of slavery.188

THE ANTEBELLUM AME CHURCH EDUCATING FOR LIBERATION

The fight against slavery was one of the foremost concerns of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The Church was consistently vocal and present in challenging African American enslavement publicly, largely through their literature and conferences. Examining several of these AME primary source documents can shed further light on the church’s advocacy of education. Notes from an 1845 conference in demonstrate that AME officials made a very definitive statement on education articulating its “vital importance” to the Church’s interest. “Eleven licentiates, thirteen deacons, ten elders and three Bishops” attended . The conference was held annually to discuss a wide range of topics and business matters of the AME Church. One of the major topics of discussion was the “educational question” with regard to slaves and free blacks. The Church officials made the important point that education was vital to the freedom of the African American race. It is the Church’s “duty to make new and greater efforts to advance its [education] cause among us in such a way as will result in a general diffusion of its blessings among our benighted race;…”. In describing education as a “sacred” undertaking the Church ventured onto a moral high ground. Indeed, they described the “cause of education” as sacred, invoking a common assumption in AME doctrine that saw learning as an

187 Alexander, Richard Allen. 188 Kenneth Stampp, The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Antebellum South, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1967).

77 important part of spiritual growth. They often used a Christian rhetoric to expose the hypocrisy of many nineteenth century church leaders by pointing out that they also committed a grave injustice on blacks by denying them access to education.189 The AME Church made the argument that to keep the slave from reading was to limit their spiritual growth. Slaves believed that literacy could help one grow closer to God, namely by giving them access to read the Bible and learn about God and his teachings, hence the idea of seeing education as sacred.190 The AME Church argued for a sort of spiritual liberation that could be accessed through knowledge of the Bible, obtained by education. This spiritual liberation was linked to physical freedom from slavery. Notes from a later Baltimore conference in January 1854 reveal this linkage. Once again African American education was a major topic of discussion. AME officials argued “that a correct education is the foundation of the elevation of any people”. In this way elevation implies that one is both physically removed from an oppressive situation and also elevated into a higher status and standard of living. Thus the statement the AME officials made implied that education could act as a vehicle to elevate or liberate African Americans from slavery and racial discrimination. The 1854 conference officials point out that the African Americans’ “enemies have placed” them within this oppressive system. The clause below exemplifies how the Church explicitly connected education to freedom:

Believing, as we do, that a correct education is the foundation of the elevation of any people, and the principal lever in the divine arrangement to raise us as a people out of that vortex of oppression and degradation into which our enemies have placed us, we would here observe, that just in proportion to an individual's intelligence is he prepared to resist or calmly submit to the encroachments on his liberty. And what we say of individuals is strictly true of nations under similar circumstances. Such being our humble opinion of the subject under consideration, it might be asked, in what sense are we to be educated--morally, religiously,

189 Payne, A History of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, 182. 190 Janet Duitsman Cornelius When I Can Read My Title Clear: Literacy, Slavery, and Religion in the Antebellum South (South Carolina: The University of South Carolina Press, 1999), and Albert Raboteau, Slave Religion (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978).

78 mentally and physically”?

The committee on slavery acknowledged the belief that education is a means whereby any race of people can be elevated. The AME officials connected this idea to the African American slaves, also speaking in spiritual terms calling the idea of black liberation through education a “divine arrangement.”191 AME officials felt deeply that God through his sovereignty would bring an end to slavery one day and that education would play a vital part in this effort. For the Christian God-fearing slave, freedom was directly connected to their spiritual state. Slaves often noted that if they could not be free on earth then they would one day be free in heaven. Literacy gave them access to their knowledge of heaven by allowing them to find out for themselves what the Bible said, as white clergy in the south gave them a racist Christian gospel. The AME Church’s educational efforts helped satisfy African American’s desire to read the Bible, which attracted many slaves to the organization.192 Many African Methodists had a sophisticated concept of liberation that they did not believe possible without education. For blacks, education was the key to African American freedom. This fact is evident in another clause from the January 1854 conference that states “we are convinced that education is the only thing calculated to elevate us as a people in this country, politically, morally and religiously. Destitute of it, we must inevitably retrograde; with it, we may hope for success. From the present indication we are led to believe that our race shall be elevated.” Here the AME Church positioned themselves as the spokespersons for the liberation of slaves and the black race.193 At the 1854 Baltimore conference AME officials also discussed the necessity of establishing a “literary institution” and other formal spaces for African American education, thereby expanding the scope of educational efforts spearheaded by the AME Church. Such literary institutions were a major means by which slaves received an education. The committee proposed that a convention be held later that year on October

191 Payne, A History of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, 403. 192 Ibid. 193 Ibid., 307-308, 406.

79 30, 1854 “for the purpose of forming a literary institution, and devising such other measures as will place the cause of education among us on a solid and lasting foundation, so that all our people, in a greater or less degree, may hereafter enjoy its benign influence.” The committee minutes discussed the success of a few of those organizations, arguing that the “Sabbath-schools, temperance societies and common schools were all in a flourishing condition” at that time. Israel Church in Washington D.C. had established a library for the congregation’s use, to promote literacy and education. The AME Church was always concerned about educating its ministers. To meet this need it established a school that prepared clergy for ministry, a predecessor to the many seminaries the church would eventually establish by the late nineteenth century. The conference notes explained that there is:

one educational society to assist young men in preparing for the ministry, together with two temperance societies and a missionary society, auxiliary to the “Parent,” were among the institutions of that date in the limits of this Conference. Baltimore, at that time under the pastorate of Rev. H. C. Turner, had a flourishing Sunday-school of three hundred and eighteen scholars, one common school and a missionary society.

By the 1850s, the AME Church sponsored a wide range of educational facilities, literary institutions, libraries, temperance societies, common schools and Sunday Schools.194 The 1854 conference minutes also note that the AME Church had established their own public schools, ostensibly as a discrimination-free alternative to the government sponsored common schools. From the 1854 conference notes cited above one can see a comprehensive view of education that is in keeping with the definition of liberation discussed in Chapter One. Earlier liberation was defined as the idea of African Americans being freed from slavery and racial oppression, and being liberated economically, socially, politically and spiritually. In much the same way James Cone discusses freedom in the contemporary African American Christian experience by stating that “liberation is not exclusively a political event but also an eschatological happening…Liberation is no longer a future

194 Ibid.

80 event, but a present happening in the worship itself.” Here Cone connects physical liberation to a spiritual liberation for slaves. In this way education can elevate African Americans “morally, religiously, mentally and physically.” 195

AME AND EDUCATION IN THE ANTEBELLUM SOUTH

When slaves escaped to the north, they often had many more educational opportunities and venues to utilize their literacy and education than they had in the south. When Harriet Jacobs escaped from her master’s plantation in South Carolina and arrived in the free state of Pennsylvania she began to tell her story, exposing the evils of slavery to northern Christians. In Philadelphia in the mid nineteenth century she was in contact with AME church leaders who encouraged her to publish her experiences as a slave. In her autobiography Jacobs explained how she came in contact with the well known advocate of black education, AME Bishop Daniel Payne, who advised her to “publish a sketch” of her life.196 Daniel Payne –the sixth Bishop of the AME Church- was known for assisting escaped slaves like Jacobs. He privately and later publicly taught many slaves to read and write, linking education to African American freedom.197 Payne had been raised in Charleston, South Carolina; the city wherein the AME movement was initiated in the South. Shortly after the establishment of the AME Church in Philadelphia in 1816, an African Methodist Church was founded in Charleston in 1817. Morris Brown, the founder of the Charleston AME Church –Emmanuel AME– was as avid a promoter of education in the Church as Payne.

195 James Cone, Speaking the Truth: Ecumenism, Liberation, and Black Theology (Grand Rapids, Mich.: WB Eerdmans Pub. CO, 1986), 20. 196 Harriet Jacobs, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” The Classic Slave Narratives. ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (New York: Penguin Group, 2002), 439. 197 Bernard E. Powers, Black Charlestonians: A Social History, 1822-1885 (Fayetteville: The University of Arkansas, 1994); Daniel A. Payne, Recollections of Seventy Years (Nashville, TN: Publishing House of the AME Sunday School Union, 1888).

81 Morris Brown and Emmanuel AME Church Educating for Liberation Emmanuel AME Church became a major symbol for black revolutionary action against the white racist society in the south. It was a site for education and literacy for African Americans and it also became the center stage for protest against the institution of slavery. Morris Brown –a free black minister– and a group of 4,367 other black congregants had founded the Emmanuel AME in 1817 as a result of a burial dispute with the Charleston Methodist Episcopal Church. The dispute involved over three quarters of all the African Methodists in the city, leaving the galleries of their former ME Church glaringly empty. The group walked out en mass, similar to the incident that lead to the founding of Bethel AME in Philadelphia under Richard Allen’s leadership. The establishment of the African Church in Charleston was perceived by white society to be quite a radical move in antebellum South Carolina, for many of the congregants were slaves. As a result, the city of Charleston responded in a very hostile way. In 1818 one hundred and forty church members were arrested, including Morris Brown and four other ministers. They were given the choice to either leave the state of South Carolina or receive imprisonment; Brown chose the latter198. Known as a radical, Brown did not choose imprisonment as an arbitrary decision, but was highly committed to the work of the fledgling church he had founded. Brown was born into a free black family in Charleston in 1770. There were nearly 6,000 enslaved African Americans in the city. Brown was one of only 24 free blacks when he was born. Brown saw the horrors of the institution of slavery all around him. He later was persecuted by whites in the south for his efforts to purchase other slave’s freedom. Although Brown was largely illiterate he was a staunch advocate of black education and even refused to ordain ministers who could not read.199 Brown’s commitment to education exemplifies its importance in nineteenth century AME policy. Brown went on to help establish many Sunday Schools, other educational organizations, publications, and informal educational spaces which became platforms wherewith the church could fight slavery.

198 Powers, Black Charlestonians. 199 Danielle K. Harley, Bishop Payne: Educating Black Saints in Ohio, (M.A. Thes., University of Dayton, 2002).

82 By the time Brown and others were imprisoned, Emmanuel AME was already heavily involved in African American education. The Church had carried on the Methodist tradition of holding Sunday Schools and class meetings, as its members were strong advocates of education. Emmanuel Church held worship services and classes for both free and enslaved blacks until it was burned down in 1822 after the congregation was linked to the Denmark Vesey controversy. At that time Brown had to flee the south under the threat of “bodily harm.”200 After the church was destroyed the congregation worshipped underground until the Civil War ended in 1865 when it was rebuilt.201 The Vesey conspiracy was directly connected to members of Emmanuel AME Church in South Carolina; the plot was an example of where the AME Church’s advocacy for education was directly linked to the liberation of slaves.202 Many of the conspirators in the Denmark Vesey plot -including Vesey himself- were active in Emmanuel AME Church, leading worship and teaching classes. The educational discourse in the church at times may have centered on slave liberation and fueled the Vesey plans.203 Vesey and other members of the church supported liberation of slaves by force. In much of the pre-Civil War AME literature and publications there is a sentiment that urges African Americans to resist the institution of slavery. One of the ways the church did this is to provide education and literacy to blacks at any cost, even while laws forbade the practice.

RICHARD ALLEN AND ANTEBELLUM BLACK EDUCATION

Unlike Payne and Morris who had grown up in middle class free black families, Richard Allen had been born a slave in Pennsylvania in 1760. This fact seemed to have given him more compassion for his enslaved people. His owner was a Quaker and a lawyer named Benjamin Chew. Chew ran into financial difficulty and eventually sold Allen and his parents to a Delaware plantation owner named Stokley. When Allen and his

200 Powers, Black Charlestonians, 21. 201 Douglas R. Egerton, He Shall Go Out Free: The Lives of Denmark Vesey, (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004. 202 Powers, Black Charlestonians, Daniel A. Payne, Recollections of Seventy Years (Nashville: Publishing House of the AME Sunday School Union, 1888), Payne, A History of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, 45. 203 Powers, Black Charlestonians.

83 brothers became older they were permitted to attend the Methodist Society meetings. Allen was soon converted and at seventeen years old officially joined the Methodist Society and began to evangelize. During this time because of his commitment and high esteem of education he taught himself to read and write. Reverend a Methodist preacher in Delaware who had freed his slaves in 1775, preached at the Stokley plantation and convinced Allen’s master of the sin of slavery. In 1777 Allen was allowed to purchase his freedom along with his brothers. Allen describes the account as follows:

…So he preached at my old master's house on the next Wednesday. Preaching continued for some months; at length Freeborn Garrison preached from these words, "Thou art weighed in the balance, and art found wanting.” In pointing out and weighing the different characters, and among the rest weighed the slave- holders, my master believed himself to be one of that number, and after that he could not be satisfied to hold slaves, believing it to be wrong. And after that he proposed to me and my brother buying our times, to pay him sixty pounds gold and silver, or two thousand dollars continental money, which we complied with in the year 17—.204

The educational commitments and initiatives of AME founder Richard Allen, set the stage for later AME educational initiatives. Like Brown and many others involved in the AME Church, Richard Allen, the original founder of the AME Church, worked hard for the abolitionist cause, which was often intertwined with his efforts to educate blacks. Allen witnessed many things throughout his life that made him more adamantly fight against slavery. In his biography of Allen, Daniel Payne writes an account of an instance in 1808 when a slave speculator came to the door of Bethel Church with a city official accusing Allen of being a runaway slave. Payne described the nature and characteristics of the that attempted to abduct Allen. Payne states that “slave speculators were a breed of men who bought the rights to escaped slaves, captured them, and resold them in the South. Other speculators would simply kidnap free blacks and sell them into

204 Ibid., 7.

84 slavery.” In this situation the speculator tried to kidnap Richard Allen and sell him in the south. But Allen had long been a pillar of the community and in fact Payne stated that “most of Philadelphia would vouch that Richard Allen lived in the city for nearly 20 years and had not escaped from the South just a few years earlier as the speculator claimed”. In Payne’s words “this was a particularly simple-minded slave speculator”, and Allen fought back against the injustice by suing the speculator “for false accusation and perjury. The man could not make the $800 bail and was thrown into the Walnut Street Prison”. This instance seemed to give Allen the resolve to fight for the abolitionist cause, for Payne points out that “from then on Allen redoubled his efforts in helping runaway slaves”. Allen’s efforts to assist slaves involved him trying to equip them with the vocational and educational means to survive and make a living in society. Another account from Payne refers to a letter that Allen wrote to get some slave children vocational training:

The Bishops’ concern for the benefit of his oppressed kinsmen, according to the flesh, was not confined to spiritual matters. He did as much as he could for their secular improvement. In a letter which was written at his instance to a Mr. Townsend, of Baltimore (a white person), whose influence he solicited, he asked him to procure a large number of colored boys, and send them to Philadelphia, in order that they might be apprenticed to learn the art of manufacturing nails.

Indeed Allen was the quintessential voice against slavery; Payne wrote that he was “thoroughly anti-slavery,” and ‘his house was never shut against the friendless, homeless, penniless fugitives from the ‘House of Bondage’.” A local well respected minister, Rev. Walter Proctor, adequately articulated the extent to which Allen worked toward the liberation of slaves. Reverend Proctor exclaimed that the “house of Bishop Allen was a refuge for the oppressed, and a house for the refugee from American oppression” and that “he was a man of most active benevolence; he lived to be good and to do good.” Along with his passion for the anti-slavery cause Allen realized that these individuals needed to be educated.

