THE HISTORY OF THE NEGRO CHURCH BY CARTER G. WOODSON, Ph.D.

TO
THE CHERISHED MEMORY OF
MY MOTHER

ANNE ELIZA WOODSON

PREFACE

The importance of the church in the life of the Negro justifies the publication of this brief account of the development of the institution. For many years the various denominations have been writing treatises bearing on their own particular work, but hitherto there has been no effort to study the achievements of all of these groups as parts of the same institution and to show the evolution of it from the earliest period to the present time. This is the objective of this volume.

Whether or not the author has done this task well is a question which the public must decide. This work does not represent what he desired to make it. Many facts of the past could not be obtained for the reason that several denominations have failed to keep records and facts known to persons now active in the church could not be collected because of indifference or the failure to understand the motives of the author. Not a few church officers and ministers, however, gladly coöperated with the author in giving and seeking information concerning their denominations. Among these were Mr. Charles H. Wesley, Prof. J. A. Booker, and Dr. Walter H. Brooks. For their valuable assistance the author feels deeply grateful.

CARTER G. WOODSON.

Washington, D. C., September, 1921.

CONTENTS

I.—Early Missionaries and the Negro 1

II.—The Dawn of the New Day 23

III.—Pioneer Negro Preachers 40

IV.—The Independent Church Movement 71

V.—Early Development 100

VI.—The Schism and the Subsequent Situation 123

VII.—Religious Instruction Revived 148

VIII.—Preachers of Versatile Genius 167

IX.—The Civil War and the Church 185

X.—Religious Education as a Preparation 202

XI.—The Call of Politics 220

XII.—The Conservative and Progressive 247

XIII.—The Negro Church Socialized 266

XIV.—The Recent Growth of the Negro Church 286

XV.—The Negro Church of To-day 300

Index 315

ILLUSTRATIONS

A Christianized African  Frontispiece

Directing the Wanderer in the right Way 11

The Oldest Negro Baptist Church in the United States 23

Lemuel Haynes 32

Andrew Bryan 40

Richard Allen 71

James Varick 82

Peter Williams 95

Christopher Rush 100

Lott Cary 123

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