NHC Home TeacherServe Divining America 19th Century Essay:
African American Christianity, Pt. II: From the Civil War to the Great Migration, 1865-1920
by Laurie Maffly-Kipp, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
©National Humanities Center


Online Primary Sources


    • Individual Works related to this essay
    • Online Collections

 
• Individual Works related to this essay

THE A.M.E. CHURCH REVIEW
dbs.ohiohistory.org/africanam/serial/aa_se01.cfm
Seventeen issues between 1890 and 1913. In The African-American Experience in Ohio, 1850-1920: Selections, from the Ohio Historical Society (also in American Memory, Library of Congress).

A.M.E. WOMAN'S MITE MISSIONARY SOCIETY (Ohio Branch)
dbs.ohiohistory.org/africanam/serial/index.cfm
Minutes/Proceedings of the four annual conventions: 1903, 1916, 1917, 1920. In The African-American Experience in Ohio, 1850-1920: Selections from the Ohio Historical Society (also in American Memory, Library of Congress).

THE APOSTOLIC FAITH
azusa-laof.org/azusa/azusa_pages/azusa_newspapers.htm
Digital images and text of the 13 issues published by the Azusa Street Mission between 1906 and 1908. From the website Azusa Like As of Fire, Rev. Curtis Bond.

VIRGINIA W. BROUGHTON, Twenty Year's Service as a Missionary, 1907
digilib.nypl.org/dynaweb/digs-b/wwm974/@Generic__BookView
Memoir of an African American woman's mission work with emancipated slaves in the South. See, especially, Ch. 9 ("Revival Meetings"), Ch. 12 ("Virginia's Work Extended"), and Ch. 15 ("One Year's Work in the Agricultural and Mechanical [College, Alabama]." In African American Women Writers of the Nineteenth Century, from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library.

ANNA JULIA COOPER, "Womanhood: A Vital Element in the Regeneration and Progress of a Race," 1886
docsouth.unc.edu/church/cooper/menu.html
Address before the African American clergy of the Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., encouraging the church to send women missionaries to the South as were other Christian denominations. The first essay in Cooper's essay collection A Voice from The South, 1892. In Documenting the American South, from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries.

W. E. B. DU BOIS
      The Negro Church. 1903
docsouth.unc.edu/church/negrochurch/menu.html
Subtitled Report of a Social Study Made under the Direction of Atlanta University; Together with the Proceedings of the Eighth Conference for the Study of the Negro Problems, held at Atlanta University, May 26th, 1903. In Documenting the American South, from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries.

"Of the Faith of the Fathers," 1903
xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DUBOIS/ch10.html
Chapter Ten of Du Bois's The Souls of Black Folk. From American Studies at the University of Virginia.

SARA J. DUNCAN, Progressive Missions in the South and Addresses with Illustrations and Sketches of Missionary Workers and Ministers and Bishops' Wives, 1906
docsouth.unc.edu/church/duncan/menu.html
"A sketch of the doings and labors of the women of our race" by Sara Duncan, the general superintendent of the A.M.E. Church Women's Home and Foreign Missionary Society. In Documenting the American South, from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries.

JAMES T. HALEY, Afro-American Encyclopaedia; Or, the Thoughts, Doings, and Sayings of the Race, Embracing Lectures, Biographical Sketches, Sermons, Poems, Names of Universities, Colleges, Seminaries, Newspapers, Books, and a History of the Denominations, Giving the Numerical Strength of Each. In Fact, it Teaches Every Subject of Interest to the Colored People, as Discussed by More Than One Hundred of Their Wisest and Best Men and Women, 1895
docsouth.unc.edu/church/haley/menu.html
Entries on the major African American denominations, clergy, church-founded schools, etc. See also "Christian Truth in Slave Songs," "God's Problem for the South," and "The White Man and the Colored Man as Christian Citizens." Contents listed in alphabetical order at the beginning of document. In Documenting the American South, from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries.

REV. WILLIAM HENRY HEARD, From Slavery to the Bishopric in the A.M.E. Church. An Autobiography, 1928
docsouth.unc.edu/neh/heard/menu.html
Memoir of Rev. Heard who progressed from enslavement in Georgia to a ministry that took him to Liberia and throughout Europe. In Documenting the American South, from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries.

REV. ISAAC LANE, Autobiography of Bishop Isaac Lane, L.L.D.: With a Short History of the C.M.E. Church in America and of Methodism, 1916
docsouth.unc.edu/lane/menu.html
A blend of personal memoir and church history. In Documenting the American South, from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries.