85 Allen was a man that was so committed to education that although he did not receive formal training, he educated himself. Not only did Allen help slaves but he also was sure to give them access to education. The account above does not state that Allen formally educated them–although according to other accounts of Allen’s life it was highly likely. However, Allen did expose slaves to a type of industrial education, by sending the black youth to Philadelphia to learn how to manufacture nails.205 In his autobiography Allen describes hardships he and other black congregants endured when making a decision to leave the ME Church. There was a strong sentiment within the ME Church by the early nineteenth century to keep black congregants from advancing in ways such as erecting their own buildings and even pastoring their own churches. Allen described early efforts to build a church in Philadelphia:

We had subscribed largely towards finishing St. George's Church, in building the gallery and laying new floors, and just as the house was made comfortable, we were turned out from enjoying the comforts of worshiping therein. We then hired a store room, and held worship by ourselves. Here we were pursued with threats of being disowned, and read publicly out of meeting if we did continue worship in the place we had hired; but we believed the Lord would be our friend. We got subscription papers out to raise money to build the house of the Lord.206

Allen chose to write about this incident to expose the hypocrisy of northern churches. He was very indignant and hurt by his experience with the ME Church. Allen had been drawn to the Methodist church for its appeal to the downtrodden and “the least of these”. When founding the AME Church he intended to correct the injustices he saw in the ME Church, but adhere to the organization’s theological foundation. Allen often spoke in glowing terms of the Methodist Episcopal Church and made it clear that he subscribed to the organization’s doctrine. For example Allen stated “we were in favour of being attached to the Methodist connexion; for I was confident that there was no religious sect or denomination that would suit the capacity of the coloured people as well as the

205 Daniel A. Payne, A History of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (Nashville: Publishing House of the A. M. E. Sunday School Union, 1891), 84. 206 Richard Allen, “An Address to Those Who Keep Slaves and Approve the Practice” The Life Experience, and Gospel labors of the Right Reverend Richard Allen, (Philadelphia, Martin and Boden, 1833), p. 45.

86 Methodist”. He also enjoyed the down-to-earth sermons and messages of ME preachers. Clergymen in other denominations such as Anglican, Presbyterians, and Congregationalists churches often preached highly intellectual and theologically-laden messages that were unclear to African Americans.207 According to Allen, blacks enjoyed Methodism because “the plain and simple gospel suits best for any people, for the unlearned can understand, and the learned are sure to understand.” Allen believed “that the Methodist is so successful in the awakening and conversion of the coloured people” and administering “the plain doctrine” and teaching “a good discipline”. According to Allen:

The Methodists were the first people that brought glad tidings to the coloured people. I feel thankful that ever I heard a Methodist preach. We are beholden to the Methodists, under God, for the light of the Gospel we enjoy; for all other denominations preached so high-flown that we were not able to comprehend their doctrine…I am well convinced that the Methodists has proven beneficial to thousands and ten times thousands.208

AME historian Dennis Dickerson concurs that “the fervor with which” the Methodists advanced the gospel and its “openness to the poor and blacks” is what caused Allen and many eighteenth century slaves to convert to Christianity. However, as the Methodist Church approached the end of the eighteenth century their efforts toward social justice issues “that was once the norm in Methodist societies, and staunch absolutism that was once the trademark of Weslyan preachers started to wane.” Indeed by the end of the eighteenth century the Methodist Episcopal Church showed a “diminished zeal against slavery and identification with persons of low estate.”

207 John Wigger describes the phenomenon of ministers so occupied with eloquence and theological discourses that many lower class whites as well as blacks began to flock to Methodism. This took place during the Great Awakening as a reaction to the the elitism found in more traditional denominations. For more on this and the history of the Methodist Episcopal Church see John H. Wigger, Taking Heaven by Storm: Methodism and the Rise of Popular Christianity in America. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998). 208 Richard Allen, “An Address to Those Who Keep Slaves and Approve the Practice” The Life Experience, and Gospel labors of the Right Reverend Richard Allen, (Philadelphia, Martin and Boden, 1833), 16-17.

87 The AME and ME church split was not over theological disagreements, as the Methodist Episcopal denomination’s strict adherence to Biblical teaching appealed to many pious blacks.209 Instead, Allen became increasingly frustrated with the ME racial prejudice and he longed for a place of worship where blacks could be treated equally but continue to practice Methodist teaching. In 1786 Allen had started a separate worship and prayer meeting that had attracted forty-two blacks. He expressed the “necessity of erecting a place of worship for colored people.” But the effort was soon shut down, even having the disapproval of some of the elite blacks in Philadelphia. Allen stated “I proposed [the idea] to the most respectable people of color in this city; but here I met with opposition.210 Allen had a disdain for elitism, as he stated when critiquing other churches, “for all other denominations preached so high-flown that we were not able to comprehend their doctrine.211 This helps bring out an important distinction between the AME Church’s educational efforts before the Civil War and their work afterward. Later AME leaders were accused of being elitist like middle class whites, as there may have been an overemphasis on social status through a misuse of education. In short, Allen advocated for an education that could be accessed by all people, including slaves. It was Allen’s experience as a slave and his commitment to education that would shape his religious views. By the time Allen had left the Methodist Episcopal Church and established the African Free Society he had taken up the cause against slavery. In a 1794 speech Allen directed to slaveholders, entitled “An Address to Those Who Keep Slaves and Approve the Practice” he articulated the importance of education as connected to the human-ness of African Americans. Allen proposed a challenge to slave masters to take “a few black children, and cultivate their minds with the same care” as one would wealthy white children. He also challenged slaveholders to allow African American children to “have the same prospect in view as to living in the world” as they would wish for their “own children.” He concluded by boldly pointing out that they “would find upon the trial, they [the slave children] were not inferior in mental endowments.” Indeed Allen was quite progressive in his thinking for the time period, because conventional wisdom

209 Even to this day the AME Church subscribes to Methodist Episcopal doctrine. Dennis C. Dickerson, A Liberated Past: Explorations in AME Church History (Nashville, A.M.E. Sunday School Union, 2003), 21. 210 Richard Allen, “An Address to Those Who Keep Slaves and Approve the Practice” The Life Experience, and Gospel labors of the Right Reverend Richard Allen, (Philadelphia: Martin and Boden, 1833), 14. 211 Ibid., 16-17.

88 among whites stated that African Americans were mentally, physically and spiritually inferior. In his final words of the speech he cries out against the injustice of slavery, stating:

I do not wish to make you angry, but excite attention to consider how hateful slavery is, in the sight of that God who hath destroyed kings and princes, for their oppression of the poor slaves…Men must be willfully blind, and extremely partial, that cannot see the contrary effects of liberty and slavery upon the mind of man; I truly confess the vile habits of servitude; are not easily thrown off.212

There are a few important things to note here in Allen’s statement. He first appealed to the sympathy of the slaveholders by discussing children, whom many often deem as innocent victims. He went on to suggest that African American children should receive an education, or as he stated have their minds cultivated. Allen suggested that white slave masters try this as a sort of experiment in order to prove that these African American children are human and capable of high level learning, just like those of any other race. With Allen –like many others in the AME Church in the nineteenth century- learning was intertwined with the concept of African American liberation. This statement is also of interest because it echoes much of the AME Church’s sentiments on slavery several decades later, a testament to the fact that Allen’s legacy led to the AME’s commitment to black education.213

212 Ibid., 45. 213 A document from an AME 1881conference echoed these same sentiments when it stated “… that a correct education is the foundation of the elevation of any people, and the principal lever in the divine arrangement to raise us as a people out of that vortex of oppression and degradation into which our enemies have placed us, we would here observe, that just in proportion to an individual's intelligence is he prepared to resist or calmly submit to the encroachments on his liberty” from Payne, A History of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, 307-308, 403.

89 CONCLUSION

G.M. Elliot –a professor and principal at a Normal School in Selma, Alabama during the late nineteenth century– in an article in the Christian Review entitled “We Must Educate” made the argument that African Americans “can never be a people without education.” He along with many other individuals of the AME Church understood that African Americans were doomed as a race without knowledge. Elliot asserted that “education is the only means to bring us out of this condition.” When Elliot spoke of “condition” he was referring to slavery and racial discrimination against blacks. In this way he directly connected education to African American liberation from racial prejudice and slavery. Elliot argued that “if we shut our eyes to opportunities before us, and fail to use the means at hand, the next twenty years will find us [African Americans] still in the treadmill.”214 AME educational efforts were unique to their socio-historical moment. In the early-mid 19th century, much of the Church’s efforts were spent trying to bring about liberation for their enslaved brethren. By the end of the Civil War and the abolition of slavery one can note a marked change in the type of liberation advocated by the AME Church. By the late nineteenth century education had become a vehicle to advance blacks socially, politically and economically, as they were now physically free and no one could enslave them. Chapter Four will explore these themes at a deeper level.

214 Elliot, G.M. We Must Educate. AME Church Review. (April 1885): 330-34.

90

CHAPTER 4 “THE FEAR OF THE LORD IS THE BEGINNING OF KNOWLEDGE”215: THE AME CHURCH AND EDUCATION FOR LIBERATION, 1865-1893

215 The phrase “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” comes from Proverbs 1:7 in the King James Bible. I used this verse as the chapter title because it demonstrates the nineteenth century African American mindset that linked Christian spirituality to education and knowledge. The two notions were often inseparable as blacks often saw obtaining an education as drawing closer to God through the ability to study the Bible. The King James Bible translates the Hebrew word yir'ah as fear. But yir'ah can be more adequately translated as reverence, respect or awe. African Americans had a great respect for God and the Church.

91 “Our race has had enough of physical training…We have been universal slaves, and thoroughly educated to toil and tears…There is no other door to promotion. Black or white, intellectual power is your nearest route to promotion; therefore to the school house! To the school house should be the advice to every child.” 216

-Reverend J.H. Clay, Pastor of Bethel AME Church Indianapolis, 1890-

216Daniel A. Payne, A History of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (Nashville: Publishing House of the A. M. E. Sunday School Union, 1891), 221.

92 EDUCATIONAL BIOGRAPHY OF AME BISHOP DANIEL PAYNE

Five years before the founding of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1816 Daniel Payne was born in 1811 to free black parents –London and Martha Payne– in Charleston, South Carolina. Payne’s father was an advocate of African American education and instructed him regularly. He taught him the alphabet, basic grammar and other elementary academic skills. When Payne was four years old his father died. Five years later his mother died of consumption when he was nine years old, leaving his great aunt to care for him. Payne expressed the grief and loneliness he felt for his parent’s death through poetry:217

Father and mother, authors of my birth, Ye dwell in bliss; your son on sinful earth. Hail, happy pair, who praise the Lamb above! I strive to share your cup of perfect love. Father, ere yet I knew thy manly form, The ills of life were o'er, and hushed the storm; Thy God called thee from earth to dwell on high; In peace thou art, beyond the swelling sky.

O sainted mother, high in glory thou, If God permits, behold thy Daniel now! Good Lord, give strength; my feeble mind sustain, Nor let my sighs ascend to thee in vain. Servants of God, extol the King of kings; Let higher notes flow from your trembling strings. He saves your son, puts all his foes to flight-- His human foes, or fiends of deepest night.218

217 Daniel A. Payne, Recollections of Seventy Years (Nashville: Publishing House of the AME Sunday School Union, 1888). 218 Ibid., 29.

93 Although Payne was born into a society where slavery and racial discrimination were the norm, he did not experience the life of a slave and therefore had access to resources that enslaved blacks did not. As a free African American child he could legally receive a formal education, and was not prevented from doing so as slaves were in Charleston. Just as his father had encouraged education, his mother did as well. She enrolled him in school when he was eight years old at the Minor’s Moralist Society, established by a group of free black men in 1803. The objective of the society was to educate poor, orphaned free black children and also provide them with any basic necessities. Payne studied at the school for two years–along with six other pupils— after which he studied four years with a private teacher. As he approached his teen years he became increasingly exposed to a variety of academic subjects. Much of his education included the study of history, languages and public speaking. At the age of twelve he began to study the carpenter’s trade. After trying several occupations Payne felt compelled to devote his life to education.219 He expressed this sentiment in his autobiography, speaking of how God had called him to the task. While praying one day he heard the words “I have set thee apart to educate thyself in order that thou mayest be an educator to thy people”. In 1829 he founded his own school for free blacks and slaves on Tradd Street. Free blacks were taught during the day and slaves were instructed at night. While teaching he continued in his religious studies and ultimately became the fourth AME Bishop and a champion of African American education within the African Methodist Episcopal Church.220

INTRODUCTION

Daniel Payne was one of the most well known advocates of black education within the AME Church.221 However, Payne’s view of education and its purposes differed from the African Methodist Episcopal policies on education before the Civil War and emancipation. While the early AME church saw education primarily as a means for

219 Ibid. 220 Ibid., 17. 221 Mark Kelly Tyler, Bishop Daniel Alexander Payne of the African Methodist Episcopal Church: The Life of a 19th Century Educational Leader, 1811-1865 (Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Dayton, 2006). Offers a comprehensive historical analysis of Payne’s life, focusing on his role as an educator.

94 African American liberation from slavery and racial discrimination, the AME Church in the later half of the nineteenth century saw liberation as a means for social, political, and economic mobility. Daniel Payne’s view of education can be seen as indicative of the Church’s overall position after the Civil War.222 A brief comparison of Richard Allen’s views on black education to that of Daniel Payne’s can help one get a better understanding of the AME Church’s position during the mid to late nineteenth century. As was discussed in Chapter Three, Richard Allen’s experience as a former slave had a great impact on his view of African American education and its role in liberation.223 In comparison, while Payne lived in the south and in a slave state he was born to free parents, and thus did not have to be subject to the overseer’s lash, and live under constant oppression. Another major difference between the two was the means by which each man obtained education. The opening narrative gave considerable insight into Payne’s education. From a child he was exposed to education without fear of being reprimanded for it. Indeed he had a father that taught him firsthand, exposing him to the importance of education in his life. From his father he was able to gain an appreciation for scholarship, for he saw it tangibly manifested in his life. After Payne’s father died his mother enrolled him in a local school, exposing him to formal education.224 In contrast, Richard Allen never had access to formal education as a youth. The circumstances surrounding each man’s childhood and upbringing helped shape how they each viewed education. It is also important to note the major impact the time in history each man lived had upon their thinking and life’s work. Allen never saw the emancipation of African Americans come to fruition, for the entirety of his life it was legal for blacks to be enslaved. He died in 1831, over thirty years before the emancipation proclamation and

222 See Payne, History of the AME Church, and Benjamin William Arnett Papers, “The Educational Department” The AME Budget 1881-1882 Volume, (Wilberforce University: Wilberforce, OH). These primary source documents contain a number of notes and records on African Methodist Episcopal Church policies. From these documents one can get a clear understanding of the Church’s policy on education. One can also note that the church’s role in African American education changed after emancipation. 223 Richard Allen, The Life Experience, and Gospel labors of the Right Reverend Richard Allen, (Philadelphia, Martin and Boden, 1833). Also see Curtis Alexander, Richard Allen: The First Exemplar of African American Education (New York: ECA Associates, 1985). 224 Payne, Recollections of Seventy Years.

95 the passage of the thirteenth amendment.225 Thus, Allen defined liberation as freedom from slavery and saw education as a primary means to obtain this. Education could help slaves become free in a practical sense; for example when blacks learned to write they could forge their own passes and escape north. Literate slaves could also obtain better occupations which allowed them to earn money to purchase their freedom. From a political perspective, educated slaves like Frederick Douglass became active in the abolitionist movement which directly contributed to the emancipation of slaves226. One could argue that Allen was preoccupied –and rightly so- with the abolition of slavery and was not in the socio-historical moment that would allow him to grapple with education as a means of social, political and economic advancement of blacks.227 Payne, however, was born in 1811 and died in 1893; therefore he had the unique perspective of seeing African American life both during and after slavery.228 During slavery Payne helped fight the abolitionist cause alongside the AME Church he had joined as a teen. He primarily combated slavery by educating slaves at night at the school he had founded. Slavery was abolished by the time he was in his mid-fifties and his agenda for education had to shift as slavery was no longer legal. Thus he began to push education as a means for social advancement for African Americans.229 Payne was one of the fortunate blacks who had the privilege to see the long awaited emancipation realized in his lifetime. Allen never got to see that day. In 1863 with the passage of the Emancipation Proclamation and with the Thirteenth Amendment in 1866 the AME

225 The 13th Amendment was proposed in 1865 and made slavery illegal through out the United States. The 14th Amendment was proposed in 1866 and challenged racial discrimination (secured the rights of former slaves) and the 15th Ammendment –proposed in 1870– challenged prohibition of voting based on race. See “Constitution of the United States” World Book Encyclopedia (Chicago: World Book, Inc., 1994), 1012- 1014. 226 Frederick Douglas, “Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglas”, The Classic Slave Narratives. (New York: Penguin Group, ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., 2002). 227 Allen, The Life Experience, and Gospel labors of the Right Reverend Richard Allen. Also see Curtis Alexander, Richard Allen: The First Exemplar of African American Education (New York: ECA Associates, 1985). 228 Much of the information used for this comparison of the two men can be obtained from their autobiographical writings. Richard Allen, The Life Experience, and Gospel labors of the Right Reverend Richard Allen, (Philadelphia, Martin and Boden, 1833), Daniel A. Payne, Recollections of Seventy Years (Nashville: Publishing House of the AME Sunday School Union, 1888). 229 Daniel A. Payne, Recollections of Seventy Years (Nashville: Publishing House of the AME Sunday School Union, 1888).

