Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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the same rights and self-governance as through Christ and the freedom of the AME
European churches, inside the institution of Church to Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and
the AME Church (inside the rooms of the Wisconsin; he convened the Canadian
mansion!), the enslaved were free. God conference, and went as far west as
answered their gifts of faith with the gift of Oklahoma. He then returned to pastor Mother
freedom. Bethel as Allen’s health declined. In 1828,
The Methodists tried to side step the Morris Brown was selected the second AME
intertwined issues of faith and freedom by Bishop, having complete oversight and charge
advocating a “middle ground” that neatly of the Church’s affairs, convening its general
separated the functions of church and state. and area conferences from Allen’s 1829 health
The state regulated and subjugated persons to decline to Brown’s own decline in 1844.
slavery. The church struggled and existed only
to save souls through Christ; it should not Emanuel AME Church is Charleston's most
meddle in politics or the affairs of state. important historic African-American physical and
But individual freedom is derived from heritage site.
institutions and law, and the AME Church, as If “Black” Harry Hoiser, a circuit preacher
an institution, offered the first breakthrough. (who met Richard Allen in 1784) can be
As the true believers gathered, their faith compared to St. John the Baptist (called
brought freedom; the meetinghouse was Zion: “America’s greatest orator,” Hosier exhorted
blessed, protected, transformed. The very thousands to faith in Christ and fellowship in
laws that made them enslaved protected the Methodist Church), Charleston’s Morris
Zion’s walls, and set them free. The church Brown, a former shoe cobbler, was Paul to
stood as a paradox that stood slavery on its Richard Allen’s Peter.
head. How important was the faith and freedom
Worship in the luxury of freedom often offered by the AME Church?
extended to midnight, prompting an local The week before Morris Brown’s birth in
editorial: “Almost every night there is a 1770, the South Carolina Gazette reported a
meeting of these noisy, frantic worshippers . . meteor streaking across the sky, the color of
. Midnight!” “living coal.” 42 slaves, many “tradesmen,”
Ill at ease, and unsure what to make of were offered for sale. The victim of an
the power and transforming grace of faith’s attempted robbery struck a slave running
freedom, tensions grew. Political freedom away in the skull with a “musket lock,” killing
awaited a devastating war. him. Upon the judge’s hearing and
With churches in San Francisco by 1850, recommendation, the slave’s head was
in Africa by 1891, (and with 2 million members severed, foisted on a pike, and displayed “at
by 1995!), Richard Allen ‘s 42 member church the cross roads, near Ashley Ferry.”
turned into an international institution of faith. While Castile Selby (a noted 50 year
It was a living horn work to protect and defend Methodist whose prayers once healed a dying
liberty, opportunity, education, and justice. bishop) and other African-Americans remained
Allen’s vision of worship and freedom was no in Methodist congregations after what whites
different than America’s founding fathers. His called the “African schism,” Morris Brown’s
Church is the first American institution to fully God-guided work was a “shout of triumph.”
bestow American freedom on the enslaved.
First Shot
Morris Brown--Charleston Ft. Sumter, with its 5 foot thick wall and its
Although he would not meet Bishop Allen 70,000 tons of New England granite rising 50
for another five years, in 1823, Charleston’s feet above the sea’s low tide, began
Morris Brown shared his vision, and is a construction in 1827, 5 years after the first
founding father of American liberty no less AME Hampstead congregation closed its doors
than Charleston’s Pinckneys, Rutledges, or and watched its church destroyed and burned.
Henry Laurens.
As the Pinckneys and Laurens went abroad
in the service of American foreign policy,
Morris Brown carried the story of salvation
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The early clashes of the church, how to A
accommodate a community both slave and
free, rich and poor, with opposing views of
liberty,
government,
and human
freedom,
influenced
by race,
grew to
occupy the
national
political
stage.
Cold Harbor, Va., 1864, named for a
crossroads tavern, left 15,500 dead, In Boys sitting on Circular Congregational
including Charlestonians from St. Philips.
1861, the Church’s Column, at Meeting St. St. John’s
Lutheran Church in the distance, 1865
first shot fired at Charleston’s Fort Sumter
began a 4 year war that took 620,000
American lives and tested our survival as a thirst for education, for one. Within three
nation. The war embroiled complex issues— weeks, the new community of freemen
states rights, slavery, taxation, wealth and enrolled 3,000 students in jubilee schools.
power. The desire to praise God, for another.
5, On February 19, 1865, Charleston By April, Rev. Richard H. Cain and 8 missionary
thorit Civil authority for preachers sailed into Charleston under the
Sumter Union flag flying over Fort Sumter.
returned to the Union. Daniel A. Payne, a Charleston native son
and the AME Church’s 12th bishop had arrived
Then Freedom Came earlier in the month, returning home almost to
That day, the 33rd Regiment USCT, SC V the day for the first time in 30 years.