REV. DANIEL ALEXANDER PAYNE (A.M.E. bishop)
Selections in Documenting the American South, from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries.
      Recollections of Seventy Years, 1888
docsouth.unc.edu/church/payne70/menu.html
     Excerpt in this essay:
     nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/nineteen/nkeyinfo/aarpayneexrpt.htm

History of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, 1891
docsouth.unc.edu/church/payne/menu.html

PETER RANDOLPH, From Slave Cabin to the Pulpit. The Autobiography of Rev. Peter Randolph: the Southern Question Illustrated and Sketches of Slave Life, 1893
docsouth.unc.edu/neh/randolph/menu.html
Memoir of an African American Baptist minister; note Chapters 7 and 8: "Religious Condition" and "Religion at the Close of the War." In Documenting the American South, from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries.

G. F. RICHINGS, Evidences of Progress among Colored People, 1902
docsouth.unc.edu/church/richings/menu.html
See Ch. 1-10 on church-founded schools, and Ch. 24, "Churches." In Documenting the American South, from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries.

AMANDA SMITH, An Autobiography: The Story of the Lord's Dealings with Mrs. Amanda Smith, the Colored Evangelist, 1893
digilib.nypl.org/dynaweb/digs-b/wwm97264/@Generic__BookView and
docsouth.unc.edu/smitham/menu.html
Memoir from her early religious experiences as a slave in Maryland to her missionary travels in India and Liberia after emancipation. In African American Women Writers of the Nineteenth Century, from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library, and in Documenting the American South, from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries.

REV. THEOPHILUS GOULD STEWARD, Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry from 1864 to 1914. Twenty-seven Years in the Pastorate; Sixteen Years' Active Service as Chaplain in the U. S. Army; Seven Years Professor in Wilberforce University; Two Trips to Europe; A Trip in Mexico, 1921?
docsouth.unc.edu/church/steward/menu.html
Autobiography of T. G. Steward, A.M.E. minister, evangelical preacher, and army chaplain. In Documenting the American South, from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries.

U.S. BUREAU OF THE CENSUS, Religious Bodies, 1906: [Excerpts Relating to African American Religious Bodies], 1910
docsouth.unc.edu/church/census/menu.html
Summary, general tables, and breakdown by denomination. In Documenting the American South, from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries.

REV. ALEXANDER WALTERS, My Life and Work, 1917
docsouth.unc.edu/neh/walters/menu.html
Memoir of a bishop in the A.M.E. Zion Church, born a slave in Kentucky and later a delegate to the 1900 Pan-African Conference in London. In Documenting the American South, from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries.

BOOKER T. WASHINGTON
Selections from the Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library.
      Up from Slavery: An Autobiography, 1901
etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/WasSlav.html
Commentary on African American religion in Chapters 5, 13, 14.

The Religious Life of the Negro, 1905
etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/WasReli.html
Brief essay published in the North American Review.

IDA B. WELLS-BARNETT, Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells, ed. Alfreda M. Duster [daughter of Ida B. Wells], 1970
nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/nineteen/nkeyinfo/aarwellsexrpt.htm
Excerpts on churches' responses to lynching. From the National Humanities Center, on this site.



 
• Online Collections

The Church in the Southern Black Community, 1780-1925
Home: docsouth.unc.edu/church/index.html
Text list: docsouth.unc.edu/church/texts.html
Valuable collection of over 100 primary texts (histories, memoirs, sermons, catechisms, church records, etc.), including The Negro Church (Du Bois, 1903), Afro-American Encyclopedia . . . and a History of the Denominations (Haley, 1895), The Evolution of the Negro Baptist Church (Brooks, 1922), History of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (Payne, 1891), and From Log Cabin to the Pulpit (Robinson, 1913). In Documenting the American South from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries (the collection is also a part of the American Memory collection of the Library of Congress, at memory.loc.gov/ammem/award99/ncuhtml/csbchome.html).

African American Perspectives: Pamphlets from the Daniel A. P. Murray Collection, 1818-1907
memory.loc.gov/ammem/aap/aaphome.html
From the Subject Index at memory.loc.gov/ammem/aap/murraybibsubjindex1.html, consult the topics African Methodist Episcopal Church, Afro-American Baptists (Presbyterians, etc.), Afro-American Churches, Afro-American Clergy, Christian Life, National Baptist Convention, Sermons, etc. From the Library of Congress (American Memory).

The African-American Experience in Ohio, 1850-1920: Selections from the Ohio Historical Society
memory.loc.gov/ammem/award97/ohshtml/aaeohome.html
Newspaper articles, periodicals (including the A.M.E. Church Review), images, and more. From the Subject Index at memory.loc.gov/ammem/award97/ohshtml/aaeosubjindex.html, consult the topics Afro-American Churches, Afro-American Clergy, Afro-American Women, Afro-Americans: Religion (386 items), Church and Social Problems, Religious Gatherings, etc. From the Ohio Historical Society and the Library of Congress (American Memory).

African American Women Writers of the Nineteenth Century
digital.nypl.org/schomburg/writers_aa19/
Memoirs, essays, fiction, and poetry, including several religious memoirs (see above), from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library.


• Images (see Links to Online Resources)


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