96 Church began to think about how to improve the lives of blacks beyond emancipation.230 This required a new understanding of what liberation meant. In the antebellum nineteenth century the African Methodist Episcopal Church defined liberation as freedom from slavery and racial discrimination, demonstrating how the Church connected education to liberation in terms of freedom from physical bondage. This chapter turns the discussion to how the AME understanding of liberation and the purpose of black education evolved after slavery. Recalling the definition of liberation that was offered in Chapter One can help bring more clarity to how this notion changed for the Church after emancipation. The definition of liberation encompasses slaves being freed from slavery and racial oppression, and free economically, socially, politically and spiritually. This chapter will explore the extended definition that has to do with the act of freeing a nation or area from control by an oppressive government, and freeing a “group or individual from social or economic constraints or discrimination, especially arising from traditional role expectations or bias.”231 In this chapter I argue that the AME Church’s purpose of black education for liberation shifted after the emancipation proclamation and the end of the Civil War, from seeing education as liberation from slavery to seeing it as uplifting and improving all aspects of black life. Education could liberate blacks from social, economic and political oppression and help them advance in those areas. The AME Church saw liberation as a means of socio-cultural advancement for the African American community. Some of the AME leaders such as Daniel Payne and Morris Brown had come from free black families in the south. The access to formal education they had as free blacks helped influence their views of the role of education in the African American community.232 For example, Payne was able to see first hand how education was able to personally empower him to eventually become an educational and

230 The 13th Amendment was proposed in 1865 and made slavery illegal through out the United States. See “Constitution of the United States” World Book Encyclopedia (Chicago: World Book, Inc., 1994), 1012- 1014. 231 See Oxford English dictionary, Miriam-Webster 2007-2008 dictionary, & dictionary.com, 2008. 232 Bernard E. Powers, Black Charlestonians: A Social History, 1822-1885 (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1994).

97 spiritual leader. Indeed, the AME leaders in the latter nineteenth century ascribed to the notions of uplift and self-determination.233 This chapter will explore the AME Church’s post-Civil War position on education and its role in black liberation, examining four major points. The first section will expand upon the competing ideas for black education in post civil war nineteenth century that was discussed in Chapter Two. This will allow one to get a sense of the educational climate for blacks at that time period. The second section will discuss the kind of education the AME Church advocated for; examining whether the Church subscribed mostly to liberal arts education –primarily supported by W.E.B. Dubois– or industrial education –advocated by Booker T. Washington–. From there the chapter will examine the role the AME Church played in establishing institutions of higher education in the third section. The latter part of this section will explore the role historically black colleges played in liberating African Americans. The majority of the chapter will focus on the work that Wilberforce University did after emancipation in regard to black education. The fourth section will examine more specifically how the AME Church connected education to the social, political and economic mobility of blacks.

BLACK EDUCATION AFTER THE CIVIL WAR

In the novel ’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe notes the difference between the racial prejudice of the northern states and that of the south. In the novel many northern characters became indignant when having discussions about slavery in the south. A young woman from the north -Miss Ophelia- berates and decries the institution when scolding her southern cousin Augustine who owns slaves. In condemning the way her cousin endorses slavery she states “I tell you, Augustine, I can’t get over such things so, if you can. It’s a perfect abomination for you to defend such a system”. In the novel Augustine claims he does not defend the institution. In response Miss Ophelia argues “Of course, you defend it, -you all do-, all you southerners. What do you have slaves for, if

233 For a discussion of the notion of uplift and self-determination in the African American community in the context of the black church during the nineteenth century see E.L. Wheeler, Uplifting the Race: The Black Minister in the New South 1865-1902 (Landham, MD: University Press of America, 1986).

98 you don’t”?234 However, Miss Ophelia benefited from the system of slavery by receiving the services of slaves at her cousin’s house while visiting him and not doing more within her power to fight against the system. Her resistance against the institution amounted to simple lip service and no action. After emancipation when many northerners interacted with free blacks, they treated them as second class citizens and as all but inhuman.235 James McPherson points out that Uncle Tom’s Cabin did not just simply indict the south. “Some of its more winsome characters were southerners, and its most loathsome villain, Simon Legree was a transplanted Yankee. Mrs. Stowe (or perhaps God) rebuked the whole nation for the sin of slavery. She aimed at the evangelical conscience of the North.”236 Indeed, Stowe noted the hypocrisy inherent in much of northern rhetoric. Many northerners hypocritically championed black education, while pushing for a racist and unequal curriculum in African American schools. Northerners ridiculed the south as being a backward barbaric people based on their advocacy of the slave chattel system. However, after the Civil War, northerners proved to have some of the same racist sentiments as southerners when it came to the improvement of black life.237 This was most evident when one examined the type of education many northern philanthropists prescribed for blacks.238 The Civil War helped bring about the abolishment of slavery, thus giving blacks access to more rights and privileges. One such privilege was the right for ex-slaves to receive an education. One of the major challenges after the war was in educating the freedmen.239 A large portion of whites –and blacks240– in the United States believed that

234 Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin Or, Life Among the Lowly, (New York: Penguin Books, 1852), 329. 235 Jean Barker, David Donald and Michael Holt, Civil War and Reconstruction (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2001). Barker, Donald & Holt discuss the social, economic and political condition of African Americans before and after the Civil War. 236For a detailed discussion of the south’s social and economic dependence on slavery see James A. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988). 237 Barker, Donald and Holt, Civil War and Reconstruction. Barker, Donald and Holt discuss the social, economic and political condition of African Americans before and after the Civil War. 238 William H. Watkins, The White Architects of Black Education: Ideology and Power in America, 1865- 1954 (New York: Teachers College Press, 2001). Offers a comprehensive historical analysis of the push for an industrial education for African Americans. Also discusses northern philanthropist support for a social Darwinistic worldview. 239 For a comprehensive discussion of Northern missionaries who taught free blacks after the Civil War see Clara Merritt DeBoer, His Truth is Marching On: African Americans Who Taught the Freedmen for the American Missionary Association, 1861-1877 (New York: Garland Pub., 1995).

99 African Americans were by their biological make-up intellectually inferior to their white counterparts, and therefore could only learn at a limited capacity. While most northerners opposed slavery, it is a misnomer to suppose that the north as a whole was sympathetic to the black cause.241 In the south, racist attitudes continued in spite of the Emancipation Proclamation. After all, the south still wanted to hold on to the institution of slavery.242 The southern view of African American education was informed by their ideology of racial superiority. As a result, southerners pushed for basic literacy and an industrial education for blacks. A brief review of the competing ideas of black education will help shed light on this educational perspective that stemmed from slavery.243 One side of the growing educational debate after the Civil War argued that blacks should only have exposure to an industrial education. Northern philanthropists and some southerners pushed for African American education, but they wanted to educate blacks to be servants. This amounted to training in unskilled manual labor, as the sentiment was that African Americans were not capable of learning anything beyond a primary level education.244 This educational ideology was known as the Hampton model. The Hampton model was founded by organizer of basic black education, Samuel Armstrong.245 Historian William Watkins called Armstrong a “moderate racist” because he supported many freedoms of African Americans including black male suffrage, the complete abolition of slavery and their dignity as humans; but he believed that the black race was morally inferior to whites and should be given a type of character education that

240 Booker T . Washington and his followers believed that slavery had damaged African Americans and they should be trained to work to counter the effects of the peculiar institution. As a result, Washington believed that blacks should not receive a classical liberal arts education like whites, but should be restricted to elementary and industrial education. See Booker T. Washington, The Fruits of Industrial Training, 92, 1903, 453-462. 241 Watkins, The White Architects of Black Education. See Watkin’s discussion on scientific racism and the eugenics movement in America. 242 McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom. 243 Watkins, The White Architects of Black Education.. 244 James Anderson, The Education of blacks in the South, 1860-1935 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988). 245 Many of Armstrong’s writings from the nineteenth century exemplify his curriculum that pushed for manual labor and physical training courses for African Americans at Hampton Institute. Armstrong’s curriculum was driven by his view toward blacks as inferior to whites. See Samuel Armstrong, A Paper read at the anniversary meeting of the American Missionary Association: held in Syracuse, N.Y., October 24, 1877 (www.archive.org/details/papereadatanniv00arms, 1877), and Samuel Armstrong, The Southern Workman (Hampton, Virginia: Hampton Institute Press, 1913).

100 prepared them to be servants.246 An 1877 address Armstrong gave at a conference in Syracuse, New York reveals his views of African American inferiority. Of blacks he states:

His low ideas of life and duty, his weak conscience, his want of energy and thrift, his indolent, sensuous, tropical blood, are, rather than mere ignorance, the important and unfortunate facts about him. The race is not, however, a fallen, degraded one. Ecclesiastical, marital, parental and filial relations among the colored people, are, by civilized standards, terribly wrong…They need a system of training which aims at the forming of character, and of self-respect; these rest on a foundation of morals and good habits…Drill, training, toning up, is the important feature in the Association’s work…mingling mental with moral and physical training.247

Armstrong believed blacks were an inherently immoral people and needed physical training and the teaching of Christian morals to control their unbridled passions. His views on education that pushed for African Americans to learn manual trades such as farming and domestic work fit well with the role blacks were expected to play in the south.248 The old economy that was dependent on free slave labor had become a way of life for southerners. They could not imagine life without the institution of slavery. After the south’s bitter defeat in the Civil War many individuals –including whites in the north– could not think of African Americans as anything other than slaves.249 Therefore, when they conceived of black education it was very limited and the curriculum reflected the subservient status of African Americans. According to this idea blacks were not capable of learning a liberal arts curriculum. The dominant thought was that it would best benefit

246 Watkins, The White Architects of Black Education. 247 Armstrong, The Southern Workman, 2. 248 Ibid. 249 Barker, Donald and Holt, Civil War and Reconstruction. Barker, Donald and Holt discuss the social, economic and political condition of African Americans before and after the Civil War, and McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom.

101 southern society if African Americans learned a manual non-skilled form of labor along with an elementary education. Despite the fact that Booker T. Washington –one of Armstrong’s most devout followers and an alumnus of Hampton– was an African American, many blacks decried the sub-standard curriculum he and Armstrong proposed.250 Black leaders saw some validity in a skilled industrial education but also pushed African Americans to strive for white collar professions such as the medical field or studying law. This sentiment was more in keeping with W.E.B. Dubois’ work; he advocated for a liberal arts curriculum for African Americans. On the other side of the debate, W.E.B. Dubois challenged the Hampton curriculum and argued that African Americans were capable of learning at the same level as their white counterparts. DuBois argued for a classical education for African Americans that focused more on higher educational subjects such as advanced mathematics, law, classical languages, the sciences and so forth. In a discussion on the merits of higher education for African Americans, Dubois argued that colleges must “furnish the black world with adequate standards of human culture and lofty ideals of life.” Black teachers should not simply be trained in “technical normal methods” but they should also be well educated beyond the elementary and industrial level, and should be “broad-minded, cultured men and women, to scatter civilization among a people whose ignorance was not simply of letters, but of life itself.”251 Dubois specifically directed criticism toward Booker T. Washington’s accommodationist program. Dubois argued that Washington’s curriculum called for the “adjustment and submission” of African Americans to southern educational ideals. Further challenging Washington and offering a scathing criticism, Dubois states:

Mr. Washington’s programme naturally takes an economic , becoming a gospel of Work and Money to such an extent as apparently almost completely to overshadow the higher aims of life…Mr. Washington’s programme practically accepts the alleged inferiority of the Negro races. Again, in our own land, the

250 Washington, The Fruits of Industrial Training, 92, 1903, 453-462. 251 William Edward Burghart Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk, (New York: Bantam Books, 1989), 68.

102 reaction from the sentiment of war time has given impetus to race-prejudice against Negroes, and Mr. Washington withdraws many of the high demands of Negroes as men and American citizens.252

Dubois further argued that Washington asked African Americans to give up “higher education of Negro youth, and concentrate all their energies on industrial education, and accumulation of wealth, and the conciliation of the south.”253 After reconstruction many African Americans began to understand the agenda behind the Hampton model and largely embraced the ideas of Dubois.254 Universities such as Wilberforce, and Fisk offered a liberal arts curriculum that attracted many African Americans in the latter part of the nineteenth century.

THE AME CHURCH AND LIBERAL EDUCATION

The educational debate between those who advocated for industrial education and those who supported a liberal arts education for blacks had a great influence on society, and consequently had an impact on AME educational policy. While the AME Church was well aware of Washington and Armstrong’s ideology, the Church supported a curriculum that valued the African American. The curriculum supported the idea that blacks were capable of achieving the same educational goals as whites. W.D.F. Pyle, Secretary of the AME Sunday School, noted in the 1878 AME Sunday School conference that “the children of colored people [are] in every respect, as capable of being taught as any other children on our earth.”255 It was important that many African Americans learn skilled trades such as carpentry, bricklaying, blacksmithing, cigar-making, shoemaking, sewing and tailoring because it provided a means for them to make a living. In the nineteenth century after slavery, many blacks needed to learn a trade in order to support

252 Ibid., 36. 253 Ibid., 37. 254 Anderson, The Education of blacks in the South. 255 Benjamin William Arnett Papers, “Sunday School Meeting 1878”AMEC Conference Minutes 1881 Volume 18, (Wilberforce University: Wilberforce, OH), 24.

103 themselves and their families. The AME Church by and large was cognizant of this fact and encouraged blacks to learn skilled trades. The Church differed from the Hampton and Washington model in their view of industrial education. The Hamptonites did not want African Americans to acquire skilled trades, but simply wanted them to be limited to working as unskilled laborers. The AME Church not only pushed for skilled labor education in their industrial schools and departments, but also encouraged selected blacks to pursue a liberal arts education. In further notes from the 1878 AME Sunday School meeting Elder Bradwell stated “…the children of colored people [are], in every respect, as capable of being taught as any other children on our earth, it having been attributed to them the excellency in mastering education, peculiar systemic arts and sciences.” Bishop Campbell at the same Sunday School conference stated that “if you only give them [African American students] a fair and proper opportunity, they will not only equal others who have ever had them in oppression, but they will wholly excel them”. The AME Church primarily subscribed to the Dubois educational model which saw no limitations necessary on black education. They believed African Americans were capable of learning just as much as their white counterparts.256 Allen University founded in 1870 in Columbia South Carolina by the AME Church offered “primary, intermediate, normal and theological training” for blacks. And for its “advanced pupils” the university offered “French and Latin, vocal and instrumental music.”257 The AME colleges and universities would come to be the major institutions for black education on every level. These institutions aided in black progress after the Civil War.

