Tag Archives: African-American Women

African-American Women in America – Rosa McCauley Parks

Rosa Parks – Mother of the Civil Rights Movement

We cannot recount the stories of so many courageous black women without telling the story of Rosa McCauley Parks (1913 – 2005). Last fall we left off with the stores of Mary McLeod Bethune, educator and leader, and we reviewed the achievements of Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, in the space industry and depicted in the movie “Hidden Figures”. 

A significant story for our post today is that of Ida B. Wells (See post October 3, 2019). 

Recall that Ida B. Wells took her stand for freedom in 1884 while riding on a train. Ida suffered humiliation and abuse as a black woman. Ida was riding the train between Memphis and Nashville. She had bought a first-class ticket and expected to use it. Ida got into the first-class compartment for whites only. The train officials told her to get in the “Negro”[1] car instead and she refused to move. The railway men physically removed her. Ida sued the railroad and won a settlement, but the Tennessee Supreme Court overturned it. Ida B. Wells had been an activist seventy years before Rosa Parks. 

Following in Ida’s footsteps, In 1955, Rosa Parks refused to go to the back of a bus where the “colored” people were supposed to sit. Rosa’s act of defiance was the beginning of the Civil Rights movement in the United States.

Rosa McCauley was born in Tuskegee, Alabama on February 4, 1913. She met Raymond Parks and they married when she was 19 years old. They lived in Montgomery Alabama.

Raymond was a barber and Rosa worked at a department store. She joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1943. She was the secretary for the organization.

 During this period of time, segregation laws forced black people to sit at the back of buses. If the seats for white people were full, black people had to give up their seats or get off of the bus. On December 1, 1955 Rosa got on the bus after work as usual and sat in the black section. As the bus began to fill up the bus driver moved the “colored” sign further back and told Rosa to move back. She refused. The bus driver got off and called for the police.

Rosa was arrested and charged with breaking Montgomery’s segregation laws. She went to jail until some friends could bail her out.

 Inspired by her courage and the preaching of Martin Luther King Jr., a bus boycott began. Beginning on Monday, December 5 thousands of people stayed off of the buses. They found other ways to get to work sometimes even walking for miles. The bus companies began to lose a lot of money. After 381 days the city of Montgomery got rid of the busing segregation laws. This was a huge victory for the Civil Rights movement.

But it caused hard times for Rosa and Raymond. 
They both lost their jobs. They suffered harassment and threat of bodily harm. Finally, they made the decision to move to Detroit, Michigan.

As the Civil Rights movement grew Rosa continued to work for equality for African Americans. In 1987, Rosa founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development. She also received many awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Clinton in 1996. In 1999, she received the Congressional Gold Medal.

 Rosa died at age 92 on October 24, 2005. She was honored greatly by being buried at the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. More than 50,000 people attended her ceremony.

Rosa is one of those people whose lives changed history. She is a hero to all.

 I watched a movie produced about Rosa Parks starring Angela Bassett called “The Rosa Parks Story”. It was released in 2002 by Xenon Pictures. It was beautifully done. Rosa was just an ordinary person who took an extraordinary stand against injustice.

The movie tells of her early life, romance, and marriage. The struggles that Rosa went through affected her relationship with Raymond, but they weathered the storms together. I hope you will see the movie. You will be inspired and touched.

[1] In the 1800’s African Americans were referred to as “Negroes” or Blacks. In the mid-twentieth century the term “colored” was common. In these posts we use the term “African-American” women which many prefer.

African-American Women in America – Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman- A Moses to her People

For the past several months we have been relating the stories of remarkable black women in America. We began with the stories of 18thand 19thcentury African-American women. Some were born as slaves and some were born free. All of these women were courageous examples of what can be done by a woman who does not let her circumstances dictate to her. These women rose above many hardships including poverty, illness, prejudice, internal conflicts, and the limitations of their times to follow their call from God and affect the lives of many other people for good. Why were they able to live in a realm above their circumstances? It is because they all received strength from God. They all answered the call in their lives to help others.

“I’ll meet you in de mornin’,
When you reach de promised land;
On de oder side of Jordan,
For I’m boun’ for de promised land.”

We recently watched “The Ten Commandments” a movie with Charlton Heston. It was made in the 1950’s when it was still ok to talk about the Bible in a movie in a positive way. The nearly four-hour movie told the story of Moses and the rescue of God’s people during the Exodus from Egypt.

We don’t know why God allowed His people to bear cruel slavery for four hundred years before sending a deliverer and rescuing them. We must not run the danger of accusing God for the evil that sinful men are doing. We do not know how even in this country we could have allowed the evil of slavery to continue for so long. We can express our sorrow but look back with thankfulness for the people that God raised up to work in their own way to end the oppression.

One woman who did just that was Harriet Tubman, the little lady who rescued three to four hundred slaves in the mid-nineteenth century, earning the title – a “Moses to her people”. Harriet would not blame God for any hard circumstances but instead she would acknowledge that her difficult upbringing prepared her for the tasks ahead of her when she followed her calling to rescue slaves.

Born Araminta Ross around 1820 to Benjamin Ross and Harriet Greene, both slaves, she later took her mother’s name, Harriet. She took her husband’s name when she married John Tubman.

Harriet was born in Maryland and had ten brothers and sisters. She was later able to rescue many family members and her parents, who retired in New York on property that Harriet purchased for them.

When Harriet was six years old she was sent to live with the James Cook family and learn the trade of weaving. Her mistress was cruel. James Cook sent her out to check muskrat traps, and so she had to wade in water. Already ill from measles she grew very sick and was eventually sent home.

When she was in her teens she worked as a field hand. While working for that farmer she received a wound to her head that would affect her for the rest of her life. The farm overseer was trying to punish a disobedient slave and threw a two-pound weight at him which fell short and hit Harriet, cracking her skull. It took her a long time to recover from this and for the rest of her life she was subject to sleeping spells. At times a sort of stupor would come over her even in the midst of a conversation and she would need to sleep. This would give the appearance of laziness or stupidity, but Harriet would show that she really had a fine mind and a courageous strength.

After this Harriet worked for John Stewart. She did many jobs usually given to men, such as cutting and hauling wood. Here she built up the incredible strength that would later allow her to do such things as carry grown men through the water to their safety.

Harriet married a free “colored” man named John Tubman around 1844. They had no children.

In 1849, she and some other slaves were to be sold. She determined not to be sold and so one night she just walked away. Eventually she arrived in Philadelphia where a white woman befriended her and she got a job. She saved her money and two years after her own escape from slavery she went south to rescue her husband. She found him living with another woman and unwilling to take her back. This did not stop her from her plan of rescuing other family members. She just moved on trusting in the Lord.

Between 1852 and 1857 she made many journeys to the south rescuing many people. It was during this time that people began to call her “Moses”, a name she retained for the rest of her life. She rescued so many people that a reward was put out for her capture.

Let’s don’t forget that a Fugitive Slave Law had been passed, making it a crime for people to help slaves escape. Harriet had to find ways to get the rescued slaves all the way to Canada since even many Northerners would not help for fear of getting fined or arrested for breaking the law. Many Christians would say that Harriet should not have defied the government because of what it says in Romans 13 about obeying all those in authority over us (see Romans 13:1). That is a subject for another post in the future, but for now let us not judge her conscience. Slavery is evil and the Lord helped Harriet to rescue many people.

Harriet was able to discern the voice of the Lord speaking to her, warning her and giving her guidance. Because of this she was able to avoid capture many times. She said that she always knew when danger was near though she didn’t understand quite how exactly, but “pears like my heart go flutter, flutter,” and she would know that something bad was going to happen.

