The Colored Man in the Methodist Episcopal Church

by L. M. Hagood

The chief part of the membership in the entire slaveholding territory, with the exception of the States of Maryland and Delaware, separated and formed the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The grand old Methodist Church, by adhering to her anti-slavery principles in this particular case, lost nearly five hundred thousand members, the control of much Church property, and many institutions of learning; incurring thereby the ill-will, everywhere, of every man, woman, and child who was pro-slavery in theory or practice. But what effect had this action of the Church on the minds of the colored people? Did they really believe it meant what the pro-slavery element declared it meant, that the Methodist Episcopal Church was an inveterate enemy to what Wesley called “the sum of all villainies?” Any one who doubts the fact that the colored man everywhere, who was capable of properly appreciating philanthropy, appreciated the situation, has but to note the fact that, comparatively, the States of Maryland, Delaware, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina, so far as Methodism among our people is concerned, belong to the Methodist Episcopal Church; some of the most intelligent colored men of the Church are there. The saying, “It is an ill wind that blows nobody good,” was verified in this instance. The colored membership within the Church renewed its resolutions, redoubled its diligence, and had its faith strengthened in the integrity of Methodism. They recognized in the Church a mother whose tender solicitude and maternal care were not based upon anticipated future benefits derivable from the colored membership, but, commensurate with their integrity and Christianity, she expected to help them; that she was a mother who not only labored to have them “flee from the wrath to come,” but to save them, as well, from the rigorous burdens of the unrequited toil of slavery; that she was a mother who loved them for Jesus’ sake, and stood by them when it was neither profitable nor pleasant to do so. A new inspiration seems to have come to the entire Church. But was not that to have been expected as a matter of course, under the command with promise, “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, and prove me herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And all nations shall call you blessed.” Had not the Church planted itself upon the Ten Commandments—the rock of ages; and was there not to be seen everywhere the bright, shining light from the Sermon on the Mount athwart the path of the Church in its onward march in favor of the recognition among all men, of whatever complexion, of the wholesome doctrine and practice of the common Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man? As a result, that part of the Methodist Episcopal Church that believed it better to obey God than man, to be unpopular and sneered at, but right; that “bore unmoved the world’s dread frown, nor heeded its scornful smile,” received a new baptism of the Holy Ghost, and continued receiving it until a new door was opened unto the Church.

Notwithstanding the fact that nearly five hundred thousand members left the Church on account of the decision on slavery, by no means all left who wished the colored man would leave or be forced out of the Church into one of the two colored organizations. It may as well be said now, that there has always been a faction within and without the Church that has used, or attempted to use, the colored man in opposition to the Methodist Episcopal Church. In the first place, they use him as a wedge. When they are foiled in an attempt to carry any certain thing, they at once declare that the Methodist Episcopal Church has been, and is now, taking advantage of the poor colored man. If this does not answer, they find it convenient to let him (the colored man) understand that he is an intruder in the Church, and respect for his manhood demands that he go out and “paddle his own canoe;” that white men will think more of him if he exhibit “the self-reliance and ability displayed by those members who are in separate Churches to themselves.” When this proved abortive, they found it convenient to demonstrate it. They at once invited some minister of one of the two colored organizations to occupy their (white) pulpits, and leave the colored minister within our Church without such invitation. The result was almost inevitable. Pretty soon the more manly members of our Church, in the community where such tricks were played, would begin to say: “Well, that’s passing strange, that white ministers of our Church prefer African ministers to our own. It must be because of their independence. If that’s so, we want some of it also.” That an undercurrent of this kind has flowed along the stream of Methodism ever since the colored membership question has been discussed, is easily proven. Now the class of which we have just spoken is to be distinguished from the class who honestly believed that it would be better for the white and the colored members to be separate. Not that they (the whites spoken of) were unwilling to aid the colored members, nor yet because they did not want them saved, but because the loud professions and announced success of the separate colored organizations blinded their eyes. These considered, and rightly so too, all such persons their best allies. The African and African Zion Churches whispered continually, and sometimes preached, that the colored membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church was a burden to the white folks. These organizations, though supported by some within our Church, saw there were but two ways in which they could induce the colored element in the Methodist Episcopal Church to join them,—by loud professions of “race pride,” and appeals to their ignorance and prejudice. This they attempted by appeals to the dignity of our colored local preachers; by telling the more ignorant that they were being imposed upon by “white folks.” They told the local preachers, class-leaders, etc., among our members, that it was a shame for them to have white masters during the week and white masters on the Sabbath-day also; that they were as well qualified literarily to have charge of congregations with white members as some of the white pastors; that they possessed intelligence enough to do business for themselves. Then, again, they would say: “There will never come a time when the Methodist Episcopal Church will allow one of you colored members to preside as their presiding elder or pastor; that all the property you buy belongs to ‘white folks,’ and not to you.”