THE AME CHURCH ESTABLISHING INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION FOR LIBERATION

One of the great educational efforts that the AME Church is most noted for is its establishment of institutes of higher learning. By 1866 the Church had founded 11

256 Ibid. 24. 257 Ibid, 49.

104 colleges and normal schools that serviced over 2,000 students.258 By the late nineteenth century the AME Church had established 28 colleges and normal schools including: Wilberforce University, , , Shorter College, Allen University, Paul Quinn College, and the Turner Theological Seminary. At the 1881 quadrennial General Conference of the AME Church held in Washington, the board members of the Department of Education sent an address to the “brethren” discussing the subject of education proudly noting “we now have colleges and universities in successful operation under the following named conferences, viz: Allen University, Columbia and South Carolina Conferences, Paul Quinn College, Texas Conferences, and the Western University, under the Kansas Conferences.”259 Historians Stephen Angell and Anthony Pinn, point out that “the Emancipation Proclamation was an invitation to begin systematic efforts to educate and train former slaves for responsible living”. The historically black colleges the AME Church established played a large role in this effort, liberating blacks from social and economic oppression. This was done in large part through the normal and elementary education programs that many of the colleges offered. The colleges empowered blacks to participate in society as full citizens and no longer slaves. They could earn money to provide their own food, clothes and shelter. African Americans could also obtain the proper education from colleges to help them participate in the political process and advance socially260. In a section of the 1881-1882 report from the AME Education Department, Reverend James C. Waters Principal of Allen University gives insight into the school’s offerings in liberal arts and industrial education. Allen University had a Preparatory Department and an Academic Department. The Preparatory Department offered what would be the equivalent today to a kindergarten through sixth grade education, with courses in “Reading, Spelling, Phonetics, Elementary Geography and Grammar, Mental and Practical Arithmetic, Writing, Vocal Music, and Outlines of United States History.”261 The AME had established these institutions of education to combat the ignorance and illiteracy of the newly freed African American community. The church

258 Gilbert Anthony Williams, The Christian Recorder, Newspaper of the African Methodist Episcopal Church: History of a Forum for Ideas, 1854-1902 (London: McFarland & Company, 1996). 259 Ibid, 33. 260 James, The Education of blacks in the South. 261 Arnett, “Allen University Catalog”, 50.

105 realized that they could empower them through education. “Strongly influenced by advocates of education such as Daniel Payne”, Angell and Pinn point out that “church leaders connected educational training with character building, moral uplift, and the advancement of the race.” 262

The AME Church and Wilberforce University

Wilberforce University was a good exemplar of an AME established institution of higher education that was committed to liberating African Americans after the Civil War. Wilberforce (the oldest private historically black college) had already been established before the Civil War in 1854. The college was founded by a collaboration of the AME Church and the ME Church.263 Daniel Payne in his History of the AME Church offers details about the establishment of Wilberforce University. He submits:

It was one of the darkest periods of the nation's history when the Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, moved by the inspiration of Christian philanthropy, appointed a committee of seven to consider and report a plan for the improvement of the intellectual and moral condition of the thirty thousand colored people of Ohio and those of other free states, by furnishing them with such facilities of education as had been generally beyond their reach.264

In the 1850s, racial violence and oppression brought on by the fugitive slave law was increasing. Spawned by fear of slave revolts, white anxiety in the south rose.265 The country was divided between supporters of slavery and abolitionists, a conflict that would

262Stephen W. Angell & Anthony B. Pinn (Eds.), Social Protest Thought: In the African Methodist Episcopal Church, 1862-1930 (Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1996), 72-73. 263 For a comprehensive history of Wilberforce University until the early twentieth century see Frederick Alphonso McGinnis, A History and an Interpretation of Wilberforce University (Blanchester, OH: Brown Publishing, 1941). Also see Valena Randolph and Jacqueline Brown, “Wilberforce University” Encyclopedia of African American Culture and History (MacMillian Reference USA, 2007). 264 Payne, History of the AME Church, 423. 265 Bernard E. Powers’ discussion of free Blacks in Charleston who owned slaves in Black Charlestonians: A Social History, 1822-1885 (Fayetville: The University of Arkansas, 1994).

106 ultimately crescendo into the Civil War.266 In articulating the abolitionist sentiment Payne stated that “the demon of slavery had reached the zenith of its power, and was preparing for its deadly struggle with the genius of liberty.” Payne connected the effort for creating an educational establishment for blacks to the “genius of liberty.” The effort was to improve “the intellectual and moral condition” of African Americans. Wilberforce was motivated by the goal of physical liberation from slavery, and freedom for black intellectual advancement.267 Wilberforce was organized as a “literary institution” that provided a “classical education…and teacher training” for young African Americans. The University originally only offered “elementary studies”, necessary because many blacks had no formal education and often were illiterate. Although elementary education was offered at Wilberforce, the institutions primary objective was to offer a “classical education”, a direct contradiction to the industrial education proposed by Armstrong.268 The northern Methodist Episcopal Church primarily funded Wilberforce University until the early 1860s. Their stance on the issue of slavery informed their decision to support the AME Church. In adopting the abolitionist position, the ME Church supported African American freedom.269 The ME Church hailed the African American “as a man, a brother, in accordance with that grand affirmation of the Bible”. They further spoke of “the unity of the human race, that God hath made of one blood all nations of men.” This was the ideology that led the ME Church to lend financial support to the establishment of Wilberforce University. In stating their decision to collaborate with the AME Church, Methodist Episcopal officials stated:

Here, then, is an extensive field open for benevolent enterprise, where a part of the large donations of the rich, and the smaller contributions of those of less ability, may advantageously mingle together, and where the patriot, the statesman, an d the philanthropist of every description may unite in the accomplishment of this noble work.

266 McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom. 267 Payne, History of the AME Church, 423. 268 Ibid., 423. 269 Ibid.

107 This “advantageous mingling together” with the ME Church allowed the AME Church to ultimately have a good deal of autonomy in being African American educational leaders.270 In further Methodist Episcopal resolutions the ME leaders expressed that it is “the greatest importance… that all the colored people should receive at least a good common school education; and that for this purpose well qualified teachers are indispensable.”271 The ME Church advocated for African American education, and the AME Church adopted the same stance. Although the AME Church split from the larger ME Church, the African Methodists still adhered to the doctrine and disciplines of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Their religious goals and educational aspirations were quite similar. The AME had maintained and expanded upon many of the educational practices and institutions established by the ME Church.272 The Methodists funded the university until the Civil War, when they no longer had the financial wherewithal to sustain the organization. As a result, the AME Church purchased the institution, establishing it as a symbol of African American academic empowerment. Wilberforce was the first college that African Americans owned and operated.273 Payne discussed the events surrounding the re-stablishment of Wilberforce after the Civil War in his History of the AME Church. On 10, 1863 he met with the “original trustees of Wilberforce University to purchase the property for the A. M. E. Church, to be used as an institution of education for the colored race.” There were very few other universities or colleges that allowed African Americans to study at their institution.274 Wilberforce became a very important testament to black academic achievement. Payne stated that blacks were “at the time excluded from all the schools of higher education, excepting two or three, of which was chief. African American admission into others, if admitted at all, was on such conditions as few persons of color would accept.” Payne aligned with several prominent educational leaders in Ohio in order to purchase the school. Such persons included “Rev. James A. Shorter and Mr. John G. Mitchell, who was at that time principal of a graded school in the city of

270 Ibid., 423. 271 Ibid., 424. 272 John Wigger, Taking Heaven by Storm: Methodism and the Rise of Popular Christianity in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998). 273 James T. Campbell, Songs of Zion: The African Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States and South Africa (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995). 274 Anderson, The Education of blacks in the South.

108 Cincinnati. These persons applied for and obtained a new charter for Wilberforce in the name of the A. M. E. Church, according to the general law of Ohio.” The committee organized a new board of trustees and officially opened the school on July 3, 1863. The school opened with just six children and primarily taught elementary courses, liberal arts courses were offered a few years later.275 Wilberforce increased in numbers and popularity until an arsonist set the school aflame, burning it to the ground in 1865. Payne offers some details about the catastrophe. He states that “the progress of the students was commendable, and classes were formed in Greek, Latin and lower mathematics. Everything indicated a prosperous future, when suddenly the buildings were set on fire by an incendiary.” It was not very long before the building was completely destroyed. “Within half an hour the beautiful edifice was nothing but smouldering embers. The catastrophe fell upon us like a clap of thunder in a clear sky.” Ever resilient, Payne stated “but we believed and said: and out of the ashes of the beautiful frame building a nobler one shall arise.” Indeed the leaders went on to erect a “nobler” institution.276 With the emancipation of slaves, the end of the Civil War, and the beginning of the reconstruction of the south many whites were resentful of the new freedoms African Americans had.277 As a result, the first black owned institution of higher education was burned to the ground by an arsonist in hopes of halting African American progress.278 By the autumn of 1866 the Classical and Theological Departments were reopened, followed by the Scientific Department in 1867 and the Normal School for teacher education in 1872. Wilberforce was the ideal model for black education in the nineteenth century after the Civil War. One of the major aims of the institution was to “make Christian scholars not mere book worms, but workers, educated workers with God for man.”279 A common notion through out early AME literature is the idea of the Christian scholar. The Christian scholar was an individual of moral piety, and high intelligence who was

275 Payne, History of the AME Church, 428, 429. 276 Ibid., 430. 277 Barker, Donald and Holt, Civil War and Reconstruction. Barker, Donald & Holt discuss the social, economic and political condition of African Americans before and after the Civil War. 278 Payne, History of the AME Church, 430. 279 Ibid., 433.

109 encouraged to pursue any career or vocation that white society had access to.280 At Wilberforce the teaching of the classics and mathematics was “for their discriminating, polishing and cultivating influences” and science and philosophy courses were “for the quickness and exactness which they impart to the cognitive faculty, a nd the s eed thoughts which they never fail to sow in the mind.” The Wilberforce catalog stated that the classics and mathematics, as science and philosophy, can and must be consecrated to human well- being by teaching the sentiments and the spirit of Jesus…”281 The notion of the Christian scholar was consistent with the spiritual liberation the AME Church advocated throughout the nineteenth century. This spiritual liberation was connected to sociological freedoms for blacks.282 In the “Theological Department” at Wilber force the curriculum from the 1863 catalog stated that the faculty and staff “employ both the inductive and deductive methods, allowing the largest liberty of investigation and expression…”283 The establishment of Wilberforce helped liberate the African American community by giving them access to unrestricted education. The challenge for freedmen after slavery was to acquire full citizenship status (political, social and economic rights) in post Civil War America. Educational access was a key factor in helping them to achieve that goal.284

THE AME CHURCH EDUCATING FOR LIBERATION AFTER THE CIVIL WAR

The structure of the AME Church was conducive for housing formal education for African Americans. From its inception in 1816, the African Methodist Episcopal Church

280 John M. Henderson, “Sunday School Work and Workers” The AME Church Review (1894-1895), 338- 345. Offers a discourse on the Christian scholar. Also see S. Martin, “Education Before the Christian Era” The AME Church Review (1890-1891), 185-194. Discussed the idea that blacks were not intellectually inferior and could achieve the same academic status as whites. 281 History of the AME Church, 433. 282 James Cone, Speaking the Truth: Ecumenism, Liberation, and Black Theology (Grand Rapids, Mich.: WB Eerdmans Pub. Co.,1986). 283 Payne, History of the AME Church, 433. 284 Clara Merritt DeBoer, His Truth is Marching On: African Americans Who Taught the Freedmen for the American Missionary Association, 1861-1877 (New York: Garland Pub., 1995). Jean Barker, David Donald & Michael Holt, Civil War and Reconstruction (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2001).

110 divided each state into a conference (or connection). For example the Ohio, South Carolina, Louisiana, and New York Conferences were all a part of the larger AME Organization. Each state had annual meetings where they discussed events from the past year, examined present activities within the church and made plans for the future.285 Specifically, the meetings served to review doctrine and disciplines of the church, to ordain clergy, appoint and elect leaders and to maintain and establish new programs and departments. The states also came together every four years with all of the others at a meeting called the General Conference. AME officials took detailed notes of the general conference, publishing them and distributing them widely. The conference minutes consisted of various reports such as that from the Finance Department, the Sunday School Department, and the Department of Education.286

The AME Department of Education on Black Social and Moral Advancement The 1881-1882 and 1884-1885 reports from the AME Education Department contained histories of the establishment of a unified educational branch of the Church. As early as 1833 Reverend offered a resolution to develop formal educational institutions in the Ohio Conference of the AME Church; subsequently many common schools, Sunday-schools and temperance societies were founded throughout the United States.287 In 1876 AME Church officials at the quadrennial General Conference in , Georgia wanted to further “promote the educational interests” of the church. To fulfill this desire the Church organized and established a Department of Education. The department was headed by elected officials, which included a general board of education, a secretary of education, and a commissioner of education. The board of education consisted of one member from each of the nine Episcopal districts of the AME Church in the nineteenth century. Reverend J.C. Embry was elected as the first secretary of education.288 Another important educational branch of the AME Church was the Sunday

285 Jacob Matthews, The Doctrine and Disciplines of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (Philadelphia: John H. Cunningham, 1817). Benjamin William Arnett Papers, “Allen University Catalog” 1881 Volume 18, (Wilberforce, OH: Wilberforce University). 286 Payne, History of the AME Church. 287 See also Benjamin William Arnett Papers, “The Educational Department” The AME Budget 1884-1885 Volume, (Wilberforce University: Wilberforce, OH) and Payne, History of the AME Church. 288 Arnett, “The Educational Department”, 141.

111 School Department. The AME Sunday School organization had its origins in the Methodist Episcopal Church. The ME Church established Sunday Schools in the United States at the inception of the Church in 1784. Bishop Asbury the second Bishop of the ME Church was instrumental in the establishment of the Sunday School movement, holding the first classes at the house of Thomas Crenshaw in Hanover County, Virginia.289 The purpose for the Sunday school was to teach children literacy and elementary education, as well as educate them in Christian doctrine. At the ME General Conference in 1784 wherein the Sunday School was established the question was asked “What shall be done for the rising generation?” and the reply was “where there are ten children whose parents are in society, meet them at least one hour every week.” The African Methodist Episcopal Church –in keeping with their Methodist Episcopal roots– implemented Sunday Schools in 1833.290 AME Sunday Schools carried the same primary goal as the ME Church; namely to provide elementary education, literacy and religious instruction to the masses. However, the African Methodist Episcopal Church provided this service to slaves and freedmen. Daniel Payne in his History of the AME Church, records an 1854 account from several AME educational committee members: Eward. D. David, Lewis Woodson, G. C. Graham, M. T. Newson, and A. R. Green. The committee stated reasons they had established Sunday Schools:

First, we find to our regret that a large number of the children, who should be regular in attendance in day school, by sheer neglect are left to run the streets, and learn habits that will prove an incubus on their future life; and not only in the day, but in the holy Sabbath-school is this neglect to be traced. And lamentable it is to say, that thousands of children, even of professors of Christianity, are, instead of being sent to learn of God and heaven, left free to run at large and desecrate the day of the Lord, and wander in the path of vice to ruin and degradation.

Church officials were concerned that if black youth remained idle and inactive they would “learn habits that will prove an incubus on their future life.” In other words they would adopt deviant behaviors if they were not productive. The Church’s solution

289 Ibid. 290 Ibid., 108.

112 for this was to give them formal education.291 The structure and curricula of the educational institutions of the AME Church helped bring about liberation f o r African Americ ans. Spawned by the educational movements of the church, many of the leaders specifically advocated for the advancement of African Americans. Benjamin William Arnett, a Bishop and pastor at several churches in Ohio, and one of the Church’s first historians and educators, pushed for the social advancement of African Americans through education. Articulating the AME position on education after the Civil War Arnett stated “go teach the mind to think, the heart to feel, and the hands to work.” Arnett –who lived from 1838 to 1906– was a key figure in AME educational leadership.292 For African Americans, Arnett’s understanding of education was a key component of their fight in overcoming inequality. If they had the tools via education “to think” in an original way that went against the grain of mainstream society, they were closer to social advancement. Arnett called for a pedagogy that was able to “teach the heart to feel.” This is a Christian ethic that urged people to be compassionate and caring toward those around them. This ethic of care could equip African Americans to be concerned about the well-being of the community as a whole and not only themselves. The phrase “hands that work” is reflective of the industrial education of the nineteenth century. Although the AME Church saw the need for industrial education in the black community, it did not subscribe to the Hampton model that encouraged blacks to be restricted to menial labor. Rather the Church –along with pushing for a liberal arts education– emphasized the importance of African Americans acquiring a trade that would allow them to make a living. This was very important after the Civil War when African Americans had suddenly been granted their freedom and needed to support themselves and their families.293 Most blacks in the south had been working as slaves on plantations and in domestic occupations. They had been taken care of in varying degrees by their slave masters, who provided a basic level of food, clothes and shelter for slaves. When slaves became emancipated many did not have the wherewithal to support

291 Payne, History of the AME Church, 404. 292 Payne, History of the AME Church. 293 Arnett, “The Educational Department”, 141, 108.