One example of this was a time when Harriet was going back north and she had a premonition that told her to turn aside and cross a stream. The stream was swollen in that place and she did not know how deep it was. She obeyed the whispered warning in her head and stepped in to cross the water. The men that were with her hung back, but when they saw that the water was only up to her chin, they followed her and all of them safely crossed the stream. Later they found out that there was a party waiting down the road to arrest her and if she hadn’t crossed the stream she would not have escaped.

Another time Harriet fell asleep in a park beneath a notice that was offering a reward for her capture! Of course, Harriet couldn’t read and had no idea of the irony until some friends found her and told her.

Because she was on the run, Harriet slept in wet swamps or in potato fields where she could lie hidden. Besides the obvious risk to her health there was always danger of being spotted. But the Lord always rescued her, sometimes through friends or by her own wits. And Harriet always gave the credit to God. When someone would express surprise at her boldness and daring she would reply, “Don’t I tell you, Missus, ’twasn’t me, ’twas de Lord!”

All through the War Between the States Harriet rescued slaves and nursed wounded soldiers. She was never paid for her efforts. Harriet remained poor for the rest of her life but she never complained.

Harriet died on March 10, 1913, in Auburn, New York at around the age of ninety-three!  All through her life she had depended on the Lord and God had never disappointed her trust in Him.

Her life is an example of what can be done, even in the most horrible of circumstances, when a person does not give up or give in. Harriet’s attitude in life made all the difference in the world. Here we sit in our comfort and can’t seem to find time to help those around us. Harriet accomplished much in spite of illness, threats, poverty, and danger all around her. Her childlike faith and determination are an example for us all.

African-American Women in America – Madame C. J. Walker

Into a time of destitution and aspiration, of mayhem and promise, Sarah Breedlove was born two days before Christmas 1867. It was a Yuletide that offered her parents, Owen and Minerva, no other gifts. Their sloped-roof cypress cabin possessed as its primary source of warmth and light an open-hearth fireplace. No official document recorded Sarah’s birth. No newspaper notice heralded her arrival. No lacy gown enveloped her tiny cocoa body.[1]

This poor and unprepossessing little baby would grow up to become Madam C. J. Walker (1867 – 1919) – known as the first black woman millionaire in America. She created a successful line of hair care products that are still being sold today. Born Sarah Breedlove, she was orphaned by age 8, married by age 14, a mother by age 17 and a widow at age 20.

Sarah’s story is told by her great-great-granddaughter, A’Lelia Bundles in “On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker”. I highly recommend this book as incredibly interesting and inspirational. It is so wonderful to think that a woman can rise above her circumstances to succeed against all odds. Madame Walker became one of the most incredible and awe-inspiring African-American women in the early twentieth century.

Sarah was working as a laundress when she discovered that her hair was falling out uncontrollably. “I was on the verge of becoming entirely bald,” Sarah said. Desperate for a solution she prayed to the Lord. She claims that her answer came to her in a dream. A black man told her what to put in a mixture for her scalp. She concocted the ingredients and rubbed them into her scalp which began to heal. Soon she had gorgeous hair. The treatment really worked!

She began to bottle and sell her product. Marketing her product was easy as everyone could see the results of the “Walker system” on the beautiful heads of hair on the women who had formerly had scraggly, rough hair. Sarah took ads out in newspapers but her best advertisement was testimonials of thousands of happy women. Sarah traveled many miles selling her product directly to black women. She was warm and friendly and not only won loyal customers but a fleet of thousands of enthusiastic saleswomen.

She taught her ladies a good sales pitch using a familiar agricultural lesson. “Do you realize that it is as necessary to cultivate the scalp to grow hair as it is to cultivate the soil to grow a garden?” she queried. Everywhere her saleswomen went they were successful because Sarah’s product and methods were successful. In a day when there were so many “snake oil” salesmen running around, people could recognize when something really worked and were glad to pay for it.

Other hair treatment manufacturers were selling products to straighten hair, but Sarah would have none of that. She always maintained that her products were for growing healthy hair. She started a salon and trained beauty culturalists to work with women helping them to have healthier practices. She taught them to massage and clean scalps so that hair would grow. She eventually had over twenty products for healthy hair and skin.

Sarah grew very rich selling her products but she gave much of her money away. She started clubs for her employees and encouraged them to be generous in charitable giving. She donated to the WMCA; she encouraged black soldiers during WW1. She knew Ida B. Wells (see posts on this blog May 9 and 13, 2015) and worked to stop the illegal lynching of black people. Sarah also donated $5000 to Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute, founded by Mary McLeod Bethune (see post April 10, 2017).

Sarah literally wore herself out. When she became ill in 1919 her doctor told her to rest. That was hard for her to do. Finally, one day her kidneys failed. Before Madam went into a coma she said, “I want to live to help my race.” Sarah died Sunday morning, May 25, 1919.

Today Sarah’s legacy is remembered in two landmarks – her Irvington-on Hudson, New York, mansion and the Madam Walker Theatre Center in Indianapolis, Indiana (where she built her manufacturing plant). The center includes a museum and sponsors theatrical and musical performances. Her papers and letters are archived at the Indiana Historical Society in Indianapolis.

The original Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing company was sold in 1986. She was recently honored by the American Health and Beauty Aids Institute when they inducted her into their hall of fame. In 1998 the U.S. Postal system released a stamp as part of the Black Heritage Series.

I enjoyed going to her website – www.madamcjwalker.com. You will find her story as well as the story of what has become of her company and where you can buy some products!!

A great video production from “People Plan”, (February 23, 2014) with many pictures and great biographical information is from:

“Madam CJ Walker – First African American Female Self-Made Millionaire”

Sarah Breedlove (McWilliams Davis) Walker’s life is told beautifully with an emphasis on her character. Her business acumen, philanthropy, love and care for her race, including empowering over 25,000 women to get good jobs is recounted. Her selfless giving is to be admired. She was an inspiration to others to give also. Madam was also active in politics, WWI, and social issues including the struggle against the illegal lynching of blacks. One of the most successful entrepreneurs of all times, her legacy continues to be admired.

Here is the link:

[1]A’Lelia Bundlrs. On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker(New York, NY: Washington Square Press, 2001). P. 25.

African American Women in America – Ida B. Wells, Part 2

… Go on, thou brave woman leader,

Spread our wrongs from shore unto shore;
Until clothed with his rights is the Negro,
And lynchings are no more….
And the wise Afro-American mother,
Who her children of heroine tells,
Shall speak in tones of gratitude,
The name of Ida B. Wells!

                                                       Katherine Davis Tilllman

Last week we left off with Ida’s story during the time when she was being hailed as a heroine by the African American Press Association in Philadelphia. Meanwhile back in her hometown of Memphis her newspaper office was being destroyed by an angry mob. Her life was threatened and Ida was advised not to try and return home. And so now Ida began her famous campaign against lynching.

In 1893 Ida took her campaign across the ocean to England, Scotland, and Wales. There she gave speeches and met with leaders of British civic groups. Ida was impressed with how active British women were in their campaign for justice. She helped the women in London establish the London Anti-Lynching Committee. She wrote to women at home in America and encouraged them to follow the example of their British counterparts. Ida returned to England again in 1894 on a speaking tour.

On returning home Ida settled in Chicago. She collaborated with Frederick Douglass, the famous advocate of equal civil rights for blacks. At this time she also met her future husband, Ferdinand Barnett. Barnett was a lawyer and the owner of the first black newspaper in Chicago, the Conservator.

They fell in love and married in 1895. Barnett was willing to support Ida completely. He sold the newspaper to her and she took over the duties of editor. This freed Ferdinand Barnett to practice law and actively campaign for “colored rights”. 

