Читать книгу The Cyclopedia of the Colored Baptists of Alabama: Their Leaders and Their Work онлайн

22 страница из 47

ssss1

In 1864 there were four Colored Missionary Baptist Churches in Alabama, owning property worth about $10,000. Two of these were located in Mobile city—the Stone and the St. Louis Street Churches. Another was located in Selma, and is now known as the First Colored Baptist Church.

Rev. L. S. Steinback in the Act of Baptism.

Of course there was no association, no convention, no graded school of learning. The colored people of Mobile enjoyed superior advantages over those of other sections of the State and hence many of them had made fair attainments in letters. But in all the State there was but one Baptist preacher, to the writer’s knowledge, in April, 1865, who could, with any degree of honesty, claim to be an educated Baptist negro preacher. This was one Rev. Moses B. Avery. I think he is now in Mississippi. Anyhow I know that soon after the close of the war he joined the Methodist brethren and left the State. It will be seen, therefore, that he was no help to the Colored Baptists of Alabama.