113 themselves in the world outside of the plantation. Therefore, vocational education was a vital pa rt of their success in the new America.294 Watkins states that the leaders of the US in the late nineteenth century “had no idea how to organize its disparate populations (the freedmen).”295 Armstrong –the architect of the Hampton model– argued that resolving the issue of how to accommodate the freedmen after the war “was the key to national reconciliation.”296 African Americans meant something very different from white leaders when they called for an education that “would teach their hands to work.”297 While northern philanthropists called for blacks to be limited to a non-skilled industrial education, African Americans and AME Church leaders saw the need for the transformative abilities of a classical education and the practical necessity of a skilled industrial education.298 A section from the 1881-1882 AME Educational Department report entitled “Educate Yourselves and Your Children” by Reverend B.F. Porter and Professor J.C. Waters –both faculty at Allen University, founded by the AME Church– offers a clear discussion of the AME Church’s advocacy for black education after the Civil War. The text connects African American education to social, political and economic advancement. Making the case that African Americans are intelligent, but often are prohibited from seeking an education Porter and Waters state that:

there are many bright, intellectual youth of both sexes scattered all over this and other states, who would do good and bless the world if they had the opportunity to secure even a thorough knowledge of the English branches. It is impossible for them to leave home and enter Wilberforce, Howard, Lincoln, and other institutions of learning; they have neither the time, fitness, nor means.

The authors argue that African American youth would be a blessing to the world and could improve society if they could receive a proper education. Arguing that placing restrictions on black education is a type of bondage, Porter and Waters describe many of

294 Barker, Donald and Holt, Civil War and Reconstruction. 295 Watkins, The White Architects of Black Education, 6. 296 Ibid., 4. 297 Arnett, “The Educational Department”, 141, 108. 298 Anderson, The Education of blacks in the South.

114 the freedmen as being “fettered by ignorance, crippled by the consciousness of the want of even elementary knowledge.” They argue that social advancement cannot come about without education. African Americans “struggle on until the cares and responsibilities of life crowd upon them and preclude all possibility of successful advancement.” 299 With freedom newly made available to African Americans a variety of unique needs arose for the black community.300

The changed condition of colored people of this and other southern states, brought about by the late unhappy conflict, and the relations they sustain to the nation, render their proper training and Christian education an absolute necessity. History demonstrates that there is no medium more potent, through which this can be accomplished, than the pulpit…The hopes of the nation and the safety of the republic rest in the Christian education of its youth.

Porter and Waters argued that education was “an absolute necessity” for the post-Civil War black community. Indeed advancement and empowerment of the race during reconstruction of the south would come through education. In this way they point out that “knowledge is power; but power without knowledge is a dangerous weapon which may be employed at any moment.” The slave south had power to withhold blacks from education. This withholding of knowledge destroyed “the pillars of liberty” and buried the “fortunes of millions” of blacks for centuries. Discussing effective resources for African American social advancement Porter and Waters argued that “the Bible and the spelling-book must do the work; the church and the school-house are the agencies through which it must be accomplished.”301 For Porter and Waters the “schoolhouse” acted as a metaphor for a learning space that did not inhibit African American intellectual advancement. They saw formal schools and the church as a means for black liberation. This was also evident in the 1884-1885 AME Department of Education report written by Reverend J. T. Jenifer. Jenifer makes the case that all of the hardships the

299 Arnett, “The Educational Department”, 50. 300 Elsa Barkely Brown, “Renegotiating the Community” Major Problems in African-American History: Volume II: From Freedom to “Freedom Now,” 1865-1990s (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, ed. Thomas C. Holt & Elsa Barkley Brown, 2000). Brown’s essay discusses some of the social, political and economic problems African Americans encountered after the Civil War. 301 Arnett, “The Educational Department”, 51.

115 black race has suffered can be tied back to their lack of education. He states “all of our [African Americans’] disadvantages as a people may be traced to want of education.” Reverend Jenifer understood how important this was; he submits that for African Americans “therefore, its acquisition is not ordinary work; but one demanding our constant attention and sacrificing liberality.” Jenifer’s language reiterates the important contribution the AME Church made in bringing education to the masses in an effort to uplift th e race.302 The theme of Christian education can be constantly noted throughout AME literature. Education alone was not sufficient; the church was perpetually concerned with moral as well as spiritual, economic, and political uses of education. The AME Church encouraged African Americans to make the right choices in life, according to biblical principles. A proper Christian and biblically based education can bring about the moral improvement of the black race.303 By the use of a character-based education “men learn the nature of right and wrong and their consequences.” Education “draws out righteous thought in righteous action.” An appropriate educational curriculum leads to the ability to make the right choices. In this way education is defined as “the culmination of moral, mental and physical excellence in the estimation of man, and the consequence of ultra refinement of all the elements of his being.”304 Indeed, it is the job of the Church to provide “training in the knowledge that pertains to right and wrong.” African Methodist fmembers and leaders believed that one could be as educated as ancient Grecians and “know very little Christian morals.” A person can be an excellent mathematician, logician or linguist and yet know “nothing about right and wrong, in a moral sense, nothing about justice or injustice, gratitude or ingratitude…piety and impiety.”305 In short AME leaders did not only address the physical and social advancement of the black race, but as Christians they were also concerned that African Americans live lives of integrity,

302 Benjamin William Arnett Papers, “Board of Education of The African M.E. Church” AME Conference Minutes 1884-1885, (Wilberforce University: Wilberforce, OH, 1885), 1. 303 G.M. Elliot, “We Must Educate,” AME Church Review, 1 (1885), 330-334. Elliot argues the importance of Christian education. Josephine Turpin Washington, “A Plea for the Moral Aim in Education,” AME Church Review, 38 (1921), 67-71. Turpin discusses the attributes of a moral education. 304 Benjamin William Arnett Papers, “Address of the General Board of Education” Educational Department 1881-1882 Volume, (Wilberforce University: Wilberforce, OH,1884), 56-57. 305 J.H. Clay, “Education” The AME Church Review (1890-1891), 338.

116 practicing moral goodness. A moral education could help advance the black race by creating the ethical framework for an ideal future society.

Education to Elevate the Race

In 1890 arguing for the benefits of education within the black race Reverend J.H. Clay stated “Why is the colored man so much a hewer of wood, so much a drawer of burdens? …We need intellectual education; training of the mind. Intellectual darkness forged the iron yoke of slavery on our necks, and intellectual light alone will melt it off again.” The “intellectual darkness” created by slavery could only be dispelled by education. Although by 1890 slavery was illegal in the United States the institution had done so much damage to the black race, that there was more liberation that needed to take place. Clay went on to extol education for blacks stating, “there is but one way to elevate a man –English, Irish or American- and that is, enlighten him set the light on the inside of him and he will become “whiter than snow.”306 The phrase whiter than snow comes from a biblical reference in Isaiah 1:18 that describes a spiritual cleansing that can take place in Christians; “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.”307 In this context white represents knowledge and darkness represents oppressive ignorance. Knowledge has the ability to liberate African Americans, enlightening them to combat the darkness of ignorance. In the 1884-1885 AME Board of Education report Reverend J. T. Jenifer stated that he “is convinced that nothing can be so powerful for the improvement and elevation of our people as the blessing of a Christian education.” There was a consistent theme in AME literature after emancipation, of the “elevation” of African Americans through education.308 A section from the 1881-1882 AME Educational Department report entitled “Education of the Colored Race” written by McCosh, Tanner and Porter offers a dialogue on education as a tool to empower African Americans, allowing them to collectively elevate themselves. An underlying theme present in the text is one of black self-reliance and the notion of uplift. In discussing this subject McCosh states he does not

306 Ibid., 336. 307 Isaiah 1:18, King James Bible. 308 Arnett, “Address of the General Board of Education” Educational Department 1881-1882, 8.

117 “believe…that the North or the South can elevate the Negro it must be done by themselves.” Education is a necessary tool that African Americans need to be liberated and raise themselves out of their unfortunate circumstances. Tanner responded by stating that “no man or community of men can elevate another. Elevation must come from within. What the North and South, however, can do is to cease their injustice, direct and indirect, and allow the negro to educate himself” by means of transformative knowledge.309 AME Secretary of Education, William D. Johnson’s analysis of nineteenth century literacy data, published in 1882 by the AME Department of Education further sheds light on the theme of black self empowerment and uplift. The analysis was entitled “The Perils of a Nation: The Illiterate Population of the Nation”, and was based on literacy data that was drawn from the 1860 and 1880 government census records. It is important to note that the study is from 1882 and lacks contemporary research practices, and thus may contain a significant margin of error. Harvey G. Graff is one of the foremost historians in literacy studies and points to the inherent bias in early nineteenth century primary sources that contain data on literacy310. In spite of the se factors, from this late nineteenth century census data, one can get a good sense of the educational disparity between black and white people in the late nineteenth century and thus recognize the important challenge of black education during that era. Johnson uses the data to compel Christian “men and women to give their money and prayers to aid in giving Christian education to these multitudes [newly freed African Americans].” The author asks the pointed question “what will you do?” The call is “to assist the A.M.E. Church in her work of race elevation.” The monetary donations were to provide an education that would “help carry the light of our Christian civilization into the homes of the freedmen of the South, and also into the homes of the freedmen of the North…” The AME Church wanted to “assist in the reconstruction that is now going on in the homes, as well as in the lives of the leaders of the race, the church can and is doing

309 Benjamin William Arnett Papers, “Education of the Colored Race” Educational Department 1881-1882 Volume, (Wilberforce University: Wilberforce, OH), 117. 310 For an in-depth theoretical discussion of literacy see Harvey J. Graff, The Labyrinths of Literacy: Reflections on Literacy Past and Present (Pittsburg: University of Pittsburg Press, 1987). Graff offers an extensive study of the nature and history of literacy, focusing on the task of defining literacy and interpreting historical data. He also spends a great deal of time examining the importance of literacy in society.

118 a work that no other organization can do.”311 One of the major responsibilities of the AME Church was to provide education to the masses. The church sought to train African American children in the “rudiments of English education, preparing them for the duties of citizenship, qualifying them for usefulness in society and the state.” The fight against illiteracy among blacks was also an important part of the AME agenda during reconstruction. Johnson stated that “with so large a part of the citizens illiterate, there is danger to our country.”312 The African American community’s progress could be stifled without proper education.

Education for Political Advancement African Americans realized that they not only needed to advance socially and economically, but politically as well in order to be completely liberated. Political influence could empower them to change their social and economic environment and forge a society that did not discriminate against people of color.313 The AME Church understood that education was the key to black political advancement. Reverend J.F. Dyson in an 1884 sermon on education pointed out that if the learning institutions can be established to “set his (the African American’s) intelligence ablaze with knowledge; light up his brain with logic; electrify him with great thoughts” then he will be equipped “for the senate chamber, the university or the private chapel of a queen.” AME leaders had progressive dreams; they pushed for blacks to be in Senate positions, and realized that this could be done through education.314 AME Secretary of Education William Johnson’s 1882 analysis of the census literacy data is very revealing in regard to the importance of the role of education in raising the political status of the black community. He noted that when African

311Benjamin William Arnett Papers, “Perils of the Nation: The Illiterate Population of the Nation in 1880” Educational Department 1881-1882 Volume, (Wilberforce University: Wilberforce, OH), 178, 179. 312 Ibid., 180, 181. 313 Thomas C. Holt and Elsa Brown (eds.), Major Problems in African-American History: Volume I: From Slavery to Freedom, 1619-1877 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000). Through out the text Holt and Brown discuss the political struggles African Americans faced after the Civil War, and ways that they fought to gain political freedom. Also see Larry Eugene Rivers and Canter Brown Jr., Laborers in the Vineyard of the Lord: The Beginnings of the AME Church in Florida, 1865-1895. (Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida). Offers an analysis of the political gains African Americans made in the state of Florida during reconstruction. 314 Benjamin William Arnett Papers, “Educational Sermon” AME Conference Minutes 1884-1885 (Wilberforce University: Wilberforce, OH,1884), 61.

119 Americans became more literate and educated they could advance as a people politically, primarily through the power of voting. In explaining how the illiteracy of African Americans is directly connected to their disenfranchisement Johnson states: “We have 4,923, 451 persons who are unable to read the Bible or the ballot, and a man who can neither read the Bible for instruction, nor his ballot so that he can know for whom he is voting, he is at the mercy of his fellow men, and is not competent to discharge the duty that he owes.” The literacy data gives one a good sense of the lack of education in the black community during Reconstruction. The data includes the number of illiterate persons within the population in general, both black and white. In the table located below, illiteracy is defined by those who cannot write. Johnson highlighted the number of illiterate black and white persons in the United States. He stated that the African American that cannot read “is at the mercy of his fellow men” he cannot know whom he is voting for because he cannot read the ballot information about the candidate. In this way, the lack of education can keep blacks from voting for those who would be most sympathetic to their cause. The African American community and the country at large suffers “for the effect of one ballot…touches every industry and trade, it accelerates and retards the wheels of commerce, and fills the avenues of trade with life.” Specifically showing the disparity between illiterate blacks and whites Johnson goes on to point out that: “There are in the southern states about 12,000,000 of whites and 6,500,000 of Negroes. In these states, with one third of the nation’s population, are found nearly three fourths of the nation’s illiterates.” 315 Thirty percent of the white minors, from 10-21, and 70 percent of negroes of the same ages are illiterates in the South. The AME Church had possessed important data that gave them great insight into the problem of black education. Only about 30 percent of African American young people could read and write. This reiterated the fact that in order for blacks to become liberated politically – through the power of the voting ballot– they needed greater access to education.

315 Arnett, “Perils of the Nation: The Illiterate Population of the Nation in 1880” Educational Department 1881-1882 Volume, 182.

120 Chart A:

1860 and 1880 Illiteracy by Groups of States, Ages and Race:

White Persons from Fifteen to Twenty-One Years of Age.

Population 15 to 20 Cannot Write Percent Number of States

Northern………....3,581, 866 106, 014 2.9 18 Southern…………1,527, 156 263, 404 17.2 17 Pacific…………....186, 645 14, 005 7.5 12 ______

Grand Total……. 5,295, 667 383, 423 7.2

Black Persons from Fifteen to Twenty-One Years of Age 1880.

Population 15 to 20 Cannot Write Percent Number of States Northern………....55, 956 9, 026 16.1 18 Southern…………751, 435 503, 826 67.0 17 Pacific…………....21, 888 7, 355 33.6 12 ______

Grand Total………829, 317 520, 207 62.7

121 White Males from Fifteen to Twenty-One Years of Age 1860.

Population 15 to 20 Cannot Write Percent Number of States

Northern………....1, 827, 653 48, 385 2.6 18 Southern…………778, 007 125, 839 16.2 17 Pacific…………....90, 334 7, 355 8.1 12 ______

Grand Total………2, 695, 994 181, 579 6.7

Black Males from Fifteen to Twenty-One Years of Age 1880.

Population 15 to 20 Cannot Write Percent Number of States

Northern……….....25, 956 4, 379 16.5 18 Southern………….354, 790 238, 212 69.6 17 Pacific…………....17, 731 4, 877 27.5 12 ______

Grand Total………398, 477 247, 468 62.1

122 White Females from Fifteen to Twenty-One Years of Age 1860.

Population 15 to 20 Cannot Write Percent Number of States

Northern………....1, 754, 213 57, 629 3.2 18 Southern…………749, 149 137, 565 18.3 17 Pacific…………....96, 311 6, 050 6.9 12 ______

Grand Total………2, 599, 673 201, 240 7.7

Black Females from Fifteen to Twenty-One Years of Age 1880.