In March 1896, Ida became a mother at the age of 33. She had mixed feelings about motherhood. She had taken care of her younger siblings and was happy to have a break from child rearing. Her active public life was also very fulfilling. But after her child was born she understood all the joys of motherhood. 

However, before her first baby was five months old, duty called. Ida traveled with baby Charles and a nurse and continued her campaigning. A year later Ida had another son, Herman, and this time she chose to bow out of public work and stay home and raise her children. She gave up her position as editor at the Conservator and told everyone she was “quite content to be left within the four walls” of her home. Taking one child on the road was difficult but manageable; two children required her to be a full time mother. Ida was very happy with her decision.

Her decision was short-lived. Three months later the Frazier Baker lynching occurred. This was considered one of the most brutal of all times. People looked to Ida to attend the protests and speak to the injustice. Ida wanted to stay home, but explained to the people who were concerned about her new station as a mother that race work was a matter of necessity, not choice. It “seems that the needs of the world were so great that again I had to venture forth, “she insisted. She left baby Charles with his grandmother and took Herman with her on her travels. During this next period of her life she concentrated on getting women organized. 

In 1896 Ida formed the National Association of Colored Women. The next year she attended a conference that would eventually lead in a few years to the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. 

Ida combined campaigning and motherhood for the next ten years. She gave birth to two daughters, one in 1901 and the other in 1904. 

By 1910 Ida was fully participating in public life again. She formed the Negro Fellowship League. This organization was housed in a building in Chicago. It served as a fellowship house for blacks that were new to the city. The Negro Fellowship League also conducted religious services. It became an employment office for blacks moving to the city and a shelter for the men until they could find a job.

Throughout the rest of her career Ida remained active in campaigning, writing, and activism. In 1909 she became one of the founders of the NAACP. In 1913 Ida established the first black women’s suffrage club, the Alpha Suffrage Club. Also in that year Ida met with president McKinley about a lynching in South Carolina. Later she would also meet with another president, Woodrow Wilson in an effort to get legislation passed that would end discriminatory practices in hiring. 

Other famous people that Ida knew and sympathized or even collaborated with included Susan B. Anthony, Frances Willard (though Ida disagreed with Willard on methods), Jane Addams, and Irene McCoy Gaines. 

Ida worked tirelessly in many other areas. She created the first African-American kindergarten in her town. From 1918 through the 1920’s Ida covered race riots in Arkansas, East St. Louis, and Chicago. Her reports were published in newspapers worldwide. 

Ida even threw her hat into the political ring. She ran for a seat in the Illinois state senate in 1930. She pledged to “work as hard for the benefit of my Race and my district as I have done for the past 37 years I have lived in Chicago.”  Ida lost to the incumbent, but she sent a strong message to the people of Illinois that with hard work, women, even black women, could accomplish much. Ida garnered 752 votes out of 8969 votes. That is really a good showing for an independent candidate. 

Though Ida was 68 years old by this time and beginning to have health issues, she looked forward to the future. The election defeat did not stop her. She did not look back. Ida had faith in the future. She remained active in politics, and could take credit for helping to defeat an appointment of a judicial candidate for the United States Supreme Court. This man, nominated by president Hoover, was on record as saying he was anti-African-American. With her usual amount of energy Ida went to work. She and other organizations got up a petition against the appointment. The man was defeated.

Her successful campaign against Hoover’s candidate encouraged her to plan a new venture. She began to publish a periodical called the Chicago Review. At the same time she continued to work on her autobiography, begun in 1928 – Crusade for Justice. It would be the first full-length autobiography written by a black woman activist. Ida did not quite finish it before she died.

In March of 1931 Ida was to attend a book fair for African Americans. She was going to donate many of her own books written by black authors. This event would be her last.

On March 21 after returning home from shopping she went to bed saying she wasn’t feeling well. Several days later she had a high fever. Ferdinand and her daughter, Alfreda took Ida to the hospital. Ida “slipped away quietly” in the early morning hours of Wednesday, March 25, 1931, four months before her sixty-ninth birthday. The cause of death was given as uremic poisoning.

The funeral service for Ida was befitting of this extraordinary woman. It was simple, direct, and straightforward. “No fanfare of trumpets, no undue shouting, no flowery oratory – just plain earnest, sincere words” were spoken for her. This was truly reflective of a great and wise woman who spoke plainly but effectively for justice. 

Truly, Ida B. Wells shows us what one woman can accomplish. Her faith and determination made a difference in this world for many people. Today, lynching may seem like a horrible thing of the past, but hatred is still with us. People still find ways to be unjust to others. We can learn from Ida B. Wells as we fight against all injustice.

Black men and women received more freedom sooner than they would have if it were not for the efforts of Ida B. Wells. Her life was a truly great example of how to meet problems with justice in an honest, forthright way with great strength. That is why her work has lasting power and is of interest to us today.

African-American Women in America – Eliza Davis George

For the last several months we have been looking at the stories of remarkable African-American women who served Christ in the United States during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.We began this series by covering the stories of remarkable female activists and preachers – Philis Wheatley (1753-1784), Sojourner Truth (1797-1883), Jarena Lee (1783-1864), Zilpha Elaw (1790-1873), and Julia A. J. Foote (1823-1900). These women preached, taught, evangelized and gave aid to the poor. Some of these gifted women also bequeathed to us their very fine autobiographies. The women wrote about their thoughts, dreams, and ideas that they could not express publicly because of their gender or color. It is exciting to read about events from that century told from their personal points of view. We thank God for their efforts. It is such a joy to be able to read their books now.

Last week we turned the corner to the next century with the story of Amanda Berry Smith (1837-1915). For the following weeks we will learn about many more saintly women who lived through the turmoil of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in the United States. 

All of these women were courageous examples of what can be done by a woman who does not let her circumstances dictate to her. These women rose above many hardships including poverty, illness, prejudice, internal conflicts, and the limitations of their times to follow their call from God and affect the lives of many other people. Why were they able to live in a realm above their circumstances? It is because they all received strength from God. They all answered the call in their lives to serve.

Mother Eliza Davis George (1879-1980)

My African brother is calling me;
Hark! Hark! I hear his voice.
In a land more dense with work I see
That work is now my choice. 

For over six decades Eliza Davis-George ministered to her African brethren in Liberia. She endured poverty and hardship for the sake of taking the Gospel to her people. Though she constantly had to labor to get support she never wavered from her call. Today thousands of spiritual children are grateful for Mother Eliza.

Eliza Davis-George was born in Texas on January 20, 1879. She was the third child of the eleven children of Litt and Jane Davis who were former slaves. Eliza had wonderful memories of her mother who prayed often. Her father struggled financially and nearly ruined the family with gambling. One day he was convicted of his sin at their Baptist church and changed his life. He was a faithful deacon and preacher after that.

Though she was raised in the Baptist church, Eliza did not make a decision to accept Christ for herself until she was sixteen. She faithfully attended church services. Eliza had many suitors, but she rejected them all because she was sure that God had something special for her.

In 1900 the Davis’s struggled again as the boll weevils destroyed their crops. Eliza wanted to go to school but it was hard enough being black let alone being a woman. She worked hard for the chance to go to school. Her family helped out and eventually Eliza earned a teaching diploma. After earning her teaching certificate Eliza was accepted on the faculty of Central Texas College. She taught for five years and then the school asked her to be the matron. 

On February 2, 1911, Eliza attended a faculty prayer meeting. Rev. Hill prayed for countries all around the world. Eliza was filled with an overwhelming desire to go to Africa and see her brothers and sisters.  She told the president of the college, but he discouraged her from going.

