NOTE 4
(Chapter VII, page [180])
The Methodist Bishop, William Capers, father of the late Bishop of South Carolina and grandfather of the Bishop of West Texas, gave much of his life to the Negro. No better witness can be found of the power of Jesus Christ over the life of those Negroes whom He specially called. These samples from Bishop Capers’ Autobiography are selected, his description regretfully abridged:
“The most remarkable man in Fayetteville (N. C.) when I went there, and who died during my stay, was a Negro by the name of Henry Evans. I say the most remarkable in view of his class; and I call him Negro with unfeigned respect. The name simply designates the race, and it is vulgar to regard it with opprobrium. I have known and loved and honored not a few Negroes in my lifetime, who were probably as pure of heart as Evans, or anybody else. Such were my old friends, Castile Selby and John Boquet, of Charleston; Will Campbell and Harry Myrick, of Wilmington; York Cohen, of Savannah; and others I might name. These I might call remarkable for their goodness. But I use the word in a broader sense for Henry Evans, who was confessedly the father of the Methodist Church, black and white, in Fayetteville, and the best preacher of his time in that quarter; and who was so remarkable, as to have become the greatest curiosity of the town; insomuch that distinguished visitors hardly felt that they might pass a Sunday in Fayetteville without hearing him preach.”
Henry Evans was a shoemaker in Virginia, licensed to preach by the Methodists. Being free, he decided to move to Charleston. On the way, Fayetteville detained him. His spirit was stirred at perceiving the ungodliness of his people. There was no religion of any denomination, so Evans began preaching to his people. The Town Council objected, and he withdrew to the sandhills nearby. The results upon the changing lives were notable. Evans explained his motives to the authorities; and this, with the fruits of his work, won the day; he was allowed the liberty of the town. Mistresses and masters, powerfully influenced by the great improvement in their servants, began to attend the Services. They built a frame structure for the preaching, with seats for the Whites and a projection for Evans’ home. It became too small and was enlarged, for the Whites now occupied all of the original building, the Negroes the addition. “That,” continues Bishop Capers, “was the identical state of the case when I was pastor. Often was I in that shed, and much to my edification. I have known not many preachers who appeared more conversant with Scripture than Evans, and whose conversation was more instructive as to the things of God. He seemed always deeply impressed with the responsibility of his position; and not even our old friend Castile was more remarkable for his humble and deferential deportment towards the Whites than Evans was. Nor would he allow any partiality of his friends to induce him to vary, in the least degree, the line of conduct or the bearing which he had prescribed for himself in this respect; never speaking to a white man but with his hat under his arm, never allowing himself to be seated in their houses; and even confining himself to the kind and manner of dress proper for Negroes in general, except his plain black coat for the pulpit. ‘The Whites are kind to me, and come to hear me preach; but I belong to my own sort, and must not spoil them.’ And yet, Henry Evans was a Boanerges; and, in his duty, feared not the face of man.”
He died, Mr. Capers ministering to him, in 1810, his last breath drawn in the act of pronouncing, “Thanks be to God Which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Bishop Capers continues: “On the Sunday before Evans’ death, during this meeting, the little door between his humble shed and the chancel where I stood, was open; and the dying man entered for a last farewell to his people. He was almost too feeble to stand at all, but supporting himself by the railing of the chancel he said, ‘I have come to say my last word to you. It is this: None but Christ. Three times I have had my life in jeopardy for preaching the Gospel to you. Three times I have broken the ice on the edge of the water and swum across the Cape Fear to preach the Gospel to you. And now, if in my last hour, I could trust to that, or to anything else but to Christ crucified for my salvation, all would be lost, and my soul perish forever.’ A noble testimony, worthy, not of Evans only, but of Saint Paul! His funeral at the church was attended by a greater concourse of persons than had been seen on any funeral occasion before. The whole community appeared to mourn his death, and the universal feeling seemed to be that, in honoring the memory of Henry Evans, we were paying a tribute to virtue and religion. He was buried under the chancel of the church of which he had been in so remarkable a manner the founder.”
Henry Evans was of the literate class; not educated in the sense of this day, but of his day, when the Bible was far more the book of Christian people than it is now; and Henry Evans, was “wiser than his teachers.”