Population 15 to 20 Cannot Write Percent Number of States

Northern………....30, 038 4, 647 15.4 18 Southern…………396, 645 265, 614 66.9 17 Pacific…………....4, 157 2, 478 59.6 12 ______

Grand Total……....430, 840 272, 739 63.3316

316 Ibid., 184-185.

123 These statistics show the educational disparity between whites and blacks during the mid to late nineteenth century. In 1860 7.2 percent of the white population ages 15-20 that were sampled (5, 295, 667 people) reported they could not read, compared to 62.7 percent of African Americans in 1880 of the same age group who could not read. From this data one can get a sense of the great work that was necessary in educating African Americans after the Civil War.317

CONCLUSION

By the time Bishop Daniel Payne died in 1893 the AME Church had become one of the foremost institutions of African American education. Payne was instrumental in establishing this legacy of black education by being committed to academic empowerment throughout his life.318 Because AME leaders like Payne saw the transformative power of education and its potential to liberate African Americans the Church became one of the foremost institutions that pushed for the intellectual development of blacks. Before emancipation, the main desire for African Americans in the south was to be free from slavery. AME founder Richard Allen was a former slave and therefore knew the horrors of the peculiar institution first hand. Throughout his life he fought against slavery and even harbored run away slaves, assisting in their freedom. This same passion for the abolitionist cause was evident when he founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church. One of the primary ways that Richard Allen and the AME Church fought against slavery was through education. A major way the AME Church did this was by providing night classes and Sunday schools to educate slaves.319 Education helped empower African Americans to read the Bible, to learn a trade, and also helped them forge their on

317 Arnett, “Perils of the Nation: The Illiterate Population of the Nation in 1880”. 318 Payne, Recollections of Seventy Years. 319 Curtis Alexander, Richard Allen: The First Exemplar of African American Education (New York: ECA Associates, 1985). Richard Allen, The Life Experience and Gospel Labors of the Right Reverend Richard Allen (Philadelphia: AME Book Concern, 1833). Daniel A. Payne, Recollections of Seventy Years (Nashville: Publishing House of the AME Sunday School Union, 1888).

124 passes to freedom.320 After emancipation the AME Church agenda for black education shifted, in light of a new understanding of liberation. The work of the Church became about preparing African Americans for the new world they had to face as freed people. Indeed the goal of education was no longer to free African Americans from slavery but to liberate them economically, socially and politically. The historical analysis of the AME Church and black education that has been offered in the last few chapters has important implications for contemporary African American education. Many of the educational attributes in the AME Church and other black denominations that empowered blacks in the nineteenth century still remain today. Chapter Five will offer a concluding discussion of the educational work the black church is doing today, that is similar to that of the nineteenth century.

320 Christopher Span and James Anderson, “The Quest for Book Learning: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom”, A Companion to African American History (Malden: Blackwell Publishing, A. Hornsby Jr. (Ed.). Harriet Jacobs, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” The Classic Slave Narratives. (New York: Penguin Group, ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., 2002), 437-668.

125

CHAPTER 5 “THE CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE MATTER”:321 HISTORIC BLACK CHURCH VALUES TRANSFORMING CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN AMERICAN EDUCATION

321 This Bible verse “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter” taken from Ecclesiastes 12:13 in the King James Bible is often cited in African American religious settings at the close of a church service or the close of a good sermon or prayer meeting. I wanted to continue in this tradition and close out my dissertation with this final chapter that concludes an in depth discourse on the relevance of the black church and its resources to education.

126 “To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding; To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity; To give subtlety to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion. A wise [man] will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels…The fear of the LORD [is] the beginning of knowledge: [but] fools despise wisdom and instruction.”322

Proverbs 1:2-5, 7

“The black church is the strongest institution within the black community, and has historically provided political, social, and educational leadership for black people in America…it is an untapped resource in dealing with illiteracy and educational failures among black people; in building incentives for achievement; and in strengthening the overall educational effort.”323

-Sarah Coprich Johnson, 1999-

322 Proverbs 1: 2-5, 7, King James Bible. 323 Sarah Coprich Johnson, The Role of the Black Church in Family Literacy (Peter Lang: New York, 1999).

127 THE STATE OF CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN AMERICAN EDUCATION AND THE BLACK CHURCH’S ABILITY TO TRANSFORM IT

As Sarah Coprich Johnson stated in the opening quote, the African American church is an “untapped resource” within the black community324. Although many church organizations and leaders have recognized the great role they can play as educators, many do not appreciate the potential that the black church can have as a transformative educational institution.325 The black church can be a viable change agent in helping to resolve the crises of African American education. It is necessary to consider some of the problems within contemporary African American education to understand the role the black church can play in resolving them. The United States is the most powerful nation in the world, but has some very impoverished and inefficient schools within its urban centers.326 A large percentage of children who attend urban schools are African American, thus problems that exist in inner city schools largely affect the black community.327 Education within the black community has been long plagued by inequality, inequity and inadequacy, challenges that have continued into contemporary times. Historic problems of segregation and racial prejudice have hampered the educational progress of young black students for some time now.328 Political and educational leaders often point out the failures of African American

324 Sarah Coprich Johnson, The Role of the Black Church in Family Literacy (Peter Lang: New York, 1999). 325 Andrew Billingsley and Cleopatra Howard Caldwell, “The Church, the Family, and the School in the African American Community, Journal of Negro Education, 60, 3, (Summer, 1991), 427-440; also see E. Paulette Isaac, Talmadge Guy, and Tom Valentine, “Understanding African American Learners’ Motivations to Learn in Church-Based Adult Education”, Adult Education Quarterly, 52, 1 (November, 2008) 23-38. These studies show a number of black Churches that have extensive educational programs for the African American community. 326 Frederick E. Yeo, Inner City Schools, Multiculturalism, and Teacher Education: A Professional Journey (New York: Garland Publishing, 1997). Jonathan Kozol, The Shame of the Nation: Separate and Unequal (New York: Crown Publishers, 2005).This work is an expansion upon Kozol’s earlier work Savage Inequalities that focuses on the economic gap between suburban and urban schools, Geoffrey Gilbert, Rich and Poor in America: A Reference Handbook (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2008). Gilbert provides a comparative analysis of poverty in America utilizing empirical data drawn from government studies. He devotes a great deal of the volume to inequality in schools and poor resources in inner city schools. 327 William Jeynes, “A Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Attending Religious Schools and Religiosity on Black Hispanic Academic Achievement” Education and Urban Society, 35, 1, (November, 2002), 27-49. Jeynes discusses the large Hispanic and African American population in urban schools. 328 William H. Watkins, The White Architects of Black Education: Ideology and Power in America, 1865- 1954 (New York: Teachers College Press, 2001).

128 schools and academic achievement but fail to acknowledge the complexity of the problems. Many other factors contribute to challenges in inner city schools. Politicians and school administrators continually ignore glaring inequalities within the educational system, often explaining away the failures of urban schools. The lack of resources, racial stereotyping and racial tracking are an all-too common reality in inner-city schools.329 Systemic racism also contributes to inner city schools receiving scarce resources and the students getting an inadequate education.330 In this way, school administrators attribute African American educational problems to black deviance and do not put forth an earnest effort in transforming urban education. They fail to examine institutional and organizational issues that contribute to poor educational outcomes and performances.331 Other problems stem from student attitudes toward education. John Ogbu points out that many black youth do not want to excel academically because they view educating one’s self as “acting white.” In this way they perceive modern schooling as a “white” enterprise that does not serve their values and culture. The African American community has historically placed a high value on education, but present times find many African American youth showing little interest in education.332 Although many of the issues within African American education stem from a variety of societal and institutional forces, one of the primary sources of problems is the lack of effective spiritual guidance that has always been a part of black culture.333 One can argue that African American contemporary thought cannot ignore the most influential and long lasting intellectual tradition in its history, namely that of historic black Christianity.334 The black church and its resources can be a successful educational site

329 Joe F. Handler & Yeheskel Hasenfeld, Blame Welfare, Ignore Poverty and Inequality (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007). 330 Joe R.Feagin, Systemic Racism: A Theory of Oppression (New York: Routledge, 2006). 331 Kozol, The Shame of the Nation. 332 John Ogbu, Black American Students in an Affluent Suburb: A Study of Academic Disengagement (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2003). 333 Michael Dantley, “African American Spirituality and Cornel West’s Notion of Prophetic Pragmatism: Restructuring Educational Leadership in American Urban Schools” Educational Administration Quarterly , 41, 4 (2005), 660. 334 Cornel West, Prophesy Deliverance: An African American Revolutionary Christianity, (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1982).

129 that can transform African American education.335 If educators and community leaders realized the potential the black church has as an educational resource, more transformational work can be done in the African American community. Schools and the government would invest more into the institution if they understood its ability to empower African Americans. Black churches across the country are taking on much work in the arena of African American education. Black pastors and church leaders greatly stress the importance of education to their congregations. It is not uncommon to find certified teachers, school administrators or individuals with advanced degrees within the membership. By pulling together often very meager resources black churches have acquired incredible facilities and funds to advance educational causes.336 But still more can be done. Many leaders and key persons (political, educational, religious and corporate leaders) in society do not recognize the historic institution’s potential. Even more challenging is the fact that many contemporary black churches have moved from a focus on education, to an emphasis on financial gain as their primary goal. Charmayne E. Patterson in her 2007 doctoral dissertation names this phenomenon “prosperity theology.” According to Patterson, prosperity theology offers a belief system wherein spiritual growth is equated with financial gain and enrichment. Patterson is critical of the prosperity theology and contends that many aspects of the doctrine put it “at odds with many traditionalists in the black church.” 337 I agree with Patterson and submit that profit- oriented churches have moved from the values of the nineteenth century church, which

335 Kenneth Strike, Ethical Leadership in Schools: Creating Community in an Environment of Accountability (New York: Corwin Press, 2006). Strike dedicates a compelling section to the debate concerning the proper role of religion in schools, focusing on religious liberty, and the evolution versus creationism debate. 336 Billingsley and Caldwell, “The Church, the Family, and the School in the African American Community, 427-440. Billingsley and Caldwell discuss the large number of educational facilities African American congregations had built with their own resources. 337 Charmayne E. Patterson, Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread: The African American Megachurch and Prosperity Theology (doctoral dissertation, Georgia State University, 2007), iii. For broader discussions of prosperity theology in America see David G. Bromley and Anson Shupe, “Rebottling the Elixir: Prosperity in America’s Religioeconomic Corporations” In Gods We Trust: New Patterns of Religious Pluralism in America. ed. Thomas Robbins and Dick Anthony (Edison, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1990), 233-255; Anthony KaDarrell Thigpen and David William Austin, Seedtime: Liberating the Oppressed (Minneapolis: Literacy in Motion, 2009). Bobby Ross Jr. “Prosperity Gospel on Skid Row: Difficulties of High Profile Pastors May Reorient Movement – or Reinforce it” Christianity Today, (http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/february/2.12.html?start=1, Accessed 27 July 2009.

130 focused on educating and empowering the black community. There must be a shift back to the church’s earlier goals of educating for the uplift and freedom of the African American community. I argue in this chapter that the same educational resources that were present in the black church that brought about liberation for African Americans in the nineteenth century are present in modern times. While a great number of black religious institutions continue in this tradition, many of the churches today have lost their way and are preoccupied with profit-making ventures as opposed to social justice goals. This chapter will primarily focus on various studies that demonstrate the transformative educational work the black church is doing within African American education, in order to highlight the churches potential as an agent of change. Today many black churches have educational resources that bring about social advancement for African Americans. Many churches have created their own elementary and secondary schools, founded colleges, and fostered social programs. These programs facilitate the contemporary social needs of the black community, providing job training, entrepreneurship education, AIDS education, drug counseling, after school tutoring, college counseling and many other resources.338 This chapter will summarize my historical analysis and discuss how the black church can be transformational within African American education in contemporary times. In the first section I will look at the contemporary black church as a site for transformative education, focusing on current studies that demonstrate the important role the black church is playing in the educational success of African Americans. The second section will reiterate the historic theme of liberation and briefly discuss how this framework might look in the twenty-first century. The last section will summarize the dissertation and the conclusions I draw, reiterating the implications of the historic work for today.

338 Billingsley and Caldwell, “The Church, the Family, and the School in the African American Community, 427-440.

131 THE ROLE OF THE BLACK CHURCH IN CONTEMPORARY EDUCATION

Black church organizations in the nineteenth century had characteristics and resources in place that cultivated African American education.339 The AME Church has had a long history of advocacy for education, and this history intersects with contemporary arguments about the key role the black church can play in education.340 The historic black church can bring about a major transformation to contemporary African American education. There have been a number of studies that demonstrate this fact and exemplify the positive impact black churches are having on African American education today in both public and private schools. Billingsley and Caldwell’s 1991 work The Church, the Family, and the School in the African American Community is an important study in understanding the role of the black church as a “social institution”, focusing on how the institution influences education and family. Throughout history the three most critical institutions in the black community have been the church, the family, and the school. The successful interaction of the three has been a major factor in the stability of the black community. Billingsley and Caldwell argue that “the strengths of these three institutions are due in large measure to their function as expressions of the most basic values of the African American cultural heritage.” 341 These important values are “spirituality, high achievement aspirations, and commitment to family”; principles that have been “enduring, flexible and adaptive functional mechanisms for survival of the African American community.”342 A large number of African Americans are committed to supporting and being a part of the black church. As a result the organization has had a great influence on their behavior and lifestyle. Billingsley and Caldwell state that “if the church is the institutionalized expression of the religious life of a people, as many sociologists generally believe, then the Black church is a powerful institution.” Furthermore, spirituality is one of the most signifying features of what it means to be black. Statistics

339 Sarah Coprich Johnson, The Role of the Black Church in Family Literacy (Peter Lang: New York, 1999). Also see Janet Duitsman Cornelius When I Can Read My Title Clear: Literacy, Slavery, and Religion in the Antebellum South (South Carolina: The University of South Carolina Press, 1999). 340 Payne, Recollections of Seventy Years. 341 Billingsley and Caldwell, “The Church, the Family, and the School in the African American Community”, 427-440. 342 Ibid., 427.

132 from a national survey of African Americans and their religious habits by the University of Michigan exemplify this point. The data states that

84% of African American adults considered themselves to be religious; 80% considered it very important to send their children to church; 78% indicated that they pray often; 76% said that the church was a very important institution in their early childhood socialization; 77% reported that the church was still very important; 71% attend church at least once a month; and nearly 70% were members of a church.343

Billingsley and Caldwell surmise that, “in the African American community the church is more than just a religious institution.” They further exemplify this point by citing C. Eric Lincoln who states:

Beyond its purely religious function, as critical as that has been, the Black church in its historical role as lyceum, conservatory, forum, social service center, political academy and financial institution, has been and is for Black America the mother of our culture, the champion of our freedom, the hallmark of our civilization.344

Nearly seventy percent of the churches Billingsley and Caldwell researched operated at least one outreach program, and half of the organizations facilitated three or more programs. The programs included a wide range of activities including day care, child healthcare, and educational programs. Many of the programs were educational in their nature including both formal and informal instruction. This includes the churches’ “sometimes indirect role in providing educational support for youth in areas such as teen parenting skills, teen pregnancy prevention, employment opportunities, health education, drug use prevention, AIDS awareness, cultural awareness, mentoring, and recreational

343 Billingsley and Caldwell, “The Church, the Family, and the School in the African American Community”, 427-440, 429. 344 C. Eric Lincoln as cited by Billingsley and Caldwell, “The Church, the Family, and the School in the African American Community”, 429.

133 programs.”345 Eleven percent of the 216 churches Billingsley and Caldwell surveyed in 1991 offered some formal educational programs; these included pre-k through college support programs. A number of the churches offered Head Start pre-school programs; others facilitated elementary, middle schools and high schools. Still others had extensive after school programs such as tutoring, college prep and college support activities. Many of the churches that did not offer educational programs offered college scholarships for youth. Forty-two percent of the outreach programs offered by the churches were “family- oriented community outreach programs”. These programs offered the basic necessities for family survival in the way of food, clothes and shelter. The family services programs include assistance to “incarcerated men and women, and counseling programs focusing on drug abuse, AIDS, and other health issues.”346 Several churches in the Billingsley and Caldwell study responded “more directly and aggressively to the educational aspirations of families in their communities.” One good example was Concord Baptist Church in Brooklyn, New York. Concord Baptist has over 10,000 members and successfully operates a private elementary school. Other examples are St. Paul Community Baptist Church and the Allen AME Church in Brooklyn and Queens respectively. These churches were returning to:

the educational mission launched by the early Black church in creating schools. In the process many of these churches are following the example of the Catholic churches, which have a more extensive network of private schools as alternatives or supplements to the education available at public schools.347

However, even with the growing number of formal educational programs facilitated by black churches, the religious institutions will have their greatest impact on black youth working with the public school system. Many African American families continue to send their children to public schools, and therefore it behooves the black

345 Billingsley and Caldwell, “The Church, the Family, and the School in the African American Community”, 434. 346 Ibid., 434, 435. 347 Ibid., 438.