Eliza knew that she had heard the call from God. The poem at the beginning of this post was the first stanza of a poem that she wrote while she was struggling with her decision about going to Africa.[1]

The leaders at the college did not want to release her and they gave her a hearing. They were doubtful about sending her. She recited her poem to them. The beginning of the next verse said:

Would you say ‘stay’ when God said ‘go’
To that dark foreign land and
Spread the light? Would you say ‘no’
That bright their souls might stand? 

Eliza continued reciting her beautiful poem. (9 verses in all) The leaders were convinced. They decided to release her with their blessings and prayers.

The Baptist mission could not support Eliza at that time. She prayed and worked hard for two years. Few offered her any help, but then Eliza met Rev. James Kelly, the corresponding secretary of the General Baptist Convention of Texas. Rev. Kelly took Eliza around to the churches to raise support.

Finally, Eliza traveled to New York. A ship left from there for Liverpool on December 12, 1913. Eventually Eliza reached Liberia where she and another missionary opened a school for children. 

Eliza was concerned about real-life training as well as spiritual training. She wanted children to be able to care for themselves when they grew up. She called her school the Bible Industrial Academy. Soon they had fifty pupils. In only two years she saw over 1,000 people accept Christ in nearby villages.

Eliza always lived on very little money, but God gave her the support she needed, often just in time to stave off much hardship. About five years after she was in Liberia the mission board stopped supporting her. Some months before this, Eliza had met a medical missionary, Dr. C. Thompson George. Dr. George desired to work as a missionary in Liberia too. He urged Eliza to marry him so that together they could serve God in Liberia.

Eliza agreed, and they were married in 1919. They lived in Kelton. Eliza had already adopted an orphan named Maude who was a teenager by now. The George’s also adopted Cecelia and Cerella. It was Maude who brought Cerella home to Eliza when she was just a baby. Of course, tender-hearted Eliza wanted to care for her. Girls were very badly treated in Liberia. Eliza wanted to give Cerella a chance. 

Later another girl named Cecelia came to the school seeking an opportunity to join the mission. And so, in 1929 Cecelia joined the group. Cecelia remained a faithful, caring daughter even up to the end of Eliza’s life.

Maude and Cerella went to the United States for their education, not returning for thirteen years.

After returning to Liberia, Maude helped Eliza with the school. Maude died unexpectedly in 1947. She had been running the school in Liberia for two years. Cerella married a man in Greenville and went to work in a bank.

Cecelia would eventually marry and have three children. She would serve in Liberia for a few years, later being joined by her husband when he finished his missionary training. Later they returned to the United States when they could not endure the fever-inducing illnesses of Liberia. Cecelia continued to help Mother Eliza whenever she could.

Sadly, Eliza’s marriage was full of conflict. Dr. George had many problems including drinking. He could be moody and mistreat the children. After twenty years of marriage Dr. George died of an illness in 1939. Eliza was on her own again.

Mother Eliza had also welcomed a young man into their group. His African name was Doh, but he took a different name when he decided to join the Christian church – Augustus Marwieh. He would be affectionately called Gus.

Gus was a good student and even at the age of fifteen was beginning to get a reputation as a preacher. He would become the spiritual son who would carry on Eliza’s work in Liberia and other parts of Africa.

Some years later Mother Eliza wanted to send Gus to America to college. He was very bright and deserving of a good education. He had completed his high school education in Liberia at the top of his class. It was difficult to raise the money and obtain all of the visas necessary, but Mother George persisted as she always did. So now at the age of seventy-four Mother Eliza went to California with her spiritual son.

When Gus graduated from college, Eliza had a long talk with him. She encouraged him to marry a girl from Liberia so that he would have more credibility with his people when he went back to minister there. Eventually he married Otheliah, one of the spiritual daughters at the mission. Much in love, the couple served faithfully together even through some dire hardships.

Gus had also obtained an MRE (Master of Religious Education) at Golden Gate Seminary. After six years in the United States, Gus returned to Liberia. He would eventually serve there for many years, taking over Mother Eliza’s work as she grew old.

One day Gus had exciting news, or so he thought, for Eliza. The Southern Baptists had decided to make a 30-minute program about her work in Liberia. Eliza was aghast, but Gus finally talked her into it. The show was televised in 1963 when Mother was eighty-four years old.

Mother Eliza was still going strong at the age of ninety-nine. She went to Texas to continue her deputation schedule. She encouraged young people to go on the missionary field. 

Several months later she broke her hip. Her adopted daughter Cecelia moved her into a nursing home nearby in Tyler, Texas. On January 20, 1979 Mother celebrated her one hundredth birthday. She attended the local Baptist church, even giving a speech.

A few days later Mother was rushed to the hospital with pneumonia. Cecelia stayed at her side until Mother went home to be with the Lord on March 8, 1979. 

Mother Eliza had witnessed the conversion to Christianity of thousands of Liberians. Gus would carry on the work. He founded the Africa College of Evangelism. He moved to Monrovia in 1982 where he ministered to government officials and business leaders. 

Gus appeared on Dr. Schuller’s TV program. Gus also started a prison ministry, ministry for children, a missionary training school, and a technical high school just like the one Mother George started at ENI. 
Mother George’s former students were responsible for planting and serving in hundreds of churches. Truly thousands of her spiritual children “rise up and bless her.”

[1]Lorry Lutz. When God Says Go: The Amazing Journey of a Slave’s Daughter (Discovery House, 2002).p. 44,45.

African-American Women in America – Amanda Berry Smith

We have been looking at the stories of remarkable black women of the nineteenth century. Some were born as slaves and some were born free. All of these women were courageous examples of what can be done by a woman who does not let her circumstances dictate to her. These women rose above many hardships including poverty, illness, prejudice, internal conflicts, and the limitations of their times to follow their call from God and affect the lives of many other people. Why were they able to live in a realm above their circumstances? It is because they all received strength from God. They all answered the call in their lives to serve.

We began this series by covering the stories of remarkable female activists and preachers – Philis Wheatley, Sojourner Truth, Jarena Lee, Zilpha Elaw, and Julia A. J. Foote. Some of these gifted women also bequeathed to us their very fine autobiographies. The women wrote about their thoughts, dreams, and ideas that they could not express publicly because of their gender or color. It is exciting to read about events from that century told from their personal points of view. We thank God for their efforts. It is such a joy to be able to read their books now.

This fall we are continuing with the stories of black women in the kingdom of God in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In spite of the limitations they had imposed on them by society these women rose above their circumstances to become evangelists, missionaries, journalists, business women (one was a bank president!), philanthropists, teachers, and activists. Last time we related the story of Maria Stewart – Teacher, Activist, and Writer. This week our story is about a woman who was born a slave but freed when her father was able to purchase his family’s freedom. Amanda Berry Smith led an exciting life as a child and went on to become the first international black evangelist.

Amanda Berry Smith – Evangelist (1837-1915)

“They will be done.” Oh! that word, and to say it from the heart. When you stand by your dear ones dying, with not two dollars for funeral expenses, with a husband and father away, and when he might have come, yet did not, with no one to go to, when the very heavens seemed brass, and the earth iron, and you and your own body exhausted from hard work and watching day and night, and with but little food to sustain the body, then to say, “Thy will be done,” from the heart, is more than all burnt offerings and sacrifice; and this prayer, prayed from the heart, is what is meant by being entirely and wholly sanctified.              Amanda Smith

Amanda Berry Smith was born a slave in Maryland on January 23, 1837. She was freed when she was three years old. Her father, John Berry had bought freedom for himself and his family and then moved them to Pennsylvania. He made their home near an Underground Railroad station. Because of this, their property was closely watched to see if they were harboring fugitives. One night, slave trackers burst in, demanding to know where John had hidden a runaway. The men beat John and tried to stab Amanda’s mother. Another time they did catch a terrified fugitive who tried to escape by leaping form an upstairs window. The unfortunate man was dragged away in chains.