—a regiment of South Carolina African- That night at Old Bethel Church on
American soldiers who were Union volunteers Calhoun Street, Bishop Payne, Rev. Cain, and
—marched down Meeting Street before noon, the others celebrated a jubilee AME worship
wearing red pants, shouldering Springfield and service. It was the first public official AME
Enfield or Remington “Zoave” rifles, and meeting in more than 40 years and many of
singing Methodist hymns, in a cadence step the original members sat in the pews. With
that took them pass the auction blocks where that service, the Charleston AME
some had been sold. congregation, having met in secret for 43
With the beating of pans and years, its members dispersed to other
washboards to shouts of dancing, followed by churches, reclaimed its AME allegiance.
high stepping and the singing of spirituals like
“Great Day,” the soldiers passed Calhoun As the bricks toppled from Ft. Sumter in
Street, beyond the city’s limits. One older fierce conflict, the brick walls of Emanuel
woman reminded a Union officer of her faith, towered toward the horizon in thanksgiving
telling him “her Jesus” freed the city’s 18,000 and peace. Its magnificent portions, its
slaves. original heart pine flooring, wainscoting, gas
lamps and chandeliers, embossed pressed
tin ceiling and pews still greet each visitor.
What Happened when Slavery Ended; Already 3,000 strong, the congregation
How Did Freedmen Fare? gathered new members, purchased land on
The question loomed, with slavery the Calhoun Street’s north side, and built a
ended, what would freedom bring? wooden church which soon served 5,000
members— the largest congregation of ex-
slaves, their family and children, anywhere in
the South, in the first years after the Civil War.
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veterans of the American Revolutionary War,
was stolen from Virginia and sold into slavery.
Payne’s father worked as a house and sign
painter in Charleston and repurchased his
freedom for $1,000. Both his church-going
mother, a member of Cumberland Street
Methodist mission, and his father, a leader of
the seeker’s and members classes, died early
in his childhood. Carried around town with his
legs straddling his father’s shoulders, leaning
on his mother’s side during services; when
small, Payne often prayed to God to help him
be “a good boy.” Sensitive and persevering,
Payne thrived mightily to improve himself and
the world around him. He learned “small gifts
of faith can have large returns.”
Orphaned by age nine, Payne’s fate was
The Charleston congregation’s early action cast upon an extended group of Methodist
built one of the largest jubilee sanctuaries: families, the Westons (the family of his class
completed by April 1866, it seated 3,000 and leader), Holloways (a family married into by
cost $10,000. Renamed, Emanuel (“God is both Payne’s sister and his class leader’s
with us”) became the Mother Church of daughter), and Thomas Bonneau, a Methodist
Southern Freedom. and the preeminent teacher, schoolmaster,
and civic leader of Charleston’s non-slave
Daniel A. Payne: “A Noble Life” community.
By April’s end, the Lutheran-trained
Payne, working from Zion Presbyterian, had Payne the Prophetic Pilgrim
organized the South Carolina Payne learned trades (carpentry,
AME Conference by May 25. He sent tailoring) and the classics, but his early formal
missionaries throughout the south. A year
Daniel A. Payne education stopped at age eleven. At eighteen,
later, the AME Church had more than 50,000 praying one afternoon after the Spirit set upon
members regionally. him after a revival, Payne experienced a
Daniel Alexander Payne lived a “noble prophetic calling. He heard God’s voice and
life of wide influence.” But he crossed life’s felt hands pressing heavily upon his shoulders.
perils grabbing toeholds on a narrow rope The voice told him he had been sat aside to
bridge of faith and fellowship strung across become an educator.
the massive chasms of American society, At nineteen, completing wide ranging self-
shaken and swaying by the landscape’s directed studies in natural sciences,
changing social winds. That narrow bridge languages, and mathematics, Payne opened a
spanned slavery, freedom, war, terror, local school on Tradd Street while his own
personal loss, prophetic trials, policy debates support (meals, small gifts) came from a
about education and social justice, overseeing woman who was enslaved. After 6 years,
southern and western AME expansion. payne’s school had 60 students (both slave
Faith was the substance of Payne’s and free), and had moved to larger building,
strength for the journey. Payne’s faith rested in built and donated on Anson Street. The
his humility. Payne’s humility, paradoxically authorities closed this school by legal fait in
led to his ever expanding responsibilities. For 1835.