134 church to offer services that support or supplement public schools. According to Billingsley and Caldwell “The church can use its considerable and demonstrated influence to help” those in the black community to “extract from the public schools better performance in the education of African American children.” Although African Americans have long put their faith in public schools, and have been subscribing to desegregation and programs like Head Start, “these approaches have exhibited major shortcomings.”348 According to Diane Brown and Lawrence Gary, religion can also be “an agent of socialization” in the African American community.349 Their 1991 research found that there was a relationship between an individual’s black church involvement and their “educational attainment.”350 Brown and Gary observed non-church going African Americans and members of various black Christian denominations which include Methodists (African Methodist Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal Zion, and Christian Methodist Episcopal) Pentecostals, and Baptists. More specifically, the results of the study showed that “educational attainment has a direct and positive association with religious socialization for African Americans under 46 years of age.351 As African Americans become more and more involved and committed to their religious institutions their educational achievement level rises. “Thus, the socialization experiences taking place within a religious context serve to promote positive educational outcomes among African Americans.”352 While the research showed the effects of specific religious denominations and family structures:

It is also important to note that the influence of religious socialization on educational attainment is greater than the impact of belonging to any particular denomination or the affect of having a particular family structure during childhood. In other words, among African Americans it is less important that one is Baptist, Methodist, or Pentecostal or that one is raised in a one- or two-parent

348 Ibid., 439. 349 Diane Brown and Lawrence Gary, “Religious Socialization and Educational Attainment Among African Americans: An Empirical Assessment”, The Journal of Negro Education, 60, 3 (Summer, 1991), 411. 350 Ibid., 412-413. 351 Ibid., 418. 352 Ibid., 421.

135 home than it is that one is exposed to socialization within a religious context. This is not to conclude that the other factors are not important but only to emphasize that religious socialization has a greater impact.

Further, people with no religious affiliation in the black community tend to have the least years of education and also had the least amount of religious socialization. In short “not being affiliated with a church resulted in a detrimental impact on educational achievement, yet differences were evident among denominations.”353 Having said this, certain denominations seem to produce higher educational attainment among African Americans. In Brown and Gary’s study the Methodists denominations (African Methodist Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal Zion, and Christian Methodist Episcopal) produced individuals with the highest level of education. This was likely attributed to the doctrine and structure of the various Methodist sects. They require their clergy to be highly educated, have various educational programs imbedded into the organizational structure, and have historically advocated for education, as noted in previous chapters. Following the Methodists were African American Pentecostals in producing a high educational attainment among its congregants. Pentecostals exceeded black Baptists congregants and those in the “other” category. This finding initially “was surprising in light of previous studies associating Pentecostal denominations with low socioeconomic status, based upon education and income. However, the relatively high levels of education found among Pentecostal respondents in the present study, is perhaps reflective of the emergent trend toward increased Pentecostalism, especially among well-educated African Americans.”354 In short, one can conclude that within the black community, church activity and consistent attendance is related to academic success. African Americans that attend church regularly through out their life tend to achieve higher levels of education. It is important to clarify that Brown and Gary do not conclude that church attendance alone brings about high levels of education within the black community. Billingsley and Caldwell pointed out in their research that seventy percent of African

353 Ibid., 422. 354 Ibid., 422.

136 Americans in 1991 reported that they were church members. Even though this fact is true, there is still an educational achievement gap between blacks and whites355. However, according to Brown and Gary, regular, consistent church attendance throughout an African American student’s lifetime, along with the religious socialization process tends to lead to higher levels of education. The particular church’s view of education is also a determining factor in educational success. For example, the AME Church has historically emphasized education and today is quite successful in educating African Americans as Brown and Gary noted.356 But modern churches that are not focused on education, but emphasize wealth and prosperity are less successful in educating the African American community.357 Brown and Gary, and Billingsley and Caldwell’s research demonstrate the historic and contemporary efforts of the black church in supporting and advocating African American education. Billingsley and Caldwell do this by highlighting the educational programs facilitated and supported by various churches. Brown and Gary show the educational advocacy of the black church by pointing out that African Americans obtain more education when they are active in their religious community. While the two above mentioned studies looked at the role that black churches play in African American education, Isaac, Guy and Valentine examine the reasons why African American adults choose a religious centered education. The study focused on three church-based adult education programs in an effort to find out factors that motivated African Americans to learn. The researchers developed a survey that measured the participant’s motivation to learn. The black church has historically been involved in every aspect of African American life, and primarily in their education. Even in contemporary times blacks statically attend church more often and are involved in more religious activities than whites. Scholars have pointed out that African Americans are the most religious people in the United States. Indeed, eighty-two percent of blacks in 2001 stated that they are

355 Billingsley and Caldwell, “The Church, the Family, and the School in the African American Community. 356 Brown and Gary, “Religious Socialization and Educational Attainment among African Americans: An Empirical Assessment.” 357 Patterson, Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread: The African American Megachurch and Prosperity Theology.

137 members of a church.358 Billingsley and Caldwell discussed the numbers of African American churches that facilitate formal elementary and secondary schools, and also highlighted the informal after school programs.359 Many African American congregants wholeheartedly support such programs and take advantage of those resources. While many blacks in present times are attracted to the promise of riches at prosperity-oriented churches, many still desire traditional educational programs that lead to personal growth. Isaac, Guy and Valentine point out that African Americans look for a very meaningful experience in their church attendance and membership. They invest a lot of themselves into making it a space for growth; and a church’s educational resources are a vital part of the organization’s meaningfulness. The church has always played a vital educational role for blacks through out history. Isaac, Guy and Valentine drew from the work of Gandy, Neufeldt and McGee to discuss the adult education programs that took place in the early twentieth century within the black church. They expand upon this work in an effort to understand what continues to attract African Americans to adult educational programs at their churches.360 Isaac, Guy and Valentine administered surveys, and conducted focus groups and interviews with Christian teachers, African American pastors and individuals from various socioeconomic and educational backgrounds. They chose to conduct their study within the Baptist Church because it is the largest black denomination in the US. They chose three Baptist Churches based on the size of their congregation (ranging from 1,500 to over 9,000 members), their location, the educational programs they have, and the varied income levels within the membership. Several factors were identified that motivated African Americans to engage in adult educational programs within the black church. Adult learners continued to be involved in the adult educational programs because of the “familiar cultural setting.” This factor had to do with the level of comfort the learners felt among those within the African

358 Here it is important to note that church membership thus not equate to active involvement and regular church attendance. Many African Americans register as members of their local church but do not necessarily attend regularly. This also affects the black church’s ability to educate effectively. See Brown and Gary, “Religious Socialization and Educational Attainment among African Americans: An Empirical Assessment.” 359 Billingsley and Caldwell, “The Church, the Family, and the School in the African American Community”, 429. 360 Ibid., 427-440.

138 American Christian community. The students also gained “spiritual and religious development” as a result of attending the classes. Other factors that drew the adult learners to educational resources at the churches included a “love of learning”, “support in facing personal challenges”, family oriented environment (both natural and fictive kin, via the church family); the opportunity to serve others, and the “social interaction” that was available through the black church environment.361 Isaac, Guy and Valentine found that “the church, the family, and the school” continues to be an important part of the African American community and culture, as it was in the past. The church above all continues to meet the needs of blacks, thus keeping the number of congregants at a consistent and supportive size. The church continues be a major educator even though inequalities still permeate the black community. African Americans now struggle with high rates of drug addiction, AIDS, school drop-out, broken homes, homelessness, and ; and the church has been instrumental in combating these social ills. The educational programs housed within the black church have been a key factor in helping African Americans overcome such obstacles, and will continue to be a great educational resource for the black community in the future.362 The studies that have been discussed previously have looked at the relationship the black church has had with African American education and how the two have influenced one another. William Jeynes’ 2002 study discussed the role religion in general plays in African American and Hispanic achievement. It is important to mention this study because the author argues that religious schools have a positive impact on African American achievement. In this way it concurs with other findings such as that of Billingsley and Caldwell, and Brown and Gary, who also demonstrate that black religion (Christianity) is a vital force in positively impacting African American education. A major concern among contemporary educators and researchers has been in finding ways to close the achievement gap between African American and Hispanic children and their white counterparts. Sociological studies through out the 1980s and 1990s have shown that religion can play an important role in helping to raise minority

361 Ibid., 27-31. 362 Isaac, Guy, and Valentine, “Understanding African American Learners’ Motivations to Learn in Church-Based Adult Education”, 23-38.

139 academic achievement. Studies show that two aspects of religious practices have been found to raise academic achievement for blacks: “first, in terms of minority children attending religious schools and second, in terms of personal religious commitment.” Students who attend religious schools regularly and have consistent personal commitment to their faith tend to be more academically successful.363 Jeynes states that black and Hispanic children may have the most crucial need for American educational resources. For a variety of reasons both white and Asian students have academically outperformed these disadvantaged groups. As a result it is very important to discover reasons why African Americans and Hispanic students are not succeeding, and find working solutions to resolve such disparities. Jeynes uses a meta- analysis methodology that compares a number of studies on religion and minority education and summarizes the results, using quantitative data as well. The researcher’s goal is “to determine the effects of religious schooling and personal religious commitment on African American and Hispanic students’ academic achievement.” Jeynes arrives at the following conclusion:

The results indicate that religious schooling and religious commitment each have a positive effect on academic achievement and school-related behavior. In the case of religious schooling, the effect sizes that emerged for religious schooling tended to be larger for older children. The effect sizes for religious schooling were even larger for school-related behavior than they were for academic achievement.364

African Americans “support the inclusion of religious schools in school choice more than does any other group.” Particularly inner-city African Americans “believe that religious schools can help their children improve their academic scores and their behavior in general while keeping them away from gangs and substance abuse.”365 The academic success of students at religious schools may have to do with the student’s personal

363 William Jeynes, “A Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Attending Religious Schools and Religiosity on Black Hispanic Academic Achievement” Education and Urban Society, 35, 1, (November, 2002), 27-49. 364 Ibid., 27. 365 Jeynes, “A Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Attending Religious Schools and Religiosity on Black Hispanic Academic Achievement”, 29.

140 religious commitment more than whether or not they attend a public or private school. Research has shown that student’s personal faith affects their academic achievement in a positive way. In this same way Jeynes surmises that because African Americans and Hispanics statically have a high rate of religious commitment, spirituality can be a resource for resolving academic disparities within these communities. Jeynes identifies three reasons for the correlation between personal religious commitment and academic success. The first reason identified is that religious commitment usually results in a good work ethic. The second reason “stems from the finding of some studies that suggest that religious people are more likely to have an internal locus of control. Educational researchers have uncovered a rather consistent relationship between possessing an internal locus of control and performing well in school.” Jeynes offers a third reason that may explain a relationship between religious commitment and academic achievement, and that is the “the tendency for religious people to avoid behaviors that are often regarded as undisciplined and harmful to academic achievement.”366 In short African Americans and Hispanics who have a personal commitment to their religious faith are more likely to be academically successful because they exhibit good work habits and practice good self-discipline. Angela Yvette Williams’ 2004 doctoral dissertation also demonstrates the important role the black church can play in transforming African American education. Williams “examines the impact of Christian spirituality on academic attitudes and behaviors of African American students.” More specifically she endeavors to find out how “serving Jesus, based on the guidelines that are presented in the Holy Bible, impact the scholastic achievement and life choices of five African American informants.” Williams 2004 study measured “the perceptions and behavior” of five students (three males and two females) of African American descent, ranging from grades seven through nine. Like Jeynes, Williams explores the ways young people’s personal Christian commitment contributes to their school and academic success, and other choices they make in life. She defines Christian spirituality as “the belief that the connection or relationship with God and his son Jesus will help one grow and transform in various areas of their life” and how this relationship affects ones “family, school, church, and the

366 Ibid., 31-32.

141 community.” The ultimate question she hopes to understand is the metaphysical notion of how “a person responds when God or Jesus speaks to his or her soul” and how this affects students’ academic and personal lives.367 Williams also discusses the importance of the black church and the impact it has on the lives of African Americans. She cites W.E.B. Dubois, in exemplifying this point. In 1903 Dubois stated that:

The Negro church of today is the social center of Negro life in the United States, and the most characteristic expression of African character…the Church often stands as a real conserver of morals, a strengthener of family life, and the final authority on what is good and Right.368

The students in her study are all members of New St. Paul Baptist Church; a traditionally black church in the Cincinnati, Ohio. The church’s extensive educational and social programs she calls “Youth Ministries” and “Outreach Development Program” provides many of the Christian values that the youth express in interviews with Williams. The research questions that she explores in the study include:

How is Christian spirituality manifested in the education of African American students? How do students alter their academic experiences based on these Christian spiritual commitments? Do these students pray, read the bible, or talk about church in school? How do students and parents make meaning of Christian spiritual practices in their learning environment?369

The results of Williams’ qualitative study reveal that the students “share similar belief systems about Christian Spirituality, education, family, and community.” Four themes emerged from the data concerning the impact of the student’s spirituality on their educational lives. Firstly, Christian principles gained from home and church inform every

367 Angela Yvette Williams, Examining the Impact of Christian Spirituality on Academic Attitudes and Behaviors on African American Students: A Qualitative Case Study, (Doctoral Diss., Miami University, 2004), 1-2. 368 Ibid., 6. 369 Ibid., 7.

142 aspect of the student’s lives, and influences their “decisions and experiences of education and life choices.” Secondly, the students all agreed that education had a major impact on their life choices. Thirdly the support of the family was critical in assisting them in overcoming obstacles in life. Lastly, the student’s spirituality created a desire to help others in their community. In short, Williams concludes that through various methods such as observations and interviews, students acknowledged the important impact their Christian spirituality and religious commitment has had on their educational success and choices they have made in life. They further acknowledged how these spiritual attributes have helped them to become responsible members in the black community and become productive citizens in society.370 Michael Dantley’s 2005 text on the use of black spirituality in educational leadership also sheds light on the historic black church’s influence on contemporary African American education. He discusses the metaphysical characteristics of African American Christianity and its influence on black education. Dantley subscribes to a radical Christianity within the African American tradition as his theoretical framework for restructuring educational leadership in urban schools. To frame his discussion Dantley juxtaposes black spirituality with liberation theology and Cornel West’s African American prophetic pragmatism. Rooted in Marxist tenets, liberation theology calls for Christians to “bring about radical change in society and culture.”371 It is “an attempt to mobilize a previously unmobilized constituency for collective action against an antagonist to promote social change.”372 Dantley argues that his ideology differs from many traditional churches who teach docility and compliance to dominant and oppressive societal structures. In liberation theology the quest for liberation is sought out first and intertwined with personal salvation. This radical Christianity that aims to transform society to make it more equitable can be applied to educational leadership in urban schools. Black spirituality can be utilized to address some of the unique needs of urban schools.

370 Ibid., 2. 371 Michael Dantley, “African American Spirituality and Cornel West’s Notion of Prophetic Pragmatism, 660. 372 Smith as cited by Michael Dantley, “African American Spirituality and Cornel West’s Notion of Prophetic Pragmatism, 659.