On yet another occasion, one of Amanda’s free born sisters was sold into slavery while she was visiting an aunt in Maryland. Amanda had to borrow $50 to buy her back. Amanda certainly knew all about slavery, so when she experienced the freedom of salvation in Jesus Christ, she praised God for delivering her twice!![1]

Amanda had very little education. She went to a school that was for whites, but allowed a few black children in. She was determined to learn to read and explains in her own words how hard she worked, “I first taught myself to read by cutting out large letters from the newspapers my father would bring home. Then I would lay them on the window and ask mother to put them together for me to make words. I shall never forget how delighted I was when I first read: ‘The house, the tree, the dog, the cow.’”

When she was seventeen years old, she married Calvin Devine. They lived in New York City where Amanda worked as a domestic servant. This was in 1856. When the war started in 1861, he went away to fight but never returned. 

Amanda had a strong desire to tell others about Christ and thought that she would get a better chance if she married a man who was a deacon. She married James Smith. It turned out to be a bad choice. He lied to her about his plans for his life, and eventually abandoned her. Now she was a widow with small children to care for. She worked long hours and starved herself so that the children might eat. This suffering taught her to depend on God for everything in her life. Sadly, all but one of her children died in infancy, the result of living in cold, damp rooms while Amanda toiled as a laundress to earn a pittance to care for them.

Though she had these any troubles in her life, she did not allow Satan to stop her from where she believed God was calling her. 

During the 1860’s, a wave of Methodist evangelism that featured a revival movement that urged Christians to experience the “second blessing” swept through the country. This “second blessing” was described as a special empowerment by the Holy Spirit to live a deeper, holier life. Amanda attended one of the revival meetings and prayed for this movement by the Holy Spirit in her own life. Waves of joy flooded her as she felt the sanctifying power of the Spirit. She was the only black person in the church, and normally shy, but this did not prevent her from shouting aloud with joy.

Now she knew that she was called to be an evangelist. In 1869 she tried her hand at preaching. By 1870, evangelism was her full-time profession. She was very popular, becoming known as far north as Maine and as far south as Tennessee. She was constantly called on to preach at camp meetings, churches, and other gatherings. 

Dressed plainly in black, white, and gray, she began speaking in African Methodist Episcopal (AME) churches. She had a rich contralto voice and sang stirring songs in addition to giving her testimony of how Christ had delivered her. She urged her listeners to seek and find the same joy that she experienced. 

This self-educated ex-slave eventually won souls all over the world and challenged all Christians wherever she went to live lives that were consistent with their Christian testimony. She became the first black woman to work as an international evangelist in 1878.Through her example, women gained a more prominent role in the AME Church. 

She served overseas for the next twelve years in England, Ireland, Scotland, Africa, and India. In Africa, she worked for eight years as a missionary in Liberia and West Africa, where revival broke out. “The people came from all directions,” she said. “We went on for two weeks without a break. We had several all-night meetings. . . . some old men were converted that were never known to pray or be serous before.” Amanda was one of the A.M.E. Church’s most effective missionaries and hailed as one of the most remarkable preachers ever known. 

In 1892, she returned to the United States and settled in Harvey, Illinois. Amanda was fifty-five years old. Old age and ill health did not prevent her from working. She continued to evangelize, and began writing her life story, entitled An Autobiography: The Story of the Lord’s Dealings with Mrs. Amanda Smith, the Colored Evangelist, which was published in 1893. 

Amanda was motivated to write her autobiography in order to raise money for her latest mission: a home in Chicago for black orphans. She also published a small newspaper entitled Helperto publicize and support her cause – “For the Care, Education and Industrial Training of Orphan, Destitute, Needy Children, and especially those of colored parentage.” Amanda also returned to her singing and preaching in churches, both black and white, to raise money for the orphanage.

In 1912, after so many years of public service, Amanda retired to Florida. The orphanage was taken over by the state of Illinois and chartered as the Amanda Smith Industrial School for Girls.

Amanda died in 1915 of a paralytic stroke at the age of seventy-eight. Her autobiography, full of the details of her homey wisdom and her struggles, has become a classic in women’s studies. Amanda’s example of courage and faith is truly remarkable. Her faithfulness teaches us to trust in God completely and lean on Him in every circumstance in our lives.

[1]You can read her story in her own words in – Amanda Smith. An Autobiography. The Story of the Lord’s Dealings With Mrs. Amanda Smith the Colored Evangelist; Containing an Account of Her Life Work of Faith, and Her Travels in America, England, Ireland, Scotland, India, and Africa, as an Independent Missionary(Chicago, IL: Meyer & Brother, Publishers, 1893)

African/American women in America – Maria Stewart

During this last summer we have been relating the stories of remarkable black women of the nineteenth century. Some were born as slaves and some were born free. All of these women were courageous examples of what can be done by a woman who does not let her circumstances dictate to her. These women rose above many hardships including poverty, illness, prejudice, internal conflicts, and the limitations of their times to follow their call from God and affect the lives of many other people for good. Why were they able to live in a realm above their circumstances? It is because they all received strength from God. They all answered the call in their lives to serve.

We covered the stories of remarkable female activists and preachers – Philis Wheatley, Sojourner Truth, Jarena Lee, Zilpha Elaw, and Julia A. J. Foote. Some of these gifted women also bequeathed to us their very fine autobiographies. It was acceptable for women to write and so many availed themselves of the opportunity to express themselves using this medium. It is exciting to read about events from that century told from a personal point of view. The women wrote about their thoughts, dreams, and ideas that they could not express publicly because of their gender or color. We thank God for their efforts.

This fall we will continue with the stories of more black women in the kingdom of God in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In spite of the limitations they had imposed on them by society these women rose above their circumstances to become evangelists, missionaries, journalists, business women (one was a bank president!), philanthropists, teachers, and activists.

Maria Stewart (1803-1879) – Teacher, Activist, Writer

Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?”  Jeremiah 23:29

Not until many years after her death was Maria W. Stewart recognized as an underappreciated black female theologian and speaker of the early nineteenth century.

She is believed to be the first American woman to have given a speech before a mixed audience of men and women. It is possible that there were other women speakers before her, but we don’t have copies of their speeches as we do for Maria.

Maria Miller was born in 1803 in Hartford, Connecticut. Other than their last name, we don’t really know anything about Maria’s parents. She was orphaned at the age of five and became a servant girl in the home of a minister. While there she learned to read and became very familiar with the Bible. She understood it so well in fact that one she would later incorporate it into her speeches in very intelligent and appropriate ways. 
At about age fifteen, Maria left this family and took a job as a domestic servant in order to support herself. She further educated herself by attending Sabbath schools.

When she was twenty-three, Maria Miller married James W. Stewart at the African Baptist Church in Boston. Maria took not only James’ last name but also his middle initial and thereafter she called herself Maria W. Stewart. James was forty-four years old. He was a veteran of the War of 1812. When he and Maria married he was a successful businessman earning a good income by outfitting whaling ships and fishing vessels. At this time, blacks or colored persons (as they were called then) made up only three percent of the Boston population. The Stewarts were also members of an even smaller society – the black middle class. They had no children and James died only three years later in 1829.