throughout his life, Payne’s humility “carried Payne, supported by black and white
the respect of the wise and the good.” religious leaders from local faith communities,
Payne, an extraordinary student, enrolled in Gettysburg Seminary. He pastored
educator, and scholar was born in Charleston a Presbyterian church in East Troy, New York,
in 1811. His mother’s heritage was Catawba lost his voice, moved to Philadelphia, opened a
Indian and African-American. His freeborn lower school with three students. His students
father, descended from Massachusetts were the children of Joseph Corr from
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An apostle of education, Payne’s career A later Emanuel pastor, Moses B. Salters,
stretched from a one room school to becoming became the 21st AME bishop. Harry Bull was
President of Wilberforce University, the an 1817 founder, remained friends with
nation’s first African-American college. Methodist nurse Mary Ann Berry and Nancy
Working from Charleston, . . . Coates who once give a bishop a “mites” gift
To measure Payne’s remarkable efforts, of a dollar!
by June 20,000 were straving, out of food After segregation, Emanuel’s members
when government distribution stopped. By the included a SC state senator and
same month, 30,000 cart loads of debris had representative, a state circuit court judge, and
been cleared and dumped. Yet Emanuel’s a city council member.
cornerstone was set in September, and by Emanuel AME Church is Charleston's most
April 1866, Payne reported the church open for important historic African-American heritage
worship. site. Its long span of history, its personalities
At his 1866 . . . and leaders, its local and nation connections
Admired by Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. to notable people, events, and places, its
DuBois, Payne is one of America’s greatest magnificent physical structure, and ongoing
advocates for education, social justice, and tradition of worship make Emanuel one of
the church as a multifaceted institution, America’s most significant sites to bridge the
reflecting its role in his early life. past and present of a house once divided (a
nation slave and free). Born in slavery,
Emanuel’s Witness Emanuel was built in freedom.
Emanuel AME Church is a powerful Like many churches, Emanuel was active in
witness and answer to the fears and doubts the civil rights movement in the 1960’s. One
that haunted the character and actions of the former youth remembered, “I became one of
city’s ex-slaves. Its story includes men of many youth soldiers at Emanuel A.M.E. Church
extraordinary vision and leadership. under Rev. B.J. Glover who earned my respect
Emanuel was the first American mega- by facing down the threats of
church. At its founding in 1817, its 5,000
members were the largest autonomous slave Charleston's Sheriff Kelly.” Millicent Brown,
meeting in the South, and the largest African- one of the first students to integrate
American congregation in the nation. Charleston’s high schools in 1965, remembers
It was disbanded, its meeting house the unique “Chinese box,” a tactic local youth
burned and destroyed in 1822, when a former demonstrators developed at Emanuel. and
congregation member and lay leader, used to legally tie up traffic at the busy
Denmark Vesey, a carpenter, ship’s navigator, intersection of Calhoun and Meeting Streets
and linguist (Vesey spoke 9 languages), for hours.
planned the largest, most elaborate American
insurrection ever organized (12,000 slaves!).
With a huge force marching in from the
countryside, and plans to attack the city’s
military arsenal and seize ships to sail to
freedom, the operation was foiled just hours
before it was signaled to begin.
Daniel Payne became the first African-
American college president, at Wilberforce
University, in Ohio. Richard H. Cain, Emanuel’s
new pastor, was twice elected to the US
Congress, and became the 14th AME bishop.
Cain once summed up the AME commission:
“Elevate the brethren; God ’s providence has
leveled the barriers and rolled way tyranny’ s
mountain—the pathway is cleared, lit by the
sunlight of liberty and God’s presence.”
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Emanuel’s monthly love feast maintains
The House of Emanuel this ancient celebration of the forgiving love of
The present sanctuary completed in 1891, was Christ by singing praise hymns, offering
erected after the 1886 earthquake. As the prayers, giving testimony of grace--and
bricks toppled from Ft. Sumter in fierce sharing a non-eucharistic meal of broken
conflict, the brick walls of Emanuel towered bread and water.
toward the horizon in thanksgiving and peace. “Waiting for the hour” describes the
Its magnificent Victorian proportions magnify historic Methodist watch night service,
the common faith. The unusually wide celebrated at Emanuel every New Year’s Eve,
sanctuary has original pews, heart pine followed by a mid-night dinner of “hoppin’
flooring, wainscoting, gas lamps and John” and collard greens,” traditionally
chandeliers, balconies, embossed ceiling associated in Charleston with prosperity and
panels, altar and rails to greet each visitor and good fortune.
