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Amanda Berry Smith, Afro-American Evangelist

Amanda Smith (1837-1915)became the most famous worldwide black woman evangelist. She was a member of the AME church.

     "In January 1891, Smith joined Judith Foster, president of the Iowa Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), who led a delegation that testified before the House Committee on the Alcoholic Liquor Traffic. The Committee was considering federal legislation banning U.S. liquor sales in Africa. Smith told the committee about her background as a former slave and how she had gone to Africa, ... 'a beautiful country ... except for the fact that Christian nations of the earth are sending rum there all the time. ... There is not a black merchant there who imports strong drink. A black man who deals in it must get it from white merchants. I do not know of any black man who ships it there.'" (Amanda Berry Smith: From Washerwoman to Evangelist, Adrienne M. Israel, 1998, p. 92)

     "The people here in this country (India) think it a dreadful thing for a woman to speak in a public congregation. ...It seems that the Christians have caught the spirit, and like to have it so. It is surprising ... I believe the Methodist Church has a work to do in this land in liberating woman, and giving her true place." (Smith quoted in Israel, p 71)

     "While at Ocean Grove, Smith told a congregation how sanctification had 'saved her from the desire to be white.' She described her experieinces with racial segregation, her being 'seized' by a train conductor and forced to ride in the smoking car, after which she said, she prayed for the conductor, and compassion replaced resentment. She soon became one of the social reformers and AME leaders who came annually to Ocean Grove." (Israel, p 58)

     

     

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