“Hannah Williams, dat’s who! Now you lemme go; I’s gwine to shout.”
The effect of this declaration was magical. The brothers, by their combined efforts, lifted the struggling mulatto from his feet and carried him out of the chapel, while Sister Williams’ face grew ashen in hue.
The congregation settled down, and the sermon was resumed. Disturbance and opposition only seemed to have heightened the minister’s power, and he preached a sermon that is remembered to this day on Bull-Skin. Before it was over, Bud Lewis’ guards filed back into church and listened with enjoyment to the remainder of the discourse.
The service closed, and under cover of the crowd that thronged about the altar to shake the minister’s hand Hannah Williams escaped.
As the first item of business at the church meeting on the following Wednesday evening, she was formally “churched” and expelled from fellowship with the flock at Bull-Skin for planning to interrupt divine service. The next business was the unanimous choice of Reverend Abram Martin for the pastorate of the church.