African Methodism in the South

OR TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF FREEDOM.

Introduction 

BY  W. S. SCARBOROUGH, A. M., LL. D

The fact that the color question is the question of the day, attracting more or less attention throughout our entire country--North, East, West and South--makes everything pertaining to the negro--his past, his present, his future, his educational, his moral, his financial status--all the more important In fact, the negro is at present the center of attraction. All eyes are turned toward him and he is served up in short story and in long, in history and in fiction, in prose and in poetry, as it may suit the fancy of men.

Scientists, theologians, men of letters and even the politicians, are all trying to solve what they call the "Negro Problem"--Whither is the negro drifting? What will eventually become of him? Will he in time lose his identity in the heterogeneity of the American people? or will he maintain his racial characteristics despite circumstances? or finally will he, like the barbarian hordes of the orient, imbibe a migratory spirit and conclude to leave these shores for a more congenial clime? These are the questions that arise daily by "germs and by fractions" in every paper that one takes up. Some affirm one thing, some another. 

Suffice it to say, however, despite the discussions, despite the difference of opinion, the negro intends to hold his own. He has a future, and that, too, in America. If not, what mean these twenty-five years of progress in all lines of industry--progress more marked than that of any other people in the same length of time and under the same circumstances? What means our great A. M. E. Church, with its hundreds of thousands of communicants and its thousands of preachers and teachers, its bishops and general officers? Surely the history and growth of African Methodism in these United States are an evidence not only of progress, but of permanence as well. From a small seed--infinitesimally small as it were--has grown a magnificent tree, as wonderful as it is magnificent. In every State and Territory, wherever the negro is found, African Methodism is known.

Its greatest field is in the South. It is here that we find the numbers both as to churches and as to membership--due, of course, to the fact that the colored people are found there in larger majorities than elsewhere.

The present volume, which discusses African Methodism in Georgia and Alabama, is another welcome addition to the Church literature--emanating as it does from the pen of one who grew up as it were in the Church, and who is thoroughly competent to state the facts as he sees and knows them. Our distinguished friend, Rt. Rev. Bishop W. J. Gaines, stood by the cradle of African Methodism in its incipient stages in the State of Georgia--assisted in nursing it until it became able to stand alone, and thereafter a power throughout our Southern clime--whose influence is felt far and wide. 

No man of my acquaintance has done more for the propagation of the Church of his choice than Bishop Gaines. Go where you will, in Georgia especially, search the records of the African M. E. Churches, examine the scrolls, and the name of Dr. W. J. Gaines will be found to stand out in bold relief, not only as a builder of churches, but as a wise and faithful shepherd; as one who always reposed an unfaltering trust in God, however dark the hour, and, therefore, as a pre-eminently successful pastor and teacher. Such, then, is the writer of this volume. Certainly there could not be found one who is more fitted to portray the growth of African Methodism in the South than he whose name this volume bears. 

Born and reared in that section, a close observer of the many vicissitudes--civil, political and ecclesiastical--through which the South has passed during these twenty-five years, a friend of reforms, a vigorous advocate of the cause of temperance, an unswerving defender of the rights and interests of his race--conservative rather than radical--with a soul smitten with the love of virtue, with a ruling passion for the true, the noble, the good and the beautiful in all the walks of life--the Rt. Rev. Wesley J. Gaines may justly claim the right to be an authority on the subjects discussed in this treatise. We hail it with joy, and trust that it may be instrumental in awakening a deeper interest in the spread of African Methodism in this great country of ours, and that those into whose hands it may fall may be inspired to go forth as doers of the Word and not simply hearers.

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