Baptist HistoryLesson 29

Baptists and the African American Church

I. Slavery in America

A. Coming of the slaves

1619 Dutch ship at Jamestown

Samuel Sewell The Selling of JosephJohn Wolman and the Society of FriendsJonathan Edwards, Jr. (Mt. 7:14)

OPPOSITION TO SLAVERY

B. EARLY MINISTRY AMONG SLAVES

C. OPPOSITION TO EVANGELISM

John Elliot Cotton Mather

1. No soul; less than human2. Awkward to have slave as brother3. Couldn’t work on Sabbath!4. “Free in Christ” equals “free man”

D. CONVERSION OF THE SLAVES1. First Great Awakening

Samuel DaviesGeorge Whitefield

“He prayed that grace in ev’ry heart might dwell,

He longed to see America excell:

Take him, ye Africans, he longs for you, ‘Impartial Savior’ is his title due;

Washed in the fountain of redeeming blood,

You shall be sons, and kings, and priests to God.”

“Nearly 50 Negroes came to give me thanks for what God had done to their souls”

Phillis Wheatley

“Through Whitefield’s preaching . . . The slaves were given the resources for constructing their own slave religion in evangelical terms that eventually led to the creation of an autonomous black church”

Dr. David Calhoun

Preaching

Spirituals

Late 18th and early 19th centuries “The Dawn of a New Day”

How did this happen?

Carter Woodson “The History of the Black Church”

II. White Missions to Blacks

Charles C. Jones

“The Apostle to the Negro Slaves”

“The religious instruction of our servants is a duty. Any man with a conscience may be made to feel it. It can be discharged…it must be discharged” (emphasis author)

John Girardeau (1825-1898)

Zion Presbyterian Church

How do we sum up our views of the white Southern preacher?

1,000 black members250 white members

III. The Invisible Institution ‘the secret black church in the South’

Albert Raboteau

“White fo’ks have deir servic in de mornin’, an’ de (negroes) have deirs in de evenin’, a’ter dey clean up, wash de dishes, an’ look a’ter everything… .Ya’ see (negroes), lack (like) ta shout a whole lot, an’ wid de white fo’ks al’round ‘em, dey couldn’t shout jes’ lack dey want to”

Sarah Fitzpatrick, Alabama slave

Private “hush meetings”

Public camp meetings

Greatest gift: Spirituals

IV. Black Baptist Churches in the South

George Liele (c. 1750-1825/28)

Silver Bluff, SC 1773/74

First African American Baptist Church, Savannah 1778

Savannah First African Baptist Church

1783 Moves to Jamaica

Ethiopian Baptist Church

Andrew Bryan (1737-1812)

John C Jasper

(1812-1901)

Richmond - 1815 African American Missionary Society

1821 – Colin Teague & Lott Carey to Liberia

V. Methodist/Richard Allen (1760-1831)

Bethel M. E. Church, 1794

1815 – African Methodist Episcopal Church

Daniel Payne (1811-1893)

Lemuel Haynes

(1753-1833)

“When Paul and Barnabas were preaching at Antioch, as many as were ordained to eternal life believed….All the encouragement fro a minister to preach among a people, so far as the salvation of souls ought to be a motive, is the doctrine of election”

The African American Church after the War“From the balconyTo the floor,Then out the door”

•African Americans became leaders of their own churches

1865 – formation of first black state convention in NC

•Influence of Freedman’s Fund – established 32 colleges by 1894

1865 – Shaw University, Raleigh

•Church model in the South

90% Negro population prior to WWI

Pastor had little education but most in community

“Christianity answered to deeply felt needs of a people for whom emancipation had been a less than glorious boon”

Sydney Ahlstrom, pg 711

African American Baptist Denominations

1895 – Atlanta: The National Baptist Convention

1897 – Lott Carey Baptist Home & Missionary Society

1915 - The National Baptist Convention of America

E. C. Morris(1855-1922)

R. H. Boyd(1843-1922)

Condition of the African American Church 20th Century - oppressed

1954 Brown vs. Board of Education

Social progressive called for end of segregation – NAACP (1909)

1955 – Rosa Parks; Montgomery Bus Boycott

Martin Luther King, Jr(1929-1968)

‘Letter From a Birmingham Jail” ‘Shallow understanding from a people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute

misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejections’

1961 – Progressive National Baptist Convention THEOLOGY

White Baptist and Civil Rights

SBC leadership pressed for a resolution affirming Brown vs. Board of Education

Some prominent leaders opposed integration

WMU pushed for integration

1961 – MLK, Jr invited to speak at SBTS

1970’s - Walls of segregation finally breaking down

1968 – “The Church of the Open Door”

W. A. Criswell(1909-2002)

1995 – SBC officially repents for racism

Where are we today?

•Increase understanding of evangelical theology

•Definite movement to the Doctrines of Grace

Glory Road: The Journey of 10 African Americans Into Reformed Christianity

Thabiti Anyabwile

Dr. Tony Evans “The Urban Alternative”

Louis Love, Thabiti Anyabwile, Anthony Carter & Hensworth W.C. Jonas Eric Mason: Epiphany

Fellowship Church - Philly

YouTube - Shai Linne - My Portion

East Caribbean Baptist Mission:Home

Dr. Hensworth W. C. Jonas

Central Baptist Church - Antiqua