Heartbreak helped to fuel Maria’s zeal for God and His Word and freedom for women and blacks. But first, before she started her remarkable foray into politics, Maria had to try and get her inheritance. James Stewart had left her substantial property, but she was defrauded by the legal machinations of the unscrupulous white businessmen who were the executors of the estate. After a long court battle they took everything from her.

In 1830 Maria underwent a religious conversion that led her to begin to proclaim the Gospel along with social justice. She made a public profession of her faith in Christ and dedicated herself to God’s service. Being black and female did not stop this remarkable woman. She believed that the Scriptures were the authority of God and she could proclaim them as a servant of God no matter what her gender was. She also believed that it was an act of obedience to God to work for freedom for oppressed people. Throughout her life she would be criticized for speaking out, but Maria would point to the authority of God and say that she was simply following God’s will. This was an incredibly bold stance for a black woman to take in 1830. It would be a few years before other women would follow in her footsteps and now there is a great “roll call” of black and white women who boldly proclaimed the Word of God.

Maria’s first published work was entitled, “Religion and the Pure Principles of Morality, the Sure Foundation on Which We Must Build”. This appeared as a twelve-page pamphlet, priced at six cents, published in 1831. Soon after this, Maria began her public speaking. 

The main thrust of Maria’s speeches was to encourage black women to turn to God. She also urged them to stand up for their rights and not remain silent. She showed that free black women were little better off than the slaves. The only employment they could get was as servants to white people and many were as mistreated as she was. After all, she should know because she was cheated out of her inheritance. Being black and female was the bottom of the social hierarchy. 

While speaking out against the unfairness of the white man’s world, Maria also boldly lectured the blacks themselves for doing little to better their own plight. “It is useless for us any longer to sit with our hands folded, reproaching the whites; for that will never elevate us,” she said. 

Maria continued to write articles for publication. In 1832, the famous publisher William Lloyd Garrison published another article entitled, “Meditations from the Pen of Mrs. Maria W. Stewart.” He also printed transcripts from all of her speeches, but going along with the social requirements of those days he put them in the “Ladies” Department” of the paper.

Maria Stewart continued to speak and write for only two more years. She had encountered so much opposition that she decided to leave Boston. She delivered her last speech on September 21, 1833 announcing her decision. She was truly sorry that even people who agreed with her did not like her speaking in public.

She did not just fade away. Maria refused to go quietly, asserting that women activists had divine sanction: “What if I am woman; is not the God of ancient times the God of these modern days? Did he not raise up Deborah, to be a mother, and a judge in Israel? Did not Queen Esther save the lives of the Jews? And Mary Magdalene first declare the resurrection of Christ from the dead?” 

Maria moved to New York where she became a teacher and taught in Manhattan public schools. She continued her political activities, joining many women’s organizations. She did lecture occasionally, but none of these have survived. 

In 1852, Maria moved to Baltimore. Here she earned a living as a teacher. In 1861, she moved to Washington D. C. where she operated a school. By the 1870’s she had been appointed a matron at the Freedman’s Hospital and Asylum in Washington. Maria continued to teach even as she worked at the hospital caring for patients.

Finally, in 1878, a year before her death, congress passed a law granting pensions to widows of veterans of the War of 1812. (Big of them, wasn’t it? How many widows could there be sixty-six years after the end of the war?) Anyway, this money enabled Maria to publish a second edition of “Meditations from the Pen of Mrs. Maria W. Stewart”. It also included new sections, an autobiographical essay and an introduction calling for an end to tyranny and oppression of underprivileged peoples.

Maria died in 1879 at the Freedman’s Hospital at the age of 76. There was an obituary in The People’s Advocate, giving this recognition to Maria Stewart: “Few, very few know of the remarkable career of this woman whose life has just drawn to a close. For half a century she was engaged in the work of elevating her race by lectures, teaching, and various missionary and benevolent labors.” Maria was buried in Graceland Cemetery in Washington on December 17, 1879—50 years to the day after her husband’s death.


African-American Women in America – Julia A. J. Foote – Part 1

In the past few weeks we have told the stories of remarkable black women of the nineteenth century. Some were born slaves and some were born free. All of these women were courageous examples of what can be done by a woman who does not let her circumstances dictate to her. These women rose above many hardships including poverty, illness, prejudice, internal conflicts, and the limitations of their times to follow their call from God and affect the lives of many other people for good.

During the nineteenth century many black and white women published their autobiographies. There are also many fine diaries from that century when women wrote about their thoughts, dreams, and ideas that they could not express publicly because of their gender. It was acceptable for women to write and so many availed themselves of the opportunity to express themselves using this medium.

Julia A. J. Foote (1823-1900)

Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?(Zechariah 3:2).

An outstanding example of such a woman was Julia A. J. Foote (1823-1900). Julia Foote intended to leave her story so that she could “testify more extensively to the sufficiency of the blood of Jesus Christ to save from all sin.” Her autobiography was published in 1879.

She was born in 1823 in Schenectady, N.Y., a child of former slaves. Her mother had been born a slave; her father was born free but was kidnapped and enslaved as a child. Julia’s father endured many hardships but worked hard and purchased his freedom along with that of his wife and their only child at that time. 

A nearly fatal accident for Julia’s mother caused her parents to turn to God and they became committed Methodists. Julia’s parents wanted their children to be educated, but the schools were segregated, so they sent Julia to work as a servant and the white family she lived with used their influence to put her in a country school. Julia wanted to read the Bible and so she studied hard in school and learned to read. 

Julia attended many church meetings and was converted at age fifteen. Her experience was very profound and left her with a strong desire to serve Christ for the rest of her life. It also left her with a desire to be holy. She eventually embraced the Methodist idea of “sanctification”. This doctrine has been debated for centuries, but some Methodists believed in “total sanctification” where one is freed from sin completely and empowered to lead a life of spiritual perfection. Most Christians believe that sanctification is a gradual process, the Christian becoming more Christ-like as the years go on, and only becoming “perfect” when they die and go to heaven. Julia believed that absolute perfection belonged to God alone. However, Christian “perfection” was moving toward a life of love and peace with God.

In 1841, Julia married George Foote, who was a sailor, and moved to Boston with him.  There she joined the African Methodist Episcopal Zion church. She made friends and studied the Bible. Convinced that she was fully sanctified by the Holy Spirit, she also believed that she was called to preach. When she tried to tell others, including her husband, she met with disapproval. It was all right for her to work with the neighborhood wives and children, but as a woman she was not supposed to speak in public. 

Julia had always been opposed to women preaching and had spoken out against it, but she began to have strong feelings toward preaching the Gospel and seeing many people come to Christ. God seemed to be calling her, but she felt unworthy of the task and said, “No, Lord, not me.”  The impression that God was calling her increased daily, yet she tried to shrink from it. One day she received a visitation from an angel who told her that she was to go and preach the Gospel. She tried to shirk this call for two months and became very sick. Her friends advised her to obey God. When she got well, Julia realized that God had been gracious to her. God sent another angel and this time, Julia bowed her head and said, “I will go, Lord.”

Julia met with opposition from her minister when she explained her divine calling to him. She and other like-minded brothers and sisters began to meet in her home. She was told to quit these meetings or else face discipline. She responded that she had to obey God, and she was turned out of her church. 

There were other heartaches for Julia. Her husband did not agree with her and drifted away from her, literally, as he spent most of his time at sea, eventually dying there. Her parents did not approve of her activity, but her father gave her his blessing on his death bed saying to her, “My dear daughter, be faithful to your heavenly calling, and fear not to preach full salvation.”

Of course, there were the “indignities” that were shown to her as a “nigger”. All of these things Julia endured as she went about the work of her Master. 