member. In the 1940s, Charleston artist John The lower level hall, once home to a
Green painted dramatic murals that tell the gigantic furnace, holds the kitchen , Sunday
people’s witness of the crucified and school, and parish hall, and a giant screen for
resurrected Christ. The massive gothic organ Sunday worshippers. Its entrance has the
pipe-case, with wooden spires among the faces of four 1875 Charleston young men
pipes, installed in 1908, nearly fills the rear rendered as the cherubs from Raphael’s
balcony. The single pulpit for reading scriptural painting of the Sistine Madonna.
lessons and preaching the sermon has roots in
the AME tradition that God’s works, words, and At Emanuel History Unites With Grace
current message are united and inseparable. Separated by land and sea, three blocks
Emanuel actively celebrates two of the and three miles in the harbor, Ft. Sumter and
earliest practices of the American Methodist Emanuel AME tie together America’s greatest
Church. The struggles of liberty and equality. Visitors
Thursday night prayer band continues the love embark for Ft. Sumter from venerated site for
feast freedom’s journey, for patriots and those
first observed by John Wesley in Europe enslaved.
among Moravian Christians (now in the Czech
Republic).
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St. Matthew’s across Marion Square on
King Street is the state’s largest Lutheran
congregation and the state’s tallest steeple. It
is one of the city’s most beautiful altars, with a
“wineglass” pulpit and a brass eagle lectern
(Psalm 91), and magnificent stained glass
designed in New York and built in Germany.
Holy, Holy, Holy, 2008
Citadel Square Baptist
is Emanuel’s closest
neighbor. Its evangelical
origins are seen in the
1856 church sanctuary, Citadel Square Baptist,
Emanuel steeple right
built for a 1,000, when
two years before its
Patriot Christopher Gadsden built a colonial membership totaled 14!
pier here, once America’s largest wharf. From In 1856, 119 of its 217
his wharf, the British sailed with 5,000 slaves members were slaves!
at the end of the American Revolution.
In 1808-- two hundred years ago —an Act Joyful Noise
of Congress ended the importation of Africans The near-by Episcopal Cathedral of St.
as slaves in the United States. The previous Luke, on Charlotte Street, with its 37 foot
year, 1807, saw Gadsden’s wharf (over 860 Gothic windows and fan-ribbed vaulted
feet long, parallel to the land) serve as the ceiling became the 1880’s home of the New
landing site for slave ships from Senegal to Tabernacle Fourth Baptist Church, whose
Angola, with sales taking place directly from minister, Daniel Jenkins, sent a brass and
the wharf. drum orchestra to play in two Presidential
The Africans confined to the wharf suffered inaugural parades.
dysentery, small pox, other fatal ills, and daily, A block away, on Anson Street, is St.
carpenters build shells for the dead. As many John’s Reformed Episcopal, the home church
as 1600 Africans died in one 4 month period. of Philip Simmons, the master ironworker and
From the trade along this dock, just three Charleston blacksmith. In the next block of
blocks down the street, Emanuel arose. Anson is St. Stephen’s Episcopal, the first
Emanuel’s mission has always gone beyond American Episcopal church without pew rent.
guilt to grace. For it celebrated the full grace On Wentworth Street is a marker for St.
of love and mercy as it remembered those lost Peter’s Catholic parish, an African-American
and sold; for it offered thanksgiving and praise parish and school formed in a former Jewish
when the jubilee of freedom came by soldier’s synagogue purchased by the Catholic Church
feet. Mercy and forgiveness poured out of this in 1867 for Black Catholics who were “stored
congregation as it built its walls as a place for away in every kitchen and alley and lane” of
the faithful to worship, and the high calling of the city. Macedonia AME stands nearby.
mercy is present in its open arms today. Emanuel stands in the center of this
circle of history. The story of Emanuel recounts
Emanuel’s Neighbors the winding trail of grace through the nation’s
Visible and invisible giants of faith and and city’s triumphs and trails. Ironically,
history surround Emanuel. Second tragedies often lift up answered prayers, and
Presbyterian Church stands a block away, led victories can bear witness to a blind eye and
for 55 years by Thomas Symth and awarded deaf ear.
the designation, Presbyterian historical site
number one. Zion Presbyterian, built in 1859,
its members drawn from Second Presbyterian,
stood at the corner of Calhoun and Meeting
Streets. Now torn down, Zion was once the
city’s largest sanctuary.
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Visits to Emanuel
In the center of history, come experience
Emanuel’s amazing witness first hand. The
“Ring-the-anvil prayer” offers an opportunity
to ring an historic anvil for general, specific, or
personal prayer or proclamation. Prayer is also
available in the sanctuary. Tours include a
review of the church’s history, architectural
features, and of its leaders; or an honor roll of
stories how liberty and freedom are connected
by faith. Finally, in-depth details, wide
knowledge, and expert insight guide relaxed
discussions of how the African slave became
an American Christian.