Chapter I: 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 cooperated 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

CHAPTER PAGE

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
FOOTNOTES
INDEX

ILLUSTRATIONS

A Christianized African _Frontispiece_
Directing the Wanderer in the right Way
The Oldest Negro Baptist Church in the United States
Lemuel Haynes
Andrew Bryan
Richard Allen
James Varick
Peter Williams
Christopher Rush
Lott Cary
M. C. Clayton
Sampson White
Josiah Henson
Noah Davis
Samuel R. Ward
Alexander Crummell
J. W. C. Pennington
Henry Highland Garnett
Daniel A. Payne
Richard DeBaptiste
W. H. Miles
Wilberforce During the Civil War
William J. Simmons
James Poindexter
J. C. Price
H. M. Turner
B. W. Arnett
W. B. Derrick
J. W. Hood
L. H. Holsey
Rufus L. Perry
Charles T. Walker
John Jasper
E. K. Love
W. R. Pettiford
M. C. B. Mason
George W. Lee
Alexander Walters