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

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Hon. A. H. Curtis, Ex-Senator to Alabama Legislature from Perry County.

We have it on good authority, that in 1850, there were in America about 150,000 negro Baptists. Thus we see that in 230 years the gospel of Christ, though hampered by the institution of slavery, had done much to redeem the fetich worshiper from his midnight darkness and consequent spiritual ruin—had done much to induce the black man to obtain and retain God in his knowledge.

Often we come upon plants which refuse to give out their sweetness so long as their parts are unbroken and unbleeding, but which will quickly yield up their odors when bruised. So it is with men. It is worthy of notice that these dark days of slavery gave birth to some strong colored preachers. Among others, the following are mentioned by their white brethren: Rev. George Leile, of South Carolina, who visiting Savannah, Ga., about 1782 or 1783, baptized the famous Rev. Andrew Bryan, of whom the Savannah Association, (white) in 1812, made the following mention: “The association is sensibly affected by the death of the Rev. Andrew Bryan, a man of color, and pastor of the First Colored Church in Savannah. This son of Africa, after suffering inexpressible persecutions in the cause of his Divine Master, was at length permitted to discharge the duties of the ministry among his colored friends in peace and quiet, hundreds of whom through his instrumentality were brought to the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus.”