A Christian sister joined her as her traveling companion and they went throughout New England, the Mid-Atlantic States, Michigan, Ohio, and Canada. Julia was welcomed in Churches, homes, and revival camps. She was part of the holiness revivals that swept through the Midwest in the 1870’s. Julia served as a missionary for the A.M.E. Zion Church.

We are not sure what she was doing during the 1880’s and early 1890’s, but by the end of the last decade of the nineteenth century, Julia became the first woman to be ordained a deacon in her church. Later she became only the second woman to hold the office of elder. Julia died around 1900 after sixty years of ministry.

Julia protested against racism and other social abuses during her lifetime. Her special cause however was to encourage her Christian sisters to serve God in spite of their gender or color. Though slavery was long ended by the time she died, there was still much prejudice against blacks. Julia encouraged all believers to remember that God “made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth ” (Acts 17:26). There is no room for prejudice among Christians.

All Christians have the responsibility to tell others about the love of Christ. Julia believed that women could be anointed to preach publicly because “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). God’s praise should be on everyone’s lips!

Those who heard Julia preach believed that she had the gift and the anointing of the Holy Spirit as she spoke with such power. At one meeting there were over five thousand people listening intently as she explained the way of salvation. Other ministers attested to the soundness of her doctrine and exhortation and commended her for it.

Julia was faithful to her calling. She was grateful for her redemption, “a brand plucked out of the fire” and her life has been an inspiration for Christian women since then.

African-American Women in America – Zilpha Elaw, Part 2

In spite of the continuing racism and sexism in the United States, black women have not allowed the discrimination to keep them from following their callings from God to serve in His kingdom. What may be very surprising to some is that even black women who were living in the time of slavery in the United States had the courage to rise above their circumstances and obey God’s command to take the gospel to the lost. 

We began this series by sharing the story of the first black female writer to be published – the poet Philis Wheatley. We continued our series with an emancipated slave who became a black itinerant evangelist, abolitionist, women’s rights activist and writer – Sojourner Truth. For the next few weeks we will relate the stories of black female preachers from the nineteenth century. Yes, you read this right – there were many courageous black women who preached as the Holy Spirit moved them. Many thousands of people were led to Christ through their ministries. Anyone – female or male, black or white, poor or rich, may share the Gospel (Joel 2:28 and Galatians 3:28). We started the series of black women preachers with Jarena Lee.

Last week we turned to the story of a woman who was not a slave, but still lived under the shadow of its evil. Zilpha Elaw accepted the love of Christ and then spent the rest of her life telling others about the wonderful Savior.

Zilpha Elaw – Evangelist

Those who trust in the Lord are as Mount Zion, which cannot be moved but abides forever. Psalm 125:1.

Last week we began the story of Zilpha Elaw, an early nineteenth-century black female evangelist. We saw that Zilpha had married in 1810, had a daughter the following year, and was widowed in 1823 at age 32. We now pick up our story at that point.

Zilpha Elaw continued to work to support herself after both her husband and her sister died. She had long ago received a call from God to go out and preach the Gospel. She kept putting it off because she did not feel worthy to do so. She was uneducated compared to other ministers who had been to seminary. Zilpha was also worried about the fact that she was black. She prayed to God, “Lord! Send by whom thou wilt send, only send not by me; for thou knowest that I am ignorant; how can I be a mouth for God! — a poor, coloured female; and thou knowest we have many things to endure which others do not.”[1]

Zilpha had not yet learned the lesson from 2Corinthians 3:5 (“Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God.”). God answered her objection, “What is that to thee? Follow thou me.”

Placing her child with some relatives, Zilpha began her journey of preaching salvation to lost souls. She would travel to many states including the slaveholding states in the South. Here she ran the risk of being kidnapped and sold into slavery. The Lord protected her; she preached to both black and white folks. Some wealthy white people put her under their wings, caring for her even when she got ill.

Many people came to the Lord because of her preaching and at least one person was healed. Though Zilpha was worried that being black and a female would be detrimental, those factors are actually what attracted people to come and hear her. Some came out of curiosity; a few even came to mock her, but most were genuinely convicted and came back to hear her preach again. More than a few women would weep and beg her to pray for them at the meetings. Some of these women would become life-long friends.

Zilpha encountered many obstacles throughout her ministry. Besides young men who would come to the meetings specifically to hassle her, there were other church members and church leaders who opposed her because of her gender or color. Often these turned out to be people who were jealous of the reception that she got wherever she went. Sometimes after they heard her preach, they would repent of their attitude, ask her forgiveness and encourage her to continue on.

One example of this was a Presbyterian minister, Rev. Mr. House, who declared that he would have her stopped when she came to his city of Hartford. While in that city, Zilpha visited a very sick man and prayed for him. He immediately got so much better that his attending physician declared that he would like to go and hear Zilpha preach. After hearing her, the physician visited Rev. House and told him all that he had witnessed. Rev. House changed his mind about stopping Zilpha exclaiming, “Well, if God has sent her, I bid her God’s speed.”[2]A revival broke out in Hartford among the people of every denomination.

Zilpha also encountered those who were skeptical of traditional, Evangelical Christian beliefs. Universalism was taking hold in the Northeastern United States at this time. The Universalists not only believed that everyone would be saved, thereby denigrating the cross of Christ, but they behaved as Deists, denigrating the immanent power of our Sovereign God. Many of these people came to hear her preach and she was able to exhort them in the whole Gospel including repentance for sin and genuine faith in a crucified Redeemer. She preached that mankind was lost and in need of a Savior. She warned them to flee from the wrath to come. Some did turn and believe.

By the nineteenth century the different denominations had separated themselves from each other. There was a group of women however who held monthly union prayer meetings together. This brought them into closer contact with each other as well as allowed them to share Christian love free from bigotry. Zilpha loved these meetings and was delighted to hear Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists sharing the Gospel truth as one. She said, “The Christian church should manifest one fold and one shepherd; one body and spirit; one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism; and one God and father of all who is above all, and through all, and in all” (Ephesians 4:4-6). Indeed, Amen!

Of course, Zilpha missed her daughter. Eventually her daughter married and had two sons. Zilpha was very close to her daughter and grandsons.

Zilpha had received a vision some years before this promising her that she would travel to London. Zilpha was never sure how this could come about, and she argued the matter with the Lord in prayer, pleading her ignorance, her sex, her color, and her inability to minister the Gospel in a country “so polished and enlightened, so furnished with Bibles, so blessed with ministers, so studded with temples; but the Lord said, ‘say not, I cannot speak; for thou shalt go to all to whom I send thee, and what I command thee, thou shalt speak’.” (Jeremiah 1:7).

The Lord opened the way for her in 1840. She went home for a short time and spent some time with her daughter and two grandsons. The parting was tearful when it was time for her to leave for New York. From there she traveled to Philadelphia, then went by ship to London. Zilpha preached over one thousand sermons over a five-year period in England. She lived on the edge of poverty and endured “a thousand privations, hardships, targetfires, vexatious anxieties and deep afflictions, to which my previous life was an utter stranger.” She was occasionally ill, even near death, but the Lord sustained her.

While in England, Zilpha published her memoirs. Nearing the end of her life, she exhorts all her readers to stand fast in their faith. “Dear brethren, the time is short, it is ominous, and it is perilous; be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.”[3]Truly, Zilpha Elaw practiced what she preached. She is a model for us of a courageous woman who put aside all of her own feelings and wants and made herself totally available to God.

There is a hint near the end of her memoirs that she wants to return to the United States, but we don’t know whether or not she did. There is up to now no further information about her life after 1845. We can be sure that she is in Heaven rejoicing with all of the other saints including many that she had the privilege to lead to Christ.