The language of their most accurate historian will give a faint idea of the pressure we speak of, which was and is now brought to bear upon our people in some localities. He says: “It is true our colored brethren within the communion of the Methodist Episcopal Church worship in a large number of churches in Maryland, Delaware, and other of the Southern States, and many of them are fine ones; but the question is: ‘To whom do they belong—the congregations worshiping in them, or the Methodist Episcopal Church?’ We all know that it is our glory, that our churches belong to no one congregation or body of trustees in particular, but to the connection in general.” Again, ibid: “It would have been a source of unspeakable joy had he been able or permitted truthfully to record that your Church had acknowledged your full and true manhood, and not denied it both in practice and in law; that it had opened its school-doors to you, as did other Christian bodies, and like them, too, have received you into conference upon a perfect ministerial equality; but, alas! the doors of its schools, and of its conferences as well, were locked, and bolted, and barred against you.” He was quoting and commenting upon the words of another. Such strong talk, mixed as it was with braggadocio, pretty soon had the desired effect upon two large classes amongst us—the ambitious illiterates and the pompous, aspiring for recognition, minus merit. These two classes were soon, after such a process of pumping, inflated until their sides puffed nearly to bursting. A number of the above-mentioned classes soon concluded that they must be in a Church where there was a favorable chance for every member of an annual conference to be put forth before the world as a noted preacher, appointed presiding elder or a General Conference officer, or elected to the bishopric. It is difficult for any one, who understands in some sort the feelings of white men when they are ambitious for notoriety or office and fail, to say or appreciate the feelings of a disappointed colored man who has known nothing save ostracism. To expect him to refuse preferment, emolument, or office, when tendered, is to expect an ox in August to refuse the shade. Notwithstanding the disadvantages the colored man has labored under hitherto, he has found out that in a nation of blind men the one-eyed man ought to be, and is, king. To this day but few white people have learned that it is not always the most profitable thing to exchange an old lamp for a new one; that “it is better to bear the ills we have, than fly to others we know not of.”

To say that at no time a single colored member within the Methodist Episcopal Church imagined the wool was being pulled over his eyes by men of lighter hue, is going too far. To say there never was a white man in the Methodist Episcopal Church who refused to recognize or affiliate with the colored members because of their color, who refused to do for him there what he would have done if he had been elsewhere, or had been “manly and independent like some others, and paddled his own canoe,” or that all such have left the Methodist Episcopal Church, is going farther than truth warrants or the case requires. To say that any organization among men is absolutely perfect, is preposterous; for even the Methodist Episcopal Church in this country is not what it can and will be. I fear much of the unrest, and seventy-five per cent of the withdrawals of our colored membership since 1812, could directly or indirectly be attributed to the actions of those within and without the Church who think more of caste than Christ, more of popularity than right, and more of men’s opinions than of God’s Word. Notwithstanding this, we hazard the statement that, during that time, there has not been an hour when the heart of Methodism in general, and the Methodist Episcopal Church in particular, did not beat in unison with that of the Christ of God, the blessed Master, who, in the midst of a gainsaying world, said: “I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth; but I called you brethren.” And yet, in nearly every instance of attack made by the two colored organizations upon the colored members in our Church up to this time, and for that matter all time, the exceptions among our white and colored membership have by them been spoken of as the rule. Their statements as to the intelligence or ignorance of our colored membership was the natural if not legitimate outgrowth of the disposition, action, and words of some of our white members who remain in, but were not in spirit of the Methodist Episcopal Church. This is true of some of the ministers as well as white members of our Church. When the bishops, General Conference officers, pastors, or members of the two colored organizations visited communities where we had churches, they were welcomed as no other colored Methodists were, if for no other than for the reason that they were high in authority within their own Church. This distinction was not always clear in the minds of our members. There is no doubt that this caused us much trouble as well as loss of preachers and lay members. In those States where our membership was the largest and most influential, and where our churches were better and finer, the effects of such stuff were more telling because of the spirit of the people. Our members saw at once that one of three things had to be done to hold our members: a complete colored organization had to be formed among us; or else join with the one or the other of those organizations; or else have separate annual conferences within our Church, so that the presiding elderate, pastorate, trusteeship, and stewardship would be in the hands and charge of our colored members.