143 Dantley draws from West’s work to further develop his discussion of African American spirituality. In West’s notion of prophetic pragmatism he argues that African American thought “has been overwhelmingly influenced by evangelical and what he calls pietistic Christianity”. This view of Christianity came out of a legacy of struggle and tribulation that was rooted in the institution of slavery and racism. Blacks read Jesus as a liberator and deliverer of the oppressed and downtrodden. These tenets became the foundation of the black church. Radical Christian worldviews tend to lend themselves toward a more liberatory and social justice-oriented approach to educational leadership. Hearkening to the Frankfort school and the critical tradition along with prophetic pragmatism and Black spirituality, Dantley develops a critical spirituality that promises major implications for change in public schools through radical spiritual leadership. The “traditional canon of educational administration” and educational leadership has been unsuccessful and is in much need of reform. The corporate business model is not conducive to the changing face of America –namely the increase of certain racial and ethnic populations in the U.S. –. This market-driven model positions students as clients that must produce a product that is measured by a standardized . If they do not meet the standards they will not be academically successful in the bureaucratic educational system. It is necessary to look at more innovative and adaptive models of educational leadership. Dantley outlines three propositions that he argues can bring about transformation in inner city schools. First, in light of the changes taking place in urban schools it is inevitable that schools adopt new leadership approaches. Second, we can look within the African American culture for answers to problems in educational leadership. The reason for this is that many of the socio-cultural issues in urban schools are directly related to the African American community. Finally, urban schools can bring about transformation by applying African American Spirituality to “community issues of social change and social justice” to bring about positive changes in educational leadership.373

373 Ibid., 651.

144 AFRICAN AMERICAN LIBERATION AND EDUCATION

Liberation within the African American cultural context is a complex and multi- faceted notion. The black religious experience and discourse in the nineteenth century informed African American discussions of freedom and empowerment.374 Reiterating the understanding of liberation within the context of this study can help one understand how the black church can transform education in contemporary times. In Chapter One, liberation was defined as the act of setting one free from “imprisonment or bondage”, the act of freeing a nation or area from control by an oppressive government, and freeing a “group or individual from social or economic constraints or discrimination, especially arising from traditional role expectations or bias.”375 In this way, for the intents and purposes of this study, liberation encompassed freedom of African Americans from physical bondage (slavery) and racial oppression, but also involved them being free socially, politically and economically. This complex understanding of liberation was utilized when unpacking the AME Church’s notion of education for liberation in the nineteenth century, and was divided into two main themes. The first understanding of liberation for the AME Church was related to education and its connection to freedom from slavery and racial discrimination. Therefore the Church’s educational efforts and rhetoric was geared toward the freedom of slaves. After the Civil War and Emancipation proclamation, liberation took on a different meaning for African Americans and the AME Church. No longer was it primarily defined in terms of freedom from slavery, as that had already happened. But freedom was now defined in terms of social, political and economic mobility. In the twenty-first century this type of liberation is still necessary for African Americans. The black church has historically brought about this type of empowerment to the black community through education. This legacy must continue in order to adequately challenge contemporary problems faced by African Americans.

374 James Cone, Speaking the Truth: Ecumenism, Liberation, and Black Theology (Grand Rapids, Mich.: WB Eerdmans Pub. Co.,1986). 375 See Oxford English dictionary, Miriam-Webster 2007-2008 dictionary, & dictionary.com, 2008.

145 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION OF DISSERTATION

Throughout the early to mid nineteenth century the black church was the primary institution in society that was owned and operated by African Americans.376 With the exception of a few private schools, African Americans had no ownership of any other organization in society.377 Consequently, both formal and informal African American education was primarily housed within the black church, as white American society was hostile to black education. Although there were other black church organizations that pushed for African American education the African Methodist Episcopal Church was at the forefront in advocating for black education and connecting it to freedom and liberation.378 Early AME doctrine and principles contained an overall sentiment that included a push for black education. The African Methodist Episcopal Church body and its leaders believed that education could bring about liberation to the African American community.379 Before the emancipation of African Americans, blacks were immersed in their condition as slaves. Thus much of their energy was focused on obtaining freedom from slavery. In this same way the AME founders’ advocated for education that was connected to African American freedom from slavery and racial discrimination.380 After black slaves had obtained their freedom the AME Church’s purpose for African American education shifted from seeing education as a means to bring about freedom from slavery to seeing it as uplifting and improving all aspects of black life381. Education could liberate blacks socially, economically and politically. AME Church leaders argued that

376 See Carol V.R. George Segregated Sabbaths: Richard Allen and the Rise of the Independent Black Churches, 1760-1840 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1973). George discusses the founding of black churches in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. 377 Richard Allen, The Life Experience and Gospel Labors of the Right Reverend Richard Allen (Philadelphia: AME Book Concern, 1833). Richard Allen specifically discusses the founding of the AME Church in 1816 and the first black owned school in 1795. 378 Daniel A. Payne, Recollections of Seventy Years (Nashville: Publishing House of the AME Sunday School Union, 1888). Bernard E. Powers, Black Charlestonians: A Social History, 1822-1885 (Fayetville: The University of Arkansas, 1994). 379 Payne, A History of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. 380 Curtis Alexander, Richard Allen: The First Exemplar of African American Education (New York: ECA Associates, 1985). 381 Payne, Recollections of Seventy Years.

146 education could act as a means of socio-cultural advancement for African Americans in post-bellum America.382 Like the nineteenth century African Methodist Episcopal Church’s advocacy for the economic and social welfare of the newly freed slaves, many black churches in the twenty-first century provide outreach for disadvantaged African Americans. Nearly 70% of the churches that Billingsley and Caldwell studied housed and facilitated at least one outreach program. Some of the needs of nineteenth century freedmen after the Civil War were similar to those of African Americans today, and some churches continue to meet those needs. The freedmen needed social and health services, job training, literacy training, and basic education. Similarly, church based educational programs today can provide day care, healthcare, and a variety of educational programs.383 Contemporary black churches also facilitate needs of the African American community that perhaps differ from the nineteenth century such as providing educational programs that service teenaged mothers, educating youth about the dangers of drugs and alcohol, and AIDS education. But still other needs such as programs that provide “employment opportunities, health education… and recreational programs” remain the same.384 As in the nineteenth century many churches today provide adult literacy programs and basic education for those whom the public schooling system has failed. The contemporary black church has been playing a major role in building the intellectual self- esteem of African American youth. This gives them the confidence that they can become academically successful. The research mentioned above discussed the many modern black church outreach programs which advocate high academic expectations.385 Many of the reasons African Americans are attracted to contemporary church- based adult education are similar to those that attracted African Americans to the black church and its social functions during the nineteenth century. One such factor was that the black church offered a familiar setting for African Americans. After the Civil War

382 Bernard E. Powers, Black Charlestonians: A Social History, 1822-1885 (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1994). 383 Billingsley and Caldwell, “The Church, the Family, and the School in the African American Community”, 427-440. 384 Ibid. 434. 385 Billingsley and Caldwell, “The Church, the Family, and the School in the African American Community, 427-440.

147 many people in society were hostile toward ex-slaves.386 The church was often the only institution that offered a source of comfort and familiarity to African Americans. This is also the case in contemporary times.387 African Americans are often criminalized and portrayed as hostile in the media, and thus are not always welcome in mainstream society.388 The church offers a haven and a home-like atmosphere for blacks, an environment in which they are comfortable. All of the other reasons that made the churches’ adult learning educational programs appealing to African Americans were consistent with the community needs the black church met during the nineteenth century. Modern church programs offer religious and spiritual growth –a component that has always drawn many African Americans to their places of worship–.389 According to Isaac, Guy and Valentine the students were attracted to church based education because of their “love of learning.” This thirst for knowledge was also a key factor in early African American culture. Despite the many barriers placed against black education before and after the Civil War African Americans still understood the importance of learning. As we have seen in previous chapters, they went to great lengths to obtain an education.390 Other factors such as the provision of a family oriented environment, the opportunity to serve others, and the opportunity to socially interact with others have long been a part of black culture.391 Isaac, Guy and Valentine argue that the black church in modern times is still an important part of the black community, just as it was in the nineteenth century. Organizations such as the African Methodist Episcopal Church have

386 Barker, Donald and Holt, Civil War and Reconstruction. Barker, Donald and Holt discuss the social, economic and political condition of African Americans before and after the Civil War. 387 Billingsley and Caldwell, “The Church, the Family, and the School in the African American Community, 427-440. 388 Robert Entman & Andrew Rojecki, The Black Image in the White Mind: Media and Race in America (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001). 389 Albert Raboteau, Canaan Land: A Religious History of African Americans (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001). 390 For a more in-depth discussion of the history of African American education see James Anderson, The Education of blacks in the South, 1860-1935 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988); Watkins, The White Architects of Black Education; Christopher Span & James Anderson, “The Quest for Book Learning: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom”, A Companion to African American History (Malden: Blackwell Publishing, A. Hornsby Jr. [ed.], 2004) and Heather Williams, Self-Taught: African American Education in Slavery and in Freedom (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005). 391 Isaac, Guy, and Valentine, “Understanding African American Learners’ Motivations to Learn in Church-Based Adult Education”, 27-31.

148 historically housed educational programs that have assisted African Americans in fighting slavery and racism.392 Nineteenth century AME leaders recognized that black youth were capable of high academic achievement. They further argued that black students would be an asset to society if they were afforded the same opportunities of those of the dominant race. Like the fight against slavery before the Civil War, African Methodist leaders viewed the withholding of educational resources as a new type of slavery. The freedmen were no more imprisoned with chains but were now “fettered by ignorance.”393 Modern African American church educators also understand today that social advancement for the African American community cannot come without adequate educational resources. Today black churches through support of local congregations and the long tradition of self-help in the black community are developing their own educational resources.394 The contemporary black church has many resources that can enhance African American education. Like the African Methodist Episcopal Church of the nineteenth century there are many educational programs in the church that can bring about liberation.395 The African American community can be liberated by gaining access to the political process, obtaining promising careers, and gaining economic opportunities; these things can all be gained through education. Churches provide access to transformative education by providing a wide variety of programs and resources that empower the black community.396 The current research notes that a number of black churches in the United States are engaged in transformative educational work within the black community. But market ideology has influenced a number of black churches throughout the U.S. as well. Many black churches have shifted their focus from education to a pursuit of wealth. As Patterson has noted, a large number of black churches focus more on acquiring wealth

392 Ibid., 23-38. 393 Benjamin William Arnett Papers, “Board of Education of The African M.E. Church” AME Conference Minutes 1884-1885, (Wilberforce University: Wilberforce, OH, 1885), 1. 394 Billingsley and Caldwell, “The Church, the Family, and the School in the African American Community, 427-440. 395 Sarah Coprich Johnson, The Role of the Black Church in Family Literacy (Peter Lang: New York, 1999). Provides an overview of the various educational resources in the black church during the nineteenth century. 396 Billingsley and Caldwell, “The Church, the Family, and the School in the African American Community, 427-440.

149 than the nineteenth century goals of assisting the less fortunate and educating the masses397. Thus, many of the African Americans that attend church today are not exposed to the type of church based educational programs that existed in the nineteenth century. Furthermore, as Brown and Gary pointed out, active membership, consistent lifetime attendance, and religious socialization are determining factors in church education of its members398. Although there has been a recent trend of black churches being more focused on financial gain and prosperity, the tradition of the black church as a major educator for the African American community still exists today. One of the main challenges in the area of black education is that many people in society do not recognize the great potential within the black church. The conflict in schools over the separation of church and state has in some sense prohibited many from understanding the importance of the black church in education as well.399 The topic of religion has been an uncomfortable and taboo subject in the public sphere. With religious pluralism as the norm in the United States people are afraid they may offend someone or worse face litigation if they introduce the topic into public schools.400 In this dissertation I deliberately chose to discuss the role of religion because of its great importance in the public sphere. The discussion becomes even more pertinent within public schools. Students as well as adults highly value their personal religious convictions, and when they are challenged or ignored they feel alienated.401 Thus, the solution for having discussions about spirituality is not to ignore the faith of youth in schools. The solution lies in doing the difficult work of finding ways and spaces to

397 Patterson, Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread: The African American Megachurch and Prosperity Theology. 398 Brown and Gary, “Religious Socialization and Educational Attainment among African Americans: An Empirical Assessment.” 399 Strike, Ethical Leadership in Schools: Creating Community in an Environment of Accountability. Strike dedicates a compelling section to the debate concerning the proper role of religion in schools, focusing on religious liberty, and the evolution versus creationism debate. 400 David Wills, “The Central Themes of American Religious History: Pluralism, Puritanism, and the Encounter of Black and White” African American Religion: Interpretive Essays in History and Culture (New York: Routledge, Timothy E. Fulop & Albert Raboteau [Eds.], 1999), 7-21. Wills offers a discussion of the historical dynamics of America as a religiously pluralistic nation. Strike, Ethical Leadership in Schools: Creating Community in an Environment of Accountability. Discusses the difficulty of the separation of church and state debate in public schools, and how to successfully resolve this. 401 Robert Nash, “The Fundamentalist Narrative” Readings in Sociocultural Studies in Education (Boston: McGraw Hill Learning Solutions, 2006), 85-88. Nash discusses the complexities of introducing religion to the public school classroom. He demonstrates how important student’s religious worldview is to them, and suggests ways for educators to understand and respect their values.

150 discuss reasons why religious faith is important to young people, and to also examine how spirituality can enhance the educational process.402 Cornel West argued that one cannot adequately discuss African American intellectual history and culture without examining the phenomenon of the black church. For many African Americans –including myself– the Christian tradition informs their ontology and epistemology, and has shaped their intellectual worldview.403 When educators ignore that tradition they often ignore the essence of blackness or what Levine called “black consciousness.”404 This monograph of the historic AME Church and its role in African American education has hopefully shed some light on the importance of the church in black culture. The African Methodist Episcopal Church – along with other black denominations– understood the vital connection between education and freedom. The task of providing an adequate education for African Americans is just as important today as it was for blacks in the nineteenth century, and the church still plays an important role in providing this access. This historical work can add to the debate about the role religion can play in public schools. During the nineteenth century many African Americans did not have any space for formal education outside of the church. The AME Church created Sunday schools, Methodist classes, established universities, and provided other educational venues for the black community.405 By the reconstruction period it was apparent that many of the schools that were provided by the government were inadequate, thus placing more of a burden on the church.406 The same sentiment is true today. While public education is widespread, schools are segregated in much the same way they were during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.407 Inner city predominantly black schools have inadequate resources and teachers that do not understand African American culture.

402 Strike, Ethical Leadership in Schools: Creating Community in an Environment of Accountability. Strike dedicates a compelling section to the debate concerning the proper role of religion in schools, focusing on religious liberty, and the evolution versus creationism debate. 403 Cornel West, Prophesy Deliverance: An African American Revolutionary Christianity, (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1982). 404 Lawrence Levine, Black Culture and Black Consciousness: Afro-American Folk Thought from Freedom to Slavery (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), xxi. 405 Payne, Recollections of Seventy Years. 406 Anderson, The Education of blacks in the South. 407 Christine Rossell, David Armor, Herbert Walberg (eds.), School Desegration in the 21st Century (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002).

151 Contemporary churches across the U.S. are filling some of these needs, but as Johnson points out, this resource is “untapped” and underestimated.408 Churches can have a great influence on African American education in both public and private schools. Religious centers can help families have a more healthy relationship with public schools. “Billingsley and Caldwell argue “what better, more powerful, independent, numerous and resourceful ally can Black families count on to help them establish such relationships with schools than the Black church?”409 Much more research is necessary in the area of understanding the educational role of the black church. My study examined the role of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in black education. I chose to look at the AME Church because they had the most visible and explicit role in education among black churches during the nineteenth century. However, future studies should closely examine other black denominations – such as Pentecostal Churches, Afro-Baptists, African Methodist Episcopal Zion Churches, and Christian Methodist Episcopal Churches- and their role in black education before and after the Civil War. Other questions this study does not consider include: In what other areas –besides the prosperity theology movement– have the black church failed in taking up the role of educating African Americans? What are the real barriers that hinder educational partnerships between churches and schools? In what ways can mainstream white Christian churches advance black education? What role can secular informal educational spaces play in transforming African American education? These questions must be addressed when trying to gain further insight on the topic of African American education in the past, present and future.

408 Sarah Coprich Johnson, The Role of the Black Church in Family Literacy (Peter Lang: New York, 1999). 409 Billingsley and Caldwell, “The Church, the Family, and the School in the African American Community, 438.

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