[1]“Memoirs of the Life, Religious, Experience, Ministerial Travels, and Labours of Mrs. Elaw.” in William, L. Andrews. Sisters of the Spirit: Three Black Women’s Autobiographies of the Nineteenth Century. (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1986). pages 87-88.

[2]Ibid. page 105.

[3]Ibid. page 160.

African American Women in America – Jarena Lee, Part 1

African-American Women in America

Life for black American women in the last three centuries has taken many turns from slavery to emancipation and from obscurity to world-wide recognition. In spite of obtaining constitutional freedom, continued racism still affects black women economically, politically, and religiously. 

In spite of the obstacles against them, many black women bravely follow their callings from the Holy Spirit to serve in the Church and society. From eighteenth century Philis Wheatley to twenty-first century women today, black women evangelists and preachers such as Jarena Lee, Sojourner Truth, and Amanda Berry Smith, Mother Eliza Davis George, Madam C. J. Walker, and Rosa Parks have made contributions in religion, missions, business, and culture. 

We began this series by sharing the story of the first black female writer to be published – the poet Philis Wheatley. We continued our series with an emancipated slave who became a black itinerant evangelist, abolitionist, women’s rights activist and writer – Sojourner Truth. For the next few weeks we will relate the stories of black female preachers from the nineteenth century. Yes, you read this right – there were many courageous black women who preached as the Holy Spirit moved them. Many thousands of people were led to Christ through their ministries. Anyone – female or male, black or white, poor or rich, may share the Gospel (Galatians 3:28). 

Jarena Lee (1783 – 1864) Part 1

And it shall come to pass. .  . that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons, and your daughters shall prophecy.(Joel 2:28)

Jarena Lee was born on February 11, 1783, in Cape May, New Jersey. Her parents were free blacks but were poor so they hired Jarena out at the age of seven to be a servant girl. We don’t know much else about her childhood.

At the age of twenty-one Jarena was converted to Christianity. She had undergone a long process of wretchedness and guilt, convinced that she was such a horrible sinner that God had forsaken her. 

In 1804 she went to hear a Presbyterian missionary speak. Jarena tells in her autobiography what happened next, “At the reading of the Psalms, a ray of renewed conviction darted into my soul. These were the words, composing the first verse of the Psalms for the service:

Lord, I am vile, conceived in sin,
Born unholy and unclean.
Sprung from man, whose guilty fall
Corrupts the race, and taints us all.
This description of my condition struck me to the heart, and made me to feel in some measure, the weight of my sins, and sinful nature.”[1]
But Jarena had no one to tell her what she should do. Months went by. After undergoing temptations by Satan to destroy herself and a prolonged illness, Jarena had the opportunity to hear Rev. Richard Allen, a bishop of the African Episcopal Methodist Church. Up to this time she was aware of the wretchedness of her sinful condition but had not heard what to do about it. She decided to continue to worship with the Methodists and after about three weeks she was “gloriously converted to God.” 

Jarena was enjoying the wonderful feeling of being right with God for some months when she began to realize that there was still much pride, anger, and self-will in her nature. She had not yet learned how to deal with this. God graciously sent “a certain colored man, by name William Scott” to visit her. William explained the way of sanctification to Jarena which she embraced. Now Jarena felt that she was able to resist Satan and lead a godly life.

About four or five years after this Jarena received her call to preach the Gospel. At first she thought that it was either her own imagination or the devil speaking to her. She decided to go and tell Rev. Richard Allen that she felt it was her duty to preach the Gospel. He replied, “But as to women preaching… our Discipline knew nothing at all about it — that it did not call for women preachers.” 

Jarena was actually glad to hear this because it removed what she felt was a burden from her. However, later she wrote in her memoirs, “I found that a love of souls had in a measure departed from me; that holy energy which burned within me, as a fire, began to be smothered.” Jarena had let the “by-laws of church government and discipline” prevent her from following her calling. It would be eight years before she would again apply to become an official preacher.

In 1811, Jarena married Mr. Joseph Lee, Pastor of a Colored Society at Snow Hill. This town was about six miles from Philadelphia. As a wife, Jarena conformed to the marital mores of nineteenth-century American society. Therefore, though she was sad to leave her friends, Jarena moved with her husband who had charge of the congregation in Snow Hill. They had two children. Sadness filled Jarena’s life during this time. In the space of six years she lost five family members to death including her husband. 

Now Jarena was left with two small children, aged two years and six months. She depended on God’s promise, “I will be the widow’s God and a Father to the fatherless” (Psalm 68:5). Friends came to her aid and she and the children were taken care of.

By 1818 eight years had gone by since Jarena had first received her call to preach. Returning to Philadelphia, she approached Bishop Richard Allen again and asked for permission to hold prayer meetings in her house. Bishop Allen granted her the permission and her house was filled when she began her meetings. 

At this time it was allowable for women to exhort if they were invited to by the licensed preacher. This was to be done after the preacher completed his sermon and the preacher was to give the exhorter the text to be used.

Jarena got her chance to exhort a few months later. There came a time in 1819 when she attended a service at Bethel Church. The Rev. Richard Williams was to preach. Here in her own words is how Jarena began her preaching ministry:

“He (Rev. Williams) entered the pulpit, gave out the hymn, which was sung, and then addressed the throne of grace; took his text, passed through the exordium, and commenced to expound it. The text he took is in Jonah, 2d chap. 9th verse, — ‘Salvation is of the Lord.’ But as he proceeded to explain, he seemed to have lost the spirit; when in the same instant, I sprang, as by an altogether supernatural impulse, to my feet, when I was aided from above to give an exhortation on the very text which my brother Williams had taken.

I told them that I was like Jonah; for it had been then nearly eight years since the Lord had called me to preach his gospel to the fallen sons and daughters of Adam’s race, but that I lingered like him and delayed to go at the bidding of the Lord, and warn those who are as deeply guilty as were the people of Nineveh. 

During the exhortation, God made manifest his power in a manner sufficient to show the world that I was called to labour according to my ability and the grace given unto me, in the vineyard of the good husbandman.”

Jarena sat down, frightened at what she had done. She was sure she would be expelled from the church. But instead, the Bishop rose up in the assembly and told how Jarena had called on him eight years before asking to be permitted to preach and that he had put her off. Now, he said, he believed that she was called to the work of preaching as much as any of the ministers present. 

Now realizing the sureness of her call, Jarena began to exhort in public places though not in a church at first. She began in the home of a sister in her society with five congregants. Eventually Jarena would preach throughout New England, using Philadelphia as her home base. Her travels took her to Canada and out west to Ohio. 

In 1836, Jarena wrote her first autobiography out of the conviction that others might benefit from hearing how the Lord had worked in her life to help her to lead others to Christ. She spent her own money to have a thousand copies printed, which she distributed at camp meetings, church meetings, and on the street. Later a second autobiographical work was completed in 1849, Religious Experience and Journal, which recounted events up to her fiftieth birthday. Unfortunately, after this nothing is known of her activities.

In spite of being a black woman, Jarena saw herself as an evangelist. She was concerned with the souls of lost human beings. She did not let her gender or her color keep her from preaching the gospel. It was her sense of purpose, strength of will, and integrity that led Jarena to be a part of the social reformation that was begun in the nineteenth century.

Nearly two centuries later Christians still question whether or not women should preach or speak in public places. Next week in Jarena Lee – Part 2, we will read from Jarena’s own autobiography how she saw her calling from God, and why she believed that women should share the Gospel.

[1]William L. Andrews, Editor.Sisters of the Spirit: Three Black Women’s Autobiographies of the Nineteenth Century(Bloomington and Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press, 1986) 27.