It was not in the mind of the two eagles that stirred up this nest, that matters would turn out as they did—that instead of an exode from the mother of Methodism into the bosom of the daughter, a separate perch could and would be prepared. The anticipation was that all the colored members in the Church would flock into the two African Churches. This hope kept those two organizations from uniting, while each thought its numbers would soon be increased by the coming of the colored members from our Church. The more intelligent colored men in our Church saw and felt that something had to be done, and done quickly. I could wish they had opened their eyes sooner. Those two organizations knew well enough that if the colored members within the Methodist Episcopal Church in the North, East, and the States bordering on the above sections decided to leave, one or the other, or both of these, would get them. There was no other Church into which they could go. Hence they worked and faithfully watched every movement of our Church touching the colored people. They well knew that if all the colored members in the Methodist Episcopal Church joined in a body either one of their organizations, the result would be one great, grand colored Methodist Church. I truly believe the good men in the Methodist Episcopal Church, among which we put our bishops, saw it in that light. I believe other white members in our Church were laboring every day for the sole object of bringing about a union of all the colored Methodists. They believed that the colored man had been a source of annoyance; that the good brethren who left the Church in 1844 would return if the colored members all left the Methodist Episcopal Church; that it would be a great set-back as well as rebuke to the “hot-headed Abolitionists” who kept it in an uproar about the colored man, and would prove conclusively that the radical element within it was all wrong and the conservative element was all right.

When the General Conference of 1848 met in the city of Pittsburg, several petitions from the colored members of our Church in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland were presented. The petitioners asked that, since the Church had ordained colored ministers, they be given the charge of the congregations over which white pastors had presided; that a separate conference be granted them within the Methodist Episcopal Church. These petitions were not only received, but respectfully and carefully considered. The petitions were properly and promptly referred to the Committee on the State of the Church. In due time the above-named committee reported as follows:

“We find among the papers presented for our consideration memorials from different places within the slave States from our colored membership, praying for recognition, in that colored ministers be sent to them; for the organization and manning of districts; and that they be granted a separate annual conference,—which memorials are signed by 2,735 members.”

Thus it is clearly seen that much unrest was caused by the delay on the part of our Church in granting a separate conference. Our work to-day would have been as strong, comparatively, in the Eastern and Northern States as either of the African Churches, had it not been for the delay in granting us a separate conference. As a result nearly all the colored members of our Church in the North and East were persuaded to unite with one or the other of the African Churches which were under the fostering care in some way of our Church, while they desperately fought the colored element within it. Of course, this is strange. A fact remains, that the great Methodist Episcopal Church felt that while under obligations to help the colored man, and more able to do so than others, she was unwilling to have him driven away, whether by centrifugal or centripetal force. The committee above referred to continued its report as follows:

“We recommend the following:

“Resolved, That we recognize all persons in these United States, who were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1844, who have not separated from said Church by withdrawals or expulsion according to the Discipline of the Church, and who express a desire to be recognized as under our care and jurisdiction, as members of the Methodist Episcopal Church; and that we regard it our duty, as far as practicable, to supply all such with the preaching and ordinances of the gospel.”